Hey there ! I'm back (again after a long time). I was just busy 😅. Well, I wanted to post it a long time ago. But I never finished writing it. As I said in my previous post, that I'll let you know about the shows and movies I watch, this is the beginning. Let's get into the show.
Netflix's "13 Reasons Why" is actually a teen drama and is an absolutely mysterious series, which is really thrilling to watch. Actually it's good for binge watching. It has 3 seasons so far. Netflix has announced that the 4th season will be the final season. In this post I'm gonna focus on the first season of 13 reasons why, which is the real theme of the series. As the title of the series suggests, each season has 13 episodes.
Hannah Baker is a joyous teenage girl, who's new to the high school and wants a teenage life every teenager wants to live. She wants to make good friends, she wants to get into a college and she also wants someone special to call her his girl. After I watched the first season, I used to think Hannah's character was the best character I've ever seen in a modern series. But after I watched season 2, which solved a lot of mysteries and showed Hannah's dark sides..uhhh I don't really suggest you to watch the season 2 and 3. Because it gets cops involved, political issues, scary fights between school kids, too much violence and vulgarity, drugs, alcohol, murder, rape, and many more disturbing things, which actually somehow decrease the values of emotions in the show. It rather starts focusing on social messages, which is a plus point. But in the first season, we get to love the characters and their emotions, which we surprisingly start missing in the season 2. And season 3 is not about Hannah. I don't even know why it's called "13 reasons why season 3 ". Makers should have given a new title for this season. Well, talking about season 1, Hannah's life completely changes when she starts going to the school. And these changes takes her down. People hurt her, not just mentally, but also physically. She got so hurt that she didn't have any wish to live anymore. Her parents were busy in their financial and personal matters. Hannah knew her parents loved her, but she didn't find comfort even from her parents. So before she commits suicide by slitting her own wrists with a blade in her bathtub, she records some tapes, in which she tells about the reasons why she committed suicide. She wanted those persons to realize, that they hurt her so much and let her down. Each episode tells story of a single character's story with Hannah. I'm not gonna write about the reasons why she killed herself. You better go and watch the first season. I don't wanna give spoilers. Let's just focus on the reasons I love the show. Well not the entire show, only the first season of 13 reasons why.
Number 1 : Catherine Langford
"Hey, it's Hannah, Hannah Baker. That's right. Don't adjust your whatever device you're listening to this on. It's me, live and in stereo. No return engagements, no encore. And this time absolutely no requests. Get a snack. Settle in. 'Cause I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended."
The voice, the emotion which say these words is just perfect. More specifically Catherine Langford is the perfection. Everytime she speaks in her voice, I just love listening to her. Her acting is something which I can't even describe in words. The emotions she shows in her scenes, they're just meant to be only hers. Hannah Baker was meant to be played by only her. Actually she's the biggest reason I started watching 13 reasons why. I watched her suicide scene somewhere, and got disturbed. I loved that scene so much that I took interest to see more of her in the show. And I absolutely loved Hannah Baker and the series. No-one could have played Hannah better than Catherine. I think Catherine Langford is the most expressive actress I've ever seen. She can change your mood according to her scene everytime, even though Clay Jensen (google him if you don't know) would be giving a stressful scene, and when he gets a flashback of joyful Hannah, you will forget that she's actually dead and this is just a flashback. This is the first reason I love 13 reasons why .
