Video review: "13 Reasons Why"

Here’s my hot take on Netflix vs. Amazon Prime in the streaming original content wars: Amazon is better at feature films, less great at TV-style episodic shows. Netflix excels at shows, though its feature films often leave much to be desired. (See -- or rather, don’t -- “Bright,” “Mute,” etc.)

“13 Reasons Why” is an ambitious Netflix streaming series that looks at teenage bullying and suicide in a thoughtful and mature way.

The concept was novel: the story opens with Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford), a smart but troubled senior, having just killed herself. Turns out she made 13 audio cassette tapes talking about why she did it, directly addressing the peers who contributed to her despair.

One tape for each episode of the show. The story unspools as a whodunit, but becomes something more.

Dylan Minnette plays Clay Jensen, the ostensible protagonist who is one of the last to receive the tapes. The deal is they have to listen to them, and pass them on to the next person, or a duplicate set will be released publicly, revealing their dark deeds.

We eventually learn that Dylan was in love with Hannah, though their tortured romance never found its way to full bloom. He’s shy, dweeby but with a heart of gold. However, most of Hannah’s other interactions were not nearly so positive. Labeled the school slut for dubious reasons, she found herself riding a train downbound into despair.

Her chief antagonizer was Bryce (Justin Prentice), the charismatic captain of the basketball team beloved by all. But even people Hannah thought were her friends, like sardonic Zach (Miles Heizer) and party girl Jessica (Alisha Boe), end up hurting her in the end.

Standing slightly apart from the group is enigmatic Tony (Christian Navarro), a blue-collar kid with his own set of secrets. He acts as the protector of Hannah’s legacy, safeguarding the tapes and serving as friend/counselor to Clay.

Like a lot of streaming shows I’ve encountered, “13 Reasons Why” has a tendency to start slowly, not really hitting its stride until the fourth or fifth episode. And the hour-long chapters occasionally tread water, with pivotal conversations constantly starting and being interrupted by circumstances in what plays as a transparent attempt to pad the running time.

Maybe “9 Reasons Why” would have sufficed.

Still, this is a smart, sensitive and well-told tale with some really solid performances. Anyone who remembers their teen years without rose-colored glasses can probably relate.

Video features are pretty good, and go beyond the interviews with cast and crew that were available on streaming Netflix at the time of the show’s release. They include these documentary shorts:

• “Hannah & Clay: An Unfinished Love Story”
• “Justin Foley: Not Your Typical Jock”
• “Discovering Jessica Davis”
• “Bringing the Book to Life”
• “13 Things About Me: Dylan Minnette and Justin Prentice”

Show:

Extras:

Review: "Nerve"

Ever since we had personal computers, Hollywood has been making movies about kids getting in a pickle playing with them. Back to Matthew Broderick nearly setting off nuclear annihilation in 1983’s “War Games” up to last year’s “Unfriended,” about a half-dozen teenagers being stalked on social media, we learn that irresponsible teens and powerful electronic devices are not a good mix.

And here comes the latest cyber-thriller, “Nerve,” which sounds ludicrous until we realize all the technology that makes Pokémon Go possible could easily be repurposed this way, and already exists in our smartphones. It’s about teens accepting dares to do increasingly dangerous acts, with the rest watching as ghoulish witnesses, egging them on with money and instant fame.

Emma Roberts and Dave Franco -- who I’d like to point out are ages 25 and 31, respectively -- play the main couple, thrown together by the “watchers” of Nerve. It’s an open-sourced game with no one controlling it but deadly democracy. The watchers pay money for a voyeuristic thrill, which is then given to the players as a reward. Refusing a dare, or failing to complete it, means you’re out of the game and lose all the dough you’ve won.

Roberts is Vee, a bookish sort who sticks to photography and pining for boys she’s too shy to even talk to her. Her best friend, Sydney (Emily Meade), is already a star in Nerve. She’s after the thrill more than the money, since she’s a trust-fund baby; early on she gets suspended from school for showing her tushie during the cheerleading performance.

Too afraid to even tell her mom (a harried Juliette Lewis) that she’d prefer to go to an art school in California than local commuter college, Vee takes up the challenge to play Nerve. Her first dare is simple enough: kiss a stranger. She selects Ian (Franco) because he’s sitting in a diner reading one of her favorite books. But it turns out he’s a player too, and soon the watchers have upvoted them into a pair.

There’s a fun sequence where they’re directed to Bergdorf’s in Manhattan to try on ridiculously expensive clothes, then their own clothes are swiped (the dare of another player) and they are directed to leave the store immediately.

Vee may like breaking out of her wallflower mode, but crosses the line at shoplifting a $4,000 dress. Fortunately, she notices a loophole that the dare doesn’t say anything about keeping the clothes. So they strip to their skivvies and make a run for it; it’s an endearingly silly and flirty moment. Roberts and Franco are over-the-top cuties.

But things get much darker quickly -- like, riding Ian’s motorcycle at 60 m.p.h. while he’s blindfolded -- and ratchets up from there to deadly levels. Plus, other players up the ante, including Ty (Colson Baker), a punk type who looks like he walked off the set of the latest “Mad Max” movie.

Sydney, meanwhile, is nonplussed about the competition from her sidekick. And Tommy (Miles Heizer), a nerdy sweetheart who’s badly concealing a crush on Vee, attempts a late rescue with his hacker buddies to crash the game.

Directed by Henry Roost and Ariel Schulman from a screenplay by Jessica Sharzer, based upon a novel by Jeanne Ryan, “Nerve” is decent disposable entertainment that really wants to be a cautionary tale.