A Netflix Original: 13 Reasons Why

(This is NOT a clickable image!!!)

      For those who follow my blog, they would know that I have already done a book review for the book, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.  At the end, I mentioned how excited I was that Netflix had taken this project on.  It's a heavy topic that not many producers would even think about taking on.  And I thought, "Man, Netflix better not mess this up.  They better not screw up this wonderful, heartbreaking story."  Ask my mom or sister.  They heard about a million times until the show premiere.  I was so nervous that they would stray from the original story.  It's an adaption, and adaptions will stray from the original.  I know that, but I didn't want them to go so far from the original that it changed the plot completely.

      Except, here's the thing.  They did.  And I don't even care.  

      They added so much to the show that wasn't in the novel.  At first, I was really angry.  Like, how dare they do this to this masterpiece?!  But, like the humble viewer I am, I wanted to keep watching to see if they at least did the book justice.  And, oh-my-God, did they ever do that book justice.

       If you don't want a spoiler and want to know what the book itself is about, you'll have to read my book review.  If you don't mind the spoilers, keep reading on.  

       Thirteen Reasons Why hit me hard when I read it.  The reasons why she killed herself was heartbreaking, but I could understand it.  Hannah went through some really messed up stuff.  She had a boy that she like spread a rumor that she was easy around the school.  Bryce sent the picture that Justin took when Hannah went down the slide (the one where you could see up Hannah's skirt.)  Alex, her former best friend, put her as "best ass" on his little list to get back at his girlfriend-- who is also Hannah's ex-best friend.  Alex's list caused Jessica to leave Alex and hate Hannah.  Tyler was a peeping tom and took pictures of her, which also got out.  Courtney let people think that she wanted a lesbian three-way.  Marcus made Hannah think she liked him, but was really just trying to get lucky.  She witnessed Jessica get raped by Bryce, and the fact that Justin let him.  She herself was raped by Bryce.  Ryan took her racy poem and published it without her consent.  Zach took her anonymous compliments even after he knew that they were her source of joy.  And, finally, Mr. Baker, who told her to "get over" the fact that Bryce raped her.  

      The show touched  base on all of those reasons, but it added so much to it.  Instead of owning a shoe store and moving away when Hannah killed herself, her parents owned a pharmacy/drug store and made an entire legal case after she died.  Her parents thought that Hannah died from bullying and thought that the school could have prevented this.  And they aren't wrong.  The school could have prevented it-- to an extent.  Another thing they added was extra drama when it came to the tape recipients.  In the book, the teens who received the tapes weren't so evil and conniving against Clay, and Clay wasn't trying to right every wrong.  

      Though the show writers added all of these aspects to the plot, I think they did it very well.  They produced this show, I think, to show the effects of bullying and harassment with no glorification on the subject.  So many shows will show bullying, rape, and harassment with this sort of glorification and romanticize it.  13 Reasons Why gives the viewer the cold hard truth of what it is like to go through these things.  It doesn't hold back either.  It shows everything.  It shows Jessica and Hannah's rape, as well as Hannah's suicide.  I've read a lot on how they shouldn't show those things because of the possibility of it triggering someone.  The thing is, they showed it so that we could feel the full effect.  We needed to see it.  We needed to know what happens behind that closed door.  I've also heard that it glorified suicide.  I have just one question: where in the entire show was suicide glorified?  I wept and felt sick to my stomach watching it.  Hearing Hannah weep and watching her mother find her child's dead body is NOT glorifying it.

    

      Last, but definitely not least, it really, really angers me that no one would talk about this, or acknowledge that the school's zero tolerance rule is complete BS.  It took a T.V. show for people to finally talk about that this is the truth behind bullying in schools!  Do you know how many times that I've heard grown men and women saying that bullied and harassed kids need to just toughen up, and, if they would, then they wouldn't get picked on anymore?  Or I hear someone tell the child being bullied to stop doing weird things and then they wouldn't be bullied anymore.  This show shows the viewers that the student doesn't really have to do anything to even be bullied.  They don't say anything because there isn't much to say.  You think, "Oh, an adult will help me.  A teacher will help me."  But they don't.  They ask, "What do you want me to do about it?" or they tell you, "Ignore it and it'll go away."  But it won't.  It only gets worse, and the fact that it took a TV show for media to pick up on this topic and acknowledge that 'ignoring it' won't work is truly sad to me.
      I would recommend this to anyone if you could get past the changes.  Anyone could benefit from it-- adult or child.