Click, click, click. The familiar monotonous pressing of the computer keyboard echoed in my head as I searched the Internet, in vain, for something to pass away my free time. It was the start of summer, and already, I was bored and was looking for something, anything, to satisfy my boredom. As I wandered through the web pages, I came across a TV show called Thirteen Reasons Why, which piqued my curiosity. If you have recently spent any time looking up shows, then you have certainly at least heard of Thirteen Reason Why, a show that stirred up the media in its unique style. Based on a book by the same name, the show takes place in a town where a new girl at the local high school, Hannah Baker, commits suicide and leaves behind thirteen tapes, each one explaining a reason behind the suicide, which are given to the people who were listed as reasons for her death. The first season follows the different characters as they discover and listen to the tapes, and how they react to them, while the second season follows the court case that Hannah’s parents filed against the school.

After hearing mixed reviews about the show, I decided to try and watch it, considering I had plenty of time to spare. However, after struggling through the first season and about half of the second, I had to quit. Although the show is based on an interesting and helpful topic, many aspects of it turn the show from educational and suspenseful into baffling and unlikable. Many significant issues appear throughout the show, and the primary reasons I disliked the show was the poor emotional setup and unrealistic situations. Throughout the first season, despite the fact that the entire story revolved around the central idea of Hannah Baker’s suicide, the show did an appalling job at constructing emotion and sympathy for the characters. Even though the suicide and bullying itself is depressing, the way the show portrays the death and the reasons behind it produces little to no emotional response from the viewer. The many reasons listed by Hannah as the reasons for her suicide do elicit some sympathy for her plight, however, none of them are actually justified reasons for suicide, and if considered rationally, there are many simple methods to deal with them. For example, in both of the rape situations, instead of immediately reporting it to the police and at least have the culprit under suspicion if not arrested, she chooses, for some incomprehensible reason, to not tell anyone directly until after she commits suicide, even though there was no blackmail involved. The depiction of Hannah’s character doesn’t help either, as she often overreacts in many situations and does not think rationally, such as when she freaks out after Clay tries to kiss her (with her permission) and blames him for not approaching her after she swears at him and yells at him to leave. Hannah’s character isn’t the only one that proves exasperating either. Hannah’s mother, especially in the second season, along with her randomly acquired friend Jackie (who has to be one of the most unlikable characters in the show or in any show) and Alex all end up as characters that are more objectionable than they should be, and bring up a myriad of questions : Why does Jackie seek to intrude into every single thing that Hannah’s mother does? Why is Hannah mad at the councilor when he didn’t report her issue because she wouldn’t tell him who the culprit was? And why in heaven’s name did they put multiple scenes with Alex and his erection issue? Seriously, did they really need to put that in there? These things among countless other poor choices in the show ultimately irritate the viewer and leave us with nothing more than a feeling of confusion and disbelief.

Despite these criticisms, the show did have some good acting and well-placed intentions. Yet, I would still not recommend this show to many people, unless you are one of those people who enjoy watching subpar shows just to criticize them. All in all, Thirteen Reasons Why is a noble attempt at bringing to light the cliche issue of suicide and bullying, albeit in a different manner, that, despite its attempt, did not succeed in entertaining or evoking sympathy from the reader.