- (boy) Hannah, I'm not going.
- 13 Reasons Why! Let's go.
- (boy) Hannah... - Ohhh.
This is gonna be a controversial episode.
- I can't tell you how much this show has affected my life.
- (boy) I'm not going. Not now.
Not ever.
- (Hannah) Why didn't you say this to me when I saw alive?
- It's so sad. I read the book a few years ago.
- (woman) My husband and I...
- Tsk, tsk, tsk. - (woman) We never got a note.
- I've seen this show.
I'm not a big fan.
- When I watched this trailer the first time,
I was so excited for the show.
And then I was super disappointed.
- (Hannah) Hey, it's Hannah.
Hannah Baker.
I'm about to tell you the story of my life.
- I watched this in, like, three days over spring break.
- (Hannah) More specifically, why my life ended.
And if you're listening to this tape...
you're one of the reasons why. - Ugh! It's so good.
- (Hannah) Maybe I'll never know...
- Oh, I-- freakin' Bryce.
Mm, Courtney, don't even go-- (nerved breath)
- (Hannah) Maybe I'll never know why you did what you did.
But I can make you understand how it felt.
- ♪ This is a wild game of survival ♪
- It was a good trailer.
If I hadn't already seen the show, I'd be like,
"Man, I should watch that show."
- You know what bothers me though?
When people have an opinion on the show,
and they haven't watched every episode. I'm just like,
"You're being a Clay right now.
Just listen to the tapes, all right? Listen to the tapes."
- (baby voice) Did you get to first base, Justin?
- Get off me. I'm not saying anything.
- (Bryce) Second? - (Justin) [Bleep] off.
- (Bryce) Third?
- I hate Bryce.
- Oh. This is where it all started. Right here.
- (Bryce) Public space. (Justin chuckles)
That's hot.
- I hate this scene so much.
- (Bryce) Oh yeah, we're sending that shit around.
- (Justin) No. No, Bryce. - Such a jerk.
- Yes, Clay.
Yes, Hannah.
Go away, Justin. (giggles)
(phone alert)
- (girl) Oh my god. Seriously, Justin?
- (teacher) People, phones.
(phone vibrating) Otherwise they're going away.
- These can spread so fast.
- (teacher) Thank you.
- That's so objectifying. That's disgusting.
- (teacher) And, uh, Mr. Johansen.
- It's like the worst.
- I feel really bad for her.
- No one wants that kinda stuff to happen to them.
And it does happen to people, and it's really terrible.
- We were friends.
How could you betray me like that?
- This scene, man.
- This part I thought was kinda-- kinda stupid.
- I hate this. I hate this.
- (Hannah) Jess, come on. You know this doesn't mean anything.
- (Jessica) Don't act innocent. - (Hannah) But I AM innocent.
I had nothing to do with this.
Alex did this on his own.
- (Jessica) He just broke up with me on his own?
- Yes, that's how breakups work.
- (Jessica) Enjoy it, 'cause you will, won't you?
'Cause that's what sluts do.
- (Hannah) [Bleep] you.
Ah! - Ooh.
- Makes me so mad.
I don't understand how you can get mad at another girl
for something that your boyfriend wrote.
That doesn't make any sense.
- I've seen the whole thing, so just remembering these parts,
they frustrate me.
This was one of them.
- (Hannah) Maybe you think I'm being silly.
Like I get my titties in a twist over the tiniest things.
But you didn't walk that hall.
(laughter)
You didn't feel those eyes on you. - It's awful.
- (teacher) This theory can also be...
- Uh-oh. - (teacher) ...applied to criminal
behavior if a young person's friends or family
participate in deviant acts.
That young person is far more... - That stupid list.
Like, who makes that anyway?
- (Hannah) What a stupid list. - Ooh.
- (Hannah) Jessica is so much prettier than me.
I didn't think of the chaos it would cause.
- Slut shaming is such a huge issue. I literally hate it.
- Things like this stuff actually happens in real life.
People don't notice it.
- I feel like a lot of people are like,
"Oh my gosh, Hannah's so dramatic."
But I think she portrays how a person like that would feel.
Like, you don't know how that feels
unless you're the person that's going through it.
- (Bryce) What's up, Wally? - (Wally) What's up?
- I hate this. I remember reading this scene in the book.
- Bryce. Oh, Bryce.
- (Wally) So... I see you went for nuts again.
- (Bryce) That's how you talk to a lady, Wally?
- Ugh, my god. That guy is the worst.
- (Wally) There you go.
(bag rustles)
There you go.
