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13 Reasons Why Season 1 Review
Netflix‘s 13 Reasons Why: Season 1: Episodes 1-13 were a rarity. Based on the book by Jay Asher, the TV adaptation of 13 Reasons Why was atypical. Normal TV series rarely provoke an emotional reaction in the viewer. Most give the viewer what they were expecting or have seen before with new wrapping paper around them. 13 Reasons Why was something different. 13 Reasons Why tapped into something so real the viewer could not help but react. That was one of 13 Reasons Why‘s purposes – to create a reaction in the viewer. Its purpose also was to tell an engaging story. 13 Reasons Why succeeded in both. Multiple times during the season, the viewer wanted to give Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) a hug so that she knew that someone in the world got her, saw her, the real her, and cared about that person.
13 Reasons Why was painful to watch at times but like the intention behind the tapes of its heroine, maybe that pain will help someone in the future.
Like The OA, 13 Reasons Why started one place but by the end of its narrative, the viewer had been transported to aspects of a story they never imagined existed.
The complexity of the interwoven story-lines of 13 Reasons Why, their creativity, and the acting of its unique two and three-dimensional characters made 13 Reasons Why stand head and shoulders above any other teen dramas on network television. 13 Reasons Why is the type of TV show that could not exist on network television because of its content and its unflinching approach, especially in the later episodes of Season One.
The closest network TV shows that featured some of the realities in 13 Reasons Why are My So-Called Life and Skins (to a certain degree since that U.K. TV series leaned more towards levity).
Told through the narrative mechanisms of cassette tapes, recollection, and hallucination, 13 Reasons Why was intricately balanced between present day and previous instances of: teen angst, budding romance, shifting emotions, nuanced acts of bullying and degradation, sexual violence, and suicide. Without the brutal visual causality shown in 13 Reasons Why, 13 Reasons Way would not have been as strong a story.
By the end of the season, it was almost as if Hannah Baker gave the tapes to the viewer to create change in us so that we, the viewer, didn’t create another Hannah Baker.
*Note – This review has been separated into four pages. When you reach the bottom of one page, scroll to the bottom of the page (possibly underneath Related Posts) and click the Next button.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 1: Tape 1, Side A
The greatest narrative instrument in the season was hand-delivered to Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) during Tape 1, Side A – cassette tapes from recently deceased Hannah Baker. Once received, it was the beginning of the dual narrative of 13 Reasons Why.
As a plot device, Hannah Baker’s tapes were a clever innovation. Hannah’s death made all of the people who heard her tapes hyper-sensitive. That state-of-mind made all of the tapes’ listeners more susceptible to the words and emotions expressed on them. Whether by design or happenstance (the latter is most-likely the case since Hannah was not a human psychology prodigy), it allowed the tapes to bore into the psyche of all those that heard them, none more so than Clay, who suffered from a mental condition that previously required counseling and medication.
The dead rarely speak as effectively to the living – save for Ghost and a few other examples – as Hannah Baker began speaking to Clay in Tape 1, Side A. Clay and Hannah’s complicated relationship made the situation for Clay even worse. He felt her loss on multiple undisclosed levels, not on a singular level like the other subjects of the tapes.
Hannah Baker broke down, on a granular level in Tape 1, Side A, the damaging effect of an unfounded and unflattering rumor to the reputation and environment of a girl in high school. The viewer saw how the rumor began to negatively effect Hannah the moment it entered the minds of the male population of her school.
Justin Foley (Brandon Flynn) and Bryce Walker (Justin Prentice) turned a seminal moment in a young adult’s life, their first kiss, into something sordid, a social media nightmare. The courtship mind games that Hannah and Justin played on each other were wonderful theater (e.g. the school bus moment) and sweet. That made Hannah’s first kiss with Justin all the more bitter when he let bravado supersede civility.
When Tony Padilla (Christian Navarro) spoke to Clay Jensen at the park Hannah had her first kiss in, it was the moment where 13 Reasons Why took a step above and beyond the expectations the viewer had brought with them to the Netflix series and was forced to expect more. 13 Reasons Why was not going to be a standard-fare TV teen drama.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 2: Tape 1, Side B
A theme was established early on in 13 Reasons Why that each episode would feature a new Hannah Baker degradation, mental or physical, during each episode. That was the big story-line in the background of each episode. The upfront story-lines were the trials and tribulations of high school, in Hannah’s case, being a new girl in high school. New friendships for Hannah Baker abounded in 13 Reasons Why but one of the most important to Hannah began in Tape 1, Side B with Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe). Both girls were outsiders thus both could instantly relate to each, at least on that level.
