WILL THIRTEEN REASONS WHY SHOCK AGAIN?
13 Reasons Why is the most controversial teen drama ever – so will the second season be just as scandalous?
Commentators worried that viewers might copy what they saw on screen
Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why was always bound to cause a stir. Adapted from a best-selling young adult novel involving sexual assault, abuse, bullying and suicide, the TV series did not hold back in depicting such raw and distressing subject matter. Indeed, the show’s first season – which explored the death of student Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) – was so controversial, it sparked a furore when it dropped on Netflix last March, with some arguing the show was “dangerous”. Certainly, it all felt a very long way from Dawson’s Creek. Now, with the second series imminent, Netflix is taking steps to ensure the response this time isn’t so incendiary. But what made the series such a hot potato in the first place?
PROBLEMATIC PREMISE
The show’s concept is both its unique selling point and the root of the criticism. The title refers to 13 tapes Hannah left behind, detailing why she decided to take her own life, and blaming a number of her peers. Netflix described the series as a “mystery”, which implied suicide is a puzzle that can be solved. But mental health campaigners like Mark Henick, who penned a CNN article criticising the show, pointed out that such storytelling risks “simplifying” suicide by “suggesting that bullying alone is the cause.” Henick also accused the show of romanticising the act of suicide by placing it at the centre of the story arc. It didn’t help that the show’s exec producer, pop star Selena Gomez, described the story as “beautifully tragic”.
As well as its central suicide-related storyline, 13 Reasons Why’s first series also depicted scenes of sexual assault in fairly graphic detail, along with the moment when Hannah took her own life.
The latter scene provoked much of the controversy because showing the specifics of how a person might kill themselves is considered dangerous in itself, with the possibility that young people might copy what they see on screen. Headspace, an Australian youth mental health organisation, even issued a warning bulletin when the first series arrived on Netflix, titled “Dangerous Content In 13 Reasons Why”, highlighting the phenomenon of “suicide contagion”.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
Of course, not all responses to the first season were critical. Forbes described 13 Reasons Why as “Netflix’s best new show in years,” and Hollywood
Reporter praised it as “thoughtful”. Having swiftly become such a cultural phenomenon, the producers are being very careful in how they approach season two.
Suicide won’t feature in the storyline for the new run, but there will be a plot revolving around serial sexual assaults. The streaming service will also make new resources available to viewers via a website, 13Reasonswhy.info, which will include videos where cast members address issues covered by the series, including bullying, sexual assault and drug abuse. Meanwhile, we can reveal that the new season will replace the first series’ ingenious storytelling device of the 13 tape recordings with Polaroid photographs, with Netflix revealing that “a series of ominous Polaroids” will lead Clay and his classmates to uncover “a sickening secret and a conspiracy to cover it up”.
Sounds like powerful stuff.