Well that was... something. Holy crap. I watch so much goddamn television, as you all know, so it takes a lot for a show to really stand out in any way. This one did, in a lot of ways - many of them not so good ones.
You may have heard of this. It's the Netflix original about a girl who kills herself but leaves behind thirteen cassette tape recordings about what drove her to do it - the titular thirteen reasons why.
It's popcorn-poundingly stupid. This is pulpy and soapy and dumb as hell - like the worst parts of The OC and Friday Night Lights combined, all played earnestly. And it's not fun-dumb - it's "teens are getting raped and driving drunk and beating the shit out of one another and confessing half of this shit to the guidance counselor and not a single adult at the school is capable of sniffing out that the girl who killed herself left behind a big ass box of cassettes implicating and incriminating everyone she knew" dumb.
And also, the show's format is to base each episode around one of the reasons why. Our main character, Clay, listens to one tape per episode, and the tapes give us some flashbacks to when Hannah was alive while Clay also makes his way through high school life after Hannah's death, and after the tapes have been released. THING IS, Clay can barely muscle his way through, like, a tape a day, but all the other students have binged their way through them, I'm tempted to look for some sort of Netflix commentary here on binge-watching vs. slowly taking episodes of shows in one by one, but I don't even think one exists. What's really stupid about this is that the other kids in school speak so cryptically about the revelations from the tapes - "he's not there yet!" "dude, you need to finish them before we can talk about them" - solely for the audience's sake, which is just so transparent and unbelievable and stupid. These gossipy little shit heads spread rumor after falsehood after outright lie, to the point where a girl killed herself over it, but when it comes to a box of cassette tapes that incriminate fellow students, they're all mum and silent and quiet. (Until we're caught up with whatever events occurred on the tapes Clay has already listened to - then it become open season to blatantly discuss the events surrounding Hannah's death.)
And ALSO also, the show itself is causing a fair bit of consternation for high schools and middle schools across America, as kids - being kids - are apparently hurting themselves and creating lists of people who've wronged them in order to passive-aggressively fuck with each other. So now even mentioning this show in certain schools is strictly forbidden, apparently, and since it's rated TV-MA it's hard to really get too worked up about that, but I mean, kids being kids, doesn't this just make it more tantalizing? This is probably not what executive producer Selena Gomez - yes, really, her - had in mind when she attached her name to a YA novel about a tragic suicide. It was supposed to educate and offer hope, not inspire copycats! Gah!
But. BUT! I have to hand it to Thirteen Reasons Why for being, stupidity aside, a fairly gripping and compelling and immersive show. I'm pretty sure I hated every single one of these kids, and also felt sorry for every single one of these kids, at least once throughout the season. And the show even has the guts (depravity?) to show Hannah's suicide - slitting her wrists in a bathtub - and her parents' reaction to discovering her a few hours later, and it's some of the darkest and can't-look-away-holy-shit television I've ever seen.
I have no idea what to make of it all! There's a second season coming, which sucks, because if ever a show were built for a one-and-done run it was this one. Boo. And I cannot honestly recommend this to anyone. But at the same time, I'm fairly certain I'll be back for Season 2. And I know one other person who watches it - it's Gallagan, of course - and he and I have had a field day making fun of it so far. But are we hate-watching it? Not really, it's more of a guilty pleasure. I think. Gah! If nothing else, this is a show that starts a conversation, offers something new, makes headlines. And that's harder and harder to do in an ever-more-crowded TV landscape.
It's not good TV. But it's probably important TV. Is that an okay takeaway? Ugh.
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