Post by o Ventus on Apr 25, 2017 0:45:13 GMT
The show on Netflix, based on the novel by Jay Asher, is currently sitting on a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Personally, I don't think it's worth that level of praise. The drama is fine, but I think it would have worked better in a different setting. Basing it in a high school and making the cast all 16 or 17 years old just feels off. I myself graduated high school just a few years ago and I know for a fact that teenagers don't generally speak or behave the way they do in this show (or even in the book, published in 2007), like they're 20 years older than they really are. Putting it on a college campus would have been better, IMO. Also, I find it very hard to feel bad for the dead girl (not a spoiler, her death is the entire basis of the story), she has a LOT of moments where she behaves like a complete and total bitch to people that otherwise didn't really do anything wrong. It kinda comes off as "you didn't loan me a pencil for that test, you're one of the reasons I DIED!" levels of melodrama. Not to mention that, in hindsight, the entire basis of the show (girl commits suicide and leaves a series of tapes dedicated to the various people "responsible") is unbelievably emotionally manipulative, and she all but gaslights one of them (almost) to their own death. Also she never really seems to reflect on herself that much, if at all. She shifts the entirety of her death onto everyone else around her, never once thinking about how she herself is at least partially responsible for some of the other characters acting so shitty to her. She's a huge hypocrite, which I'm pretty sure was intentional, but it doesn't make her a sympathetic figure, at least to me. Never mind that, on more than one occasion, she outright lies about some of the accusations that she levies at her classmates.
On a more positive note, the cinematography is very good, and for a cast mostly made up of unknowns, the performances are, for the most part, extremely good. A handful of the "cliques" (for lack of a better term) have pretty good chemistry with each other, even if their personalities are fucking abhorrent to me.
Aside from these major complaints, I have a few nitpicks. For example, no standard high school basketball exhibition game will pull crowds the size that you'd see for the fucking NBA Finals like they seem to do in the show, and the main character has about as much personality as a $2 sex doll. Other times, I found myself involuntarily mocking the melodrama MST3K-style, it was hilarious when it was bad.
Final thoughts, I'd give it maybe a 7 or an 8. The premise is interesting, but it's somewhat squandered by pretty much nobody in the main cast being likable and having some really, REALLY stupid dramatic moments. I'd watch it again sometime down the line, but I wouldn't rush ti give it any special awards.
On a more positive note, the cinematography is very good, and for a cast mostly made up of unknowns, the performances are, for the most part, extremely good. A handful of the "cliques" (for lack of a better term) have pretty good chemistry with each other, even if their personalities are fucking abhorrent to me.
Aside from these major complaints, I have a few nitpicks. For example, no standard high school basketball exhibition game will pull crowds the size that you'd see for the fucking NBA Finals like they seem to do in the show, and the main character has about as much personality as a $2 sex doll. Other times, I found myself involuntarily mocking the melodrama MST3K-style, it was hilarious when it was bad.
Final thoughts, I'd give it maybe a 7 or an 8. The premise is interesting, but it's somewhat squandered by pretty much nobody in the main cast being likable and having some really, REALLY stupid dramatic moments. I'd watch it again sometime down the line, but I wouldn't rush ti give it any special awards.