Review - Rant - 13 Reasons Why

Just stayed up all night watching a serial that my husband was originally watching, called 13 reasons why. A teenager commits suicide and leaves behind 13 tapes which are audio recordings of the 13 reasons why she committed suicide. Throughout the series, her parents are suing the school because they say that she was being bullied in school which led her to commit suicide.

It is an intense drama that shows the implications of bullying, and those of a suicide. Teenagers today have it much worse than we did when we were kids. Specially if you are in a country where religion doesn’t play a major role. It could actually be argued that the internet has made the whole earth into one big country with all the continents as its provinces. The decreasing costs of travelling has turned us into one big community. A community where all the teenagers like the same rock bands, international fame is usually minutes away in the digital space. Viral videos are followed by one and all, and so are series and dramas. People catch on quickly, share with their cousins and friends abroad and the cycle continues. So it’s no longer about being in an ungodly country, its more about being in a material city, as opposed to one which has some spiritual grounding I guess.

It makes my soul break into a thousand pieces when I see how carelessly people used words now. I got angry once when a relative told me to not use insane as an adjective for when you want to express how happy or overwhelmed you are. I thought how odd. That’s how we say it now.  But apparently, friends are now bitches, and having good features now equals to having a good ass or having big boobs. The world sure has progressed fast.

13 reasons why starts with a girl, Hannah Baker, who has made it to a list that the boys in her class made. A list marking the best and worst assets of a girl. Hannah makes it to the list under the heading best ass. She feels objectified. When she’s in a supermarket, buying candy for herself a senior grabs her ass calling it tight. She starts bawling her eyes out when she is out of the store. She doesn’t speak with anyone about it, doesn’t share this with anyone.

Then she is dropped home by a colleague at her workplace and starts hearing clicking noises outside her room, which are coming from an introvert boy from her grade who apparently loves her. Loves her enough to take pictures of her, without letting her know, while she’s changing. Since they are stupid teenagers, she mentions this to a girl in class who says we need to lay a trap. Two girls have a make-out session after having a few drinks, and find out who the clicker was. A boy who loves Hannah leaks these photos and everyone in the world now has access to it. (That’s the thing about internet, the thing we didn’t have in our days, everyone has the power to destroy lives in the blink of an eye.) When Hannah confronts him, she takes all the pictures from him. He then has the audacity to ask her out. I mean if there was a worse time, I mean actually there cannot be any worse time to ask such a question.

But this makes you question what exactly youngsters these days think about love. There is no shame in now admitting that someone likes you because of your features. Your features are your only assets and your thoughts and the words coming out of your mouth means nothing. Shallow seems like a shallow word for this case.

This culture is advocated by the authorities at school. When someone is crying out for help, next time try finding that person instead of reading their poem out loud in any class? Even if you don’t know who wrote it, make a conscious decision to look into it? The writer is writing a note that says they are considering being numb. They are saying that they think it would be better to not feel anything at all. Meaning they are overwhelmed. For teenagers, what they are feeling feels permanent. They already think the world is against them and it will never get better. Why are elders being so stupid?

At another point, Sheri comments that it was nice that Clay’s parents are still together. Why is this norm ok to begin with? What sort of society doesn’t work to fix this mess? Well there are many societies with this issue, wanting nuclear families and finding the one true love but why is everyone ok with this being the norm?

Another shocking aspect that is worth bringing up is how parents are so unimaginably detached from their children’s lives. The parents are so engrossed in trying to get through their day to day expenses that they don’t even know if their daughter home. They trust her so much that they go to sleep while telling her its ok for you to go for a walk when they are asleep. I mean you don’t even care, why are you bothering to say that?

Hannah Baker is not even safe from being invisible at home. Indifference can be a harsh thing for youngsters. But what really hit me like a ton of bricks was that it was the opposite at school. Hannah was not invisible at school. She was the brunt of so many jokes in school which makes you want to call her out on her thinking. So messed up. Small things got the ball rolling, then something that didn’t seem like a big deal happened and she said it crushed her spirit. When she was numb already the worst started to happen, she saw her friend being raped. Believe it or not it gets worse.

There are so many themes running through the show, that one time sitting doesn’t even cover it.

Although it’s worth noting that the whole world is so messed up these days. Makes you wonder why anyone would want to bring more kids into this world?