Once Again You and the Point Are Complete Strangers

From its honest portrayal of suicide and sexual assault to its dismantling of the male gaze, teen drama 13 Reasons Why is the only matter you should be watching right now. If you haven't started information technology yet, allow us convince you. If you have begun the rampage, exist aware there may be some pocket-size spoilers within!

i. Howxiii Reasons Why sheds a calorie-free on 21st century bullying in high schools
Anybody knows bullying has evolved in the digital historic period. Social media means bullies tin follow you right into your abode, ensuring y'all're never free from cruel comments and anxiety-inducing notifications. With a single tap of the screen, lies — or worse, intimate photos — can spread effectually school. 13 Reasons captures and lays bare the cold mechanics of how this happens, following the thoughtless circulation of a film through its chilling consequences. If you've been to school in the final 10 years, or seen what it's similar at its dirt-worst in the disturbing doc Audrie & Daisy, you'll sense the dark reality underpinning the show.

2. How it delicately handles suicide and low
The list of themes at the center of 13 Reasons — suicide, sexual set on, self-impairment, depression, feet — is equally dark as it is long. And even so, somehow, the show doesn't clumsily cobble them all together, minimizing their complexity. Different characters deal with their problems in unlike ways. Jessica turns to vodka and goes off the rails like Mischa Barton did in The O.C. Skye, the daughter who works at Monet'south, cuts herself and defends her actions by saying, "It'due south what yous practice instead of killing yourself." When it comes to the darkest moments towards the end (I don't wanna spoil information technology and then I won't), the show is honest, unflinching, yet always sensitive.

3. The casting of Katherine Langford as Hannah Baker
Let's confront information technology: the show hinges on the casting of Hannah Baker. 13 Reasons could take screwed this up and gone with a large name, because big names bring large bucks. Simply information technology didn't. Producers went with Australian actress Katherine Langford, who's been in exactly zippo things. And you'd never know it. Not but does she nail the American accent, she has a vibe and await that'southward kinda Christina Ricci circa 97. She has attitude, yet she'due south vulnerable. "My skin is soft, and smoothen, and easily scarred," she writes. Langford makes Hannah's world-against-me posture relatable when it so easily could have been melodramatic. Despite her slim CV, you suspect her phone hasn't stopped ringing since the second the prove aired.

four. Its soundtrack is pure gold
It'southward hard to buy into the emotion of a scene if the music is off. Like, imagine the scene where i character tells another he'due south complicit in Hannah's murder. Information technology'south night, they're swaying slowly on swings; in the background, Ed Sheeran sings softly near looking into your eyes. JOKES. The song that actually accompanies the scene is "Atmosphere" by mid-90s sadcore band Codeine. Information technology's not bad, simply equally the residual of the soundtrack is cracking. Selection cuts include: The Jesus and Mary Concatenation, LUH (the ring formed out of the ashes of Wu Lyf), Joy Division, and a Big Star cover past Elliott Smith.

five. How it blurs borders between freaks, geeks, and jocks
For those well-versed in the tropes of late 90s teen movies — prissy prom queens, keg-wielding jocks, etc. — it's refreshing to see so many clichés kicked to the curb. Accept Alex. He's your classic hipster-nerd: lanky, nose band, peroxide blonde hair. First he'due south sipping a behemothic hot chocolate in Monet's similar a mopey misfit. Then he's speeding in a car total of jocks and smoking weed like he'southward one of the boys. This is a guy with a Joy Sectionalisation poster hanging over his bed! Then there's Sheri, the least bitchy cheerleader on screen you've e'er seen. And Taylor, the nerdy lensman who turns out to exist a creep. xiii Reasons swings a wrecking ball towards those teen stereotypes, and it's a joy to sentinel.

half-dozen. How the show addresses the male gaze —without surrendering to it
I'thousand not the first one to betoken this out, merely information technology is something significant. When Hannah is voted "best ass," the photographic camera doesn't eye-ogle her behind. Nor does it dwell on the up-skirt pic of her that Justin took (we hardly meet it in fact). Instead the POV is slightly removed, often staying with Hannah, the victim. Take the Tyler episode. When she's stalked by the camera-clutching pitter-patter, nosotros see information technology mostly from her POV, not his. Yous could call it a "genderless" gaze, one that centers on empathy. Information technology'south another thing the prove's creators were sensitive to. Thankfully, they nail it.

