Jay Asher wrote the New York Times Best Seller, “Thirteen Reasons Why”, about Clay Jensen, the stereotypical ‘nice guy’ who receives mysterious tapes from Hannah Baker, a girl who killed herself days prior. Ten years later Netflix released “13 Reasons Why”, a TV series based off Asher’s novel. The show has already climbed to the top of Netflix’s most watched category and for good reason.
However, major differences in the newly released series are creating vigorous debates about which is better: the book or the show?
No matter if you’ve read the novel or if you’re just now hearing about the storyline, “13 Reasons Why” on Netflix is a must watch series for several reasons.
I mean, Selena Gomez is an executive producer of the show…isn’t that reason enough to watch?
WARNING: If you haven’t finished reading AND watching the story, then I highly, HIGHLY, suggest doing so because they are fantastic in both mediums AND this article contains spoilers for both.
Looking at 13 Reasons Why
The Netflix original series “13 Reasons Why” has been well met with viewers and critics alike; the popularity of the series is increasing by the day. The opening episode, “Tape 1, Side A” pulls in the audience’s interest in the first ten minutes by the famous line from the novel, “Hey, it’s Hannah, Hannah Baker…I’m about to tell you the story of my life; more specifically, how my life ended”.
Reviewing this show is extremely difficult to do because of all the dynamics the producers created, but is also a reason why it’s profoundly unmatched by any other TV series.
Looking at this series as just a show, not an adaptation of a novel, it’s heartbreaking, invasive and intimate. Not only do Hannah and Clay, but the entire cast; Justin, Jessica, Tyler, Alex, Sheri, the Baker’s, and more all have their lives exposed to the audience in extreme detail.
Showing vulnerable parts of people on Hannah’s list of reasons why she committed suicide, you begin to feel empathic towards those characters. You hate those you once loved and by the end you’re confused as to who are the good guys and who are the bad.
That alone is a powerful dynamic of “13 Reason’s Why”; in real life, there are no ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ because everyone perceives everyone differently. One person’s superhero is another’s villain in their own respective storyline.
Another dynamic of “13 Reasons Why” is the illumination it gives to sensitive topics in society, like suicide and how miserable high school is for students.
It gives a remarkable portrayal of high school; what goes between the rows of lockers, in the classroom and outside the parameters. No matter who you were in high school, the jock, the cheerleader, the nerd, the outsider, you went through your own difficulties, whether it was family problems, fitting in or finding friends.
The producers took each stereotype of high school and gave them problems almost the entire audience could relate to, whether it was something someone said, thought, or went through within the 13-hour season.
The cruelty of high school and what it can lead to is exceptionally exotified, as well as the effects high school can have.
Many different examples of pain and dealing with it are shown throughout the episodes; from crying, to anger, denial, numbness, alcohol and drug abuse, hallucinations and not coping with it at all by ending your own life; you blatantly see how tragedy affects everyone involved in all different ways.
And to think this all started with a leaked picture and rumor.
By the end you’re hoping for a twist where you hear Hannah’s voice on the tape admit, “I’m actually alive and this was just a big gag to teach everyone at Liberty High to be decent human beings,” but that’s the side of a tape that was never made. Hannah’s still dead and there’s no relief for the characters’ guilt.
The Book vs. The Series
The biggest critic Netflix and producers have received as of now is the discrepancies between it and the original version written by Asher. Everyone expects adaptations to not completely correlate with the original, but these derivatives are big ones. Many are asking if that made the series better or hurt it.
Though there are many differences, the major one was giving each person on the tapes full background stories, dialogue and purpose in the series adaptation. Following each story floods the viewers with feelings of empathy for those you, at first, didn’t think were worth it (cough, cough, Justin Folley). In the novel, the individuals on the tape had barely any interaction with Clay and hardly had a storyline of their own all together. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Asher just focused his time on Clay and his reactions, rather than the rest. They were placed in the novel more as a motif of the respective stereotype they portrayed rather than major characters to help continue the narrative.
In short, the novel had much more information you had to infer rather than concrete stories like the series.
Another discrepancy is how long it takes Clay to listen to the tapes. In the novel Clay takes one long, sleepless night to chug through the tapes and visit all the spots on the map. The series shows Clay taking weeks to slowly ease his way through them. In the show, you really watch the effect the tapes have on Clay, watching him suffer from insomnia, nightmares, hallucinations, paranoia and pure pain from losing the girl he was in love with. The novel makes Clay seem a little more desperate and driven by his love for Hannah.
Both angles play an important part in their respective story and elicit different emotions that I think benefit both storylines differently.
The difference that really shook me was how the series changed the way Hannah died.
Hannah originally dies by overdosing on unidentified pills; a clean suicide. This time around Hannah dies by slitting her wrists. The last episode shows Hannah completing the action. Talk about heart wrenching. This messier, darker and detailed version of Hannah’s suicide plays into that intimacy the series incorporated into this version of Asher’s plot. The pain that went into cutting her wrists compared to swallowing pills seems incomprehensible.
But then again, suicide is a terrible way to die and that’s the point the producers hope to get through to people.
Closing Thoughts
In the end, the differences made the series its own entity. It was full of new, more in-depth plots and twists that made the plot better for a visual medium rather than the novel.
I appreciate the novel in its own capacity; Asher talked about suicide in a time where suicide was hardly talked about. He truly pushed boundaries with his original debut of “Thirteen Reasons Why”, though it doesn’t seem like it today.
Another aspect I praise more about the novel compared to the series is not giving suicide the depth the series did. The show takes something very dark and morphed it into something romanticized. The show created the connections between Hannah and all the characters that make you feel sympathy and practically accept why Hannah killed herself. The novel does a good job of ridiculing the suicide and making it seem more cowardly than a last resort.
The best addition to the series, that is articulated better than in the book, is the fact that standing by while someone is bullied or hurting is just as bad as bullying someone directly. They continue that theme throughout the whole series and it really drives the message into the minds of the viewers.
I fear/am very excited for season two. There are so many questions left surrounding the series and I’m curious to see where it goes. I worry though, because now they’re going to go even farther off script by creating an entire season of speculation as to how they think the novel would have continued. Hopefully, they do a good job. Hopefully, they can answer my questions.
What does Tyler do with the trunk full of artillery? Is he planning a school shooting? Will Alex survive his attempted suicide? Where is Justin going? How will Jessica’s dad react to Jessica’s confession of being raped? Where is Clay and the gang going? How will the Baker’s react to the tapes?
Selena, we need answers.