Hi, YouTube, it's Kathy.
And I have sat on my couch for the last 12 hours, watching "Thirteen Reasons Why," the new Netflix
series that just came out, based on the book by Jay Asher.
And you're looking at me through the light of my laptop because I wrote down some notes.
Um, this is a non-spoiler review.
I just wanted to get it done as quick as possible, and, uh, just get some of my thoughts out
there, because I really enjoyed the last 12 hours of my life.
Uh, so, one of the biggest things about this adaptation is that the timeline drastically changes.
Clay, in the book - the book took place over about a day, just slightly more than a day,
whereas this... it's not clear, but it takes place over at least a week if not longer.
Because it takes Clay much longer to listen to the tapes, which I found was a perfect
adaptation for doing it on film, because if 13 episodes take place in one day, it would
not have had the same impact, and there would have been way less that the creators could
have done with the story.
Um, this also gave them the ability to do way more back story on so many characters,
and include characters that were just sort of mentioned.
Such as Hannah's parents.
And that is a huge note because, mostly, YA does parents terribly and you don't really
get to know parents, and with this you definitely get to know parents, and Kate Walsh, by the
way, was an amazing choice for Hannah's mother.
Um, I'm just looking at my notes.
Uh, I found that all the changes definitely helped improve the story, and any changes
to the offenses that the people did to get on the 13 reason list, uh, definitely improved
the story line and made it work more in the visual format that it was in.
And it definitely explored more of what would have happened if Clay had taken so long to
listen to tapes, and all of the, kind of, mental and emotional struggle of that, as
well as just the logistics of seeing all of these people in the hallway, or elsewhere,
and just seeing their reactions, knowing that he's listening to the tapes.
Clay's scar was also kind of interesting to watch, just because as things got worse for
him, the scar kind of was more bruising and that was interesting to watch, and I think
that that was an interesting choice because obviously that wasn't something that was in
the book whatsoever.
Clay didn't ride his bike in the book; Clay walked around and was in Tony's car every
once in a while.
I love the fact that this was a Netflix Original because they were allowed to swear.
They swore so much in this, and I felt that that helped with the passion, it helped with,
it definitely helped with the emphasis, and it [brought] something to the authenticity
of the characters and what they were feeling.
And, uh, the only downside that I had from this format is that it kind of takes away
a little bit of hearing of Hannah's story as Clay is listening to it, because you never
know if he's listened to the tape or not until he says something about how he's listened
to the side of the tape that he's currently on.
So, that was, like, my only little bit of a downside of it.
I loved this.
I thought this was a great adaptation, and if you liked the book, or if you just think
that the show sounds interesting, definitely, definitely, definitely check it out.
I mean, it's on Netflix, so it's easy to do so.
Anyway, that is my super unscripted review of the tv show "Thirteen Reasons Why" and
I'm gonna put this right up on YouTube so closed captions will be up afterwards.
Okay, bye!
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