13 Reasons Why is a young adult American teen drama where Hannah (played by Katherine Langford) commits suicide and records the 13 reasons behind her death. Clay, her classmate, finds the recordings after two weeks that help him understand Hannah made the recordings.
In the second season, Liberty High’s students get in danger. Hannah’s parents file a complaint against the school district. Meanwhile, her recordings get available on the Internet. The third season has ‘Ani’ as the narrator. Clay is the suspect in Bryce’s murder. It shows how Bryce got affected by Hannah’s tapes.
The fourth season depicts the mental challenges faced by Clay after the death of Monty and Bryce. On the other hand, the other students get busy on graduation day.
It is a psychological thriller and mystery. The narrations made by Clay and Hannah are heat-wrenching. It got originally released for the US on Netflix on 31 March 2017. The producer is Joseph Incaprera, and the executive producers are Selena Gomez, Tom McCarthy, Michael Sugar, Marvin Matyka, and more. Leo Trombetta is the editor of the series.
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13 Reasons Why Controversy
The series provoked people already having suicidal thoughts. It contains bullying, molestation, self-harm, suicide, and disturbing graphic content. Thus, the series has gone far away from the guidelines in the case of suicide. According to medical professionals and researchers, it provokes teens and other vulnerable viewers to do the same.
It is said that other factors affect vulnerable people more than any show. However, the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry showed that the teen-suicide cases increased by 28.9% within 30 days of the series getting launched.
The first two seasons were more controversial than the third one. But, we cannot refuse that all seasons suffered due to the traces of the first one.
Netflix April 2021 All Movies & TV Shows – Coming seeks help from Northwestern University to survey teens and adults staying in New Zealand, the US, Brazil, Britain, and Australia. Of those 5,000 people, 25% considered the series a helping hand to face tough situations. The remaining demands more resources to deal with the trauma.
On the one hand, the series was the most-tweeted-about in 2017. On the other hand, internet searches related to suicide increased after the series was released. Similarly, when people searched for suicide-related topics on the Internet, it mentioned ’13 Reasons Why!’
Two families blamed the series for losing their daughters, and several other parents accused it of triggering suicidal thoughts in their children. The suicide prevention experts were disappointed by Hannah’s detailed cruel death and the fact that the makers could have boosted her mental health rather than show her end.
How Netflix Handled It
All seasons will have an introductory custom warning video and other resources to suppress the encouragement for suicide among vulnerable viewers, according to Netflix’s online post. Netflix’s Vice President, Bryan Wright, realizes their responsibility not to spread a negative message through the show.
The introductory video takes four cast members of the show who talk to the viewers as viewers themselves instead of actors. They say that the series is about handling tougher situations in life. However, viewers already going through the same are not recommended to watch it. On the other hand, the teen-viewers must watch it with trusted adults.
Netflix also shared a downloadable guide helping parents and teens through difficult scenes. The actors and experts will be present in the after-show video for the same.
Talking about medicating the wounds, the makers introduced a new narrator named Ani. She counsels Jessica and has been brought to clean the mess. She keeps defending Bryce without knowing his secret. So, several viewers find her annoying.
Bryce gets killed, and Ani guides police to narrow down the wide range of their search. She tells them everything she knows. However, they might not be Bryce’s murderers. Hannah cut her wrist and went into a pool of blood. This scene was shown during the finale of the first season.
Netflix edited the scene and depicted Hannah looking at her reflection in the mirror. That’s it! So, no suicide scene anymore.
A Few Positive Reactions
Not every person took the series negatively. Some viewers empathized with others watching it, whereas some apologized for their mistakes. The teenagers understood how their actions could affect others. It means a lot in the era where teenagers think only of themselves.
Selena Gomez’s Reaction
According to the executive producer of ’13 Reasons Why,’ Selena Gomez, the makers showed what was written in the novel. It was taken from the novel that goes with the same name written by Jay Asher. So, she was proud to see such a hard subject running smoothly.
She believes the series has shown what happens in society, whether or not we want to see it. She knows the content is hard to swallow, but the kids in the current world can face it. They do and say things that cannot get imagined by the previous generation.
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