What is 13 Reasons Why, and should your children be watching it? A parent's guide to Netflix's controversial suicide drama
The Samaritans have damned it, Paris Jackson has told fellow teenagers to avoid it and New Zealand has banned teenagers from watching it alone. Netflix teen drama 13 Reasons Why has become the streaming service's most controversial show after depicting a high school student's suicide and the causes that contributed to it. Here's what you need to know:
What is 13 Reasons Why?
13 Reasons Why is Netflix's dramatisation of a novel by US novelist Jay Asher. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Brian Yorkey adapted it for the streaming service (which is available in the UK on smart TVs and through an online browser for a rolling monthly fee). It first aired on March 31.
What happens in it?
Without sharing too many spoilers, the series focuses on the suicide of high school student Hannah Baker (played by Katherine Langford), who, before her death, recorded a series of tapes which explained the circumstances that led to her death.
While at school, Hannah encounters a number of teenage traumas, such as being the subject of rumour about her sexual relations with one of the school's popular boys, falling out with her best friends without reason and having her trust broken.
Why is it controversial?
You were too late. #13ReasonsWhy
A post shared by 13 Reasons Why (@13reasonswhy) on Mar 22, 2017 at 1:53pm PDT
In the UK, there are strict guidelines around how suicide is depicted on screen. Ofcom states that "methods of suicide and self-harm must not be included in programmes except where they are editorially justified and are also justified by the context", while the BBC's editorial guidelines dictate that: "Care must be taken to avoid describing or showing suicide or self-harming methods in explicit detail, unless there is a clear editorial justification."
13 Reasons Why shows Hannah's suicide in detail, which has led to fears that such scenes may inspire "copycat" actions among young viewers. Furthermore, media guidelines from The Samaritans explain that "over-simplification of the causes or perceived ‘triggers’ for a suicide can be misleading and is unlikely to reflect accurately the complexity of suicide." Even with its title, 13 Reasons Why is reducing the complexity of suicide to a series of unfortunate, but relatively normal events in a teenager's life.
Why hasn't it been regulated?
Netflix isn't subject to UK media regulations such as Ofcom, despite being able to broadcast its shows here. This is something the Samaritans have lambasted Netflix for, saying:
It is extremely concerning that a drama series, aimed at a young audience, can be produced outside of the UK and made available to UK audiences and yet not subject to UK media regulation.
A report from Syracuse.com claims that psychologist Dan Reidenberg, executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, was contacted by Netflix for guidance. When he advised them not to go ahead with the project, he was told it "wasn't an option". Reidenberg said. "That was made very clear to me."
If anything, the lack of regulation allowed Yardley freer reign to create the show as he wanted, he told The Hollywood Reporter:
We had a unique platform being on Netflix to treat these stories with a level of truth that maybe other young-adult-oriented dramas haven't been able to do for whatever reason – whether it's wanting to get a PG rating, or being on a broadcast network. We feel indebted to shows like My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks, which set a really high standard for emotional truth for kids. We thought we could look unflinchingly at some of the really difficult things that teenagers actually go through and show them a little bit more unvarnished than other shows have had the opportunity to do. We thought we could be nakedly honest about these things and show them.
Netflix UK shows the BBFC categorisation of 13 Reasons Why, which is certificate 18.
What else has been said about it?
Paris Jackson, daughter of the pop star Michael, has warned her large teenage fan base off watching 13 Reasons why with an extensive post on blogging site Tumblr, which has been shared more than 95,000 times. Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in January, Jackson said that she had attempted suicide "multiple times".
Her post read:
Don’t watch it. Do not watch this f---- up mess of a show. Listen, I’ve been working in suicide prevention for almost six years, and I grew up in an area that had epidemics of teen suicides. The area is actually so well known that the show-writers and producers met with leading experts in the area on the ways that the media contributes to youth suicides – and then did almost everything they were warned not to do, even going so far as to actually show the suicide on-screen. Many of the experts that they’ve spoken with are expressing grave disappointment with how the show proceeded despite their advice.
If you’re suicidal, if you’re depressed, if you self-harm, and/or if you have any trauma associated with that, please do not watch this show. It was incredibly irresponsibly handled and puts people in very real danger.
What did the critics say?
13 Reasons Why met with a positive critical reaction when it was first released, enough to achieve an unusually high rating of 91 per cent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
US cultural website Indiewire explained that Netflix had reached a new low with the content of 13 Reasons Why, but "this is earned".
The New York Observer even praised how the show depicted the events that took place before Hannah's suicide, saying: "what 13 Reasons Why does is show that there isn’t ever really one reason that someone goes down such an irrevocable path, that there are many contributing factors... This is one of the things that make this series both timely and a piece that appears as though it will stand the test of time and stay relevant for years to come."
Time magazine praised the performances from 13 Reasons' Why's cast, although it acknowledged that it "may leave parents a bit queasy. Hannah's death is portrayed as the ultimate revenge, a message that seems ill-advised."
The New York Times, however, was more scathing: "We’re meant to see that there’s an emotional and practical order to these events... But the show doesn’t make [Hannah's] downward progress convincing. It too often feels artificial, like a very long public service announcement."
The Guardian summed up: "It’s too tied up in conveying the message that terrible behaviour can have horrible consequences to deal in any subtleties or shades of feeling".
What have Netflix said?
We're always watching someone. Following someone. And being followed.
A post shared by 13 Reasons Why (@13reasonswhy) on Apr 27, 2017 at 5:17pm PDT
The company released a statement to The Telegraph, saying: "We've heard from our members that '13 Reasons Why' has opened up a dialogue among parents, teens, schools and mental health advocates around the intense themes and difficult topics depicted in the show. Entertainment has always been the ultimate connector and we hope that 13 Reasons Why can serve as a catalyst for conversation".
What are authorities doing about it?
New Zealand has taken the most extreme approach so far, creating a new category of censorship to ensure that under-18s don't watch the programme without an adult.
The New Zealand Office of Film and Literature said in a statement:
New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the OECD, and mental health advocates are extremely concerned about the effect 13 Reasons Why could have on the teenagers around the country who are binge-watching it at just this moment. Her death is represented at times as not only a logical, but an unavoidable outcome of the events that follow. Suicide should not be presented to anyone as being the result of clear headed thinking.
So far, no authorities in the UK have released any viewing guidance for the show.
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