By Bryce Carter
BANGOR, ME- Television continues to move gradually towards the internet as Netflix’s new original show “13 Reasons Why” takes the world by storm. The series follows Clay, a high school student, who attends a school where one of his classmates, Hannah, takes her own life. Two weeks after Hannah’s tragic death, Clay finds a mysterious box on his doorstep containing a box of tapes made by Hannah where she explains the 13 reasons why she committed suicide. If Clay chooses to listen, he will find out if he made the list and how he did it. The show is based off of the young adult fiction book by Jay Asher published in 2007. The show was first released on Netflix on March 31st.
The success of this show is continuing the trend of television shows being released only on online streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. The show has received a great deal of praise and good reviews, receiving a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This comes after the success of 2016 science fiction Netflix original show “Stranger Things”. Netflix has also bought rights to shows and making new seasons themselves, most notably with popular Canadian mockumentary “Trailer Park Boys”. With streaming services such as Hulu also releasing their own original shows and movies, this could lead to more and more people turning to this format to get their television and turning away from traditional media. Standard television has seen a drop off, as people have cancelled their cable subscriptions, and just using Netflix or Hulu. This trend of online television shows may come to see the end of television as mainstream media, and classify it as outdated and old school media.
This success is not going away, either. “Stranger Things” has been confirmed as having a second season. Although it has not been confirmed yet, “13 Reasons Why” has been heavily speculated as having a second season on the way, only 2 weeks after its release date, but nothing has been officially announced. This shows that the success of these types of shows will not only continue, but also expand the platform of the internet as a main source for television and movie writers and producers to get content out there. As well as shows that are currently on television available on these streaming services as well, television has been rendered near obsolete. The internet is becoming the new norm for all media, and companies are going to have to start moving in this direction as a place to get their content seen by a majority of people.
“13 Reasons Why” season 1 is available for streaming only on Netflix, with all episodes released.