Andrew Robinson
If you’re feeling down, worthless, or like your life doesn’t matter, please don’t hesitate to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255
Spoilers will be present in this article for both season one and season two, including both sexual assault and suicide. I will handle the most graphic, triggering scenes with careful words and will refrain from posting any links to the scenes themselves.
Please beware of potential triggering words and situations discussed in this article surrounding both sexual assault and suicide.
The second season of one of Netflix’s most talked about dramas, 13 Reasons Why, controversially dropped on May 18th, 2018 to a lot of uncertainty. After the events of the season one finale, which featured Hannah Baker’s horrifyingly graphic suicide, many wondered how the show would continue, and if it was necessary for the show to come back for a season two at all (it wasn’t). But, alas, 13 Reasons Why was a hugely popular show for Netflix – it was, in fact, one of the most tweeted about show of 2017 – so the streaming giant decided to bring it back for another go-around.
I watched the first season of 13 Reasons Why soon after it was released last spring, and found myself caught up in the drama and sadness of watching a high-school-aged girl make a series of decisions and interact with a variety of people that ultimately drives her to suicide. I finished the 13-episode season within about a week, and was haunted by many of the events of the season, specifically the two graphic sexual assault scenes, as well as the aforementioned suicide scene. Once I reached the ending of season one – and, truly, what should have served as the ending of the entire show – I was emotionally spent and thought (initially) that I had just watched a daring, important show.
Katherine Langford is haunting and brilliant as Hannah Baker; she carries the show throughout its first season, as many of the other actors, in my opinion, simply are not good, engaging, or believable. The plot itself is also fairly unique, as the present day in the show is after Hannah’s death, but one of her grieving friends, Clay Jensen, is mysteriously given tapes that Hannah made before she died. These tapes, Hannah says on the first one, chronicle the series of events that ultimately led her to committing suicide. As a result, much of the show is shown through flashbacks, after the viewer (and Clay) hears Hannah’s most recent tape.
So, the plot is intriguing, Langford is brilliant as one of the two leads and, despite many of the other actors not being up to par, I initially enjoyed the show. Furthermore, despite being adamantly against a second season, I planned to watch season two when it was released earlier this month.
So, why have my thoughts changed so dramatically? I’ve identified two main issues.
It Glorifies Suicide
With a focus on season one, let’s dive into this issue.
Reflecting on the series as 2017 moved along and turned into 2018, I started to realize a major thing that 13 Reasons Why never really acknowledged: the show completely glorifies an act that should never, ever be portrayed in a positive light. By choosing to have Hannah “live on” through the tapes, the show toes the line between portraying the heartbreak felt by loved ones after someone commits suicide and portraying the act itself to be a way to “live,” even after death. In fact, according to 13 Reasons Why, suicide is a viable way to get others to finally notice you; to make you the talk of the school, town, and fellow students. Suicide should never be portrayed as a good option for struggling people (especially struggling teenagers), and 13 Reasons Why, through many scenes, portrays the act itself as the only way to be heard; to be noticed. The tapes that Hannah leaves behind – the “13 reasons why” she committed suicide; the 13 people to blame – only perpetuate this narrative.
As Clay listens to each tape throughout season one, viewers see the horrifying things that happen to Hannah – the things that ultimately drive her to suicide. While unique from a storytelling perspective, the presence of these tapes can send the wrong message to struggling young people that watch the show, as the fact that those horrific things that happen to Hannah are rarely discussed or reported when she was alive can make struggling viewers believe that committing suicide (and leaving a note, tape, etc.) is the only way to expose the bullies, predators, rapists, or tormenters for what they are. This article explains the issue in more depth than I am able to, but the gist is that 13 Reasons Why breaks many of the accepted ways to portray suicide, instead doing things such as simplifying the complexity of the suicide, romanticizing the suicide by Hollywood-izing it (essentially by including a simply, logical plotline leading to the act), portraying the actual suicide in a horrifyingly graphic light, and portraying the act as a logical, understandable outcome, given the circumstances.
