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jennegatron

13 Reasons Why

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I just started watching episode two of 13 reasons why and so far I really like it? I am a sucker for fairly low stakes interpersonal dramas, so this is a pretty great version of that. I think it might be Riverdale but actually good?

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I was also going to compare it to Riverdale, except that it doesn't know it is bad.

 

Honestly, I do like that the film feels genuinely teenage voices - as in they are self serious in a completely uninronic way. The main character Hannah is deeply manipulative and shitty, and I can only hope that the other people becoming believeably more shitty. What is good, is that somehow I still want to find out what is going happen. So, they got that right.

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I just got finished with episode 8 last night and episode 9 came up  

with a warning of sexual assault/rape

and while I appreciate the heads up it is deflating my enthusiasm to watch more.

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51 minutes ago, jennegatron said:

and while I appreciate the heads up it is deflating my enthusiasm to watch more.

I just watched this episode last night, and

Spoiler

if you are worried about content, it was actually surprisingly lurid. It is grotesque, disorienting and really hard to watch. It doesn't seem exploitative, but it warrants the trigger warning.

 

So far I think they are handling it well though. (I have watched through episode 10.) They don't seem to be using the sexual assault solely as a plot device to motivate male characters, and they seem genuinely interested in the victim and how they are processing the trauma.

 

Overall, I am really enjoying this show. The creators seem like they actually care about portraying high school life at least somewhat accurately. The bullying that lead to Hannah's suicide wasn't perpetrated by vindictive assholes (with a few exceptions), but by mostly well meaning teenagers who haven't learned how to care about other people yet. It doesn't absolve them of any guilt for that, but at least it acknowledges that you don't have to be a monster to hurt people.

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Thanks for the response notanimal. That particular topic is just particularly psychologically damaging for me, so I may ask my bf watch it w/o me and have him mark when it happens in the episode so that I can skip past it, because I really do want to see how the rest of the show plays out.

If I end up doing that, I'll post the timestamps in this thread as well in case anyone would want them in the future.

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My very nice boyfriend watched episode 9 without me and was nice enough to take note of the particularly long/intense scenes' timestamps

So if you're watching episode 9 and are concerned here's what I have to say about the ep

Throughout the episode there are short, non-explicit flashbacks to 'the night of Jess's party.' Nothing really happens in these other than building anticipation/tension for the much alluded to scene. The actual scene plays out at the 

38 minute mark - this is the real shit not to watch. You might want to fast forward through it. It's pretty easy to jump through if you're watching on Netflix through a streaming device. Pause and jump through the scenes using the preview thumbnails as a guide to when the scene is over. You may want to skip again at the 49 minute mark - spoiler inside here as to what happens during this scene as it's harder to know what purpose this scene serves 
this is where it's revealed that Jess does actually remember that night and what Bryce did

If anyone wants more details feel free to let me know. I used these particular scene guides and got through the episode without issue. For episode 11

there's again a notification that the episode will contain sexual assault/rape content. I'll have my bf watch this episode too as it looks like this is Bryce's tape

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I definitely want to reserve my judgment till I finish the show. So far it's compelled me to keep watching, being slowed down only by the need to have, so far, two episodes prescreened for my own psychological well being.

 

I have never personally dealt with depression or suicidal thoughts/idealation. I will be interested to read a bunch of these essays when I finish, from people much more adept at traversing these topics than me. I'll also look into how it differs from the book it's based on. 

 

I'm still very much interested in watching more, and (episode 10 spoilers)

was particularly devastated by Jeff's death

Tony & Jeff - best characters, love them.

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Well...

Spoiler

I don't think I could ever slit my wrists after watching that scene

 

This was a pretty powerful show for me - definitely in my top 10... definitely tough to watch at times, but I found it immensely enjoyable. 

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Sure some of you already saw this, the guy who plays Clay, Dylan Minnette, is in a band, Wallows. They just released a new single, you all should check it out!

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Okay, I am getting very near the end and there is evil, manipulative shit in this show that makes me really fucking angry.

 

I think it is in the episode before the big reveal between Clay and Hannah (SPOILERS for episode 10 and 11):

 

Clay asks his friend 'Did I kill Hannah?' and he goes 'No, we all contributed towards it', so Clay pushes him towards a less 'wishy-washy' answer. So Tony goes 'Yeah, you did'



It made me fucking furious when it turns out that Clay did nothing wrong apart from not being able to understand what was going on because Hannah repeatedly pushes him away and he respects her wishes (something that Tony talks about  in this episode and goes 'actually, no you didn't kill Hannah at all I just said that for the Cliff hanger of the last episode').

Clay then considers killing himself and I was like 'Fuck you, 13 Reasons'. Some of the characters make some half-hearted arguments against suicide but the basic thrust of the story is that if you kill yourself, all the people who wronged you (or not) will start to have miserable lives and eventually, you kind of win.

 

The bit where Clay reimagines a scene where he doesn't leave Hannah and gets through to her that he is in love with her and she responds with 'Why didn't say those things when I was alive' is framed awfully and I had to turn it off for a bit because I was furious. I mean is this his fantasy version, is this his conflicting emotions? Why does Hannah say it, if these are his thoughts. Hannah comes off as a vengeful spirit rather than a voice from the grave. Gah, I hate this show. I am still going to finish it. 