vii. Similarly: how information technology depicts the male person response to Hannah'south traumas
When Clay doesn't sympathise the big deal about Hannah existence labelled "best ass," Hannah retorts: "Once over again, you and the point are complete strangers," and later, more than tersely, "You've never been a girl." When Hannah'south dad, also, fails to see the list as a form of bullying, her mom steps in and calls it exactly what information technology is. In this show, such comments — comments that alibi boldness for women'south bodies — don't get unchecked, or unanswered for.

eight. Gregg Araki directed some episodes and information technology shouldn't surprise you
Fans of Gregg Araki, the indie filmmaker who specializes in suburban ennui, might accept spotted his name on a couple of episodes. To see the managing director of The Doom Generation and Mysterious Skin fastened to a glossy Netflix bear witness might fifty-fifty have surprised some. Just information technology shouldn't have. 13 Reasons plunges y'all into a world of teenage loners, self-harmers, and back-stabbers; a world that Araki's lens has chronicled in sharp focus for virtually 3 decades at present. The casting of the show's young actors is dandy, sure, but equal credit should go to those bandage in the director'southward chair. Take a bow, Gregg Araki.

9. Clay isn't the tin-practice-no-wrong guy you wait him to exist
I wasn't telling the whole truth when I said the show hinges on the casting of Hannah Baker. Information technology hinges equally on the casting of Clay Jensen. Dylan Minnette (of Goosebumps fame) is a perfect fit for the socially inept nice-boy who takes FOREVER to listen to the tapes when no one else had a problem binge-listening. First you think he'southward nice, the moral compass, pointing the finger at classmates who wronged Hannah. Withal he before long loses his squeaky-clean innocence in the events leading to her death, not least when he's insensitive to her feelings about the "hot listing." Never trust a guy who says he listens to "obscure indie bands" but has posters of Arcade Fire and The Shins on his wall.

10. Truth is slippery and you never know who to believe
thirteen Reasons is great at wrong-footing the armchair detective (that's yous btw). Don't retrieve Hannah is the anchor of truth that grounds the series. She lies. She'due south an unreliable narrator. Or maybe she just has a misty memory? Like when she said Zach threw away her heartfelt letter. He didn't, and he shows Dirt the tangible proof. By the time Dirt finally gets to his tape, he realizes this. The fact is, everyone, including Hannah, has their own truth about what happened. To follow the plot's dissimilar threads of truth is kind of like untangling Christmas lights. Only 100-times more fun.

11. Hannah is the victim, but the show doesn't drown in a puddle of her misery
The biggest error virtually Tv shows make when depicting depression is that they hammer the bespeak abode. It's all snotty Kleenex, continuing in front of the mirror, and possibly listening to REM's "Everybody Hurts" in bed while staring up at the ceiling. That's the caricature. And I'thousand certain when some people see Hannah in flashback, they wait for the obvious — for visible signs that she'due south on a downward spiral. But to those around her, Hannah seems similar any other girl. She smiles and even laughs sometimes. The point is: things tin can seem fine on the surface, when they're not. xiii Reasons explores those nuances while shirking the obvious.

12. "Is there a KFC around, 'cause I aroma craven"
Permit's only take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this line, casually reeled off past Jessica when she's in full don't-give-a-fuck mode. The instant you hear it you realize its greatness. You know in that moment that the adjacent time yous're out with friends and one of them says they don't wanna hop that argue into that abandoned shopping mall, y'all know these nine words are all yous need. This is it. This is the only comeback.

thirteen. Tony is just the oddest
Tony is an odd character isn't he? If he'southward not polishing his red Mustang, he's stalking Dirt, wearing a await of concern. And yet Tony — who Clay calls "unhelpful Yoda,"possibly a crack at his peak — has a dark side too. When someone messes with his sister he beats him to a pulp, because that's justice in his part of town. At school, Tony appears even more than mysterious. He looks out of place, every bit if he'due south been held back a few years. And then there's his Lego-like hair that'south something of a marvel, all slicked back and jet-black. I can't effigy him out. He'south simply the oddest character, only I beloved him.

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Text Oliver Lunn

hilltowithe.blogspot.com

Source: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/wjd55n/13-reasons-why-we-love-new-netflix-drama-13-reasons-why

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