Put simply, Hannah’s plotline in 13 Reasons Why is portrayed in a very dangerous, potentially-suicide-empowering light that puts the wrong message in the heads of the viewer, whether that viewer is suicidal or not. The show, through Hannah’s tapes, shows her suicide to be the result of events A, B, C, D, etc., providing a simple, “logical” plotline for her heartbreaking decision. This is a dangerous way to portray suicide, as viewers are presented with what may seem to be a logical series of events that result in a logical decision to end one’s life. Through this, 13 Reasons Why glamourizes suicide, presenting it as an understandable path to take when it should, in fact, never be presented as logical, no matter the setting. Furthermore, by including graphic scenes of sexual assault (one carried out on Jessica, witnessed by Hannah, and one carried out on Hannah herself) and the horrifyingly graphic suicide scene in the season one finale, 13 Reasons Why opens its viewers up to harm, as most suicide attempt and sexual assault survivors, as well as loss survivors, are highly susceptible to graphic depictions of both sexual assault and suicide. While the show does include content warnings, it goes above and beyond what is necessary in portraying these acts, seemingly unaware of the fact that many of its viewers are highly impressionable minors who may never have seen such graphic depictions of either act (more on this later).
By having much of the action occur in flashbacks after we hear each of Hannah’s tapes, 13 Reasons Why portrays Hannah’s eventual decision to commit suicide as a way to “expose” those who wronged her; as a way for her to get vindication or justice. As the article attached above indicates, however, it is impossible for her to achieve this sense of vindication, as she is deceased. Yet, by portraying the show in this context, 13 Reasons Why may be sending a message to troubled viewers that committing suicide is the way to go – it will result in a sense of justice – when, in fact, this is both simply impossible and an extremely dangerous thing to place in the heads of troubled viewers.
The counterargument here is that 13 Reasons Why portrays Hannah’s suicide so graphically in an attempt to show audiences how violent the act truly is. While I was initially on board with this reasoning, after extensive research and reflection, I have flipped sides. Truthfully, I have never been suicidal, and am thus less qualified to answer on this issue that someone who may have experienced severe depression and/or suicidal thoughts in either themselves or loved ones. Therefore, instead, I will present you with this heartbreaking article from May 23rd, 2018 that details a suicide pact held by four teenagers, seemingly egged on as a result of 13 Reasons Why, plus this psychologist’s thoughts on the show’s first season.
It is Unnecessarily, Ridiculously Graphic
I will preface this by saying I am a huge horror movie fan, and have seen some pretty messed up stuff portrayed on television in my day (those international horror movies – Raw comes to mind – can get insane). However, even I, someone who has nearly seen it all, was left feeling ill after watching 13 Reasons Why‘s portrayal of sexual violence against both Jessica and Hannah in season one. Both horrific, unforgiveable acts were committed by the same person – fellow student Bryce Walker – and both are uncomfortably long scenes of sexual assault. What is most concerning for me regarding this is the fact that 13 Reasons Why is a show meant for teenagers to watch. While it does carry an TV/MA rating, the producers are not shy about wanting to appeal to the teenage demographic, and they market for that specific age group. Why, then, are they comfortable with showing not one, but two graphic scenes of sexual assault (plus flashbacks to those events), with full knowledge that their targeted age demographic is 13-18-year-olds? Despite having content warnings before each episode that tells the audience that a sexual assault will take place, there is a major difference between insinuating that a rape has taken place, and doing what they did. Usually, I am willing to accept a show’s willingness to go a more uncomfortable route in its storytelling (Big Little Lies comes to mind), but when the show is clearly marketed for children – no matter if they’re teenagers or not – the producers must be mindful of their young audience, and must adjust accordingly. 13 Reasons Why does not do any of this, and portrays rape in a graphic, upsetting manner that can easily scar the young, or those who have experienced such a heinous act.
