It's an important part of discovering our place in the world that we, as teenagers, have self-indulgent fantasies about how sad everyone would be if they died suddenly.Thirteen Reasons Why is a dour, prolonged examination of exactly that, in which a girl, Hannah, kills herself and leaves behind a bunch of cassette recordings of herself explaining why.
Our protagonist is Clay, as in "feet of", because it takes him an entire season to listen through all of the recordings, whereas every other one of Hannah's friends else got through them in one go. Gradually, Clay discovers how each of Hannah and his friendship circle played their role in bringing her to suicide. It's An Inspector Calls, except that communicated its point in a two hour stage play. Clay meanwhile takes thirteen to learn how bullying, slut shaming, and things far worse can drive someone to take their own life.
At the heart of Thirteen is some genuinely shocking and saddening moments that have shaken me up more than anything I can remember watching recently . But I find the cassette tape framing device to be contrived, the ping-pong, nonchalant dialogue implausible, and Clay's constant angst to be far too grating for me to take this show as seriously as it so desperately needs to be. Not helping matters is how the movie treats Hannah as an omniscient narrator with endless articulate, worldly wisdom to share. Movies love to portray dead or dying teenagers as ineffable geniuses who speak from a crystal clear perspective, which sends a bad message to any genuinely troubled teenagers looking to use self-harm as a form of taking control.
There is a part towards the end where Hannah, genuinely terrified, gradually kills herself onscreen. Movies rarely show us actual suicides, they keep it out of sight to spare us the grisliness of it, but here it is a hugely effective and humanising thing, and its a scene that deserves to be in a better show. Sadly its stuck in this frustrating vehicle.
Like An Inspector Calls, Only 11 Hours Longer
It's an important part of discovering our place in the world that we, as teenagers, have self-indulgent fantasies about how sad everyone would be if they died suddenly.
Thirteen Reasons Why is a dour, prolonged examination of exactly that, in which a girl, Hannah, kills herself and leaves behind a bunch of cassette recordings of herself explaining why.
Our protagonist is Clay, as in "feet of", because it takes him an entire season to listen through all of the recordings, whereas every other one of Hannah's friends else got through them in one go. Gradually, Clay discovers how each of Hannah and his friendship circle played their role in bringing her to suicide. It's An Inspector Calls, except that communicated its point in a two hour stage play. Clay meanwhile takes thirteen to learn how bullying, slut shaming, and things far worse can drive someone to take their own life.
At the heart of Thirteen is some genuinely shocking and saddening moments that have shaken me up more than anything I can remember watching recently . But I find the cassette tape framing device to be contrived, the ping-pong, nonchalant dialogue implausible, and Clay's constant angst to be far too grating for me to take this show as seriously as it so desperately needs to be. Not helping matters is how the movie treats Hannah as an omniscient narrator with endless articulate, worldly wisdom to share. Movies love to portray dead or dying teenagers as ineffable geniuses who speak from a crystal clear perspective, which sends a bad message to any genuinely troubled teenagers looking to use self-harm as a form of taking control.
There is a part towards the end where Hannah, genuinely terrified, gradually kills herself onscreen. Movies rarely show us actual suicides, they keep it out of sight to spare us the grisliness of it, but here it is a hugely effective and humanising thing, and its a scene that deserves to be in a better show. Sadly its stuck in this frustrating vehicle.