Serie - 13 Reasons Why : One of the best new series of this year

By Mulder, Los Angeles, 05 may 2017

Based on the best-selling books by Jay Asher, 13 Reasons Why follows teenager Clay Jensen as he returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who tragically committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Will Clay be one of them? If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, 13 Reasons Why weaves an intricate and heart wrenching story of teenage life that will deeply affect viewers. 13 Reasons Why stars Dylan Minnette as Clay Jensen (Goosebumps), Katherine Langford as Hannah Baker, Kate Walsh as Mrs. Baker (Private Practice), Brian D’Arcy James as Mr. Baker (Smash) , Derek Luke as Mr. Porter (Empire), Brandon Flynn as Justin Foley, Justin Prentice as Bryce Walker, Alisha Boe as Jessica Davis, Christian Navarro as Tony Padilla, Miles Heizer as Alex Standall (Parenthood) and Tommy Dorfman as Ryan Shaver. Diana Son and Brian Yorkey serve as co-showrunners on the series of thirteen episodes. This one is produced by July Moon Productions, Kicked to the Curb Productions, Anonymous Content and Paramount Television.

Ah the Netflix shows, we really just can’t get enough of them. This is just a small review of 13 Reasons Why, but this was just a written show, let’s give you some context. Netflix did a documentary called Audrie & Daisy, did you see it? It’s a real story about 2 young teenage girls who went to high school parties, got drunk, raped by members of the school sports teams and then ostracized and chastised for saying anything about it. Everyone called them liars, the boys were never brought to justice, there was a video tape of one girl that just disappeared from evidence. Audrie, was not able to handle the torment, both from the inside of her mind and the outside of her town, in the end she killed herself. Daisy went through completely different stages, and it was unsure which way she would turn, until she was contacted by Delaney Henderson. Delaney was an outside party, who had seen recent riots that was happening at the courthouse for Daisy. The hacker group Anonymous chose to take up the cause and fight online for Daisy, this will be discussed later. Delaney had tried to reach out to Audrie, and found out it was too late, so she reached out to Daisy, and there was a support group formed.

Apparently, it’s getting to be commonly known that situations like this happen in small towns, girls or others getting bullied, sexually assaulted, all with no cost, reaction, knowledge of it happening, no punishment. If that wasn’t already awful enough, an Anonymous hacker found the video or one of the defendants laughing about the “dead girl”, and released it on the internet, and instead of the rapists receiving punishment, the hacker was given 16 years in prison. It’s kind of like in the world of Batman, they say that the vigilante justice cannot have reason or ruling to it, but what about the people who suffer and have no justice?

13 Reasons Why is like a breakdown of what could possibly happen in situations like this. How one lie from one person spirals first into a rumor, not that harmful, but hurtful enough. How friends become enemies. How the wrong choice is often made in a split second decision, and how it waterfalls into other people. A young girl chooses to go a little old school and use cassette tapes, she records a reason why for each person on each side of the tape. Each person that led to her downfall, cut by cut, and made sure that the tapes were passed around along with a list of instructions. She made 2 copies of the tapes, saying something would happen if they were not passed around. It’s the same situation all over again, the school is trying to protect themselves, the parents are in shambles, and anyone that should be blamed acts blameless.

In the end there’s a surprise added, and I fully recommend this short series if you have any knowledge of bad things that happen, but are just never spoken about. Even if you don’t, this would explain it step by step, and it is admittedly gut wrenching. I even cried at some points, because I have seen some of these things happen, someone being cruel, someone spreading a rumor.

I spoke of Batman earlier, saying what of vigilante justice, if our regular system won’t help, then who do we go to? I will end this review with a Harry Potter quote and be a super nerd, please remember this when you see someone and you’re not even sure what layer of pain they could be on. “We’ve all got both light & dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on, that’s who we really are.”

Synopsis:
Follows teenager Clay Jensen, in his quest to uncover the story behind his classmate and crush, Hannah, and her decision to end her life.

13 Reasons Why
Based on Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Developped by Brian Yorkey
With Dylan Minnette (Clay Jensen), Katherine Langford (Hannah Baker), Christian Navarro (Tony Padilla), Brandon Flynn (Justin Foley), Alisha Boe (Jessica Davis), Justin Prentice (Bryce Walker), Miles Heizer (Alex Standall), Ross Butler (Zach Dempsey), Devin Druid (Tyler Down), Amy Hargreaves (Lainie Jensen), Derek Luke (M. Porter), Kate Walsh (Mme Baker), Brandon Larracuente (Jeff), Henry Zaga (Brad), Steven Silver (Marcus Cole), Brian d'Arcy James (Andy Baker), Josh Hamilton (Matt Jensen), Ajiona Alexus (Sheri Holland)
Only on Netflix channel ..

Photos: Copyright Netlfix

A review by Sarah Conaway  : 4/5