With Season 2 of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why being announced, I have decided to explain my reasoning against the series as a whole. All of my criticisms can be summarized to the show being a distasteful depiction of suicide and depression.
Within the show, Hannah Baker, the main character has committed suicide for what her families and associates perceive as out of nowhere. However, the male protagonist, Clay Jensen is given a series of tapes by an acquaintance of Hannah which explain why Hannah decided to commit suicide by Hannah herself.
Clay was arguably her only genuine friend and former co-worker at a movie theater, so he was naturally someone she trusted with this information
Here’s where my problems with this show ultimately lie, how the narrative illustrates Hannah’s reasoning for committing suicide, how she goes about expressing it and what she does to describe her rationale to Clay.
Suicide is a very serious and controversial subject matter and I feel as though some of her reasons for committing suicide are not as grave individually for audiences to understand her rationale.
One example is her relationship with fellow transfer student Jessica. At first they become friends when their counselor brings them together as neither one seemed to adjusting to their new school that well. While they do become friends temporarily, Jessica ends it when she accused Hannah of having an affair with her ex-boyfriend while they were together.
Narrative choices such as these give the impression that if you go through everyday things such as friendships ending in turmoil that suicide is a reasonable option. Additionally, this show appears to be glorifying suicide as Hannah is represented as some sort of vigilante using the circumstances of her suicide to have leverage over those who have wronged her.
One character even shoots themselves in guilt. The show spends very little time collectively focusing on the negative ramifications of and why it is wrong for both Hannah and her loved ones as opposed to focusing on the mystery of what are the 13 reasons for her death and how the people involved are worried for their own sake, not that there is anything wrong with the latter by itself.
However, the way it is presented is similar to a melodramatic CW young adult drama for entertainment and shock value. Speaking of shock value, the show depicts very gruesome and triggering scenes of violence that deeply disturbed me.
One was the rape scene that happened to Hannah by a lecherous jock and another is when commits suicide by brutally slitting her wrists. One of the most imperative things psychologists warn suicidal people not to do is watch depictions of suicide as it is very triggering and can cause them to desire suicide all the more.
Many therapists and psychologists have discouraged watching this show for how dark and misinformed it is of the subject matter as it was poorly executed, especially to younger demographics.
If one wishes to see 13 Reasons Why as a message towards empathy, then that would have been better but correlating towards suicide can be debated as being very offensive and flawed, as not all of the people who were listed in the tapes deserve that level of blame.