Number 2 : The Theme
People are loosing emotions and feelings now a days. And watching a series which makes you realize that how we're hurting people and how it impacts on them is really helpful to understand humanity. 13 Reasons Why's Season 1 is one of those series, which completely worth watching to understand what people can be going through and how we should treat them. How we could be more helpful to our loved ones. I've watched a lot of shows, but 13 reasons Why is the only show, which let me get connected with every type of character. Even Jessica's bitchy character, the innocent good guy Clay Jensen, the bad guy Bryce Walker, the good friend Tony Padilla, the immature kid Alex Standall, the closet girl Courtney Crimson, the proud gay Ryan Shaver, poor but strong Justin Foley, the mature girl Sheri and many more. These were some characters who are in the list of Hannah's reasons. Each of them is best for their roles and delivers the right message. The theme is also an important reason why I love the series. There's a scene when Clay Jensen takes Courtney to Hannah's graveyard and she starts crying, it was really painful. I really loved Michelle Selene Ang throughout the series. It gave a big message about homosexuality. The social messages focus on so many real problems like road safety, bullying, homophobia, rape, ignorance, abuse, racism and more. 13 reasons why portrays these things well. That's a big plus point for the show.
Number 3 : Some Characters
Justin Foley was Hannah's first boyfriend in the series. He shows Hannah's private pictures to his gang and one of his friend posts it online. Then it goes viral and after that Hannah was hurt and ashamed of herself. Justin and Hannah's relationship was never seen again, neither did they try to talk about this thing. Brandon Flynn has made into my favorite celebrities' list. He was marvellous as Justin and is also a good public figure. I loved Justin's character because of him. Justin is a poor kid. His mother was dating a criminal drug dealer. His family was running out of money. Justin was all alone. When no one was there for him, his rich friend, Bryce was there for him . He helped Justin in many ways. Justin is poor, innocent, guilty and lovable. I love the scenes of Justin too.
Sheri Holland is an underrated character of 13 reasons why. Although she didn't hurt Hannah mentally or physically. She just let Hannah in guilt. It's a complicated story. Sheri is really helpful for her friends. Although she freaked out, when she broke a sign board, which caused an accident later. For which Hannah was guilty. Sheri was guilty too and she helped the sufferer of the accident without letting him know that she caused it, which repays her crime. Ajiona Alexus was fantastic as Sheri. She's one of my favorite. She doesn't have a major storyline in the show, but she's really a good person.
I've already told about Courtney. She's gay and she kissed Hannah one night. A picture of their kiss got viral in the school. Kids couldn't recognize the two girls and when they asked Courtney, she freaked out and said it was Hannah kissing a lesbian girl. Courtney was a popular kid in the school. She was raised by her gay fathers. She was afraid of getting her image ruined if she would come out. So she just took Hannah's name randomly and it stared chaos. People were already calling her a lot of bad things. Still she was guilty and didn't run away from the truth. She came out proudly and sent a big message for homophobic people of our society. I loved her character more in season 2. Michele Selene Ang played Courtney's character well.
Ryan Shaver was another gay kid in the school and he didn't care what people think of him. He was talented and he wanted to help Hannah by improving her writing skills. He loved Hannah's writings and posted one of those without her permission which was supposed to be private. Hannah hadn't expected that from Ryan. She got hurt again. Ryan was guilty too. He apologized to Mrs. Baker and told her more about Hannah's personal life after his trial in the court. He was nice to everyone who was nice to him. I loved his character too. Well, he was a writer and so am I. So I liked it when he used to come to screen too. He doesn't have a major storyline too like Sheri.
These are some characters, for whom I like the show better. There was another character named Chloë, who was introduced in season 2 as Bryce's girlfriend. She got pregnant with Bryce's child. Bryce had done something horrible to Hannah and Jessica and many more girls. She cuts off from Bryce and changes the high school. But she had to abort her child. Her abortion scene was one of my favorite scene in the show. Anne Winters was outstanding in the scene. A teenage girl aborting her first child, from someone who she loved was really sad to watch. Tyler Down was another amazing character, who gets sexually assaulted by some kids in the washroom. When he tells about this to Clay, it was really heartbreaking to watch. Everyone hated Tyler in the school, he used to shoot guns and did crazy things. But he changed himself into a very innocent kid again. Devin Druid was perfect for playing Tyler's role. Okay enough of the characters.
There will be another part of this post. Stay tuned...
Love, Pran
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