The human darkness and the inhuman ability to resist even in deep struggling: this is Handmaid's Tale. And it's definitely not for the faint-hearted. It pushes our minds into an universe of evil and cruelty: if the women's condition is one of the (few) things that western society concords about, here we see this fall apart completely in front of us. All directors (especially Morano) plays with our perspective: the power of details is incredible. Facial expressions, sounds, scenery, all lead to reveal the world as it is: a place not fit for humans like this. The Janine' suicide attempt scene in the ninth episode is the most powerful example of this: one can really hope that the suicide take place, because, for a fragile mind like her, death can be the only pain-relief possible, a vision that Offred refuses during the entire season. Offred is just a baby-making slave, but the character evolves to became a powerful leader that can literally save the world, because the pain she suffered has created a monster in her, maybe even more powerful than her masters. By the end, the story turns into a carousel of resistance images.
The level of oppression really stands up near the one in Oldboy (Chan-wook Park, 2003), which is one of the most terrifying in cinema history.
This show is fantastic. Severance is a narrative of how we live our lives constantly battling between work and life and what that balance should look like. It uses a unique science fiction storyline to dive deeper into that imaginative idea while using what some may perceive as mundane, but who are very realistic characters. This show does a great job at marrying reality with impossibility, which is what the best sci-fi books, films, and shows do. The actors are all great (Especially Adam Scott) and anyone who truly appreciates the art of acting and directing, or film in general, will truly appreciate this show.
Listen, Not every show or movie is for every person. But the people who are giving it one star are stuck in TikTok reality where their attention span is limited to less than 10 seconds. That’s not real life. This show is closer to real-life in an office than it is to TikTok (unless of course, you’re an “influencer”). Not every show or movie needs to have someone blow up or die in the first 5 minutes. And the ones giving this show a low rating because of characters have no understanding of the development of plots through the evolution and growth of characters throughout a storyline. And those who don’t like the actors don’t know good acting.
This is a psychological thriller because it makes you think, as long as you have that capability. Take a break from your phones, relax, and enjoy this unique show that tells a story, that has build-up, anticipation, and allows you to be excited about the small details that occur because you know eventually it will lead to crazier stuff. And allow yourself to actually use your imagination to contemplate this crazy alternate reality and your mind wander. You’ll likely enjoy it.
MAJOR SPOILERS!!!
So this is tough. There were some absolutely INCREDIBLE episodes! Two Storms and Bent-Neck Lady stand out... This had the potential to be a 9 or 10. In fact, I initially rated the show a 9 just after finishing it. Then I thought about it for a few days. Thought about how it all ended and what it all implied for the series as a whole. And I got angry... It felt like a betrayal. Such a huge tonal shift...
So the house "digests" these kids and their parents through their fears. It makes them see or do horribly crazy shit till they either kill themselves or others in the house. Dark as hell, yeah? But apparently this isn't actually a bad thing as "those who walk there, walk together". They turned the house with all it's vile evilness... into a somewhat "misunderstood" place where if you die there you can live forever with your loved ones who have also died there (yay!). What the hell...
A couple other weird things that bugged... Not necessarily in a bad way, but things I still think about...
So for Nell to be haunted by her future-self, the house must exist outside of time somehow (confetti monologue?). We don't just have ghosts from the past haunting the present, but ghosts of the future haunting the "present" as well. There seems to be a bit of a time paradox at play here... Chicken born before the egg type of thing.
And why did the Tall Man (who'd always been looked down upon) haunt Luke? Because Luke's future self would always be looked down upon because of his addiction? Maybe the house could take the form of those that died within, use whatever form best suited its purpose at the time. That would make sense with the whole "that wasn't mom" thing. Poppy was just plain evil so the mom's mania at least made a little sense...
And with this foresight the house seemed to have, why'd it target Luke when it should have seen that it wouldn't get him? Was he just a "bigger snack" of sorts (bigger than his older siblings, who were never really targeted the way Luke and Nell were)? Was it because Luke was Nell's twin (the Twin Thing)?
