How 13 Reasons Why is the Most Relevant Young Adult Novel-Turned-TV-Series of Our Time (Spoilers Ahead)
So yeah, it started as another "stupid bandwagon" that I felt obligated to jump into because everyone seems to be losing their shit over it. I'm not really into high school drama, so I shy away from such themed TV series as much as possible. I prefer the TV representation of how fucked up the world is so I watch heavier, jargon-riddled material for leisure.
When a former student of mine recommended it, he only described it as "like Easy A but very depressing." I think "depressing" was the reason I decided to watch it, and I'm glad I did. I didn't strongly relate to any of the characters despite all of them having made me feel all sorts of unresolved teenage angst towards everything, but it did give me insight on how much being a teenager has changed over the years. It's very alarming and very sad at the same time.
I haven't read the novel yet, but I've heard lots of great reviews. I'm pretty sure the feels would be a hundred times worse using my imagination of the author's words, but I think the TV series resonated the tragedy beautifully with good casting and screenplay. I can't exactly judge if the novel was given justice, but I'm not writing this at past 10 PM to babble about technical TV stuff and aesthetics. What I liked best about this series is that it talked about the hard things, things nobody would feel comfortable discussing openly like suicide.
Especially suicide.
To be perfectly honest, I've thought about it a hundred thousand times. When life rides you like hell, it's fun to think about ways of ending everything, of finally cutting loose. When it feels like it's not going to get better, it's comforting to know that you have control over what makes you feel at all. It even feels empowering in a weird sort of way, to have a say on what does and doesn't hurt you. But at the end of day, all you do is lose. There's no freedom from pain in dying. You're just passing on shit you can't deal with anymore to those who would spend the rest of their lives blaming themselves thinking they weren't there to help.
This is basically why I'm pissed at Hannah during the first few episodes. I thought it was just her making everything her drama as Clay phrased. But towards the end, I understood. She went through some pretty fucked up shit that I'm horrified to realize is actually happening these days, and nobody was there for her. The people who did care about her were either terrified to own up to their feelings or too busy dealing with their own problems. I think Hannah was right to teach them a lesson with really tragic collateral damage.
And now to my points.
Here's How 13 Reasons Why is the Most Relevant Young Adult Novel-Turned-TV-Series of Our Time (Spoilers Ahead):
No. 1: It teaches a thing or two about how our kids are turning out these days and how it's our collective responsibility to keep them from spiraling out of control because of either raging hormones or just plain bad parenting or worse, both. I don't have kids yet (and I'm not sure I want to in the future) but my stand on bullying has always been "start at the cellular level." I've had experience with bullies both when I was a student and when I was a teacher. I fit in neither the bully nor bullied category. I was that big kid who told the bully to leave the bullied alone. I've always had a soft spot for people society classifies as peculiar and as I was raised to believe that no one should be left alone because they're different, I was their friend. In a way, I was their informer on the world of the cool and popular and together, we made our own brand of cool. When I was a teacher, I encountered new strains of bullies I'd never encountered when I was a student, and most of them come from broken homes. Back then, at 21 years old, I was telling parents off on their parenting. Some of them cried and some of them lashed out, but I think I got through to them as evidenced by countless graduation pictures of their former problem sons and daughters. Bottomline: Good homes that provide good education to their children make good young men and women. So a shoutout to all parents who get to read this. Read/Watch 13 Reasons Why. It's eyeopening.
No. 2: It perfectly represents how adolescence can be challenging to a teenager, which most parents tend to forget or belittle because "it wasn't like that during their time." I'm not trying to be a parenting counselor here or anything, but I think teenagers should have their parents as their strongest line of defense against themselves. I'm not sure if it's the hormones or constant peer pressure, but teenagers have the worst trust issues. They won't confide if they think you're out to get them and sure as hell you won't be able to make them understand anything about life if you're always making it sound like a lecture. I guess all I'm saying is there should be a mode for everything, and parent mode shouldn't be on all the time. It worked for my parents.
No. 3: This isn't really a point. This is just one of my thoughts when I was watching the series. People have this whole campaign of suicide not being an option. Well news flash—it is an option and as long as the concept is there, the only thing we truly can do is to make the younger generation understand that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. Suicide is an option, but it should never be a choice.
No. 4: Again, not a point. Just a shoutout to everyone who reads this. Please watch 13 Reasons Why if you don't already know that you shouldn't be an ass because you're not the only person going through some tough shit. Whatever you're dealing with, no matter how bad, doesn't give you the license to hurt others. And for fuck's sake, just be upfront with your feelings. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? It's either people like you or hate you. What's the big fucking deal? People suck anyway, but the ones who don't will always make a way to be in your life and stay. In the meantime, go read a book or something.
THE VERDICT: 10/10 CASSETTE TAPES. (No emoji available. Sorry.)
Final thoughts: (1) I love Ryan, Tony, Brad, and Skye. (2) I wish I had a boyfriend like Clay who's the same amount of weird as me. (3) I hate you, Courtney, you manipulative lesbian coward. (4) You're nothing but a rich pig, Bryce. (5) Thank you, Jay Asher, for a wonderfully tragic and extremely relevant piece of young adult literature. (6) Thank you, Netflix, for bringing it to cyberspace for all of us to binge-watch.
