Like the rest of the world's Netflix viewers, I became acquainted with Thirteen Reasons Why shortly after its March 31, 2017 release. The 13-episode mini-series is adapted from the book of the same name, and, like many Netflix originals, it's hopelessly addictive. I made it through the 12-odd hours in two days and cycled through the (often simultaneous) emotions of shock, sadness, mirth, concern, and disappointment. What on Earth does this have to do with Serial? I'll get there, all in good time.
Thirteen Reasons Why is the fictional story of why a high-school girl (Hannah) killed herself, told in the form of audio tapes she recorded before her death. Each tape tells the story of how a particular person (most of them fellow students) did something to hurt her, which all added up to crushing depression and ended with her suicide. The audience follows along as one classmate, Clay, listens to the tapes and learns of how he and his classmates affected Hannah. Clay experiences a wealth of overwhelming emotions as he hears the story, and he sets out to do all he can to make things right.
From a film criticism perspective, I found the series brilliant, yet perplexing. I was reminded strongly of Mean Girls, American Crime (season 2), and, oddly, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The story is set in a high school, all the main characters are around 17 years old, and it's clearly about high school drama. The book seems to belong in the YA genre (though I haven't read it). The action moves in a quest-like manner, which makes it engaging and consistent with youth-oriented game-culture. However, the series is insanely adult. It's rated TV-MA, and several episodes have warnings that they contain graphic descriptions of (SPOILER ALERT) violence, rape, and suicide. They're not lying; things are shown as they are complete with nudity and blood and razor blades and stuff most depictions would gloss over. So we have this very raw, pseudo-believable story, replete with regrettably common high school problems, that is so explicit it's inappropriate for high schoolers. And then it ends (a bit lamely in my opinion) as basically a suicide prevention PSA. (Continuously pester your sad friends, even if they specifically tell you to leave them alone, because that's not bullying, but be sure not to date anyone's ex or ask anyone to keep a secret, because apparently that is bullying, and it makes people kill themselves...? Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but still. I don't completely get it.)
Anyway, regardless of how I feel about Thirteen Reasons Why, I found it fascinating as a glimpse into the lives of high school kids. How they feel about and talk about each other. How everyone understands situations differently, and even when you have each person telling the truth, the story will differ. With very subjective circumstances (like if someone was bullied, or if someone is capable of hurting someone else), there's absolutely no way to come to a definitive conclusion. Even when there's hard evidence, like photographs or fingerprints, there's a possibility for very different interpretations.
The people who do the interpreting (police, lawyers, juries, and judges) are adults. They are not in high school. Most of the probably went to high school, remember high school, and think they recall how they thought and behaved in high school. However, because of the simple fact that they are no longer in high school, they are prone to what I call the "it gets better" attitude. Yes, very valid, and very encouraging. However, it tends to trivialize teens' thoughts and behavior. It gives the impression that any choices a teen makes to deal with social issues is invalid because the issues will eventually go away. Because adults tend to do this and kids tend to know that adults tend to do this, it leads to a communication breakdown. It leads to a school counselor telling the girl in his office that if she won't name the boy she claims assaulted her, she should just move on. Then she steps out the door and kills herself because she honestly believes there's nothing else to do. It also leads to one young man accusing another young man of murder when really, the first young man is just upset that the second young man knows he's cheating on his girlfriend. And then he continuously lies to the police. Because being mad that your friend knows you stepped out is lame, right? (See, we're getting there...)
One episode of Thirteen Reasons Why begins with a shot of various students walking through locker-lined hallways as Hannah's voiceover says, "You can never know what's really going on in someone else's life. And you can never know how your actions will affect someone else. So the only thing to do is take responsibility for your actions." She's referring a situation where someone is feeling very sensitive and vulnerable, yet doesn't show it. Then someone else does something thoughtless, and it deeply wounds the already-hurting person. The's asking the thoughtless person to not do the thoughtless thing, or at least make up for it once they see they hurt someone.
