The new Netflix tv show, 13 Reasons Why, released in March of this year, has created many expectations and many reactions.
Suicide even today is a taboo subject and a very real problem among teenagers, and despite having many ways of presenting it to the public and talking about it, 13 Reasons Why it is not one of them. Some mental Health organisations have already expressed their doubts about this dangerous way of showing suicide as an easy way out.
The series is based on Hanna Baker, a 17-year-old student who commits suicide and leaves behind 13 cassettes, one for each person she considers guilty of leading her to commit suicide.
Her character is selfish, entitled and demanding, and after committing suicide she becomes almost sanctified, so leaving the tapes as a legacy is a really horrible thing to do. This provokes the terrible chain reactions of more suicides between her classmates. The way these suicides are portrayed leads us to a dangerous slippery slide for impressionable teenagers who may be suffering from bullying or depression, and see suicide as a glamorous way to solve everything and be "listened to".
Suicided promoted as a fantasy revenge
Mental problems, rape, bullying are very serious issues that affect young people around the world, which should stop being taboo and instead be spoken about frankly by authorities, parents and teachers.
This series promotes suicide as a fantasy revenge, an act that has an end to achieve something. In the TV series, the suicide is so graphic that even as painful as it may be to see, teenagers, particularly susceptible to suicidal thoughts, can interpreted it as a "how-to" guide
The main problem of this show is Hannah, the main character, is incredibly selfish, entitled and demanding.
You can try to feel bad about her, but you only see a bad friend, with a mentality that expects everyone around her to have the ability to read her mind and understand feelings. She is an extremely unlikable narcissistic little madam who ostensibly has everything going for her. All through the show, there´s no evidence of depression instead her whole attitude demands that the world revolves around her, and not only did she take her own life, but she was determined to ruin the lives of others as well.
There is still something good about this
In conclusion, there´s still something good behind all the mistakes of this TV show, and that´s the work they have put into trying to raise awareness of the type of challenges high schoolers have to face every day, and all the problems that they can encounter that parents and teachers should know about, so they can intervine before the idea of suicide becomes even a distance thought.
