Trigger warnings for this article: rape, suicide, abuse. This article also contains spoilers for the series.
The highly anticipated Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why, finally debuted Friday, March 31. The series follows the aftermath of the suicide of a local high school student, Hannah Baker. Her classmate Clay Jenkins receives a set of tapes a few days after. The tapes, recorded by Hannah, describe the 13 reasons why she decided to kill herself. Each reason pertained to a specific person and event which eventually contributed to an overall domino effect. While Clay is listening, he not only discovers that he is on the tape, but the secrets of some of his classmates are on it as well.
13 Reasons Why brilliantly portrays the realism of high school life. It doesn’t sugarcoat the bad stuff, but instead, intensely shows it on screen. The show covers topics of suicide, rape and even physical and emotional abuse. Unlike most teenage shows that describe what happen within a character monolog or quick flashback, 13 Reasons Why chose to show these scenes fully. Examples including intensive views of Hannah and Jessica being raped, Justin being choked out by his mother’s abusive boyfriend and vivid scene of Hannah’s actual suicide; thus living up to it’s TV-MA rating.
Even if these scenes seem necessary for this type of show, they can cause major triggers. It’s important to understand that if you know if you can’t handle viewing or listening to scenes like this, avoid them at all costs! You can easily get by with skipping certain scenes and moving on with the episode. Much of the stuff is later described in the show, or better yet look it up online. The show is an amazing watch, but please consider your mental health when watching it as well.
Provided below are two extensive lists of scenes that may affect you. Different things affect different people. Things that may seem minor to you may have a darker impact on someone else. So enjoy the show but stay healthy, my friends.
https://twitter.com/thinexistence/status/848327774033121285
http://veronicamcrs.tumblr.com/post/159095550370/13-reasons-why-trigger-scenes
