WARNING: If you are struggling, this series is not for you
One of the most controversial Netflix series '13 Reasons Why' just took the internet once again after the Season 1 episodes were deemed ' inappropriate', 'disturbing', 'endorse suicide', 'dark' and much more. Now, the new season just released and taking the internet by storm again. This time the internet was not pleased with how the stories were told to the public. Well, I've kinda felt the same way. How about we go through my review of this series. Shall we?
Brief Recap of Season 1
13 Reasons Why (or 13RW - for easier reading), is based on a character of Hannah Baker (played by Katherine Langford) life at Liberty High School. Hannah Baker took her life and left tapes of 13 reasons why she killed herself. In Season 1, the stories introduced a great number of students in Hannah's life and series of what's happening in Liberty School namely bullying, name calling, distribution of inappropriate photos of Hannah, 'hot or not'list at the school, friends that take advantage of you, rape, stalkers, heartbreakers, school that doesn't care and etc.
Australian Katherine Langford played Hannah Baker told her story in Season 1 source
Season 2
The show goes with a warning for viewers knowing how it may affect its audience
The story took place after Hannah mother found about the tapes. It started with Hannah's mother, Olivia Baker suing Liberty High School for failing to help her daughter after Hannah said that she 'wants to take her life' to the school counselor. The school lawyer, however, doing a great job defending using a lot of the story to get back at Hannah. It does not stop there, eventually, the storyline covers about rape cases and the ongoing mistreatment of girls in the high school.
My View
Three words: suspense, disturbing and addictive
I finished whole 13 episodes within 2 days— imagine that!
Tyler moment in the last episode sparks internet rage source
It was a lot to comprehend in season 2 as the series deal with a lot of emotions from a lot of people like Alex who tried to commit suicide but lives, the fall of Hannah Baker’s family, Tony Padilla's (Hannah trust Tony with her tapes) past life and many more that create unending desire to watch more episode. And yet, it is also disturbing at the same time whereby there’s a graphic scene in final episode that makes the internet mad— a scene where Tyler (Hannah Baker’s stalker) was sodomize with an object for the mean of torturing. I feel that this scene is unnecessary and excessive.
This show tackles some of the unspoken act that troubles teenagers nowadays. It somehow needs to address whether we like it or not. All of us went to High School and we can really say that High School is a mess (depend on where you study), at it can be damaging.
In this story, Hannah isn’t perfect, and so does the school. Hannah wasn’t an angel either. One by one her weakness was revealed, leaving Clay Jensen (Hannah’s admirer) emotionally tortured without having the ability to move on and have a girlfriend.
I remember one quote in his series by Clay Jensen, he said (maybe not exactly like this)
The people at school is divided by 2, life with Hannah and life after Hannah
The school was never the same again after the tapes were released.
In this season 2, the story increases its intensity, bringing more social problem, more bullying, more depth, more personal and more worries.
Just as suicide isn’t the only problem plaguing US school system, the mass shooting was introduced.
I said to myself. ‘God, this is a fucked up’ drama, can’t imagine if this is what US kids endured in school. I also remembered one conversation in this series by Clay Jensen’s father.
He asked Clay :
Why kids don’t tell anything to their parent?
Clay answered:
Maybe they just want to protect their parents
I thought to myself ‘ what the hell happened to parent nowadays??’
For me, this drama is a true representation of teenage life out there whether we like it or not. High school bullying is only will be a serious matter after there’s a loss of life.
Controversial discussion points all over this show
How does a lovely girl turn to suicide? what to do to prevent this from happening?. This show took people to a new level of thinking but bring us to a deeper level of understanding.
This scene changes everything. It shows one single terrible horrible moment can change people life. How mental imbalance spark from tragedy could potentially took a great number of life.
Suicide, mass shooting, rape, are not a comfortable topic to discuss but a concerning matter to point out.
Let me talk about how I feel about this series.
The world is changing, how people react to situation changes and this might not be the same if we have to do all over again in high school. What the show has done to viewers is that it shows the current way how and the life of current high school dilemma, not that usual kind of high school Lindsay Lohan 'Mean Girl' stuff but the realistic portrait of what kids had to go through in their everyday life. It teaches us to be more mindful of red flags and when to spot 'Okay' with the real Okay and vice versa. It changes us and I can be sure that I thought Liberty High is a scary place but come to think about it, is it different in other high schools? the answers scare me a bit.
Overall, the series shake the truth of high school daily life and the end of the episode in season 2 show a disturbing scene that only can continue in season 3.
I'm all in to view more.
Jen
