13 Reasons to be Recklessly Entertaining
By: M. Wheeler Books
Tags: 13 Reasons Why, Netflix, Television

“A consistently highly creative person is generally irresponsible.” — Theodore Levitt

As you may know, “13 Reasons Why” is a television adaptation of a young adult novel which tells a familiar but disturbing story about any and all bad things that can happen in high school. The story is told to its young impressionable target audience in refreshingly promethean way but, unfortunately, the message is told without an iota of regard for mental fragility of its target audience. In a word, the message is delivered… irresponsibly. And there’s only one reason why “13 Reasons Why” is irresponsible, and that reason is… creativity.

If you will, allow me to digress for a moment, in the form of a circumferential rant on the lack of creativity in Hollywood in order to lay the foundation for why I have such dichotomous feelings about this show. Thank you.

You may have heard that television shows in this era of “TV” are “ground breaking”, “daring”, “original”. But Fuck what you’ve heard, current television, or what ever the hell it has morphed into these days- cable, satellite, on demand streaming video- is entertainment’s graveyard of creativity. In the potential space where ideas for original programming could exist there is a black whole that sucks in previously crafted brilliance from another time and place (e.g. movies, books, graphic novels, older TV shows) and regurgitates, into our present, repurposed substandard, jejune feces that is smeared across TV screens in 10–13, one hour segments (exhibit 1: “Iron Fist”, a horrible show) to further our continual spiral into a television induced brian death. If we are lucky, parts of our passive pursuit of a permanent vegetative state is occasionally enjoyable. And trust me there is no better way to go my friends than to one day gork out permanently while in the midst of a 3 day marathon of previous viewed “Breaking Bad” episodes while priming for the” Better Call Saul” season premier.

But in today’s barren waste land of television dryness, rarely are we lucky enough to be graced with creatively presented content. I guess if you’re a studio why would you take a chance with serving up Grade A prime content to a nation of couch chattel that will eat anything you chef up when it’s so easy for you to feed us boob-tube-slaves chitterlings. I mean, to the un-indentured minded television watcher, at some point, the question begs to be asked, if “television” can’t be original enough to be interesting can it at least be creative enough to be entertaining? Well history and the present state of affairs shows us that the answer is, probably not. Because as we all know there is only one way to make television- unoriginal- and there is only no way to tell a story- with out creativity.

Okay maybe I’m overstating the originality aspect because that may be on the individual because maybe if you’ve lived long enough than maybe you feel you’ve seen it all and maybe you’ll feel you’ve heard it all. But what about creativity, there has to be more than one way to present information. But if you’re a creator of TV content, then a change from the old dogma seems risky. Right? The old linear story line, with the classic camera close-ups, medium, long and arc shots. Why risk changing anything. Hollywood is a business and all business’ typically try to minimize risks. Creativity… Is a risky proposition indeed, this idea of veering from the straight and narrow… the safe and cozy. Because, the further one wonders off the reservation the less one is protected by the security of the familiar. Without security, there is only risk. But we all want our content providers to take risks in order to find and present something that’s fresh and new. Well don’t we? And when they do, take said risks, we congratulate, or we don’t, but we always appreciate. At least I do. But when the studios actually do take a chance, I personally hate to offer harsh words for those who take creative risks. And most especially for those who take the risks and succeed at being entertaining. So, it pains me to criticize a show that I truly enjoyed watching, but I must.

So, back to the show… The delivery of the 13’s schtick is certainly creative AF (from the cinematography to the way the story played with time) but, unfortunately, the impressive delivery dispenses the subject matter in a way that toys with idea of legitimizing the irrational fears of a teenagers and glamorizing the act of suicide to that same young impressionable group that it intends to entertain. The damn show is so entertaining and speaks which such a fluent teenage voice the show’s unintended literal translation, in the language of teenager, is damn near saying, “If your gonna off your self make sure you leave a really imaginative suicide note behind.”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good watch and even the hard core teeny-bopper fluff-hater inside me cannot say I wasn’t clamoring for the next episode. But teeny-bopper focused the message most certainly was, and therein lies the problem. Given the subject matter and the fact kids are uber susceptible to common coding, the presentation maybe too kid friendly. Like a Sesame Street episode with Oscar the Grouch snorting Bolivian high grade off of Cookie Monster’s garbage pail and Big Bird making sexually inappropriate comments towards Snuffaluffagus, there are some subject matters that you shouldn’t make appealing to individuals in their formative years. Indeed, when making a show about teen suicide and your target audience is a bunch of teenagers you can’t very well make the idea of suicide seem fashionable, which the makers of the show may have done by making the star, protagonist and “coolest” character on the show spend 13 hours damn near convincingly justifying her own indefensible suicide.

Yeah, Netflix probably should have realized that hormones are powerful ass shit and can turn a young kid’s mind inside out. Couple that with the fact that teenagers are playing a perpetual game of monkey see monkey do, sprinkle in some alcohol and drugs, and you have a highly volatile mixture of self perpetuating sexual and violent aggression, tittering around its critical point in a population of individuals, that are dangerously open to suggestion and just looking for a reason to set some shit off. No, it doesn’t take much to set a 16 year old kid off on a Kurt Cobain-esque downward mental spiral ending in self harm, assault or homicide. And even if we minus the drugs and hormones, just focus on the metal disease angle, in general, if you tell a depressed kid on the edge of suicide (which many teenagers are) that there is a poetic way to take their own life that will leave a lasting impression on everyone whom they ever thought was important, what the fuck do you think that kid is going to do?

This idea that this show took a harum-scarum, although entertaining, approach to presenting this novel is so clear and obvious that I’m sure the makers of this show acknowledged this risk before the director ever said action at take one of the first scene recorded. Which, in itself, seems moderately criminal. But that Hollywood tribe they are surely smart and prepared folks. So I’m sure they have a lawyer briefed and a public response in the chamber waiting in the event that a child takes their life and makes a tape, or video, to creatively explain their motives (just like Hannah)… But I am also equally sure that the makers of the show will embrace the publicity of whatever consequent calamity that may ensue. Because all publicity is good publicity in Hollywood. And maybe, just maybe, the unfortunate sacrifice of one of our innocent, impressionable youth to this emotional contagion will get the 13 folks a second season or, at least, a bump in season 1 DVD sales. And doesn’t that make it all worth it?

It pains me to say this, but Netflix, the show was awesome:) But you suck for making it :(