Hannah, a high-school junior in an upscale suburban community, commits suicide and leaves behind a series of tapes to explain why she ended her life.  But the tapes also expose the people in her life whose callousness or bullying or worse contributed to that ultimate decision.  The tapes make the rounds of her victimizers, and eventually find themselves in the hand of a sensitive, typical teenage boy named Clay.  The series then follows two timelines as Clay listens to the tape and empathetically replays Hannah's experiences in his head...both timelines brilliantly fused visually into a running narrative.  The result is arguably the strongest depiction of teenage angst and high-school life that has ever been presented in any medium.  [note:  the series is based on a famed YA novel that I have never read, so I have no basis for comparison...but the production stands on its own merits as a complete entity.  And I suspect that it is at least as good as the original source.]

Maybe it helps to be 60 years removed from my own high school experiences, and to have the perspective of age to comprehend the achievements of this series.   Yes, the acting, direction, writing, casting, cinematography, editing...every single aspect of the production is superb.  And there is a certain universality of the theme and message which may be incredibly difficult to watch, but also undoubtedly are important to be seen and understood by parents and kids alike.  But the film is so unsparing of the conventional reticence on its themes, so immediate in its impact that there's a good chance that the people most in need of empathizing with Hannah and Clay are the ones that will need the most to reject the message.   For me, the astounding thing is how resonant this story rang with my memories of my own experiences of high school in Beverly Hills 60 years ago.  Plus ça change, plus c'est la mème chose.

I guess I should single out Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford, the two lead teens for their affecting and authentic portrayals.  Minnette, especially, gives one of the great performances of the decade as Clay,  transmitting his inner rectitude and goodness through subtle, but effective facial and verbal cues.  But the entire ensemble, too numerous to single out individually, was remarkable.  Same for the direction:  the 6 credited directors all contributed seamless, cohesive episodes; but I was especially impressed by the work of Kyle Patrick Alvarez (5, 6 and 13)  and Gregg Araki (7 and 8).   

Be aware that this is a difficult film to watch...there are very real psychological triggers throughout that could be traumatic and even dangerous for some.  But I doubt that I will watch anything else this year that has shattered my equilibrium and earned my respect as much as this film has.  Bravo!"