Th1rteen R3asons Why

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Sci-Fi

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Has anyone watched Th1rteen R3asons Why (based on the novel by Jay Asher) on Netflix?

I finished watching it yesterday after a 3 day binge, it kept coming up as recommended for me and knowing what the show was about I was really wary about watching it.  Have to admit, having been bullied in high school it was not an easy show to watch.  It is an amazingly well acted and well written show, the entire cast is incredible.  There's going to be a second season which I'll definitely tune in to watch once it airs.  It had its funny moments but it is very dark and violent, there's a lot of unnecessary cursing as well at times when it really isn't needed.  That's the one thing that bugged me the most about the show.  There are a lot of side stories going on too that helps to flesh out each character and their own inner battles.  It doesn't hold back either, they really went for it.  

Watching it brought back a lot of memories and I'll admit it got me emotional during each episode and I teared up a few times.  It was really hard not to.  It really dove into what goes on in other peoples heads and different points of view of events, though mainly seen from the character Hannah's memories and her truth of events.   Myself, it really showed how certain events, words, actions, no matter how small, can really impact a person. 

If you're a sensitive type of person, especially when it comes to the topic of suicide, I suggest you do not watch this show alone.   Personally I feel this is a show that everyone should watch, it is so well done and helps to answer that question people always have when someone commits suicide. 

Why
 
The show does a very good job of making you want to finish it and have all of the questions answered.

I enjoyed it but I must admit that the main character definitely annoyed me with her actions and her whining and blaming others for everything. Also with the guilt trips. It was still a decent show. I'll watch the second season most likely.
 
To be honest, I thought that the show actually took a lot of the importance out of experiences of kids that kill themselves from suffering bullying in schools, kids like from the documentary Bully (2011).

It was a lot of self-entitlement, a lot of drama and making things a bigger issue than they had to be... with all that said, it was very credible - I can agree with that. It's tragic how a lot of teenagers have this blindfold as to what is beyond their years as teenagers and they seek more debilitating and potentially fatal outcomes to deal with issues that, as a grown up, it's easier to find a solution for.

Didn't get to the end but I know what happens, I can't talk about what pushes her to the edge - I'm commenting on everything that comes before that. But from personal experience, and being blamed for what happened by my own family members, I know how hard it is to live in your own skin after that...
 
I have had several students watch it and love it.

My mom has been watching it too, don't know if I will yet.
 
Yeah i watched it i thought it was great. I have mixed feelings about having a second season since it was based off of just one novel and they pretty much covered all of it.

I highly recommend you guys check out the novel it's quite good as well.

As for the character i didn't get too annoyed by Hannah I just thought she was acting the way most teenagers do, which can be kind of whiny sometimes.
 
evanescencefan912 said:
As for the character i didn't get too annoyed by Hannah I just thought she was acting the way most teenagers do, which can be kind of whiny sometimes.

Yes exactly, that was part of the whole point too. To show how although it seems like overly dramatized this is how many teenagers view their social issues. I look back on all the drama in high school and think, jeez that was not such a big deal. But at the time it was, that's what they wanted to show to help people understand. A lot of times we forget that as we get old and our responses are "it's not a big deal, get over it, let it go" which is exactly part of the responses Hannah gets. They also show how her truths weren't always what really happened. To me it was pretty accurate to how things were viewed as a teenager. I could relate to a lot of it, except for the rape parts. I was nearly sexually assaulted by a fellow classmate once, one of the ones who would call me gay so who was the gay one, really, lol. Anyway, I never told on him even though my only friend in that class thought I should. I didn't want the trouble, I knew if I did his friends would beat the honeysuckle out of me. None of my female friends were raped but one came close and fortunately she had the fight response. The drama is there to show how teenagers view the world around them.

From what I've read season two is going to follow the same format, though a different kind of media and not cassette tapes. It will be from a different characters point of view and will flesh out the side stories more and the court case. We'll find out what happened to some of the other characters and how they dealt with things. The author of the books is supposed to be involved as well.
 
Sci-Fi said:
Watching it brought back a lot of memories and I'll admit it got me emotional during each episode and I teared up a few times.  It was really hard not to.  It really dove into what goes on in other peoples heads and different points of view of events, though mainly seen from the character Hannah's memories and her truth of events.   Myself, it really showed how certain events, words, actions, no matter how small, can really impact a person. 

If you're a sensitive type of person, especially when it comes to the topic of suicide, I suggest you do not watch this show alone.   Personally I feel this is a show that everyone should watch, it is so well done and helps to answer that question people always have when someone commits suicide. 

Exactly this.

I teared up several times during the entire season too. And it definitely brought back a lot of personal memories along with memories of my teaching days. I've been suicidal myself and some of the issues raised were relative. I also came across a lot of suicidal kids in the span of my 5 years of teaching. 1 of which I still keep in touch until today.

I thought the show was very well done too. Yeah it has bits of drama and all but I think they are true to some extent and that kids that age view things a lot differently than adults. It's not to say that they're wrong but who are we kidding? We were once teenagers ourselves and I think it's very tricky dealing with them with that sort of mentality.

I also think that a lot of the issues they raised and portrayed are so real, and some of those we don't see or realise because the kids don't tell us or are too afraid too. I know I've heard enough honeysuckle from my students back then that I like how the show is helping to create some form of awareness. It can be disturbing, but it is also somewhat a reality in some places in this world.
 
If anyone enjoyed 13 reasons I think that you would really love the podcast "S*** Town". It is audio and only takes an afternoon to listen to the whole thing so far. Its amazing.
 
