13 Reasons Why: 10 Overlooked Positives To The Show
It's time to cut this show some slack.
Since its inception in 2017, Thirteen Reasons Why has been a critical punching bag. The first season received reasonably good reviews, but everything since has been dismissed and the internet is full of detailed analyses and video essays tearing the program asunder.
Sure, jumping on a bandwagon and hating on something together is often fun, but in this case it isn't actually justified. Thirteen Reasons Why, while deeply flawed and uneven, is actually a worthwhile, rock-solid drama series with plenty going for it and some interesting things to say.
It seems likely that the backlash has mainly been driven by the fact that it tackles some very weighty and sensitive topics and while its coverage of social issues is hit-or-miss, that doesn't mean that the many things Thirteen Reasons Why actually gets right should be swept under the rug.
So, here are ten reasons why Thirteen Reasons Why deserves a little more love.
10. Honestly, How Do You Tackle Such Issues?
First of all, Thirteen Reasons Why is a show that immediately gave itself a Herculean task due to the themes it tackles. Teen suicide, rape and the many other social issues the program touches on are Extremely hard to depict in the right way and the fact that it gets some stuff wrong is hardly surprising. That it gets anything right at all is impressive.
Therefore, given how much of a risky project the show was from the off, it deserves to be cut some slack. As well as this, many will disagree with the way in which Thirteen Reasons Why portrays these issues through a fairly melodramatic and unrealistic mystery drama format, but to be honest, we've got plenty of gritty, ultra-realistic things tackling these problems, so why do we need another one?
At least with Thirteen Reasons Why we get a different perspective on such things.