“13 Reasons Why” has had a controversial past since its first season, not only because of the topics it discusses but because of the graphic nature of many scenes.
The first season received a decent rating from Rotten Tomatoes, with a 78% rating from critics and 79% rating from the audience. The fourth season received a 10% rating from critics and 56% from the audience.
However, season one has had more time for reviews as it came out in 2017. The time the show has been out is not the reason the show has gotten much worse from its fourth season.
The first season followed the story line of the book pretty well. It explored many topics regarding mental health in an intricate way not may shows had done before. However, it received much criticism as many saw the story glorifying suicide or viewing suicide as revenge.
A major concern among critics was the graphic depiction of the suicide of the main character, Hanna Baker. The producers of the show viewed it as showing suicide is messy and “not pretty,” arguing the show doesn’t glorify suicide. However, a few years later, the scene was edited to not show the suicide anymore.
I understand the reasoning for this, and while I agree with removing the scene, there are still other nuances to discuss about the first season. But as the show went on, its problems got worse.
The third and fourth seasons of the show served as redemption arcs for rapists, bullies and overall terrible people.
The third season focused on the serial rapist Bryce Walker’s death and finding out who killed him. Considering how many people’s lives he ruined, there were many suspects for the murder. Murder mysteries and “who done it” story lines are fine, but not when their sole purpose is to make you feel bad for criminals.
I understand humanizing the evil character in the show but it was taken too far. Ani basically fell in love with him and he was portrayed as someone who did a few bad things, despite him being a narcissist and a serial rapist.
I might have looked past this as the show tries to showcase everyone has something going on in their lives and you never know what’s going on behind closed doors, if it weren’t for season four.
From his on-screen traumatizing sexual assault of Tyler to his torment of basically everyone in the character’s schools, Monty was not a good person either. I, by no means, think he or Bryce deserved to die, but they deserved to be in jail for the rest of their lives for the crimes they committed.
Despite targeting gay characters by bullying and assaulting them, it was discovered at the end of the third season that Monty was in some sort of a relationship with a guy named Winston. In the fourth season, Winston dedicates his entire life to discovering who framed Monty for Bryce’s murder.
Monty was not only portrayed as a good person by Winston’s actions but by the actions of his fellow football team members.
Other things in this series were also just plain awful. No character receives any punishment for their actions. In the worst case, they get away with framing Monty for murder, which leads to his own murder in prison. Even the police shrug off this fact by “understanding what happened.”
For a show that focuses on exploring mental health and other social issues, this is incredibly problematic. They tried to explore every social issue possible, but that meant each one was watered down.
The fourth season focused on monumental issues like murder, sexual assault, police brutality, bullying, school shootings, depression and countless other problems in just ten episodes. This resulted in poor attempts to address them.
For example, the school’s principle had an active shooter drill, but not even the teachers were aware of how much it traumatized everyone involved. The drill had officers with guns simulating gun fire, them banging on bathroom doors and tormenting the students.
With most drills, no matter what they are, students are warned ahead of time, not necessarily when the drill will be but the fact that there will be one. The teachers at the very least are informed. In this case, the school traumatized everyone involved in a drill that not only affected those at the school, but the parents students called thinking they were going to die in a school shooting. This lack of care for the well being of employees and students in the school is an incredibly problematic way to explore school shootings in the United States.
These problems are just the tip of the iceberg, too. Thank god this show finally over.
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole