DAVID WIEGAND
Media Rays
On TV
It’s curtains, at least for this season, for several shows tonight, including “Criminal Minds” on CBS at 9, “See No Evil ”on ID at 9, “Total Divas ” at 9 on E, “Black-ish” at 9:31 on ABC, “Comedy Jam ” at 10 on Comedy Central ,“Little Women: Dallas” at 10 on Lifetime and “Billy the Exterminator” at 10:30 on A&E. VH1 airs the special “Love and Hip-Hop Atlanta: Dirty Little Secrets 2” at 8 p.m.
TV NEWS
Netflix has renewed “13 Reasons Why” for a second season. Of course, that would be predictable for any series that got as much attention as this one did, but exactly how the second season will unfold is a huge question. If it continues the aftermath of Hannah’s suicide, does that mean Katherine Langford will be back? And how do the writers continue the aftermath in ways that don’t look like: “Well, we had a pretty big hit the first season so we’re just gonna play this thing out even longer, in spite of the fact that where else do you go with the story?”
The big question for the writers and showrunner is how to answer some of the negative reactions to “13 Reasons.” On the one hand, the show, based on the best-selling YA book by Jay
Asher, tells teenage readers how much damage bullying and insensitive remarks can do. On the other, though, the show does mythologize suicide, almost glamorize it. And the basic plot, that Hannah is able to narrate her own story after her death because she’s recorded tapes telling people how they contributed to her pain, lessens the finality of death.
Given the fact of a second season, I hope Netflix uses it to drive home the reality that suicide is not glamorous, that it is final and no way to “get back” at those who cause pain to anyone’s life. You think, “I’ll show them,” but here’s the thing: “They” go on living. “You” do not. The result of suicide, obvious though it may seem, is that you are dead. If you are a teenager, you never have the rest of your life to feel better about who you are. You may inflict incalculable pain on people who don’t get you, but you won’t have your own chance to prove that they were wrong to belittle or bully you. Hannah is not a pretty actress whose face you see and whose voice you hear on a TV show. “Hannah” does not exist. “She” is dead.