13 Reasons Why: The Story of Hannah Baker

13 REASONS WHY

CREATED BY: Brian Yorkey

STARRING: Dylan Minnette, Katherine Langford, Christian Navarro, Alisha Boe, Brandon Flynn, Justin Prentice, Miles Heizer, Ross Butler, Devin Druid, Amy Hargreaves, Derek Luke, Kate Walsh

NO. OF EPISODES: 13 Episodes

GENRE: Teen Drama, Mystery

YEAR: 2017

COUNTRY: United States

Clay Jensen, a shy high school student, returns home from school one day to find that he has received a mysterious package in the mail. It contains seven double-sided cassette tapes used by Hannah Baker, a classmate who has recently committed suicide. Each tape details a reason that she killed herself. The tapes were sent to various other people before arriving at Clay’s door. Clay moves through them, one by one, while slowly descending in to grief as each tape makes him feel powerless.

Man, Netflix just keeps killing it with their original adaptations. Inspired by the original novel, 13 Reasons Why is a dark and adult look at bullying and suicide among teenagers in today’s society. Despite the majority of the cast being just mere teenagers themselves, the performances by the entire cast was fabulous. Each of the actors embodied their characters and really portrayed them to the best of their ability. The writing structure was superb, as it fantastically adapted the blend used in the original novel. This, paired with the slow breakdown of our main characters, just make 13 Reasons Why even darker.

Honestly, there isn’t much that I could say negatively about the show. The production team behind its creation took plenty of measures to accurately portray teen suicide and we feel like they succeeded in getting their point across. The only drawback that I have seen for the show is that people claim that Hannah’s downward spiral feels almost artificial, that nothing could happen in that order. This is also attributed to the differences of Clay in between the series and the novel. The story is more drawn out in the series, and thus making Hannah’s suicidal spiral even more dramatic.

PROS:

• Storytelling structure.
• Dark and adult approach.
• Main cast performance.
• Solid adaptation.

CONS:

• Differences with Clay.
• Spiral too artificial?

SCORE: 9 / 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JebwYGn5Z3E

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!

Remember: Like Media In Review @ Facebook Follow Media in Review on Twitter.

All check out my lengthier video game reviews over at Nerd Bacon Games.