13 Reasons Why: The Line

MAJOR SPOILERS

I will be talking about the ending.

I am a firm believer in giving time to process any entertainment we engage in being reading, movies, television, video games and art. I finished 13 Reasons Why on Thursday and I wanted time to digest what I watched. The second season was just as painful to watch as the first one and I don't mean painful by the scenes of violence and sexual assault but just the story progression, writing, and character development. This is still a teenage drama with dealing with situations that teenagers may experience. My issue is that with the major success of the first season, Netflix wanted to up the ante by going more shocking than the first season. Which what the first season led to warning advisors before each episode, a warning when you paused the show, and a link to more information of the end of each episode. The second season now has led to protests and petitions to cancel the series. I for one did not think it was more graphic than the first but I will cross that later in the post. Watching both seasons I realize that this show is hard to watch. The show discusses rape, suicide, drugs, and other teens experience that we are exposed to in high school but is there a line? Is this show doing more damage than good? Did the show cross the line with 3 rape scenes, a suicide, and the potential school shooting?

The Good

I will admit that I enjoyed season 2 so much more than the first season. Most of the characters are unhinged from the first season and I think that is great. People are paranoid about whats next with each person having to testify in court with Hannah's mother suing the school. You get to hear more of how Hannah affected each of there lives more than through the tapes. Surprisingly, some generic characters became a little more fulfilling and I really did appreciate that. Zach and Justin became my two favorite characters just because they were so awful and generic in the first season that it was so good to see them as more. Zach opening up about losing his virginity with Hannah was good because it changed both him and her and how Clay grasped the thought on Hannah. I feel that we all loved Justin by the end of the show. Each scene with him was great and you couldn't help to love him. Man, he really had it rough. The scene with him crying when he finds out he is being adopted really tug at the heartstrings. Every scene with Justin and Clay's parents made me happy when his eating breakfast with the family or him watching a movie sharing popcorn  with Clay's parents. Justin had a rough season and his turmoil with Jessica. I also really enjoyed Mr. Porter this time around with his "I have nothing to lose" attitude. When he slammed price against the wall, it felt good. Cyrus and Scott were also two new additions that I appreciated in the show. Scott was starting the fire of the polaroids and Cyrus was that "rebel friend" that when the going got tough, we saw his true colors and vulnerabilities. I enjoyed the fight scene so much. Some points I actually busted out laughing which was the first for the show. Finally, one of my favorite scenes was at the dance when all the main characters embrace Clay to the song he and Hannah danced to last year. It felt good and I will admit that I was a sucker for that scene.

The Bad

I think we all can agree that we hate Bryce but I hate him the most due to being the same in every scene. He pretty much could have gone up in every scene and just said, "Hey my name is Bryce, I sure do love rape and baseball, and sports, and rape". For being the antagonist he is the same as he was in the first scene. I looked forward when he got nervous but he always had a backup plan before we could see real emotion out of this guy. It's like nothing phased him. His mother confronting him, the polaroids missed him, being on probation. He gave minimal effort and only worried when Chloe testified which she retracted the truth but hey you gotta have a season 3. Which brings me to Chloe. She is the high school cheerleader stereotype in a nutshell. Every scene with her was so frustrating even at the end when she reveals that she is pregnant. I wanted to pull my hair out when she could have brought Bryce down. The same was Nina Jones, the girl on the track team that was in the sexual victim group. Her burning the polaroids was the most frustration I have ever felt in a television show. The polaroids could have ended the show there but Netflix like making that mighty dollar so they have to burn them to keep this good for season 3. I know every show does that but her burning them was just shock value for the view. The final irritation was the ghost of Hannah. I liked the concept of ghost Hannah and the Patrick Swayze's Ghost vibe I got, minus the Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg love scene, was cool at first but at times she gave Clay a hard time over nothing. In her annoyance did come one of the best scenes in the whole show which was Clay releasing her tapes to everyone. Clay tells ghost Hannah that she's dead and that she doesn't get a say in what he can do with the tapes. Hell ya, Clay, you tell ghost Hannah that her actions with the tapes were damaging and that she shouldn't have done that. I know he makes up for that at her ceremony which is powerful and the scene with him and the priest tie up Hannah's farewell nicely...especially since Kathrine Langford won't be in season 3..." bummer".

The Line

Was the line crossed in the second season? The big uproar right now is the rape scene where Monty, generic character number 4, shoves a mop handle up Tyler's butt to the point that you can see blood on the handle. The two-minute scene is rough and had both Sarah and me cringing. Many people are enraged at this which is leading to them wanting the show to be cancelled. I'm going to play devil's advocate here but bear with me. We watched two rape scenes in the first season where Jessica and Hannah are both violently raped by Bryce and all we got was some warning disclaimers but when Tyler get rapes we want to cancel the show? I'm trying to be this social justice warrior but where was this anger in the first season? The line was crossed last year when we had to watch Jessica and Hannah get raped and Tyler's was just as bad but not worse. I also think the line was crossed with the potential school shooting. Cinematically, I loved the intense scene with the pink tint light and the conflict Tyler was experiencing in himself. Tyler was someone who lost his friends, embarrassed by his crush, and went to get mental help that really benefited him just for him to be sodomized in the bathroom. I don't feel that we need to watch something so awful to get the picture of "rape is bad" or a school shooting especially with the current events that have happened this year so far. That's the message trying to be sent but this its hard to watch as an adult and I would be concerned having teenagers watch this. I don't know if we should be exposed to this to understand the message, which in my opinion, is bent so much I think the message is broken.

The Message 

Let us go back to the beginning. Why did this show come out? The show came out to raise awareness of sexual harassment, sexual assault, suicide, drugs, bullying, and to "start a conversation". Clay even tells the principle that the tapes were meant to start a conversation. I can get behind a show that wants that but did they get the point across. I feel 13 Reasons Why is torn between its mission statement and its business. With Nina burning the polaroids, this will help continue the story for season 3 but the message is that you shouldn't bring up the past of your sexual assault. Jessica taking Bryce to court for raping here and Bryce only receiving 3 months probation *cough Brock Turner. This keeps Bryce in the mix for season 3 but sends the message that if you are a good boy you can get away with rape. Do you see the issues? Now I have never been a victim of sexual assault and I truly could not imagine such trauma. My prayers go out to survivors and in no way do I even try to understand the struggle that must feel. In my opinion, I feel season 2 sent the message that it is better to keep your silence and that people can get away with rape if they don't have a record. This is unacceptable. This show is literally contradicting their mission statement of having a conversation. What does this tell the teenage audience? I feel that this show may be sending the wrong message.

In Conclusion

I still stick with what I wrote about the first season of this show is your classic tragedy and that going further into more seasons is only going to ruin what the show was meant to be in the first season. Overall, I liked season 2 more but this show is too much for a young audience. This is pretty much the violent video game controversy but in a television show. I think adults watching this show and then teaching their children about bullying, consent, and sexual assault would be better than exposing them to this show. If season 3 does come out, I hope some real justice is given to Bryce and Monty and that the message that someone cannot get away from sexual assault is sent and seen by all viewers. Season 2 sent the wrong message and I feel that this will do more damage than good.

What do you think? Feel free to share and comment.