13 reasons why - my 13 years old ds wants to watch it - I'm going to let him I think

[Thetitisright]

Unreasonable ? He is a pretty mature lad !

My dd lives with her dad and had already watched it when it first came out as have all of her friends. I watched the first 2 episodes with her but haven't watched any more.
Last night after reading this thread I asked her if she found any of it disturbing and she said she didn't and neither did her friends but another friends school sent out an email telling them not to watch it as it could trigger someone to commit suicide.
I personally think that teenage girls could learn a lot about how their actions can affect someone and this was a good platform.

'There are some references to how she struggled in her last school, but I think it should be clear that this was a vulnerable person who couldn't take knock-backs'

Yes, that's in the book, too, vague references. But NO parental involvement with any of them save Clay's mom bunging him money or asking if he wants anything to eat. Despite being juniors, no one seemed to need to study for SATs or AP tests or IB tests or anything or worried about the police breaking up their parties and their winding up with a record that could seriously fuck up their lives, except maybe the gal who drove off from the stop sign.

I'm a bereaved parent, it was cancer, but now have a lot of friends who were bereaved by suicide and I felt this really trivialised it.

Yeah - I would file this under 'typical Young Adult fiction' - in that it's an adult's view of what they think teenagers want to read about, but 'cleaned up' so that it doesn't outrage people too much.

And in fact, DD started watching it, then I realized what it was. At first I thought it was going to turn out that she had only pretended to commit suicide, and was really going to come back and say "that's what could have happened. Now be nice to each other."

It seemed so logical and thought out rationally, not the kind of chaos and distress that I've witnessed with deeply depressed teenagers (and I've worked with many over the years). There's one brief mention of her grades dropping, and that's it, pretty much.

to expat.

Agree with those saying it trivialised suicide, bullying, rape... general fucking shitness for teenagers tbh!

I thought as a programme it was quite good (and the suicide/rape scenes were harrowing) but they seemed to not know whether they were aiming it at adults or teenagers and it therefore totally missed the 'point' of what it was trying to do which i think is a real shame.

Also think as a pp said, its only got such good reviews because of the americanised 'pretty little liars' dramaness not because it was really successful with delivering its aims.

And by good i mean watchable

YY, it was very adult in viewpoint, at least in the novel.

I don't think I'd let my 13year old watch it.
I found the suicide scene very hard to watch and it stayed with me.
I watched the series with my 16 year old who found it gripping and was very moved by it so whether the reviews are terrible or not, or it dramatised issues, I am glad we watched it together as we have had many discussions about it.
The scene where her parents find her I actually struggled to breathe just thinking of their pain for a split second

It's an 18 for a reason so no

I didn't realise it was an 18. I said in an earlier post that the teenagers that I work with have watched it and they are 14.

DS who is 20 has gone to his room to watch another episode. I've asked what he thought and he has said that he doesn't think kids should be watching it really.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, both myself and DH watched it together. I was able to explain some bad things in the past to DH from my perspective, and discuss with him how it sometimes impacts today, etc. So it can be useful.

But this morning I asked him what he would think of our kids (16DS, 14DD) watching it. He made a point that OUR kids would probably just watch it as a teen American drama. They are too young and inexperienced in life to take much meaning from the darker aspects of it.

I really like some of the music. It has Elliott Smith song that is one of my all time favs!

It's very well done, terrific performances and some heart wrenching scenes. You should be aware that there is a lot of swearing, as well as graphic depictions of rape and suicide but it handles a difficult topic very well. Perhaps read the book if you want to know more. In your shoes I'd make a judgement call on if he can handle such topics and make myself available to talk about the subject matter if you decide to let him watch.

StarkintheSouth, your point about being able to talk about it is very important.

As I know from counselling experience myself, understanding what happened is critical for moving on. Otherwise there are unanswered questions and things not really resolved, issues remain open, things get worse rather than better, etc.

Truth shines a light. I know it is only a book/tv show, but my heart went out to the parents as they struggled to understand what happened.