I don't do a lot of TV discussions (which I need to fix). Part of the reason is because the nature of TV shows, several parts told over a longer amount of time, dilutes the impact in a way that doesn't happen in film. I actually prefer what shows do over movies, but there's no denying that they are different discussions to have. I had to say something about 13 Reasons Why though. It's rare that a show emotionally flattens me like this. In the past few years, maybe The Leftovers is the only other show that has.
Since I'm not sure how many people have watched this series yet, and I'm hoping to convince people to do so, I'm going to hold off on any overt spoilers until the end, which will be labelled.
The concept is pretty simple: A high school girl, Hannah (Katherine Langford) commits suicide and leaves tapes for the people she holds responsible for it. 13 tapes. 13 episodes. The tapes are passed around by those people and kept secret from everyone else. The show begins when Clay (Dylan Minnette) receives the tapes and slowly listens through them. The show is part teen-drama, part mystery, part conspiracy, part romance, and so much more. It tells the dual narrative of the months leading up to Hannah's suicide and the fallout from it.
More than anything, it is a character study. That makes the two lead roles vitally important. Katherine Langford is a star. She is an absolute star. I was stunned to see how few credits she had on IMDB, because she is so polished and perfect in this. Dylan Minnette has a lot more experience, but I was still surprised that he was so good in this as well. Just as importantly, the two actors have incredible chemistry together. And it doesn't stop there. This has a great young cast. With one notable exception, every person in the tapes is a multi-dimensional character with likable and unlikable traits. In the high school cast, I only recognized Minnette and Miles Heizer (Drew from Parenthood). I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now, the likes of Alisha Boe, Christian Navarro, Devin Druid, Brandon Flynn, Ajiona Alexus, Justin Prentice, and others will be looked at as a "murderers row" the way that the Freak and Geeks cast is now. I also need to single out Kate Walsh in the adult cast who is devastating as Hannah's grieving mother.
I normally say that the best shows/movies/books are not the most perfect ones. It's about the good far outweighing the bad. 13 Reasons Why has some problems. Some episodes need the full hour. Others, many in the middle, don't have enough content to justify the length. Clay stalls for time a lot, and that gets very frustrating. The show writes checks it can't cash several times, ominously alluding to things that aren't worth the build-up. It's the kind of show that if you start picking at it, it completely falls apart. And there's the core idea of laying the blame for one's actions on someone else, which is a non-starter a segment of the potential audience.
All that's fine though, because when 13 Reasons Why works, it is so damn good. The collection of directors (including 2 episodes directed by Spotlight director Tom McCarthy) do an excellent job weaving the past and the present together. They even manage to insert dream sequences and fake outs without making them feel like cheap tricks. The series is unflinching. I've never seen a Netflix series with content disclaimers before them, and they are needed. There is no romanticizing about what happens to Hannah [and others]. At times, it is brutal to watch. Where most shows would cut away (pun not intended), it doesn't. Even something as simple as teenagers swearing in a real way was a refreshing change. What hit me the hardest was the inevitability. Hannah dies and there's no way around it. That was always there. Every time Hannah and Clay hit it off. Every time it looks like Hannah has made the friend or connection that could save her. The incapability wrecked me. And, the show isn't a slog to get through. While the dramatic beats are what will stay with me, the mystery of it all is told in such a compelling way that I couldn't stop watching. Hannah's story expands and compounds. Like in life, the butterfly effect leads everything to this awful conclusion, and it's fascinating to see how one innocuous comment or different perspective can change everything.
That's about all I'm going to say to convince anyone who hasn't watched yet. It's an imperfect show that has moments that are as good as anything you are going to see. A lot of moments. That's enough to make it essential viewing for me. It's not an easy watch. It's not "homework TV" though. Once you start, it has a propulsive narrative that will hook you in. I'd have something lighter to watch at the ready though for when you finish. It'll put you through an emotional wringer.
-That head bandage did so much of the work for the directors. It's a trick I've seen used before, but I love the simplicity. Clay has a bandage on his head = present. No bandage = past.
-I'm undecided about Bryce. He's the only irredeemable character. One argument is that there needs to be one true villain in the story to make everything palatable. Without him being truly evil, it would make it harder to find the shades of grey in Justin's actions, for example. The other argument though is that it lets everyone off the hook. Bryce raped two girls. Bryce sent Justin's picture of Hannah out. While everyone killed Hannah Baker, Bryce is the only one essential to her death.
-Similarly, I don't see why everyone banded together against Clay so strongly. His tape wasn't that bad. Not bad for him, that is. It devastated him to find out that he could've stopped this, but there's nothing there that would actually hurt him if he released the tapes to the public. It only hurts him internally. Everyone else has their own motivations (Zach, Marcus, and Courtney, for instance, have relatively minor offenses but have a lot more to lose if the tapes become public), but I don't buy the slow rate at which people began siding with Clay.
-Jeff. Poor Jeff. In any other show, his death would be a central event. Part of what I love about 13 Reasons Why is how it is completely secondary Jeff's story is. They are canny with how they hide the reveal. I just like the Jeff character though. As far as the show is concerned, he's the only good person at that school. Zach thinks he is the nice-guy jock, but that title actually belongs to Jeff*. It isn't a reach to suggest that if Jeff was still around to push and prod Clay and otherwise balance out other groups, not to mention easing Hannah's disgust with Sheri from before the accident, maybe Hannah would still be alive. A lot of what sold me on this show was in the details and side-stories, and Jeff was one of the best of them.
*Unless I am completely forgetting about something. Especially in the first half, a lot of the jocks were indistinguishable to me.
-Here's my big thought: Do not make a second season. Don't do it. The ending is just about perfect. Yes, there's a lot of dangling threads in the narrative and Netflix hasn't been dismissive about doing another season. Look, I love closure. I love it so much. I hate when TV or filmmakers don't resolve things because they think it makes it more "artistic" or something equally stupid. But, I think 13 Reasons Why has plenty of closure. I don't need to see Bryce go to jail. I know the truth will come out and I know from his scene with Justin that his friends are abandoning him. Sheri confessed. Good. That's all I need to know. Hearing about her punishment doesn't matter. Clay's mom knows he has been listening to the tapes. That explains everything she needs to know. The biggest mysteries left involve Tyler's guns and Alex getting shot. Unrelated or related, I really don't need to know. Alex's story has to do with his feelings of guilt. That's been completed. The whole point of Tyler is that he's never included in anything, so isn't it fitting that the show doesn't care enough to end his story? The main reason I don't want a second season though is because it would take the story away from Hannah. To do that would mean missing the point of the series in the first place. Don't do it.
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