13 Reasons Why

I started watching "13 Reasons Why" on Netflix so that I could speak intelligently about the series. In addition to the reactions on this thread - https://www.quora.com/What-was-13-Reasons-Why%E2%80%99s-impact-on-you - I would add that, for me, it shows that there are always friends & family of someone who takes their own life that are impacted by their loved one's death.

I can speak about one of my co-workers, Penny, who committed suicide on February 1, 2012. I had no idea she was contemplating ending her own life and, when I learned about what she had done, I was very sad. I had joined the department in late May 2011 and I questioned whether adding me to the team impacted her decision. I will say that Penny was a recluse when I knew her for those few months and while I know that, it hasn't given me comfort. I can also say that after (roughly) April 2012, Penny's name was rarely, if ever, spoken at work. Occasionally, I would come across a work artifact that she had worked on and I would chuckle as I remembered her. Then I would make my revisions and life would go on.

Perhaps Penny's suicide is the exception to the norm. Without getting into plot summary, which incidentally I found myself doing in my private journal as I began watching the series, Hannah is nothing like Penny, given that Hannah is fiction and Penny was not. Hannah left a lasting and permanent impact, like a volcano's ash that burns as it makes its way, forever impacting lives. I am ready for episode 5 in the series. I will keep trying to find the time in my schedule to watch an episode until I reach episode 13. I am somewhat curious how the show could have a long-term run. It is a limited scope to have '13' specified in the series and to then have the series continue beyond '13' into additional episodes. If the number wouldn't have been included in the title - "Reasons Why" - the series could go on for years upon years, but not when there is a known end.

Whether the series is named appropriately or not, there is supposed to be a second season in the future. If I can make it through the remaining episodes, I likely will watch the second season as well.

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I will say, thus far, my favorite things about the series so far are:

1. Hannah calls Clay a nerd because of a reference to "Star Wars" before going on to describe someone as being Kryptonite to Superman, which is equally nerdy. 
2. Clay is confronted by a teacher about a cassette player and asks Clay what he's listening to. Clay lies and says they are his dad's tapes and mentions the band "Ultravox" (which I had never heard of) and "Duran . . . Duran?" It's delivered totally as a 'guess' that "Duran Duran" is actually a band.
3. Clay's dad tries to balance on the tightrope of being a 'cool' dad and also being a 'parent' - I relate to that balancing act.