So, even though I thought this wasn't a good show after 4 episodes, I decided to watch the whole thing (after all it's only 13 episodes, and I'm a completionist at heart... you know, the type of guy who tries to beat 100% every game).
Now that I'm finished, I can say that it gets a bit better, but it's still not good. I'll explain why, listing the pros and cons of the show (spoiler free), and then discuss some more bits in detail (with spoiler warnings when necessary).
Pros:
+Great acting. Pretty much everyone does a fantastic job (Kate Walsh is 10/10, but several other actors are also outstanding).
+The show keeps you hooked and entertained. Even if you aren't liking it (like in my case), it's really easy to keep watching and it doesn't feel like a burdain.
+The show has some powerful scenes that can shake your body.
Cons:
-The dialogues between students are bad an artificial (they really don't sound like high school kids most of the time).
-Many of the student characters are unbelievable and artificial (I'll go into more detail into this using spoilers, but it's just that they don't seem human to me, andso I feel nothing for them and have trouble empathizing with the message they are trying to deliver).
-The story has a shit ton of plot holes and inconsistencies. Script makes little sense (again I'll go into more detail later with spoilers).
-The way most of the "bullies" behave most of the time is hard to believe.
-The series puts a lot of focus in details that don't justify the plot (I mean like filler episodes... with characters and stories that add little to the over all thing and don't really justify a suicide).
-The show's message is poorly delivered and irresponsible.
Well that's what I have out of the top of my head.
Now I'll be discussing the pros and cons using spoilers, so be warned:This show is really good at what it's good. I mean, the things I listed as pros are really huge pros. The acting isn't just very good, it's excellent. The show does really keep you hooked even if you aren't into it (that's really hard to pull off, so gg). And some scenes are... damn... I have to say I almost barfed during Hannah's bathtub scene. It's such a powerful scene it completely turned my guts upside down and I almost had to pause and rush to to the bathroom to puke. I very rarely have these kind of physical reactions, so it's amazing that this show managed to do it. Her rape scene was also very disturbing. So, just for these 3 positive reasons, I will not consider this show as bad, even if I listed a lot of cons. This definitely makes up for it (but still doesn't make it good).
Now let's talk about the cons. My main problem with this show is that most of it seems artificial, unrealistic and nonsensical. The dialogues are too witty and mature for average 16 year olds. I could believe it if it was one or maybe two characters that spoke like that, but when you have 4 or 5, it starts getting ridiculous. I can't believe Hannah's character either... she's too hot, extroverted and cool to be realistically bullied like that. If they made a story about jealousy and her girlfriends betraying her because she got more attention than them I could believe it... but when it's the guys that are after her and stuff, it's just unrealistic to how highschools work. In general they'd be nice to her and invite her to parties and stuff.
Clay's character makes no fucking sense either. If he's so obsessed with the tapes he would have listened to all of them in 2 nights tops. There are 7 tapes in total... 13 sides, and each side has a maximum capacity of 30 minutes (we can read that on the labels when Hannah is buying them). Am I supposed to belive it takes Clay like 3 or 4 days to liten to 30 minutes of audio, when he's completely obsessed about them? I know they do this so a 13 episode series makes sense, but it just makes it look ridiculous and unbelievable.
And there are a bunch of other bizarre characters. Tony is some kind of badass almighty allknowing mature bigbrother that always has the right answer, the right solution, and the power to quiet anyone down. He's ridiculous and easily the most absurd character in the show. Then you have the bullies, which for the most part are so over the top. That Justin guy and his friends act like they were mafia bosses... "we can make it look like it's suicide" he says about killing Clay... I mean what the actual fuck is that. He's willing to kill a classmate to coverup for some tape that doesn't affect him that badly (if he had been the rapist it would make more sense, but still...) and what's worse is that his bully friends don't seem to alarmed by that... sure they diss the idea, but they reacted as if he had just said "maybe we should pick him last in P.E. dodge ball". For the most part, the asian lesbian is the character I feel most believable, realistic and coherent with her personality.
There are some more plot inconsistencies. Out of the top of my head it comes to mind when Clay was saying he had never seen a dead body or a crime scene and then two episodes later he was talking about how he saw his friend dead in a car crash. Seriously fuck the scriptwriters.
And the show's message... it's dangerous as fuck. The moral of the story for the majority of people (the non-suicidal ones) is that we have to respect our peers, help and listen people out, and watch out for signs of depression and suicide. But for the depressive and suicidal viewers (who will feel more identified with Hannah's character), the moral of the story is nobody is going to listen to you, your problems are everyone else's responsibility so you might as well give up, your loved ones will move on (the show puts a lot of focus on how strong her parents are in the last episode, with a long and powerful shot of them holding hands together as they listen to the audofiles). Some of the students like Justin, Jessica, the blond "yes-sir" friend, and the black girl that helps the elderly couple, all become better people at the end of the show too. If they wanted to stop suicide, the show's story should have been that she was saved after talking about her problems, not that she decided to kill herself after nobody listened to her.
About there being a season 2... I don't really see the point. We all know how and why Hannah died, and the new loose ends aren't really worth exploring. It's likely that the school will lose the case and that the rapist wlll be sent to jail (unless he can claim that Hannah did to him what she did to Clay... say she didn't want it when she really did, according to her own tapes... that would be interesting
). The side stories of the peeping tom guy, the yes-sir guy and Tony's mexican damily mob don't really seem worth going into. Maybe you could make a movie about thee things, but not another 13 episodes.
Over all this series has some very good and strong points as I already said, but the characters, dialogues and plot have so many holes, mistakes and inconsistencies that really drag the whole thing down. It's ok over all, but I wouldn't say it's good, let alone amazing or one of the best shows out there right now as some people are claiming.
This post was edited by zarkadon on Apr 16 2017 11:30am