I’ve watched the first six episodes of 13 Reasons Why and I know why so many who fashion themselves adults despise it, and it has nothing to do with its likelihood of increasing suicide attempts.

No, it’s because it depicts teens as wantonly cruel and adults as willfully oblivious. In other words, it depicts reality.

It puts a spotlight on the barbarism and sadism that adults either ignore in their own kids or actually promote.

People don’t like the show because it’s too like life, too ready to focus on very real failures.

It’s not superheroes shooting lasers out of their eyes or virtuous teens uniting to defeat an evil empire. No, it’s a girl like millions of other abandoned by everyone around her, thrown to the wolves, and then told it’s her own fault or that she just wanted attention.

Only a show that touches on something real could cause such an outcry.

That’s the reason for the ban attempts and why people are attempting to derail a second season. The work is a real and unflinching indictment of them, our society, and its failures.