13 Reasons Why Season 1 (2017) Review

So this show has a new season coming soon so I decided to start watching 13 Reasons Why and here is my review for the first season. The premise of the season sees a teenage boy attempt to work out the truth behind a friend and her reason for killing herself. 

Main Character

Dylan Minette plays Clay and he is a really good character on this show. He is our eyes that we see this show through and I thought he was really interesting, at the start of the show he seems like the squeaky clean nice guy and you see how this show wears him down and makes him question everything that has happened to him over this time. He was easy to root for but wasn't boring and has a nice arc throughout the season. 

Supporting Characters

First we have Katherine Langford who plays Hannah Baker who is the girl who has killed herself, we see her story which shows why she did it. She is a great actress and she does a good job in this show, at times her character comes across as whiny and over the top but overall you understand where she is coming from. The best part is her and Minette's chemistry when they work together they bounce off of each other very well and makes them both more likeable people. The rest of the cast also do a great job, they are mostly all interesting characters, I don't want to go into too much as saying much about there performances might gave away things about them and that should be seen for yourself. 

Story

The story is interesting, the story is structured into 13 tapes focusing mainly on a character and what they had done wrong to Hannah. The character's have interesting stories and the show does a good job in understanding what they exactly did to Hannah. Also this story doesn't over dramatise some truly horrific things that take place on this show, it is brutal but it seems like it fits the story. However, there are tons of characters here and some of the plot points aren't finished and are kind of forgotten about. Also there are some things that happen that you would wonder if it would do the damage that it does but I guess it is difficult if you have never been in that situation. 

Script

The script is really dramatic, at times it feels right and you really feel like everything has and is going wrong for the characters. There are some little bits of humour that are nicely done but the show focuses so much on drama that it makes it feel like a tough slog and that these people aren't teenagers and are just TV characters. 

Style

The style has some great pacing, you want to know more at the end of every episode and find out what is on the next day. It also does a really good job of bouncing between the two stories of the past and present day having them connect well. Though the show has so much going on that some of the characters and stories are underdeveloped so when it comes time to care it does become difficult. Also this show shows some really hard stuff, so if you find things like rape hard to watch then this could be difficult to watch.

Overall

Overall, this is a good first season of a really tough show filled with great performances and some tough subjects. But I will say if you have suffered issues such as suicide or rape or can't deal with these things then I stress this probably is not a show for you. If you do decide to watch this show I would advise you take your time and don't watch it late at night as it really is a tough subject matter to deal with.

Rating - 7/10