I'm on the fence here, since I vehemently oppose thoughtless meanness, yet also believe in the importance of interpersonal communication. Some people (little kids, autistic people, socially awkward people like me, etc.) really don't know how others are feeling until they tell us, so it's possible to have a blunder like this, hurt someone's feelings, and be incapable of knowing it happened.
My thoughts aside, these quotes can really inform a person's understanding. Whether it's a real interaction, a show on Netflix, or an NPR podcast, we do never know what's going on in someone else's life. And we never know how our actions (or other people's actions) will affect another person.
In Thirteen Reasons Why, those words were meant to get the audience to believe Hannah and take the other characters' words with skepticism. It does make a better story that way. However, I couldn't help but be a twep and turn everything on its head. By her own words, Hannah doesn't know what's going on in any of her classmates' lives. She doesn't know what else was going on for them when they did things that hurt her. And she doesn't know how her suicide and the tapes will affect them. After I heard those quotes, I started re-thinking all the stories presented in the show so far. Did Hannah and Justin really just kiss in the park, like she said? Or did they have sex, like he said? I don't know. I'm a bystander watching a fictional TV show. All gender stereotypes and political correctness aside, as someone who knows neither party, I don't think I'm qualified to make a judgement as to who's credible and who's lying. I need a lot more information and a lot more precedent.
Because everything in my life is about Serial (and cereal, btw), I just had to try applying the quote to Adnan's case. We never know what's going on in someone else's life. And we never know how our actions will affect other people. And, just to complicate things, when people tell about things they're involved in, they have agendas. Maybe they're trying to bypass the "it gets better" attitude. Or maybe they're minimizing their involvement. Or maybe they really can't remember and are trying to fill in the blanks themselves.
Adnan readily admits that he didn't know Jay that well in January 1999. They hung around together a little, mostly because they had mutual friends. Jay was useful in terms of his access to drugs. However, Adnan has little to say about Jay except that he had a job, dated Stephanie, and liked rock music. He had no idea how Jay's relationship is with his mom or what he plans to be when he grows up or what he likes to eat for dinner. Adnan did seem to know that Jay was cheating on Stephanie, but if we learned anything from Hannah Baker and Thirteen Reasons Why, it's that we don't really know anything.
So when Jay implicates Adnan in Hae's murder, what is going on? Maybe Adnan did something or said something, something minor, like say he misses dating Hae. And maybe, not really knowing everything that's going on in Jay's life, he annoyed him or offended him or made him feel guilty for cheating on Steph. And then maybe Jay, not knowing that Adnan said something thoughtlessly, called the police and turned Adnan in. Maybe to get back at him for being annoying. Maybe because he thinks it's possible Adnan really did it.
And then Jay doesn't know what's going on for Adnan. He may not know Adnan is headed to college or that his family holds him to strict standards of decorum. Jay can't know how his actions will affect Adnan, and maybe the first anonymous call he makes on February 1 is just supposed to be a little payback. Get Adnan called in for questioning, freak him out, annoy him back. Jay may not have known the police would grab onto Adnan as a main suspect and effectively ruin his life.
I do realize I'm kind of defeating the purpose of my own essay by making all these speculations, but I just want to illustrate my point a bit before I go back to saying a whole bunch of "I don't know." Maybe it's not all "Adnan murderer, Jay hero boy," or "Adnan perfect, Jay mean liar." Maybe they're just two kids having issues. The same way Hannah Baker and the subjects of her 13 stories are all just people having issues. It just so happened that their lives intersected in ways that happened to cause major trauma.
So really, when we get to the end of Thirteen Reasons Why, if we actually apply Hannah's words, we still don't know what happened. We have Hannah's story, plus Clay's story, Jessica's story, Courtney's, Alex's, Bryce's... Some stories are more logical, simpler, less disgusting than others, but...I don't know. Was Hannah bullied to death? Could any of the thirteen reasons have saved her? Did Jay purposefully try to hurt Adnan? Does Jay think Adnan killed Hae? Do either of them have more information that what they've already shared? I could keep asking questions, but I just keep coming up with the same answer.
