I have started watching 13 Reasons Why, largely because as a rule of thumb I do whatever Romanians tell me to do.  I have mixed feelings on the show, which is quite obviously not for me but I have watched it so you’re going to get my thoughts anyway.  Look, the show is about suicide and that is a tough row to hoe no matter what because it’s a hard issue and it’s a full of pitfalls.  And I guess in the end my issues with the show do stem from that but also how the suicide angle feels a little exploitative.  In a bad way.  I have watched a number of horror movies about revenge on the people who caused a suicide and it didn’t bother me because you know, if a ghost is murdering people through Facebook it’s a different thing, it’s supposed to be exploitative, it’s not supposed to be serious.  This kind of sets itself up as a drama and serious and you know, I know it’s for kids but you can’t claim profundity and then fall back on YA and say you aren’t supposed to handle it well.  I guess at it’s core it is compelling because you want to see what happens next but that’s kind of the whole thing, it’s like gossip, you’re engaged in it to see the next scandalous thing, which is what this whole thing purports to be about.  It seems to set up suicide as a great way to get revenge and is more about the titillation of terrible things that people have done than anything else.  It makes it’s message sour to me, as it isn’t right, just self righteous.  That said, I am still watching because I do want to see and I am only a little past half way through.  It could turn around, episodic media has that sort of thing.  Who I do like in it is Katherine Langford and not just because her name is Katherine.  She is beautiful, which helps, I was struck by that immediately, but she also does do a a very good job of creating a character you do like. Honestly, her performance really helps lift a lot of it and is why I keep finding it compelling. Of course, this also makes it hard to believe she was so hated though.  Or maybe it doesn’t, it’s been a long time since high school so maybe it is that entirely random who gets picked on.  It’s hard to say, I got through just keeping my head down and being funny enough that people kind of liked me when I was around but forgot I existed when I wasn’t.  And the show does a fair bit of showing how loneliness can curdle inside you, it is killer and it can be hard to get through, to feel so completely alone.  So it isn’t terrible, it just keeps leaving a sour taste in my mouth.  But I do like Katherine Langford a lot in it. Today I want to fuck Katherine Langford.