13 Reasons Why you've disappointed me, Netflix

Amongst my adoration for Netflix and the stuff they create, there is one series that really pushes my buttons. It deeply enrages me, that this piece of shite is getting a season 2. (Excuse the language, this is gonna be a flowery one that won't make much sense).

DISCLAIMER: 13 reasons why deals with other issues in suitable ways, however I am only here to discuss suicide and depression.

Teenage suicide is a pertinent issue, and one that I believe should be talked about frankly and honestly. But not like this. 13 Reasons Why follows 13 tapes that Hannah Baker leaves post-mortem to the 13 people that contributed to her reason for suicide in some way. And that is where the problem starts, it shouldn't be about why, it should be about never again. 

At the Tony Awards this year, Dear Evan Hansen smashed the awards. Evan Hansen is a musical that, like 13, deals with suicide by following Evan, a student mistaken to be the best friend of a class mate that has recently taken his life. Evan Hansen discusses why we need to stop getting so involved through false pretences and the superficial medium of social media, and try and act on preventing rather than grieving. Now I know this sounds controversial, as the right to grieve is a given one, but it raises the point of sensationalism in our generation. We are all guilty of latching on to a trend whether it be binge watching a show, fan-girling over a band, or grieving over the most recent loss of life- sometimes a celebrity, and sometimes not. Evan Hansen, therefore, encourages us to realign our priorities while the people who suffer are still alive. 13 Reasons Why demonstrates a situation where as many people are involved as possible, and blamed as possible. But, at a time when suicide is the second biggest killer of men in the western world, blame shouldn't be the concern it should be stopping the mistakes before there is anyone to blame. By focusing on what has been done wrong our attitude to mental health remains at a stand still, however by developing our ability and understanding of prevention we can actually move forward. And I do not believe 13 Reasons Why deals with an effective or practical way of preventing. It just lists 13 Reasons then shows those still left a live riding off into the sunset with their lives still in tact, despite the fact Hannah's has irrevocably been destroyed. 

The hype over 13 Reasons Why was colossal. Its the new most common gif on tumblr, the no. 1 breeding ground for teenage insecurities, and has already been promised a season 2 despite being based on a single book. It's this level of popularity that needs to be tackled, as it is exactly what Evan Hansen is trying to battle- the narcissistic need to get involved in something that shouldn't have happened in the first place. The final episode is a hard one to watch, as many of you will know. I don't think that the suicide is glamorised like it often is on social media. However, the shock factor seemed to have no effect when the show didn't at any point offer what needs to be done about this. We watched Hannah slit her wrists after 13 tapes that offered no constructive way that we can prevent this from being such an epidemic.

Many have criticised the show for its diversions for the book, and I feel how it differs in the end summarises what I am trying to say. The ending of a show / book is so important, and the fact that Netflix altered the ending to allow for another series to monopolise on the subject is just infuriating. In the show a selection of the main characters drive off into the sunset, its as simple and plain as that. The book, conversely, closes with Clay, the main guy, rushing to their friend who he believes to be suicidal in order to persuade him otherwise. This is the kind of message we should be leaving on, the latter. The complicated one, the one that takes a huge amount of effort. The one that tackles the tragic problem at hand and moves forward productively from the atrocities that have occurred. Rather, like Netflix, than the one with the pretty shot that doesn't take account for anything that has just happened, ensuring a season 2, rather than a solution to the problem.