Regardless, it was just the house feeding off fears I guess... Using these ghosts from the past and future to breed more and more fear until folks died. Beautifully dark up till a relatively bright and cheery end. I still enjoyed the hell out of the series, but really wish that ending was different.
Wow, this show has been quite a journey. After 7 seasons, when I look back, it's hard to believe how everything started. What started just as another post apocalyptic TV show featuring delinquent teenagers, became one of the most well written and developed shows I ever seen!
Season one is just good. Nothing extraordinary. It's a very simple plot. Season two started with a very fair plot twist and by the end of 2nd season I was already in complete awe to this show. When season 3 came, the mythology of the show started to pave its path. And what a mythology! Everything started to get so deep and extraordinary that you didn't even remember that in season one they were just reckless young ones. From season 3 on, it just keep getting better and better, to the point that you actually realize how everything, since the Pilot, was already predetermined to happen. It comes a moment that you just applaud how much this show is extraordinary in what comes to connect all the plots. (For instance, something that you really didn't understand in season one and thought it was unnecessary, drops your chin when it reveals to be something really deep in season 5. And that happens a lot. And that's makes this show really worth watch it). Even when "nonsense" stuff start to happen on the show somewhere along season 6, you are so deeply involved in everything that you already realize that those "nonsenses" are not that crazy after all. Because if you are really paying attention to the show since the very beginning, you'll already see it coming and it will not seem that all of that just came out of nowhere Characters development is another achievement of this show. They do it in such a perfect way that you really get involved with those characters along the show.
At time I am writing this comment, there's only four episodes left until the series finale, and this final season already shown itself to be the culmination of a story that clearly has been planned for a long time. If you're reading this comment ten years since the show ended and is asking yourself if it's worth it. The answer is YES. Go watch The 100. It's one of my favorite shows of all times and eras. And I didn't even saw the finale. But I know that will wrap up this amazing journey in the best possible way.
May We Meet Again.
Altough I'm german I rarely check out german TV shows. The last one was Deutschland 83 and that was like two years ago. Germany just hasn't figured TV out yet but that's another discussion.
When I heard Netflix was producing a german show I just had to check it out because Netflix has a great track record so far and Germany does have talent infront and behind the camera. But overall I think this show just fell flat. Good, but nothing great.
Fantastic visuals that are shot very beatifull, the actors IMO are mostly great and the music/score can be beautiful but often gets obnoxious. But unfortunetly there are too many characters that are hard to keep track off which distracts from the story.
The story is already confusing enough even without trying to keep up with the many characters over different decades and it heavily sets up future seasons without answering a lot of questions about this one and just left me unsatisfied at the end.
Still worth watching tough IMO and very bingeable similarly to Stranger Things.
But if you do watch it then choose the subbed version. I checked out the dub really quick and it sounded horrible. And also don't browse your phone as you might do on other shows. You're going to miss so much important shit.
EDIT after Season 2:
I'm not actually sure what just happened and what I think about it. But the one thing I'm sure of is that the casting in this show is absolutely phenomenal. The actors look so much like their younger counterparts that I'm not fully convinced they aren't actually related.
Plus the cinematography is still fantastic and the music monatages are really beautiful (and they got rid of those obnoxious sound effects).
And altough the story is still very confusing I found it more easier to follow and more engaging than Season 1 because I now know all the charcters and their background. And it seems that the writers had this all planned out and aren't just making shit up as they go.
Changed my rating from 8 to 9.
EDIT after my first rewatch just before S3 is released.
Changing my rating again. This time to a 10. After S1 I thought it was good but confusing show (8), after S2 I thought it was great and really well thought out one (9). Now after rewatching both seasons for the first time I think the show is fucking masterpiece. (10). Once you can watch it without being confused and actually knowing what is happening your just in awe throughout all of it.
If they stick the landing with season 3 it could be up there with the best ever.
