This controversial and well made series is bound to cause a lot of discussion on it's suitability for teenagers. The first thing that sets this TV series about teen issues like rape, bullying and suicide is that the treatment of it is totally serious and unflinching, far more so than anything that has come before. As an adult watching this I sometimes felt it is more suitable for adults to watch than teenagers even though it is about high school. It may be too sad and pessimistic for teenagers to watch without an adult perspective on the world. At the same time there are important lessons from the show for teenagers like how to treat other people and not to care too much about what your friends think of you. Tough call. The suicide and rape are quite affecting.

Does this advocate or glamorize or encourage suicide? It's also hard to say. Some people will follow what they see on screen just like a movie about bank robbery might encourage some to try to pull off a heist. Doesn't mean we shouldn't make movies about it. There are so many teen suicides and it's a good thing that a television program shows the different things that contribute to it so we can address them. It's of course sad that so many bad things happened to one girl and the school counselor couldn't help. These things are plausible but what strikes me as unrealistic is that with loving parents who were there for her she didn't mention a single problem to them or some other close relative or older friend. In fact it seemed that the parents of all the kids are not in communication with their kids at all and that's just too much. But this is a fault of the book and as a TV series what they did is adapt the book well. Censors take it easy does Anna Karenina cause people to throw themselves under a train? It takes a lot of factors coming together to cause suicide.

Some good acting here - some not so great. Kate Walsh as mother of the victim is restrained and effective - not overdoing her grief. Katherine Langford as the central character Hannah Baker is quite good. They didn't choose a stick thin conventionally beautiful actress and that's right. Having a plumper actress makes it more realistic and relatable. Although she looks tough because she isn't physically small doesn't mean she wasn't hurting. Dylan Minette as Clay the boy who loves her was a strange choice. His face is not that expressive and doesn't show enough range of emotions - I think another young actor might have handled it better. Brandon Flynn as Justin is actually the most expressive and moving actor among the supporting cast. The rest of the diverse cast is fine except Derek Luke as Mr Porter seemed a bit stone faced at a very dramatic moment. Most of the characters were a mixture of good and bad not one dimensional stereotypes and the actors are given quite a lot of material to work with.

One fault is how long Clay took to listen to the tapes - if he cared for her he would just listen to them quickly to find out what she was thinking.

Looking forward to season 2.