I gotta go shower. I've been binging all day.
13 Reasons Why is nowhere near jargon-riddled, but it's definitely one of the heaviest screen gems I've ever watched. Well, the first season at least.
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When a former student of mine recommended it, he only described it as "like Easy A but very depressing." I think "depressing" was the reason I decided to watch it, and I'm glad I did. I didn't strongly relate to any of the characters despite all of them having made me feel all sorts of unresolved teenage angst towards everything, but it did give me insight on how much being a teenager has changed over the years. It's very alarming and very sad at the same time.
I haven't read the novel yet, but I've heard lots of great reviews. I'm pretty sure the feels would be a hundred times worse using my imagination of the author's words, but I think the TV series resonated the tragedy beautifully with good casting and screenplay. I can't exactly judge if the novel was given justice, but I'm not writing this at past 10 PM to babble about technical TV stuff and aesthetics. What I liked best about this series is that it talked about the hard things, things nobody would feel comfortable discussing openly like suicide.
Especially suicide.
To be perfectly honest, I've thought about it a hundred thousand times. When life rides you like hell, it's fun to think about ways of ending everything, of finally cutting loose. When it feels like it's not going to get better, it's comforting to know that you have control over what makes you feel at all. It even feels empowering in a weird sort of way, to have a say on what does and doesn't hurt you. But at the end of day, all you do is lose. There's no freedom from pain in dying. You're just passing on shit you can't deal with anymore to those who would spend the rest of their lives blaming themselves thinking they weren't there to help.
This is basically why I'm pissed at Hannah during the first few episodes. I thought it was just her making everything her drama as Clay phrased. But towards the end, I understood. She went through some pretty fucked up shit that I'm horrified to realize is actually happening these days, and nobody was there for her. The people who did care about her were either terrified to own up to their feelings or too busy dealing with their own problems. I think Hannah was right to teach them a lesson with really tragic collateral damage.
And now to my points.
Here's How 13 Reasons Why is the Most Relevant Young Adult Novel-Turned-TV-Series of Our Time (Spoilers Ahead):
No. 1: It teaches a thing or two about how our kids are turning out these days and how it's our collective responsibility to keep them from spiraling out of control because of either raging hormones or just plain bad parenting or worse, both. I don't have kids yet (and I'm not sure I want to in the future) but my stand on bullying has always been "start at the cellular level." I've had experience with bullies both when I was a student and when I was a teacher. I fit in neither the bully nor bullied category. I was that big kid who told the bully to leave the bullied alone. I've always had a soft spot for people society classifies as peculiar and as I was raised to believe that no one should be left alone because they're different, I was their friend. In a way, I was their informer on the world of the cool and popular and together, we made our own brand of cool. When I was a teacher, I encountered new strains of bullies I'd never encountered when I was a student, and most of them come from broken homes. Back then, at 21 years old, I was telling parents off on their parenting. Some of them cried and some of them lashed out, but I think I got through to them as evidenced by countless graduation pictures of their former problem sons and daughters. Bottomline: Good homes that provide good education to their children make good young men and women. So a shoutout to all parents who get to read this. Read/Watch 13 Reasons Why. It's eyeopening.
No. 2: It perfectly represents how adolescence can be challenging to a teenager, which most parents tend to forget or belittle because "it wasn't like that during their time." I'm not trying to be a parenting counselor here or anything, but I think teenagers should have their parents as their strongest line of defense against themselves. I'm not sure if it's the hormones or constant peer pressure, but teenagers have the worst trust issues. They won't confide if they think you're out to get them and sure as hell you won't be able to make them understand anything about life if you're always making it sound like a lecture. I guess all I'm saying is there should be a mode for everything, and parent mode shouldn't be on all the time. It worked for my parents.
No. 3: This isn't really a point. This is just one of my thoughts when I was watching the series. People have this whole campaign of suicide not being an option. Well news flash—it is an option and as long as the concept is there, the only thing we truly can do is to make the younger generation understand that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. Suicide is an option, but it should never be a choice.
No. 4: Again, not a point. Just a shoutout to everyone who reads this. Please watch 13 Reasons Why if you don't already know that you shouldn't be an ass because you're not the only person going through some tough shit. Whatever you're dealing with, no matter how bad, doesn't give you the license to hurt others. And for fuck's sake, just be upfront with your feelings. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? It's either people like you or hate you. What's the big fucking deal? People suck anyway, but the ones who don't will always make a way to be in your life and stay. In the meantime, go read a book or something.
THE VERDICT: 10/10 CASSETTE TAPES. (No emoji available. Sorry.)
Final thoughts: (1) I love Ryan, Tony, Brad, and Skye. (2) I wish I had a boyfriend like Clay who's the same amount of weird as me. (3) I hate you, Courtney, you manipulative lesbian coward. (4) You're nothing but a rich pig, Bryce. (5) Thank you, Jay Asher, for a wonderfully tragic and extremely relevant piece of young adult literature. (6) Thank you, Netflix, for bringing it to cyberspace for all of us to binge-watch.
I gotta go shower. I've been binging all day.
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