EDIT after Season 3
Masterpiece. Simple as that.
Writing. Directing. Cinematography. Casting. Acting. Soundtrack. Everything is perfect.
I'm going to miss the beautiful music montages at the end.
After listening from TAPE 01 SIDE A to TAPE 13 SIDE A in just two nights this is what I think about "13 REASONS WHY":
First of all I have to recognize I didn't know about the book until I started watching "13 REASONS WHY", I haven't read it yet and maybe never will, probably because TV Series' production, photography, postproduction, cast, acting, story, rhythm and overall quality it is excellent and easily deserves a rating between a 9.7 and 10, I would have given it a 10, but I reserve that specific number for those rare gems that can't be measured by any standard because they simply don't fit in any scale, the rare masterpieces. Yes, those exactly, the ones you can only wonder how come they became and not why or how they did it because it's beyond your comprehension and you somehow now will transcend its time to become a classic. So unless they enable the 10 MasterPiece rating, it will have to suffice a 9 for the time being. Maybe I'll change my mind later or not, I don't know yet.
I think the TV adaptation (or the original novel) isn't really critique to the values of the [post]milenial average American teenager, the High School System or even bullying itself. But it's rather a quite more profound harsh critique to "The Post Milenial Egotistic and Hypocritical Society" where we all live, at least, in the western world. A Society whose values are taught to most kids by example, carrying them unconsciously to their teenage years and, many, to their adulthood where they're passed to the next generation.
It uses a group of High School Students, "13 REASONS WHY" as an analogy. All to make us, the adults, look in the mirror, rethink about our Individual Accountability and Responsibility for our acts or lack of thereof, how we intentionally misuse the concept "Society" (the Group) as an easy excuse, or way out from Individual Accountability and Responsibility out of pure egotism –selfishness (a Group with "N REASONS WHY").
As I said is more to this story that what meets the eye, the author is critiquing Society as a Whole from a moral standpoint to whoever was willing or able to see beyond the analogy he chose to depict it:
That is why after TAPE 13 SIDE A, there isn't anything meaningful left to tell. It's meaningless what they did or didn't do to anyone. You can imagine whatever you prefer, because no matter you come up the conclusion is always the same. These "13 REASONS WHY" where hers, what they did or didn't is history that can't be changed, so Hannah isn't coming back.
To all those thinking there will be a second season (or mini season), if Netflix continues respecting the original artist work and is wise enough to pull at the top, it won't ever be another.
Remember what Hannah explained on the TAPES about "The Butterfly Effect", our actions, given the adequate circumstances, could put in motion a chain of events whose consequences we would not be able to foresee, and later on she talks about that those tapes could create its own butterfly effect. What you see as the series avances and clearly in Episode 13 - TAPE 13 SIDE A is how that butterfly effect is working exacerbating what Hannah, not the victim, but the person corresponsable for the pain of others, had done actions when she was alive that have consequences and after she was gone with her detailed plan for the 13 TAPES.
Near the end in TAPE 13 SIDE A, even though he had been subtlety suggesting it throughout most of the 13 TAPES, the writer by focusing Hannah actions and probable consequences tries to clearly shows how nobody is perfect, not even Hannah. Perfection is at what we should aim but it's almost impossible, we are simply imperfect human not Gods, the only think that we are asked is to really try as hard as we can. The author puts on the table once again the need to understand and assimilate that we are responsible for our actions and be courageous enough to accept that with responsibility comes accountability and not just to ourselves but to others too.
P.S.
I agree with the message of the author, but I'm afraid I have an even darker view of humanity. I have been wondering what could probably be the worst course of action that anyone can take, but specifically humanity as a whole, I have reached the conclusion that it would be "to simply start doing nothing about almost everything if it's not involves fun".
I believe that it can not be considered an out of this world thought, specially in the light on whose hands it's the atomic football nowadays and the fact that no one did anything to prevent it when it was still possible.