- Ew.
- (Hannah) Did you just--
- (Bryce) Oh, no, I didn't me--
I didn't-- - Just punch him.
- (Bryce) It's just... it's real tight. - Ew.
Just knee him in the balls. Just knee him in the balls.
- (Bryce) I don't usually listen to sophomore gossip. But uh...
For what it's worth, that list got it right.
- Dang.
- I hate him so much!
- (Hannah) It seems like nothing.
Until the hurricane hits.
- Whenever I see her cry, I want to cry.
- (Hannah) ...that list, you put a target on my...
well, it wasn't just my ass.
You made it open season on Hannah Baker.
- (sighs)
- Obviously Bryce shouldn't have done that.
Sexual harassment.
It just shows how all these little things
can add up to one big thing for someone.
- I've had an experience where a guy just even, like,
put his arm around me.
And I felt really uncomfortable in that situation.
It makes you really scared, 'cause you feel like
you're not in a position to get out.
And you also don't want to cause a scene.
- All the characters are very one-dimensional.
It just seems very cold and distant for me.
And it's not very relatable.
- Look at these lockers.
- Oh, this scene was so iconic!
- Oh, this was my favorite scene. It's, oh, so good.
- (Clay) They all look alike, right?
Not this one.
This one is special. - Oh.
- (Clay) It belonged to a girl who killed herself.
- (Courtney) Clay, come on.
- (Clay) You see all these "don't kill yourself" posters
up on the wall? They weren't up before.
- That's true. - (Clay) They put them up
because she killed herself.
- That's true. - (Clay) And why did she do it?
Because the kids here treated her like shit.
- Preach.
- (Clay) But no one wants to admit it,
so they paint over the bathrooms and put up a memorial,
because that's the kind of school that this is.
Everyone is just so nice until they drive you to kill yourself!
And sooner or later, the truth will come out.
- Lost it.
Oh my gosh, that was so good.
- This scene's definitely discussed a lot of important issues.
The show, however, executes it very poorly.
- It's very necessary to have a show like this
so people know that words do affect people.
But I feel like it didn't do much
in terms of actually making a change.
- It impacts people. Not just Hannah, but everyone else.
- This encapsulates what the show is about.
But it also is like 5% of what the show is about.
It's got a lot of different things going on all at once.
- I was really impressed.
I don't think they tried to make it super cheesy.
I don't think they really sugarcoated anything.
And I think it was really true to the book,
which is I think important
when you're doing an adaptation of something.
- (FBE) So this show deals with topics such as bullying
and sexual assault and ultimately suicide.
And many people wanted us to show that scene.
But we won't do that as it's polarizing
and should be the choice viewers make for themselves.
So for you, are the issues that the characters from the show
go through something that you can personally relate to?
- I think everyone can sort of relate to being outcast
or feeling like they don't belong in a bigger group.
- With the whole bullying situation,
I got out of that a while ago.
And I kinda isolated myself out of it.
But yeah, I do understand how a few pictures,
a few notes, a couple text messages can spread around,
and they just get worse and worse by each person.
- Now that social media's major, that's where I mainly see it.
People can comment about people's photos.
Like, "Oh, they're ugly. They shouldn't post that."
- Being on a web series, there are a lot of comments.
So that's kind of the main platform that I've seen
objectification and sexualization
and just comments about my appearance
that I just don't think I would've been exposed to otherwise.
Because I kind of grew up and went through puberty on the show.
- Someone in my class-- I think it was a year or two years ago--
actually killed themselves.
When I first started watching the show, it was really relatable,
'cause I saw how everyone in the show was--
was not aware of everything that they did until things happened.
And I think that was kind of relevant
to what happened at my school.
Like, everyone all of a sudden cared.
- (FBE) So there have been concerns from many,
including psychologists,
who feel that this show should not be watched by young people.
Some of the many reason are that they feel
that it romanticizes the concept of suicide
and looks like a revenge fantasy
and could make young people feel suicide leads to a good outcome.
- So what I think they could have--
So I understand the revenge fantasy,
and I kind of agree with that.
- I agree with all of that for the most part.
I do think it almost glorifies the whole situation,
which is terrible to say.
- It made it seem like she committed suicide for revenge.
She committed suicide because of all the people around her
rather than because of the effect they had, if that makes sense.
- After I watched it,
I was definitely not contemplating anything.
I was not thinking revenge is the best way to go.
I was thinking, "We need to stop this."
And I think it was more of a public service announcement saying,
bullying can happen anywhere.
