13 Reasons Why

A mere ten minutes ago I finished watching the second season of Thirteen Reasons Why. And to be brutally honest I feel rather numb with a heavy head full of many unanswered questions.

I know that the program is being slated in the press at the moment for its controversial nature but maybe that was the actual endgame for the show’s producers because at the end of the day it’s causing us all to talk about the subjects covered within the series which are normally considered taboo. All that being said I do feel certain aspect were unneeded and added nothing to the program but its rawness might have been what people needed to witness as these situations are happening every day all over the world.

When the first season was aired on Netflix I was eager to watch it due to the fact that I had read the book whilst at secondary school. It had touched me then and I was interested to see how it was going to portrayed on the screen. I am still uncertain after watching both seasons as to whether or not they actually hit the mark when it comes to rape and suicide awareness but I guess everyone has their own personal opinions with some viewers being more affected than others.

I know many believe that a program like this is only going to promote and maybe trivialise the subject of suicide but isn’t that what we have been doing for years as a society. So, why is it now that people have decided to throw shade at a program that is only trying to show what thousands of teenagers are victim to. In no way am I defending or condoning the tv series as there were aspects I loved but also many that made me sick to my stomach.

Season Two especially I feel that in some ways the final episode was completely unnecessary and the series could have been nicely rounded off at the end of episode 12. Even the end scene of this episode felt like the end of the story for me and that they added on the 13th episode just so it fitted with the title. Episode 13 also includes the most graphic scene, I think, of the whole two seasons combined. It almost felt like they added the final episode just because they needed to open a few more questions for us to be left wanting more and a third season perhaps.

A focal point of this program is rape, however, I feel that the story was heavily weighted towards female victims. Apparently, a male rape scene is only worth a paltry one minute scene but the rape of a group of teenage girls is worth two whole seasons. I just wish maybe that all the victims had been of an equal amount of importance. However, I do understand that this is something so apparent in our society that male rape victims do not get the same justification as females.

All that aside I was left with a few unanswered questions such as ‘Does Clay get arrested?’, ‘Does Chloe keep Bryce’s baby?’,’Will Jessica tell Alex about her and Justin?’ and ‘What happens to Tyler?’. These unanswered questions at the end of Season 2 lead me to believe that there might be a Season 3 in the pipeline…

I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

M🌸