I would bet hedonism together with egotism have already made to the top spots in the current list of The Seven Capital Sins. It all probably started with the fall of Berlin Wall, in the last decade of the XX century and have continued to gain momentum during the first the seventeen years of XXI century, a trend which doesn't seems its going to reverse or stop anytime soon.
But if the time comes, to which I'm look forward, to bury this "malade" which affects everyone: the old, the middle age, the young, etc…
I think its epitaph should read like this: "Here lies: I don't give a fuck about you or anything for that matter, and unless it involves alcohol, drugs, chicks, guys and/or loud music, I ain't going so don't bother me with any of your shit. We kindly ask you to respect his wishes and not bother him with any shit whatsoever unless his strict requirements are meet."
Ok, that's going to be a hard one to review.
Not because it's bad or just ok, not at all. As the little "10" in the top-left shows, I've give this show the best possible score.
No, the difficulty is in finding the right words that will explain WHY this tv show deserve such a number.
Before getting into it, I must say that I've watched every episodes, including the special where the actors and crew explain how and why they did this show (you should watch it). And I have not read the book.
As I want this review to be read by as much people as possible, I will not give any spoiler. So feel free to continue reading !
First, the actors, and mainly the three main characters for me, meaning Dylan Minnette (Clay), Katherine Langford (Hannah) and Kate Walsh (Olivia, Hannah's mom). Their work is just astonishing.
Second, the pacing. The show find the right balance between content and emptiness. Seems weird writing this. But we're dealing with a suicide, with depression, and the void it creates is one of the hardest thing to translate and the producers found a way to make you feel it at your core.
Which explains my third point : this show can be overwhelming. 13 episodes that you want to watch, but you also dread watching. There is, in each of those episodes and even more in some of them, a psychological pressure that can almost be too much to bear.
Fourth, thriller. 13 reasons why. 13 reasons you want to know. 13 reasons that you discover slowly, methodically, but 13 reasons that are sometimes implied a bit before they're revealed. It creates a thrill, that you're on the verge of understanding or at least zeroing on what really when on.
Fifth, the candor of this show. I have never watched a a show that committed to being true, to ring true to how teenagers think and feel and live. Some people will think that things aren't really like that, that they can't be and it's just so that there is a story. I was a teenager not so long ago, and I found so many truths in this show that it even felt a bit awkward. That this character could have been me. Or this one.
When TV produces so many "teenage" shows that just transform teens into adults, or teens into dumb versions of humans, watching this felt surreal. Like someone finally understood what it meant. What the struggles were and how to show them in their purest form.
Sixth and last one, Suicide. No one wants to talk about it. Most TV shows that depicts one, uses it as a plot excuse. A way to spice things up.
This one does not. This is the first thing you learn when watching. You start with the suicide and then you try to explain what when on in Hannah's life, in her head, that made her do this. And the show is clear, you can't explain suicide. You can't rationalize it. But you can try to understand the actions and thoughts that lead to it. To try and prevent that for ever happening again.
And the show is exceptional at that. Yes it depicts all the elements that lead to a suicide, but by showing them, you also teach people how to recognize signs that could point you to a person in distress. And it also shows that our actions have consequences, may those actions seems trivial at first. And to those that are in distress it also shows that there always are people caring for you. You may not see it, they may not show it, but there are there and you need to have the strength to at least reach out to them. The will help you. And if this seems too much for you, there are free hotlines that you can call at any time to at least talk. Because talking is healing.
I could continue and expand this list much more, but I'll stop there.
Just go watch it. Take a month of Netflix, you won't regret it.
This was, for me, the best show of the year so far. It is for Netflix this year what Stranger Things was for last year. A real surprise, far better than it looks. I watched the special, and I don't usually do that. I picked up the book and started reading it, and young adult fiction isn't a genre I usually look at. Hollywood hasn't cast it in a very nice light with things like Twilight; even less cringey films like Divergent and The Maze Runner give the YA genre a two-dimensional feel, a feel of shallowness that is easy to take in but doesn't really get inside your head much. Just a one-and-done kind of thing. And this isn't that. It's so much better. I went in thinking this was a show for middle and high school kids, and it really isn't. Especially after the 9th and 12th episodes. Not to mention the finale. Spoilers follow.