Tape 1, Side B‘s most intense moment was that of loss. When Hannah lost the friendship and companionship of Jessica and Alex Standall (Miles Heizer), it was a blow (literally in Hannah’s case per Jessica’s slap). Hannah Baker no longer had two friendly, familiar, and sturdy pairs of shoulders to lean on and have a positive repertoire with in and outside of school.
Mrs. Antilly (Lisa Anne Morrison), though she only appeared in one episode of the season, could have had the biggest impact on Hannah’s state of mind before Hannah killed herself. Mrs. Antilly’s bubbly, upbeat, and perceptive demeanor might have been exactly what Hannah Baker needed as Hannah was recording Tape 7, Side A.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 3: Tape 2, Side A
Perception is a powerful instrument, especially when calibrated by the seemingly unbiased. When Ryan Shaver (Tommy Dorfman)’s best /worst list began floating around, that Alex Standall (Miles Heizer) deleteriously added to, the way that Hannah Baker was perceived in high school was altered forever. Hannah wasn’t just the new girl anymore, she was the new dehumanized object, a being some saw as not having any feelings. A slattern.
Bryce Walker’s “targeting” moment with Hannah Baker in the convenient store exemplified how people now viewed Hannah. Though a virtual stranger to him, Bryce still had zero respect for Hannah because of Justin’s photo, Justin’s bragging, and Ryan’s list.
Alex’s regret over contributing to Hannah’s state-of-mind when she took her life informed the viewer that unlike some of the other contributors disclosed in Hannah’s tapes, Alex felt a deep level of guilt over his involvement.
In many respects, Alex could easily have been Clay in the 13 Reasons Why‘s story-line if he had made different choices. Perhaps that was one of the things weighing on him when he fell into the pool – Hannah was someone who he had once called friend, someone he could have pursued, like Jessica, if he had seen Hannah for what she was before she killed herself.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 4: Tape 2, Side B
Tyler Down (Devin Druid)’s story-line in Tape 2, Side B was the first clearly criminal incident involving Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why. Tyler’s rationale for stalking Hannah and taking pictures of her without her permission, even if what he said was the truth (Druid portrayed his statement in an authentic way), was immaterial. The act was still an intrusion of Hannah’s privacy. Capturing someone “in life” is cool but following them home and taking pictures of them in various states of undress is not art. It’s unlawful, especially if they are under age. Tyler knew that, in part, which is why he did what he did clandestinely.
The journey that Hannah Baker took the listener of her tapes on around her town, the meaning of it, revisiting traumas, drawing the listener into her narrative, came into its own when Clay arrived outside Tyler’s bedroom with its cracked window panes. 13 Reasons Why became a unique experience during that moment in the episode.
That moment became surreal when Marcus Cole (Steven Silver) showed up wearing his Halloween costume and lied that he hadn’t listened to all of the tapes. No one could listen to those tapes up to that point, having gone to Tyler’s window themselves in the past, having thrown a rock at the window, and then stopped listening to the tapes (or skimmed over the remaining tapes). It’s impossible, especially since the author killed themselves soon after completing the tapes. Curiosity and a need to understand would destroy any mental blocks that a normal person could put up in opposition.
Later in Tape 2, Side B, Tyler indicated that he liked Hannah and wanted to date her. The moment Tyler said that, the automatic mental retort was: “If you liked and wanted to ask her out, why stalk her?” Tyler’s response to Hannah’s incredulous rebuff showed just how detached from reality Tyler was and how vindictive he could be (e.g. sending out the picture of Hannah and Courtney semi-dressed, kissing) when scorned.
Tyler was a truly sad individual, saying during 13 Reasons Why that standing on the outside and observing life was better than participating in it. If life was so bad or difficult to deal with, so troublesome that it should be avoided, why was Tyler so adamant about photographing it? Why was Tyler so drawn to photographing individuals that seemed unusually alive, like Hannah? It was a contradiction and Tyler could not even see it or if he could, he avoided its implications.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 5: Tape 3, Side A
Tape 3, Side A introduced one of the best characters in 13 Reasons Why, Courtney Crimsen (Michele Selene Ang), a character that was in constant conflict with themselves – the past versus the present, desires versus vicious reality.
The facade that Courtney propagated because of her sexuality and her past traumas was fascinating. In Tape 3, Side A, Courtney showed that she would say or do anything to keep the fact that she was gay a secret. The trauma of having two gay fathers (i.e. the ridicule from other students while growing up) had bored into the psyche of Courtney’s being. That cruelty had lacerated her brain and created open wounds. Courtney had no intention of bringing those insults and comments, magnified because her parents were gay, down onto her shoulders by coming out of the closet.
