by Abigail Koppisch
In 2007, contemporary novel writer, Jay Asher, published his first novel entitled, 13 Reasons Why, which is a New York Times and International best selling young-adult fiction novel. The novel had become such a hit that Universal Studios had purchased the film rights to the novel on February 8, 2011. And on October 29, 2015, Netflix announced that they’d be making a television adaptation of the book. The news spread like a wild fire, more especially amongst the teens that once raved over the novel. On March 31, 2017, viewers from all over the globe couldn’t hold their excitement in as they saw the banner on Netflix to the tv series and the link to the first episode in the menu section. I remember being at school that day, heart beating, foot tapping, my eyes fixated on the clock ticking until it reached 2:00 p.m when I heard everybody’s plans to turn on the show the moment they walked inside their houses that afternoon as I was exiting the building swiftly. Little did I know through all of the hype built up around this one show that 13 Reasons Why would stir up a large controversy that it was not intending to.
The show centers around main character, Clay Jenson, who is portrayed by Dylan Minnette, a seventeen-year old who attends Liberty High school and his grief after losing his close friend, Hannah Baker, who is portrayed by Katherine Langford, to suicide. One day Dylan received a box of thirteen tapes that he, when played, discovered Hannah Baker had actually taped herself. It is revealed that Hannah recorded the tapes to tell her turmoil in her life that caused her to end her life, with each tape being about a different person who had a part in her decision. At the beginning of each tape Hannah made each listener clear on what the instructions are that she assigned: that after listening to the tapes the listener must pass it on to the next person who she recorded a tape for and that all listeners must keep the tapes strictly to the ones on them and not let anybody on the outside know about the tapes. Eventually, Clay Jenson brings the tapes to attention which then unravels the whole story as to what exactly caused Hannah Baker to follow through with her decision.
The Netflix tv series got a plethora of positive reviews, yet triggered one serious controversy that got the media’s attention. All over the globe, mental health experts criticized the show’s message. What the show intended to convey is how real and common suicide is. Andrew Salmon who wrote a blog for The Odyssey wrote the message “is that you have an effect on people around you. Your actions have consequences. Here are the tapes—here is the proof. Here is what you can do better.” The purpose was to bring suicide to light, as Hannah Baker did by constructing the thirteen tapes for her perpetrators to hear. I think we can all agree that Hannah Bakers method of bringing her suicide to light is distinctive and hasn’t and isn’t common amongst people to commit suicide, and thats what filmmakers and Jay Asher hoped would make the message more powerful. How throughout the novel and the tv series, we get to see the effect that Hannah’s suicide not only had on her loved ones, but her perpetrators as well. They hoped to give the public a view on the effects it could have on the perpetrators which is almost never shown.
Actress Kate Walsh, who played Hannah Baker’s mom, Olivia Baker, mentioned in numerous interviews how strongly she feels about the show’s message and doesn’t think the show glamorizes teen suicide. She is among the very few who believe the show does not bring suicide to the spotlight in a negative way. She feels as though the show got its point across that it intended to and spread more awareness about the issue than it did harm to the public and viewers watching it. Ben Philippe wrote to Observer saying, “Of the accusations that 13 Reasons (now renewed for a second season) glamorizes teen suicide, Walsh disagrees, though she understands why the graphic on-screen suicide of teenager Hannah Baker—a stirring still shot that launched think pieces across the web—generated heated debate.” In one scene during the first season of the show, there is a graphic scene of Hannah’s suicide. Many point to this being possibly triggering for some viewers who may have had a history with self harm or depression. Although, Walsh says the scene wasn’t needed and could have easily been left out to get the message they wanted to get across across stating, “I personally feel like that there could be a lot more romanticizing or projection if you don’t show that. You got this beautiful actress Katherine [Langford], who is such an amazing human inside and out… I feel like you could easily project this melodrama and forget the physical horror. It’s a painful and violent act; the furthest thing from romantic.” Many agree that the graphic scene along with others on the same line could have been distracting from the real message and the mood of the show. By that point in the first season, it had been made clear that Hannah Baker had experienced her deepest pit in the turmoil and it was obvious by the way Langford went about changing Baker’s personality so flawlessly to a more melancholy side that could have gotten the message across in a more melodramatic fashion instead of including the graphic scene.
Some say the release of 13 Reasons Why sparked a contagion effect, where increased coverage of suicide in the media leads to a related increase in suicide attempts. By the end of July 2017, just four months after the release of the tv show, the effect was already becoming apparent. By this point, the show was being loudly criticized by suicide-prevention experts all over the globe who were concerned this effect would eventually lead to copycat attempts. Sophie Gilbert brought about shocking statistics in The Atlantic stating, “Google queries about suicide rose by almost 20 percent in 19 days after the show came out, representing between 900,000 and 1.5 million more searches than usual regarding the subject.” Those Google queries included “hot to commit suicide,” “suicide hotline number,” and “teen suicide.” The most frequent Google query of those being “how to kill yourself.” Researchers were skeptical that the Google searches could have been linked to an increase in suicide as there was a definite correlation between the two. They concluded, “13 Reasons Why, in its present form, has both increased suicide awareness while unintentionally increasing suicidal ideation.”
