SEARCY, Ar. (LP) — “Hey, it’s Hannah. Hannah Baker…” The TV series that started people talking. 13 Reasons Why came out March 31, 2017. Within the first three days of its release, 6.1 million viewers in the US watched it. Not too bad! But we aren’t here to talk about that, we are here to talk about if 13 Reasons Why should even be a show. From the beginning, the show has been very controversial. The first season of 13 Reasons Why has always received a widespread volume of hate and criticism for its graphic representation of suicide and sexual assault. The show took some steps to lower the criticism of suicide ahead of Season 2, including adding warnings and resources for vulnerable viewers, but still faced criticism for allowing Hannah to continue narrating her story despite her death.
So I asked around for various thoughts and opinions, starting with a local teacher at Searcy High School. “There is always the concern that if we talk about things like suicide, drug use, terrorism, etc., we are inviting people to participate in that behavior. However, I think the opposite is more often true: the more we talk about these hard subjects, the less taboo they become; the more we bring light to them, the less power they have; the more we are exposed to stories like Hannah’s, the less alone we feel when we experience similar things.” said Calandra Cook. In the month following the show’s debut, there was a 28.9% increase in suicides among ages ten through seventeen, said the study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The number of suicides was greater than that seen in any single month over the five-year period researchers examined. Over the rest of the year, there was 195 more youth suicides than expected given historical trends.
But can we actually do something about this? I asked Calandra Cook if she feels as if we can do anything about these teen suicides and how she thinks teens feel, “People are dying by suicide at increasing rates. People are hurting and dying every day because they don’t have the resources, the support, or the ability to get the help they need to learn how to cope with the depression, anxiety, 
trauma, or whatever else it is we are burdened with. Young brains are not equipped with the ability to deal with these hard things everything is big and important and necessary now. It’s hard for us to see past this hurt and understand that with time, we can learn how to maneuver through those storms. However, until society addresses these issues head on, instead of talking about them behind closed doors, I worry that young people will continue to feel helpless instead of empowered.”
While some people think the show speaks about about the truth of suicide, others think it glamorizes it. I interviewed a person about the topic, who would like to stay anonymous, “They sexualize the show, and fantasize, and make everything so much more dramatic. To me I think that promotes it, rather than stopping it. We need to find other ways to prevent it than by having Hollywood make a movie or series about it.” Some people praised the show for addressing serious issues like teen suicide, bullying and rape, while others accused the teen drama of sensationalizing these topics that can be very triggering to anyone who’s experienced these things. One scene in particular, which graphically depicted the lead Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) killing herself, was heavily criticized. The Netflix team then went on to reveal: “So on the advice of medical experts, including Dr. Christine Moutier, Chief Medical Officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, we’ve decided with creator Brian Yorkey and the producers to edit the scene in which Hannah takes her own life.” If you watch season 1, episode 13 now, you simply see Clay tell Mr. Porter: “she went into the bathroom and died alone.” The scene then cuts to Hannah’s parents finding her dead in the bath. You no longer see the horrifying sequence which show in detail how Hannah takes her own life.
“No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same.”
― Thirteen Reasons Why
