I recently finished watching Thirteen Reasons Why, and I’m not going to lie to you, it’s heartbreaking. To see someone’s life unravel from their perspective and not being able to reach through the screen and help them is excruciating. This show packs a punch in a way that grabs you and haunts you, because it really makes you question how you treat people, even the little things. So here are 13 reasons you need to drop everything and watch Thirteen Reasons Why:
1. It shocks you.
There is nothing subtle about this show, but that’s the point, because suicide is supposed to shock you. It’s a serious issue that doesn’t get as much attention as it should and this show throws it in your face.
2. It makes you think.
After each episode, you are forced to think about any and all interactions you’ve had with people. Everything you say and do affects people, and sometimes you can have no idea what damage you’ve caused until it’s too late.
3. It sheds light on bullying.
What you may think of as a joke, or as something not serious, might really cause damage to someone, so you have to be cautious with what you say.
4. It reflects the power of rumors.
High Schools are notorious for being rumor factories because there are usually so many you can’t even keep them straight. Some shrug off rumors, but this show demonstrates the impact they can have if they weigh heavily enough on one person.
5. It emphasizes the harm in slut shaming.
Hannah Baker wears a target on her back throughout this show because of the fine line society draws between what’s acceptable for women and what’s not. This show magnifies the issue of girls having to be beautiful but then being objectified as a result, and experienced, but not too experienced, and where society draws that line.
6. It Illuminates Rape Culture.
This show demonstrates two tragic examples of rape and how people react to them, which exemplifies how rape culture is a huge issue, because often the victims take the heat as opposed to the monsters that commit the crime.
7. It erases stereotypes about suicide.
Hannah Baker is cool. She is sarcastic and quick witted, smart and a hard worker. From a distance, she seems like the last person who would commit suicide. But that’s the point. You never know what is really going on with someone, which is why it is crucial to give everyone the same care and concern that you would for someone you think would be at risk.
8. It shows adults’ involvement.
So many times, shows about bullying or suicide don’t feature the parents or other adult figures in the center character’s life. In this show, it definitely focuses on the friends, but it also reflects a light on Hannah’s parents, the school counselor, her teachers, and other kids’ parents and how they all played a role in her demise, whether they knew it or not at the time. It shows that the problems that she faced came from all directions, and each adult in her life had a chance to help her and missed it.
9. It teaches you not to look the other way.
Sometimes it’s easier not to acknowledge what is going on with someone because either you played a role in their misery or you don’t know them enough to get involved. This show forces you to realized that you can’t look the other way with people. Get involved. Be there for them. Listen. Sometimes people just need to talk to someone and knowing that someone is there to hear them can make all the difference in the world.
10. It’s really well made.
The show as an entity is really fascinating. 13 tapes with 13 people who played a role in Hannah’s death. The concept is captivating and each episode reels you in because you want to know what each person did that could be so bad it drove Hannah to end her life.
11. The characters are complex.
There is a sense of realness in the characters because they are not one-dimensional in any way. All of the people that caused Hannah pain were very complex individuals and each had their own issues playing out in each of their lives that made them blind to Hannah’s and unwilling to help.
12. It illustrates that a series of actions can break someone.
I think the biggest question when dealing with suicide is “how did they get there?” We never want to think that we can get to a point that is so low that we see death as our only way out. But this show proves that it can happen, when events stack on top of each other crushing the individual trapped under it all. As Hannah says, some people on the tapes broke her heart, some broke her spirit, others broke her soul. She was broken and could only see one “fix.”
13. It teaches you that sometimes you have to push.
Hannah showed so many cries for help and people were aware, but they weren’t invested. As she famously says in the last episode, “some of you cared, none of you cared enough.” They didn’t take the time to ask one more time what was going on, or to push when she said she was fine, and clearly wasn’t. Sometimes help is right there, but as humans we are stubborn and don’t want to ask for it.
This show pushes everyone to dig a little deeper with people, ask the tough questions, and not be afraid to really push people if you think they secretly need you to. There were scenes when Hannah would wait to see if people would come back for her, or come after her, a lifeline. They never did, because they didn’t want to push.
If anyone of the people on the tapes had cared enough to take a closer look, and be there for Hannah, she might have seen another way out of this mess, rather than the path she chose.
