With the series was renewed for a fourth and final season, which is set to premiere on June 5, 2020, Netflix hit series 13 Reasons Why finally coming to its end. The series highlights heavy subjects such as culture of gossip, bullying, sexual assault, mental illness and suicide - but are they portrayed correctly? Or were they heavily glorified?
Stylized onscreen as TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY, the series tells the story of a young high school student, Hannah Baker as she descends into despair brought on by betrayal and bullying, culminating with her suicide. She left behind tapes to tell 13 people, a.k.a. “reasons,” the role they played to drive her to end her life in an audio diary which is mailed to a friend two weeks after her death.
The series focus on Hannah's best friend and crush Clay Jensen, who is ninth subject of the thirteen tapes. But unlike the rest, Clay is the only person on the tapes who is not directly blamed as a reason for Hannah's death. At this point Clay perceives himself as Hannah's failed protector, embarks on confronting those who is responsible for Hannah's suicide and investigate using whatever evidence he can find in an effort to impact on the civil case between Hannah's parents and the school.
Enforcing Suicide Fantasy?
One of the main elements in the series is Clay's guilt causing him to have visions of Hannah usually in taunting or depressing manner. Most notably, he runs onto the court during a school basketball game because he sees Hannah lying dead in the middle of the gym floor. Many mental-health specialists have condemned the show for glorifying suicide (Hannah gets back post-mortem at the people who hurt her).
Indeed this is a worrisome issue. Many believes people committed suicide to end their misery, but they fail to realise there is another reason for suicide; revenge. And this show heavily focused on that concept.
For someone who is suicidal, 13 Reasons Why gives off the feeling that if they do decide to kill themselves, it is fulfilling the ultimate revenge fantasy. That if they die, everyone will mourn them and they can throw that in their faces from beyond the grave. This should not be taken lightly and should not be spread around as a good thing. It is not a good message to give to those who might already have suicidal thoughts.
Some might argue there's no satisfaction for not be able to witness the aftermath, but for someone who is suicidal, the thoughts and the fantasies are powerful motivations.
As mentioned earlier, even after death, Hannah seemly be able to get back to her tormentors in the form of visions by Clay. Most notably, Hannah smirked with satisfaction as Clay screaming while suffering meltdown.
Another controversy was primarily centered around a particularly graphic depiction of Hannah's suicide in the finale of the first season. This scene was removed in 2019 following repeated criticism, as well as medical advice which claimed that there had been a spike in "copycat" suicides following the show's release.
Book VS Netflix Series
The book is a young adult novel written in 2007 by Jay Asher. The book has received recognition and awards from several young adult literary associations, and the paperback edition reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list in July 2011.
Admittedly, while the book still fulfills suicide revenge fantasies, the plot is more straightforward and less graphic.
As the problem with many adaptations, adaptations tend to be unnecessarily over-dramatic and even dragging.
But Netflix adaptations of 13 Reasons Why may overdo, and here's are the biggest changes they did:
Clay did not suffer any visions of Hannah. He is mentally strong and well-focused teenager. Also he is very well liked and has many friends.
Clay did not take his sweet times to listen to tapes, in fact he binge listen in a night - and at one point he accidentally injured himself after losing composure. The series however depicted him as incurably clumsy nerdy teenager.
In the book Clay mentions that Hannah swallowed some pills to commit suicide. The series however, Hannah slits her wrists and bleeds out in the bathtub - and the scene was graphically depicted.
Possibly the biggest changes is the dynamic between Clay and Hannah. Clay had always pined after Hannah, but never acted on it. She’d always wanted to get to know him, but doesn’t admit that until the tapes. They’d work at a movie theater together for one summer, but they don’t have a real conversation until the party. While the series keeps the same elements where Clay pinned for Hannah - they're definitely friends and did many things together; they work together year-round at the movie theater and talk all the time. They even have nicknames for each other.
Other changes include the present of parents. In the book parents are everywhere. We meet Clay’s very concerned mother and more easygoing father, Hannah’s devastated parents, Courtney Crimson’s gay dads, among others. The series barely focus on them.
Season two heavily focused on Hannah's grieving parents file a lawsuit against the school, which starts all sorts of drama. Clay also embarked his own investigations using whatever evidence he can find in an effort to impact on the civil case between Hannah's parents and the school.
Final Thoughts?
13 Reasons Why has been controversial ever since its first season premiered in 2017. Much of this backlash was due to the graphic way (and possibility glorifying) in which it depicted difficult issues such as teen suicide and sexual assault.
Many claim that the depiction was insensitive - and that mishandling such issues could lead to potentially dangerous results, especially among the vulnerable; teenagers, mentally unstable people that could lead to copycat suicides to fulfill their own revenge fantasies.
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