Viewers were shocked to see the character of Hannah Baker in ’13 Reasons Why’ slit her wrists open and bleed to death in the bathtub. Although this show sparked controversy about suicide, this controversy may just be the reason suicide and mental health needs to be discussed more.
’13 Reasons Why’ follows the recordings Hannah Baker left behind for specific people to hear after her suicide. Episode by episode, the audience finds out what brought her to commit suicide. Through the narration of Hannah, her former friend Clay Jensen listens to these tapes one by one. At first it seemed shocking to me that someone would leave 13 tapes telling people that they were the reasons they killed themselves, but as I learnt about each character and the pain they had caused Hannah, it became more obvious why she had left the tapes. Each character seems innocent at the start of the series however their innocent act wears off, as Clay gets deeper into the tapes. These characters try to defend themselves and hope no one else finds the tapes that show their lack of remorse for Hanna’s death and call her “attention seeking” for killing herself.
The ‘suicide is not an option’ posters in the school are ironic as they were put up after Hannah’s suicide, which shows even the school disregarded any bullying happening in their school halls. All the flashbacks are filmed with yellow, bright lighting in comparison to the scenes set in the present which are much more darker and blue. Scenes that caused the most controversy were the rape scenes and one of the last scenes when Hannah is shown in the bathtub, slitting her wrists open. As disturbing and upsetting as these scenes may have been, their purpose is to make the audience feel uncomfortable. The reason being is that issues like sexual assault and suicide are not widely discussed because they make people feel uncomfortable but these are both issues that need to be spoken about as they continue to happen all over the world. One quote that really disturbed me was when Hannah’s rapist said, “If that’s rape then every girl at this school wants to be raped.” This shows how some people have this mentality and think that it’s acceptable.
’13 Reasons Why’ now has a crisis information page for anyone who was affected by the content of the TV show. Despite the controversy, I think this TV show has raised awareness about serious issues like suicide, mental health and sexual assault, and will enable young people to discuss these issues and do something about it.