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Just finished episode 4. 13 Reasons Why is good in the way most shows are good these days, which is to say it is good at getting you to want to watch the next episode and only secondarily concerned with doing these characters, their inner lives, the themes of the show, etc. justice. I kind of wish it would just lean into it's trashiness and make Hannah some sort of Dark Knight Joker teen, an insane posthumous puppet master sociopath. The best parts of this feel like high school Gone Girl except Gone Girl had the good sense to not let good taste get in the way of it's fun.

 

As is, I am in the market for teen feelings so it'll do. Omnipotent latino greaser kid popping up everywhere is a joke that never gets old.

 

Also I got really excited that Josh Hamilton was playing Clay's dad because he was the lead in the excellent 1995 Noah Baumbach hipster comedy Kicking & Screaming, and then I realized that being excited that the dad played a cool cool guy in 1995 makes me the old man watching this, even older than I often feel when I see all these teenagers with neck tattoos. Is that a thing? Are high schoolers all tatted up these days?

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5 hours ago, Patrick R said:

even older than I often feel when I see all these teenagers with neck tattoos. Is that a thing? Are high schoolers all tatted up these days?

 

same

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This was just renewed for a second season. This time with more neck tattoos. 

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This doesn't seem like the kind of show that can sustain a second season? She can't commit suicide twice.

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Haven't finished it, but my understanding is that the first season ends with all the Reasons Kids™ getting subpoenaed to talk about their involvement in her death. Would make for a very different second season, but it could still happen? Pretty dumb.

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I finished watching this show this weekend. All in all, I liked it, but don't know how likely I am to recommend it to others. I'll probably go back and look into some of the criticism that was written about it when it first dropped. I had heard that they requested feedback from mental health professionals regarding the content of the show, but the creators ignored it.

 

If anyone wants timestamps for

the sexual assault scene

in episode 11, I can share them.

 

I love teen dramas and this one - I think was good but not great. Some of the content really killed my momentum to watch more.

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On 5/23/2017 at 3:18 AM, jennegatron said:

I finished watching this show this weekend. All in all, I liked it, but don't know how likely I am to recommend it to others. I'll probably go back and look into some of the criticism that was written about it when it first dropped. I had heard that they requested feedback from mental health professionals regarding the content of the show, but the creators ignored it.

 

If anyone wants timestamps for

  Reveal hidden contents

the sexual assault scene

in episode 11, I can share them.

 

I love teen dramas and this one - I think was good but not great. Some of the content really killed my momentum to watch more.

 

Yes Jenna that would be much appreciated if you have them handy!  Its what is keeping me from watching the show at the moment 

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yeah, no problem for Ep 12

These are minutes remaining:

from about 19 minutes remaining to 14 minutes remaining there's a pretty graphic scene. I would recommend pausing it at 19 minutes and fast forwarding. When there's one brief scene in the middle between Bryce & Clay that is safe, and then it cuts back to the flash back at around 15:50 left in the episode for about 1 minute 30 seconds. Once it cuts back to Clay & Bryce after this point the rest of the episode is okay.

 

I would recommend being ready to pause and fast forward as they are hard cuts back and forth so you'll want to be ready when it cuts back to the flashback.

 

For the final episode there's no sexual assault content. There is a pretty graphic depiction of

Hannah's suicide. If that stuff affects you too, I would recommend pausing when after she goes into the bathroom and fills the tub, and grabs the razors, then just fast forwarding till the scene ends.

 

I watched the show on the netflix app for my tivo (which is the same app for things like ps4 or roku, and i assume other set top boxes) which when you pause and fast forward you are able to see thumbnails of what you're skipping & what's coming up next. These are super useful in skipping over triggering or extremely upsetting content.

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Yeah that last episode was really tough for me. I struggle with depression my whole life and I get too many of these character.

 

I had a hard time getting into the show at first because of the desperately wanting to be a John Hughes movie, which these days I kind of just find as examples of gross rich extravagance. But it's not really that and it had a good representation of not just only uptight white people. I also don't like when people way older than high school age are playing someone that is supposed to be 7-8 years younger, but I guess I really enjoy 10 Things I Hate About You, which did the same. But I do like the 80s style atmosphere though even though it's modern times. It strangely seemed like it wanted to be Life Is Strange, and if that truly is an influence to the show creators, then that is just fucking awesome.

 

I think it was some top notch television, I couldn't stop watching as it got closer to the end. It's really the essence of what I want out of a teen drama, which is all the uncomfortable stuff plus the feelings of alienation that some characters experience. It was much in the vein of older better Degrassi but I don't think as amazing as Skins (UK) was. That will always be my favorite. I did have some misgivings on Hannah being so pretty because it didn't feel that she realistically would be in that position. Plus her hygiene and ability to take care of herself should have theoretically deteriorated some over time. But I think in the end the actress pulled it all off. Then again I guess a lot of the cast was too "beautiful" except for token nerdy kid. I really wish they had also taken note of Degrassi and Skins in that regard as well with just casting teens because they feel right for the role, warts and all, not because they are nice to look at.

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I'm halfway through this and apprehensively enjoying it. I simultaneously like the concept of the format and also think that the show is constricted by it uncomfortably. The format of knowing every episode will have to display a character being shitty really boxes them into limited corners. I think a visual novel could have tons of fun with this, but a show that's trying to be serious and emotional has to try and pretend this isn't a very TV concept.

 

I'm suspicious of how much of an asshole they're willing to show Clay to be. He's already been a bad toxic dude multiple times, but I'm really not sure where they're going to end with him. I would assume that he's done the worst thing, yet everyone who's listened to the tapes doesn't seem to think much of whatever it is. I'm reserving judgement but I expect my enjoyment to nosedive near the end.

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