After watching — I finished it just 24 hours ago — I went back and forth on whether the suicide was justified or not. Actually for a while I thought they might pull a twist ending and reveal that she didn't actually go through with it, but made it look like she did to raise awareness. There was a program that ran in high schools in Northern California (where this takes place) where they had a guy dressed up like the Grim Reaper take the popular jocks out of school. They were put up in a resort while the rest of the school was told they died. And then they put on this play where they were killed by drunk driving. It sounds silly now, but it was serious then. And it happened at my school (Santa Rosa, Montgomery High, Class of 1998) and I was smart enough to see that it was fiction, but it still young enough for it to affect me. (Sure enough, never drank and drove. Actually don't drink anymore, so I can drive those who can't.) So I thought this series might be doing that, and that they could, and still be impactful. Spoiler: [spoiler]It's not, and the suicide is shown in the finale.[/spoiler]
As for justifications, that's harder. It's important to note here that nobody is perfect, including the adults. It's also important to note that nobody is purely good or evil. Even the one character everyone hates by the end ([spoiler]Bryce{/spoiler]), probably has some good in him. It's just outside the scope of this show to humanize him. We can guess. [spoiler]He was rich, and lived a life free of consequences. His parents were never around, and he was able to buy beer underage because he was a successful athlete and town hero. He literally stated that there was nothing wrong with raping girls. And he believed it because he had never been denied anything.[/spoiler] The big problem I have with the suicide is not that the events leading up to it did or didn't justify suicide. It's that she spent hours calmly laying out everything that was wrong, in a cool and methodical way, on those tapes, after making the decision, and yet she still did it. The planning of the tapes, the recording, setting up distribution, [spoiler]getting Tony to manage the backups and watching people,[/spoiler], I think she could have backed down. I think she was smart enough to by that point and could have gotten help. No tapes, no planning? Sure. Impulse decision. After all that, though? I don't really see it.
I'd also like to get into the school counselor, Mr Porter. School counselors are psychologists only in the same sense that security guards are police officers, i.e. they're not. You could say they're failed psychologists, and maybe some are, but they may not all be. He wasn't an exceptionally bad one. He might have even been above average. I think a big difference between school counselors and psychologists are that school counselors work for the school. They aren't truly advocates for the individuals they try to help. I think he needed to go the extra mile and coach her, and tell her that she needs to declare [spoiler]that she was raped, and that she said no, and that she tried to make him stop, even if she really didn't exactly. There was no deception on her part, or seduction, the guy had raped before, and in her presence no less, and she clearly did not want to have sex, and he knew it[/spoiler]. Yes, I think he should have coached her to embellish the truth a little for the greater good, for the sake of the next victim. Would it have been dishonest? I don't think so. No more spoilers.
But I'm getting off-track. Was it a good series? In no uncertain terms, yes it was. You should absolutely watch it, and then you absolutely should reach out to a niece or a nephew or the child of a family friend and let them know that you are there for them. It doesn't really help as much coming from parents, because parents are always judging. They kind of have to. Kids need an external resource they can count on. Someone they trust won't look down on them because they tried drugs or experimented with sex. Someone who won't add to their problems. Someone who generally makes them feel better when they're down. Even popular kids need it, but the nerds, the emo kids, the losers, those kids need it especially because they have such little support from their peers. And yes it's a bit rude to use those labels, but they exist, those kids exist, and we can't let them slip through the cracks. And one photo, one tweet, one rumor can make the most popular kid in school join those unfortunate groups. And then that kid can go on fooling their parents into thinking they're still on top of the social ladder, when inside they're dying, and we see that in the show with one of the characters.
