Spoiler Nation Podcast: Does "13 Reasons Why" romanticise suicide? - Season 1 Review
13 Reasons Why, the recent original Netflix series based off the YA novel of the same name, has been a lightning rod for controversy since its release. That's not totally surprising considering the show deals with graphic material like sexual assault and teen suicide. The camera never blinks during those acts, and much of the narrative, in fact the very conceit of the show, demands its poor tortured characters to moodily linger on the grief-filled aftermath, the wreckage; picture dirty fingers picking at scabs on a wrist forever and that's what binge-watching 13 Reasons Why feels like when it's at its most despairing. So, you know, for kids.
But it's an undeniably handsome and interesting production; well-directed, well-performed, and skirts the line between tasteful and tasteless in such a way that inspires debate, and perhaps a bar fight someplace:
On this episode of Spoiler Nation, we don't quite come to trading drunken blows, but we do come at aspects of 13 Reasons Why with different perspectives. Understand that we don't get so much into plot and character minutia so much as we do about the merits of its artistry, whether its strange mix of sordid, angsty melodrama and serious-as-a-heart-attack messages truly succeeds. Even if you don't care about spoilers and whatnot, it's best to listen to this if you've seen the whole season.
At the end of the episode, we get into less controversial but still much-talked-about shows, American Gods and The Handmaid's Tale, before wrapping up with "Violet", a ballad by Perth-based singer-songwriter, Ribs. Her new play about battling anxiety with music, "Interrupting A Crisis", is showing at The Blue Room Theatre, Perth, 16 MAY - 3 JUNE.
Using a podcast app? You can also subscribe to SPOILER NATION on the Itunes Podcast app, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Feel free to review us on iTunes, or drop us some feedback/let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