When Courtney explained her past, her perspective on her past actions to Clay Jensen, the viewer got Courtney’s reasoning. The viewer emotionally understand her. Courtney Crimsen’s actions were still incredibly selfish but just like Hannah’s traumas prompted her to push Clay away during their moment of greatest intimacy, Courtney’s traumas prompted her to use Hannah as a shield against any possible gay rumors.
The first season of 13 Reasons Why was not just the story of one bullied girl, it was the story of multiple bullied people and how the results of bullying could manifest themselves in different ways. Hannah Baker’s story was one of those ways. Courtney Crimsen and Tyler Down’s stories were two others.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 6: Tape 3, Side B
Like Tape 2, Side A, Tape 3, Side B showed the abusive world that Hannah Baker existed in. What “curdled the milk” even further in Tape 3, Side B was the near destruction of hope in Hannah’s mind that someone could look past her unearned reputation and see her as normal girl. That hope, that someone could be interested in and possibly like her was snuffed out by Marcus Cole (Steven Silver)’s under-the-counter, unwarranted, second base move. Even if Hannah was that “easy,” in what reality did Marcus believe he existed in where he could touch her like that having spoken to her across a table for less than three minutes? It was like Marcus was trying to get a rise out of Hannah. It was obvious that he was performing for his jock audience but Marcus didn’t even see a hopeful, responsive, and open-minded human being sitting next to him, someone who wanted to “talk” to him. Marcus’ mind had been made up about Hannah and his potential conduct towards her before he ever arrived at the diner.
If Hannah Baker’s One Dollar Valentine’s date had been with Zach Dempsey (Ross Butler) and not Marcus Cole, Hannah’s tapes may never have been created. Walking back into the diner after partaking in, from a save vantage point, Hannah’s humiliation, took guts on Zach’s part. It was an illustration of Zach’s conscience. What followed was a subtextual but heart-felt apology to Hannah about what had happened.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 7: Tape 4, Side A
Following his positive actions at the end of Tape 3, Side B, the melancholy story between Zach Dempsey and Hannah Baker went from grey to black in Tape 4, Side A. Hannah was very perceptive. She calculated, through everything that she’d seen, that Zack may have been a unique type of person, a kindred spirit. When he tried to “talk” to Hannah, to ask her out, the waters between the two of them, because of Bryce Walker and Marcus Cole, were poisonous. Hannah didn’t believe a word that Zach said. His sincerity met her incredulity and Hannah’s incredulity was ironclad, born of recent traumatic experiences and hoodwinks. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Zach’s revenge for his public and hurtful rejection by Hannah was petty and malicious. He had no idea how much Hannah emotionally needed the notes from Communications class and how not receiving them reinforced her negative feelings for herself.
Hannah’s heart-felt letter to Zach was a bridge between them, an olive branch, and emotional blitz perpetrated by Hannah that Zach hadn’t been expecting and one he couldn’t respond to constructively. It was a letter from a person that some people really didn’t see as a person.
It was one of the best moments (“Why me?”) in Tape 4, Side A but not the best. That belonged to Clay Jensen and the basketball game that he hallucinated during multiple times. It was a glorious domino effect: Clay sees Hannah’s gory, bleeding body in the middle of the basket court, then he keyed Zach’s car with a specific “I know” message, an old friend showed up, then the next day Zack and his mother showed up, and the Hannah-to-Zach letter’s continued existence was revealed. It was great writing by Elizabeth Benjamin and excellent acting by Dylan Minnette.
Zach Dempsey was a complicated individual, seeing one truth, as Tyler Down did, while avoiding others. Zach Dempsey openly disliked / threatened Tyler Down because of the pictures that he took of Hannah Baker and Courtney Crimsen but still hung out with Bryce Walker as if he had never heard Hanna Baker’s tape about Bryce. Zack Dempsey was a hypocrite.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 8: Tape 4, Side B
Tape 4, Side B was another brick in the dismantling of Hannah Baker’s will to live. At any other time, if Ryan Shaver’s theft and betrayal had occurred, Hannah may have been able to shrug it off. Hannah would have been able to cancel her budding friendship with Tyler then move on to someone who would respect her wishes, her friendship, and its boundaries. Because of what Hannah had already endured beforehand, Ryan’s actions were a cinder block tied to her ankle, dragging her deeper into the abyss of despair and ridicule.
The even sadder part of the situation was that Ryan didn’t know that Hannah had grown into a shell. Ryan didn’t know that he and his friendship could have been the way out of that state-of-mind for Hannah. Instead, Ryan’s aggrandizing actions harden that shell.
