Your next Netflix obsession '13 Reasons Why' is full of love, revenge and death
Maybe it's life after 2016, or maybe it was life all along, but death seems to be everywhere. It broke us on TV last year and was the subject of everything from dark comedies to Oscar winners to cinematic train wrecks.
The latest examination of the uniquely fraught pain of loss is Netflix's 13 Reasons Why. The series tells the story of Hannah Baker's life (Katherine Langford) -- more specifically, why she ended her life. She's left behind a series of audiotapes detailing the 13 reasons, all of which are people, including her cautious admirer Clay (Dylan Minnette). Each episode peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Hannah -- who she was, what she experienced, why she did what she did -- but also delves further and further into the people who surrounded her.
Based on the 2007 novel by Jay Asher, 13 Reasons Why is in turns raw, angry, bitter and desperate. Even the production team -- which ranges from Academy Award-winning director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) to Selena Gomez -- show a universal story. It's also beautifully shot and painstakingly acted, creating a three-dimensional world of pervasive grief and the path to resilience.
Despite knowing the outcome, you'll root for them. You will root so hard it hurts.
13 Reasons Why departs minimally from Asher's novel, and where it does it enriches the story. Hannah's exposition becomes richly imagined flashbacks and narration (the novel switches line-to-line between her tapes and Clay's vantage point, which can get confusing). At times, Clay can picture her in the present, more real than any ghost.
A notable interpretation of the novel is that the cast is wonderfully, effortlessly diverse; Alisha Boe as the magnetic Jessica, Ross Butler as star jock Zach, Steven Silver as Marcus, who's on track to be valedictorian. Peripheral characters like Justin Foley (Brandon Flynn) and Courtney Crimsen (Michele Selene Ang) have more depth and backstory; In the show, Courtney is a popular Asian girl raised by her two fathers, and Justin's home life adds depth to his words and actions at school.
The story updates from 2007 to 2017 without forced references to Snapchat or Tinder. Instead, it reflects the more noteworthy differences in being a teenager now than 10 years ago; the fluidity of sexuality, the irrelevance of race and the aspects of adolescence that remain unchanged -- the sunny, youthful highs and the achingly dark lows.
These are teenagers who drink and smoke and say "fuck" like each letter is a blade to stab the opponent's ego. Hannah was bullied, slandered and assaulted and it plays out ruthlessly. After her death, arbitrary cliques and clichés matter less than the ubiquitous loss haunting the student body.
At the center of the show, Minnette and Langford are mesmerizing performers, together and separate. Langford, 20, has the look of those high schoolers who figured out how to dress and carry themselves before the rest of us and her eyes barely hide a haunting maturity. Despite knowing the tragic outcome from the beginning, you'll root for them. You'll root for them so hard that you'll concentrate your will power on changing the ending. You will root so hard it hurts.
Minnette, 21, brings Clay to life with raw pain and dry humor; we see the coexistence of who he is alongside who he wants desperately to be. Clay before Hannah's death is cautiously confident, chipping away slowly at a glimmer of hope. But after she dies, after he gets the tapes, Clay becomes caustic. Desperate to know how she blames him for her death, he deviates from the responses everyone else had to the tapes.
"I don't want to help," he tells one of his fellow accused, and he might as well replace "help" with "heal." "I want to hurt." The trailer shows Clay all but losing control, a gradual escalation that builds toward a breaking point.
Though more peripheral, teachers and parents are still part of 13 Reasons Why, particularly in trying to help the kids cope. Kate Walsh is unrecognizable and utterly brilliant in a gut-wrenching performance as Hannah's bereaved mother. In one scene, you can almost see her mind start to drift as she pours water into a flower vase; by the time it's overflowing, she's long gone.
In the first several episodes screened for critics, 13 Reasons Why is gripping. Hannah's honesty and the reality of the situation she left behind are difficult to face, but the story gets its due here. This isn't some teen drama that Netflix added to its stacked 2017 slate; it's sensitive and cathartic and even when it hurts the show has the capacity to heal.
If you want to talk to someone or are experiencing suicidal thoughts, text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Here is a list of international resources.
Topics Netflix
Proma Khosla is a Senior Entertainment Reporter writing about all things TV, from ranking Bridgerton crushes to composer interviews and leading Mashable's stateside coverage of Bollywood and South Asian representation. You might also catch her hosting video explainers or on Mashable's TikTok and Reels, or tweeting silly thoughts from @promawhatup.