Didn't watch it.
Considering I was bullied at school and knifed once, before I fought back, never understood the concept of wanting to commit suicide. Never occured to me because I didn't know the concept at the time. So I figure unless one knows of the concept, one wouldn't think about it. Since suicide is a recurring theme with kids these days, maybe we're talking too much about it and encouraging those reflections in some ways?
I have no idea, but these are some of the questions I ask myself some times. I heard of the show by my own daughter but never watched. I don't really plan on it either.
 
TheRealCallie said:
Talks about how the show made more people search for how to do it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-after-13-reasons-why/?utm_term=.8bc254cdbb83

Hmm.
Figured as much.
However, I'm rather conflicted, because of this.
"For me, as a data-driven public health scientist, I see this troubling data as a strong call to action. The show must be taken down"
Nope.
I don't agree. Even though a study published there might be a correlation, I don't see how it's moraly better to remove artistic content, which is NOT, in any sense or form, done with the specific intent of causing rises in the suicide rates, under the guise of "this show is bad for you". Freedom of choice still exists. I use as an example "Star Trek in the 1960 will convince people that teleporters exist and work, they'll try to jump off buildings hoping the Enterprise beams them up, so we have to cancel the show".
As much as I care about the well-being of others, there's a line here I feel should still not be crossed. Call me crazy...Necroposter ;-)
 
It's less than a month old and was still on the first page, this doesn't count as necroposting :p

But back on topic. I was never a fan of the concept of the show because of something like the article states. You can't have a show like this without something like that happening.

I will add, however, that I have no watched the show....and I don't intend to.
 
TheRealCallie said:
It's less than a month old and was still on the first page, this doesn't count as necroposting :p

But back on topic.  I was never a fan of the concept of the show because of something like the article states.  You can't have a show like this without something like that happening.

I will add, however, that I have no watched the show....and I don't intend to.

Neither have I ;-)
But putting in a direct correlation and, as a health professional, saying a piece of entertainment must be removed?
I agree sensibilisation is required, but it's like admitting that video games encourage people to kill each other, or that Rambo movies make people violent...
I don't pertain to that idea.
 
Richard_39 said:
TheRealCallie said:
It's less than a month old and was still on the first page, this doesn't count as necroposting :p

But back on topic.  I was never a fan of the concept of the show because of something like the article states.  You can't have a show like this without something like that happening.

I will add, however, that I have no watched the show....and I don't intend to.

Neither have I ;-)
But putting in a direct correlation and, as a health professional, saying a piece of entertainment must be removed?
I agree sensibilisation is required, but it's like admitting that video games encourage people to kill each other, or that Rambo movies make people violent...
I don't pertain to that idea.

I agree with you somewhat, but depression is completely different than violence.  When you are depressed, you take everything to heart, when you are already thinking about suicide and watch something like that, it's probably a good possibility that you are going to think about it more, especially if the show has someone committing the act (again, as I haven't watched the show, I don't know if this occurs or not). 
But, I did read that they aren't taking the show down, just changing it.  Maybe it will be better after that.
 
TheRealCallie said:
I agree with you somewhat, but depression is completely different than violence.  When you are depressed, you take everything to heart, when you are already thinking about suicide and watch something like that, it's probably a good possibility that you are going to think about it more, especially if the show has someone committing the act (again, as I haven't watched the show, I don't know if this occurs or not). 
But, I did read that they aren't taking the show down, just changing it.  Maybe it will be better after that.

I dunno. When I was (I think) living a depression, yes, you think about it, but there's a difference between thinking about it and doing it. If I was determined to do it, it would be my own choice, I don't believe a tv show would influence me to. I have trouble believing someone could be hooked on television enough to watch a program and think "that character is right, I have to do the same as he/she does". Entertainement can influence the way we think, but if it pushes us to extreme acts, is it really the program's fault, or is already present problems in the person and a lack of judgment on their part?
Anyway, I don't like censorship LOL. If it was hateful material, or very graphic material, I would agree. But from what I've been told of that one particular scene (apparently, it's only one scene of the show where we actually see the suicide), it's very emotional yes, but it's not graphic. Or overly traumatic. Should it be taken down for that? At the same time, maybe it's a discussion that should be had (suicide) with our children and the people who googled suicide that night. Maybe it was actually a warning bell that it's not talked about enough, or not cared about enough, either by our governments, our social institutions, or ourselves. I don't know.
If we start down that path of censorship, by the same standards, lots of stuff in the past should be censored on that account. Most of George Carlin's monologues would be, anyway (see List of People who ough to be Killed LOL. It's hilarious, but he IS suggesting murder if you want to take it that literally...)

Ironically, it had the opposite effect with me. When we got a letter from the school about the show (which I found utterly ridiculous to receive, but moving on) I sat with my kids and talked about it at lenght. We already had before, but you know, update time. I'm not so sure parents have that conversation with their kids at some point in their lives. They probably should, I think.
 
I think it's more related to the glamorization of suicide and mental illness in general (kinda like what happens on tumblr) than actually a symptom of depression.

A show portraying someone being superficially judged, like it happens all the time during those teen years, but suddenly having a voice and being seen in a more deep way by the means of killing themselves is not a good image to pass on publicly. The characteristic of suicide not being illustrated as finite as it actually is takes away the gravity of employing such means to "deal" with your issues.

Still, I think that's a mistake in the way the story was told and not in what actually happens in it. Censorship wouldn't work either because the discussion still needs to happen, just in a more responsible manner.
(Cool that you talked about it with your kids, Richard, I think it's very healthy to keep those lines of communication open so they sense that they have a safe place to resort to in times of pain)
 

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