Tape 4, Side B contained a preview of what eventually befell Hannah. The description that Tony Padilla gave of Hannah Baker’s death scene and how the coroners handle her corpse, like it was a piece of meat with no history (or future), was almost like a self-profiling prophecy. How the coroners treated Hannah Baker’s dead body was exactly how Hannah felt about herself when she decided to take her own life.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 9: Tape 5, Side A
During most of 13 Reasons Why, tape subjects one-through-ten knew about the claim Hannah Baker made on Tape 5, Side A. Everyone that heard Tape 5, Side A wanted to believe that the rape that Hannah described was made up. They only had Hannah’s version of events, Jessica Davis couldn’t remember the attack, Justin Foley was denying everything (going so far as to be defensive about it), and Bryce Walker was still in the dark about Hannah’s tapes. Seeing the event happen, the viewer knew why Jessica had been drinking more and more and why her behavior had become erratic. The fascinating part was that consciously, Jessica didn’t know why she was drinking more and more. The desire to drink was a voice in Jessica’s head, a need that grew louder and more urgent. I believe Jessica’s subconscious mind was trying to keep her conscious mind from remembering the rape. One substance that negatively affects memory and recall is alcohol.
Because of what Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe) was going through, Boe’s character had to emote a complicated set of emotions and Justin Foley (Brandon Flynn) had to counter with increasing concern coupled with the awareness of what he had allowed to happen at Jessica’s party. The psychological situations thrust upon each of these characters in Tape 5, Side A caused both actors to turn in some of their best performances of the season.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 10: Tape 5, Side B
There are times when a friendship between a popular kid and a non-popular kid feels false or forced. In Tape 5, Side B, the friendship between and Clay Jensen and Jeff Atkins (Brandon Larracuente) felt nothing like that. On the contrary, their friendship was mutually beneficial. That friendship culminated at Jessica Davis’ party where Atkins watched out for, gave advice to, and prompted Clay as if Jeff was Clay’s big brother. He, like the viewer, was rooting for Clay with Hannah at Jessica Davis’ party.
One of the most engrossing aspects of 13 Reasons Why‘s story-line was that it was not content to be the narrative of a girl who was driven to take her own life. The narrative of 13 Reasons Why spidered outward from Hannah. Those new storylines, though they were connected to Hannah through two degrees, three degrees, or four degrees of separation, sprang to life after Hannah’s death and before that death occurred.
One of those story-lines was between Clay Jensen and Jeff Atkins. Another was between Hannah Baker and Sheri Holland (Ajiona Alexus). The former was far stronger, narrative-wise, than the latter because it existed on a more substantive foundation. That led to Jeff’s death being more powerful than the piteous, emotional result of Sheri’s poor decision-making on the night of Jessica Davis’ party.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 11: Tape 6, Side A
Tape 6, Side A was a bittersweet episode for Clay Jensen and contained Dylan Minnette’s finest performance of the season. The underbelly of the second biggest event of Clay’s life (almost having sex for the first time) was revealed in Tape 6, Side A. That reveal was a sledgehammer to Clay Jensen’s stomach, doubling him over with aching guilt and understanding.
It was within the confines of Tape 6, Side A where Clay found out just how much Hannah Baker had been through, the mental state that had created, and how much Hannah had needed Clay, even-though she’d pushed him away.
Reliving everything at once (the burst of emotions – dread, helplessness, and other feelings and sensations washing up then back down the inside of her skull) must have been hell for Hannah, a sensory overload. Hannah didn’t even know that her physical traumas had affected her so deeply until she was physically with Clay. It made what could have been between Clay and Hannah that much more star-crossed.
Tony Padilla, the caretaker of Hannah Baker’s tapes and Clay Jensen’s mental state, had been an excellent motivating force up to that point in the narrative of 13 Reasons Why, a safe harbor that Clay could land on whenever Clay needed. Tony’s importance was at its apex during Tape 6, Side A. Tony was there for Clay during pivotal moments in Tape 6, Side A as if they were life-long friends. Perhaps they had been. Perhaps Hannah knew that.
It was never revealed how Hannah Baker knew that Tony Padilla was the type of sympathetic person that he was or how she knew that he would follow her wishes after her death. Perhaps Hannah was just a good judge of character, like she was with Clay Jensen and Zach Dempsey.