When the producers of the show became aware of the controversy stirring up around the contagion effect, they decided to change something for the upcoming season before its release on May 18, 2018 stating “We always believed this show would increase discussion around this tough subject matter,” the company said. “This is an interesting quasi-experimental study that confirms this. We are looking forward to more research and taking everything we learn to heart as we prepare for Season 2.” While season one contained three “viewer discretion is advised” warnings in front of graphic episodes, experts requested there to be more warning messages for the upcoming season. Netflix added a message to the very first episode of the show that encouraged viewers to reach out to the suicide prevention network The Samaritans which is an organization devoted to suicide prevention in the New York City and Metropolitan area. Along with the warning messages, actors from the show including Minnette, Alisha Boe, who plays Jessica Davis, Justin Prentice, who plays Bryce Walker, Brandon Flynn, who plays Justin Foley, and Ross Butler, who plays Zach Dempsey, all gave messages at the end of each episode recommending that viewers suffering from depression or suicide ideation seek help as well as warn viewers that the following material in the episode may be graphic.
Netflix decided to decline all interview requests from the Atlantic regarding the season season and while mental-health experts advised the first season of the show to be taken off Netflix, Netflix and the producers of the show disregarded the advice and left season one up on Netflix claiming that the show raises awareness about suicide and clears up stigmas that revolve around the subject. Many studies have shown that focusing public attention on suicide without taking efforts to minimize the harm that it may cause to any viewers could be counterproductive to the message that the show is trying to get across to its viewers. This counter productivity could eventually even be dangerous according to Dr. Dan Reidenberg who is the executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. He states that the show “has definitely started a conversation about suicide, but it hasn’t been the right one.”
Season two of 13 Reasons Why concluded with a complete different direction that season one was took in 2017. The season focuses more on other subject matter than suicide that revolved around season one, yet it had one thing in common. The season contained even more graphic scenes than season one. Phyllis Alongi, the clinical director of the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide stated, “I do understand producers want to bring issues like this to forefront, but it was not necessary to be so graphic,” Alongi said, adding that the series has “touched on every single negative issue that there is that could involve teens.” Alongi feels teens would also feel compelled to take matters into their own hands like how the characters in the show do.
Many more professionals and experts like Alongi agree that the subject matter of 13 Reasons Why has indeed started a contagion effect. And they are prepared to examine the statistics of what season three will effect, which is set to be released during the summer of 2019. I feel as though the popular Netflix series had the right idea in mind, although could have achieved that same message that they intended on delivering to the public without the graphic scenes all throughout the first two seasons.
The controversy revolving around the show draws connections to the first amendment in which the producers of the show felt that the graphic scene in season one and the decision to leave the first season up while season two was being released was perfectly okay. The first amendment states that we have the freedom of speech, so according to that, some supporters of the show may believe the show has the right to broadcast the content that it does. In my opinion, if something is being broadcasted out to the public, it needs to be aware of what exactly it is displaying. The intended message might not get across the same way as the producers may intend and there are just so many possibilities when posting something for the public to see. Just like the internet, it isn’t written in pencil, it is written in ink so whatever is posted for the public to see, will have a lasting effect and has a chance to be interpreted in many ways. Knowing this, the producers should have been more careful with the content of the show and how exactly they get their message across. Yes, it is against the first amendment to hold back any intended ideas for the message 13 Reasons Why was trying to communicate to the public, but a bit more consideration of what the public may interpret their message as could have been more thought out.
There has been more than enough data recorded to determine that 13 Reasons Why may certainly have caused a contagion effect, yet we will have to wait and see if Netflix and the show’s producers are willing to make a true difference on the effect it’s having on the public.
Bibliography
“13 Reasons Why”, Penguin Group (USA), 2017, “http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/thirteenreasonswhy.html”
Gilbert, Sophie, “Did 13 Reasons Why Spark a Suicide Contagion Effect?”, The Atlantic, Aug 1, 2017, “https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/13-reasons-why-demonstrates-cultures-power/535518/“
Kutner, Max. “Suicide Prevention Expert on ’13 Reasons Why’: ‘Contagion is a Real Concern Here.’, Newsweek, 2 May, 2017, “https://www.newsweek.com/netflix-13-reasons-why-suicide-contagion-experts-593367”
Philippe, Ben. “Kate Walsh: ’13 Reasons Why Does Not Glamorize Teen Suicide’”, Observer, 19 July, 2017, “https://observer.com/2017/07/kate-walsh-girls-trip-profile/“
Salmon, Andrew. “The Real Message Behind ’13 Reasons Why’”,Odyssey, 24 Apr, 2017, “https://www.theodysseyonline.com/13-reasons-interview”