Disclaimer: This review is not spoiler-free, so if you have not watched this show or read the book, this may spoil major plot points. There are also some serious subject matters that will be discussed, so I would advise you to be cautious.

On March 31, 2017, the Netflix television show "13 Reasons Why" was released, a story based off of a book "Thirteen Reasons Why" written by Jay Asher. The story is about a girl named Hannah Baker who committed suicide, and she tells her life story and the reason of her death in thirteen reasons, hence the title. She put those reasons on cassette tapes, and they got sent around to each person that played a part in her suicide.

This show was something that fans of the novel were looking forward to since the production of the Netflix show was announced. Season one is composed of 13 episodes, each one dedicated to a specific reason.

Serious Situations Portrayed In The Show

One important thing to know about this show is that the writers, directors and producers do not take serious situations lightly. The point this show revolves around is a girl that took her own life because of what she had been through — a lot of which happened at her high school. This show brought attention to viewers about what can happen in high schools and what other people can make someone else feel or do.

There is one serious topic in the book and TV show that I believe caught the attention of every single person who watched it, and that subject is rape. In fact, one of Hannah's reasons for her suicide is her experience of being raped. This is a very real and serious topic that occurs in society, and it is something we cannot ignore. To the cast and crew of the show, it was important that "...one of the biggest goals of making this series was to keep it as truthful as possible, because we knew that the story we were telling was important."

Two episodes into the season, there are two scenes where the truth of that situation is shown. The cast and crew took a very real and truthful take on the scene, and they delivered it very well. They did not minimize what can happen in this situation which really earned them a round of applause.

Not only is there rape, but there are other important concepts that are represented in the show and all of those which include bullying, suicide and other forms of assault that are depicted realistically. The team that created this show worked very hard to show things that needed to be shown, and that was proven throughout the entire season.

Book To TV Show Adaption

Fans of books that are adapted to the small screen or the big screen always have expectations from the cast and crew. The biggest difference that I noticed from the book is that in the show, Clay spends a while listening to the tapes whereas in the book, he does it all in one night. I actually think that was a good change because it gives the viewers time to delve deeper into the lives of the other characters. That also brought along the story line of Mr. and Mrs. Baker and their lawsuit against the high school. We also get to see what happens in Clay's life. In the book, it seems like we are only living Hannah's life, but in the show, we are living both Hannah and Clay's lives.

Something that I know must have upset a lot of fans of the book was that the relationship between Hannah and Clay was completely different. In the books, they worked together at the movie theater over the summer and then they made out at Jessica Davis's party, and that was all that happened. In the show, they were so much closer than that. They really had a close, honest relationship. From my perspective, Hannah was Clay's best friend, and he was in love with her which was very evident but not as noticeable in the book.

Another change (that didn't really effect the entire series) was that in the book, Hannah took pills instead of slitting her wrists as her method of suicide. Also, if you have watched the last episode of the season, Alex Standall shoots himself, which never happened in the book, shocking many fans. The end was also changed drastically, but that could be understood because you can't end off a TV show the same way you could end a book. In the book, Clay is reason nine on the tapes, and he passes the tapes on to reason ten, and no one knows what happens next. In the show, he is on reason eleven, and he passes them on to reason thirteen, and the tapes are shown to Hannah's parents. The tapes are no longer secret.

The Show's Cast

The only way all those scenes could be portrayed realistically is because of the actors. Katherine Langford, who played Hannah Baker, really had to think about how she was going to portray this character. On the show, Hannah was a very unstable but innocent girl that did not deserve what was being thrown at her, and Langford had to interpret this role when she had to become Hannah Baker. She did just that and more. The show had a lot of emotional scenes, and she channeled her emotion into the scene as if she was truly experiencing it.

That also goes for Dylan Minnette, who played Clay Jensen. He was the character that the viewers of the show went on their journey with, and we got to see how deep his connection with Hannah was. Minnette's character had a lot of scenes depicting Clay as lost and overwhelmed with all of the pressure he was under. That portrayal made my heart pound. He was able to connect with the audience, and he made us feel like we were on that journey with him.

Post-Binge Review

The suspense of the show was one of the many things that got me hooked, and I finished it in a week. It had me on the edge of my seat, wanting to know who and what is Hannah's next reason and what Clay was going to do and how he was going to react to it. The one thing that was hard though was that for me, personally, some of the scenes were so intense that I almost had to look away. The seriousness and what was shown brought out so much emotion that it often had me pausing to think about what was happening. However, now that I think about it, that can be viewed as something very positive, because one reason for this show was for people to connect to the story and the characters.

Overall, this show brought me to think about situations like Hannah's and how it can happen in the real world. Yes, the storyline was great and the acting was emotionally-channeled, but this show made the gears turn in my mind. It brought me a new perspective on high school — that things that can happen behind closed doors.

I highly recommend this show to the people who think they can handle serious situations like those represented. I do believe there are some things that should only be seen by mature audiences. There were some scenes that were a little too much for me, but I got through them.

This show has evoked me to think about things I have never seriously thought about, and this story can be addicting to all audiences looking for something mysterious, intense and dramatic.

Just remember...

“You can't stop the future
You can't rewind the past
The only way to learn the secret
...is to press play.”