The person that wasn’t a good judge of character in Tape 6, Side A was Jessica Davis when it came to Justin Foley. Justin’s admission in Tape 6, Side A about Jessica’s rape proved that fact. Guilt and Jessica’s increasingly erratic behavior prompted Justin to speak up but why didn’t chivalry and decency prompt him to protect Jessica during her party? Bryce Walker had always been there for abused and neglected Justin no matter what but that didn’t buy Bryce a Rape Pass. Justin should have kicked the door down and saved Jessica when Byrce threw Justin out and locked the door but he didn’t. Justin let the rape happen out of friendship, fear, and obligation.
Where was Justin’s obligation to Jessica? Justin became the boyfriend that Jessica needed after the events of her party but it was too late by that point. The destructive seeds had already been planted. Justin and Jessica’s relationship was on a Doomsday clock that was counting backwards to zero. Nothing could stop it. Not being the best boyfriend that a girl had ever had. Not alcohol. Not repressed memories.
Justin had grown to understand part of that, finally, in Tape 6, Side A, which is why he said what he said to Jessica. Justin couldn’t protect Jessica in the past. He had already failed in that regard. He could protect Jessica from a predator in the present. The only way to do that was with the truth, a truth that Jessica was already beginning to remember.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 12: Tape 6, Side B
Tape 6, Side B contained an initially unbelievable event, until the viewer contextualized the event within all the other events of 13 Reasons Why. If something was going to push someone tittering over the edge, it would be what Bryce Walker did to Hannah Baker in Tape 6, Side B. Bryce was a predator who may not have understood what he was doing was wrong because of his absentee parents and privileged upbringing. Normally, a person would be bound by morals, a conscience, and a fear of the United States legal system. Bryce Walker seemed to live in a world without any of those guidelines or constraints. That lack of litigious fear, oversight, and moral-mooring created a morally corrupt individual.
The triumph of Tape 6, Side B was Clay Jensen getting Bryce Walker’s confession about Hannah Baker’s rape on tape. It was a victory for Hannah Baker post-mortem, something that she would never have imagined happening or that Clay would be resourceful enough to obtain. Clay’s howl of victory, figuratively speaking, could be heard across television and computer monitors around the globe. Viewers far and wide felt exactly like Clay Jensen did in that moment.
Not giving Bryce Walker Hannah Baker’s tapes was a wise move on Clay Jensen’s part. Those tapes probably never would have landed on the desk of Recipient 13 if Clay or Tony Padilla had done as Hannah wished. It was surprising that Tony didn’t realize that. Bryce Walker had too much to lose by proliferating those tape any further.
13 Reasons Why: Season 1, Episode 13: Tape 7, Side A
Tape 7, Side A showed that Guidance Counselor Kevin Porter (Derek Luke) completely failed Hannah Baker when she needed him the most. In the key moment between Mr. Porter and Hannah, even Hannah knew that she was getting messed up advice from Mr. Porter.
To paraphrase: “Maybe you should move on. He will only be here for a few more months.” It was an incredible piece of dialogue.
How did Mr. Porter let a person that admitted to being sexually assaulted a week ago by a senior in his high school walk out of his office?
A Special Victims Unit police detective would have drawn the events of the evening Hannah Baker was raped out of Hannah through precise questioning, letting Hannah, the victim, fill in the details. Mr. Porter didn’t have that training but he also didn’t seem to care enough, especially considering what Hannah had said and suggested to him. In addition, Porter made assumptions and jumped to certain conclusions, at least that was what was implied, by the types of questions he asked and how he stirred those questions during his conversation with Hannah.
When Hannah said during Tape 1, Side A that she wished that the other guidance counselor, Mrs. Antilly, had still been present, that maybe things wouldn’t have turned out the way that they had if she were, it was a cryptic statement. By the end of Tape 7, Side A, the viewer knew exactly what Hannah Baker had meant.
As the rape occurred in Tape 6, Side B, the viewer literally saw the last remaining spark in Hannah peter out and die as Bryce thrust into her. It was the most graphic and horrifying moment in 13 Reasons Why next to Hannah’s suicide in Tape 7, Side A. Afterward, when Hannah Baker said to Mr. Porter that she was empty inside, that she felt nothing, the viewer could sense the authenticity behind those words. Throughout 13 Reasons Why, the viewer say how Hannah Baker had come to know those words intimately and believe them.
So had Clay Jensen.
Clay couldn’t save Hannah Baker. He hadn’t known that she’d needed saving or was friendless. But Clay knew that Skye Miller (Sosie Bacon) needed a friend. Clay stepped up to be that friend. Hannah Baker’s tapes had opened his eyes. Hannah Baker’s tapes had opened a lot of people’s eyes, including, hopefully, a few of the viewers’ eyes.
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