Tape 1 Side A

13 Reasons Try

"That ship has sailed, don't you think?"

The titles have a quirky feel and a carefree ditty - like JUNO

Welcome visitor and NETFLIX binge-watcher alike. If, like me, you've started watching this new series, you'll probably already be involved a great deal in the story that we are introduced to in episode 1.

If you're a fan of the C90 cassette from the 80s, you'll appreciate that each episode - if it were entirely spoken aloud - would last just 45 minutes (plus the header tape and the auto-shut off to finish). However, the episodes last nearly an hour.

In this opening episode we're given two time periods briiliantly interlaced. One is set after the whole school has spent some time mourning Hannah/being counselled/wanting to get back to normality and the other is set shortly after Hannah has arrived in the unnamed town.

We follow Clay from the start of school to the middle of the night: staring at an empty seat (a la Kirk); daydreaming through the school day (a la Twin Peaks); and cycling hazardously at night (a la ET).

At some point, probably delivered by hand, a named parcel of 13 cassettes arrives at the door - each vibrantly decorated and accomapanied by a road map to help bring the spoken tale to life. There's a double sting to this 'gift': first is the narrator is dead, and second is the narrator requires the listener to follow the instructions in order to avoid being publically named as a reason the narrator is dead.

This brings up the unnerving thought that some sort of watcher is going to make a decision that the listener is either following instructions or is ignoring them. That makes the plan fallible - so I'm interested to see how this plays out.

These gorgeous blue lockers frame several short scenes in the opening episode

Tape 1 Side B

13 Reasons Try

You Are Not Alone

The ghost of Hannah haunts Clay - and the corridors of Liberty High

Glowing white, like Laura Palmer 25 years before her, glorious Hannah is fresh in our minds as we end the first side, flip the cassette over and continue to listen to her revelations.

It's more apparent in the second episode that there are two colour palettes used in the increasingly run-together time periods: the first is a slightly over-warm hue suggesting hope; the second is washed out and grubbier, suggesting despair and a descent into oblivion.

Jessica is the featured character on side B, a friend who starts the school at about the same time as Hannah - and the two get along brilliantly: the humour and the cluelessness of the subject of the humour works really well here. The pair continue to be enjoyably watchable as we see their "hot-chocolate friendship" blossom.

Soon, a third character - and the subject of Tape 2 side A - "Alex Alex Standing" joins the three with his signature "coffee drink du jour". The dynamic changes a little and it's clear this trio could become the heart of the programme, but before long Hannah tells us Jessica and Alex have hooked up secretly and have stopped coming to Monet's diner - at least that's what Hannah wants us to believe.

At the cinema, Hannah is later being kind to her lonely friend Jessica, when the arrival of Alex makes her have an abrupt change of attitude.  Hannah repays the dishonesty of her friends with the awkward imposition of a ticket price.

Clay bugs me in this episode by tearing off the corner of his Skittles bag. There's no need to litter - especially at your place of work. Also, he is sporting a plaster on his forehead now, as if the audience was struggling to follow the time periods.

Clay and Hannah shine while the moon gets slightly darker