Warning: The following show contains themes that may be highly disturbing and triggering for some viewers
Like many other college students, I love Netflix. I’ve only had an account for a year now, but so far I’ve watched countless shows I had never watched before like Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Stranger Things, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. All of these TV shows have held my attention for at least a week at a time, but after I finished ASOUE in January, I realized I needed another show to get obsessed with.
On March 31, Netflix released the first season of its newest show, titled 13 Reasons Why. I’d seen the trailer on Twitter a few weeks ago and knew that Selena Gomez was one of the executive producers, but I had no idea what the show was about.
When I saw that it was available, I decided to watch the first episode to see if I liked it.
I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but here’s a summary of the show’s premise: 13 Reasons Why is about a girl named Hannah Baker who committed suicide prior to the story. The show’s protagonist is Clay Jensen, a shy, slightly awkward, high school boy who used to be good friends with Hannah and worked with her at their local movie theater. The first episode starts with Clay getting home from school and finding a shoebox on his front porch. He opens it up and finds cassette tapes inside, each side with a number.
Clay then finds his dad’s old radio that plays cassette tapes and puts in the first one, realizing they’re from Hannah. On the tape, Hannah explains how there were thirteen people in her life that made her suicidal, and the purpose of the tapes is to explain to those people what they did to her. At the end, Hannah asks the person listening to send the tapes to the next person on the list. Clay becomes confused, since he doesn’t believe he did anything to make Hannah suicidal.
Each episode is one side of the tape, meaning Clay spends each episode listening to only one side of the tape. When asked by the other people featured in the tapes why he’s taking so long to listen to them, he explains that it’s extremely hard for him to listen to her voice without getting upset.
The showis very unique in its storyline. It takes place in both present and past, with Clay listening to the tapes in present day and having flashbacks of memories with Hannah. The show exposes what life as a teenager can be like in modern day society, and includes intense themes of cyberbullying, alcohol, drugs, and rape. The show is both intriguing and hard to watch, since these are the kinds of topics most people shy away from discussing. The show gets across the message that everyone should be careful of what they say to others, since you never know how much it will affect them — whether it’s positively or negatively.
You probably shouldn’t watch this show if you’re in the mood to laugh and feel upbeat, but it’s definitely worth checking out at some point! It’s brutally honest, realistic, and contains such an important message filled with raw emotions that I’m sure everyone can relate to. If you enjoyed shows like Shameless, Black Mirror, and Broadchurch you’ll like 13 Reasons Why too!
See the trailer below:
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