- (FBE) Some have said that it doesn't really discuss
real pathways to try to find help enough
and that women are portrayed as fairly weak.
- I completely agree with that.
- I feel like it just-- it makes women seem a lot weaker
and makes it seem like there's no way out.
Even the smallest things could trigger anything,
which maybe it can for some people.
- There's very like, "I was bullied,
so this is why I killed myself."
But there was never really that middle step,
like, the kind of mental turmoil,
the mental illness, the depression.
So I think they could've done a better job discussing that.
- (FBE) There are also many that feel
that the graphic suicide scene is almost like a tutorial
to show you how to do it
and question why they would even need to be that graphic,
especially because in the book
it isn't described so graphically
and her suicide is alluded as swallowing pills.
- Um... I think the actual suicide scene itself
was not exactly necessary.
- I completely disagree, because the last episode,
in the scene where she kills herself,
watching it, I almost threw up.
That didn't romanticize it for me. That made it real.
I was watching somebody die, and it was horrifying.
- I don't think that the producers or the actors
or the people who made the show intended to make it this way.
But sadly, they did.
And I do agree that that suicide scene
should not have been in there.
I don't see how watching that could help anybody.
- With the show, it's an awareness.
You never know what someone could be going through at home.
You should really pay attention to it and the message behind it.
- By them showing that scene of her doing everything,
it just shows how brutal it is.
Like, if they didn't show it like that,
yeah, it would be like romanticizing it.
Them showing it had a purpose.
It's like, "Don't do this, because it is brutal."
- (FBE) So on the other hand, there are many people
who feel that kids are committing suicide in an alarming rate.
And this show is one of the first to really depict the process
of how it can get to that point. - Right.
- I really thought it was a good way to say,
"This is what's happening at schools.
Teachers should be watching out.
Parents should be listening. Students should be talking."
It was really to show that this girl
was really going through a lot
when she had this facade of she was totally fine.
- It's so hard to represent that state of mind in 13 episodes.
And I think for a show, it did a decent job,
but not a good enough job to say that
this is something you should watch
if you want to understand suicide, 'cause it's so complex.
- (FBE) Many see the graphic nature is very real,
and the only way to really connect with people going through this
is to not shy away from it
or treat these issues like you shouldn't really show it
versus presenting it almost like a PSA.
- I definitely agree that we shouldn't shy away
from talking about this
or we shouldn't shy away from discussing it openly.
But I definitely--
I personally was very disturbed by the scene.
And I know people who are.
And I don't think the best thing
for someone who is in that situation is to watch that.
- The one way to really connect to people
and to get the message out is to go through it through TV,
through YouTube, and stuff like that.
And with this, it really did bring out
this huge attention and environment.
And it changed people's perspectives
of how they're treating their own life and stuff
and how they're treating other people.
- Having a show like this is necessary.
There are people who are stronger than Hannah Baker,
and there are people who are weaker than her
and are at the same level.
Like, anything you can say that's remotely rude or mean
can affect somebody in a very negative way.
It just depends on who the person is
and how they handle themselves.
- It did a very great and accurate portrayal of someone
tailspinning into just complete depression and numbness.
It kind of shows a warning.
They can see what's happening to her
and the road that they're on.
And they can kind of visualize for themselves,
"Oh, I don't want to end up like that."
- If someone is going through something like this,
I think the show will help them.
Just showing that there's people out there
who really understand what's going on, that is help in itself.
- (FBE) So finally, after all of the discussion over the show
and the real issues it's tackling, how do you feel about this?
Is this a show that people should watch or no?
- Um, honestly, I feel like people shouldn't watch it.
- Yes, people should watch it.
I feel like parents should watch it, too, not just kids.
If they do notice that their kid is feeling depressed at school
or they get home, I feel like they can really take matters
into their own hands and really make sure
they take care of the kid.
- I recommend it if you don't think that
it'll be too upsetting for you.
But if you do, then I wouldn't recommend it.
- If you're not at the right age,
if you're not at the right point in your life,
if you're not in the right mindset,
then it's going to instill the wrong things in you,
and it's going to lead down a darker path.
But if you're in the right mindset,
if you're looking at it from a good healthy perspective,
then I think it has really good lessons.
- If you want to watch it, you have to go in understanding
that this is a very negative portrayal of these issues.
And you have to go in with a bigger understanding,
doing research on healthier ways
and healthier options if you want to watch it.
- It's brutal, and it's controversial. But it's the truth.
Even if it gets just someone thinking to be nicer one day,
like, that is a good enough reason to just watch the show.
(silence)