The same can be said for Hannah’s suicide at the end of season one. Everyone knows that the scene is coming – there’s no way to avoid it – but 13 Reasons Why portrays her suicide in the most graphic manner I have ever seen suicide portrayed on screen, and that’s not an exaggeration. Through all the horror movies, dramas, horror television shows, and dramatic television shows that I have watched, never in my life have I seen a suicide portrayed as graphically as Hannah’s in 13 Reasons Why. Never. This got me thinking about how I am a hardened entertainment viewer who has never experienced suicidal thoughts; what must those who have not seen as much carnage on TV and/or have experienced massive depression and/or suicidal thoughts have thought when they watched that graphic suicide take place, especially given the fact that many of 13 Reasons Why‘s viewers are minors? A scene as graphic as Hannah’s suicide cannot really be prefaced by a simple content warning, as it is just so unheard of for a show to portray suicide as graphically as 13 Reasons Why does in that scene. This leaves little reason to believe that the content warning before the episode would sway people from watching the episode; they would have no reason to believe that the suicide would be portrayed so graphically, and would likely want to finish the show, unaware of just how graphic the scene will prove to be. This can lead to the suicide being triggering and/or shocking for the people watching the series who may be more prone to negative thoughts and influences. Given the fact that 13 Reasons Why markets itself largely to the teenage population, I believe it is both unnerving and dangerous that the show chooses to go such a graphic route in its sexual assault and suicide scenes.
What is the most upsetting of all, however, is the fact that 13 Reasons Why learned absolutely nothing after its first season concluded.
I watched the first ten minutes of the first episode of the second season before disgustedly turning off the show. In those ten minutes, it was blatantly evident that the show had learned nothing from its previous missteps, mostly season one’s (unintentional, yet still prevalent) glamorization of suicide. In those ten minutes, it is clear that Hannah is still a focal point of the show and of her classmates, despite committing suicide months earlier – this can lead depressed/suicidal individuals to believe that they will be remembered forever (or at least for a long time) if they do commit suicide, potentially heightening their probability of committing suicide by essentially making Hannah a legend that will seemingly never be forgotten.
Despite turning off the show and refusing to watch any more of it, I did look up the ending to the series, both for the purposes of this article and due to the general curiosity that accompanies a controversial show that never should have had a second season in the first place. I was horrified by how 13 Reasons Why decided to end its second season, and it proves that the show learned absolutely nothing from the relative outrage that it saw after season one was released.
Tyler Down, one of the more background characters of season one who was shown at the end of that season to have multiple loaded weapons (with the insinuation that he may become a school shooter) is brutally raped by three other students in a school bathroom, causing him to go over the edge, planning to shoot up the school. He is eventually talked out of it by Clay, who forgoes calling the police, instead deciding to play hero in a situation where trying to play hero is just about the most absurdly wrong thing he could have done.
Let’s tackle the absolute ending first, and then circle back around to the rape.
By having Clay forgo calling the police when he realizes that Tyler’s end goal is to shoot up the school, instead looking to diffuse the situation himself, 13 Reasons Why sends an extremely dangerous message in a time where American schools and children are, heartbreakingly, having to deal with the potential of a school shooter on a very real level. Essentially, the ending of season two promotes trying to diffuse an armed, extremely dangerous student oneself, rather than calling the authorities and potentially preventing the act of school violence before it even happens. This is a very dangerous message to promote, especially given the young, impressionable viewers of the show, yet 13 Reasons Why again decides to go the controversial, societally-unsafe route. It makes absolutely no sense for Clay to do this, and by having him miraculously succeed, the show promotes ignoring the obvious helpfulness of involving the authorities before even one bullet has been shot, instead showing viewers that a single, untrained student is better equipped to talk down a school shooter than those who have trained all their lives to do so. 13 Reasons Why decides to go the dramatic route rather than the safe, albeit less exciting, one, and this can send a really dangerous message to those who watch the show.
Warning: The next few paragraphs include a summary of the graphic rape of Tyler in a school bathroom. It may be triggering to some.
Now, back to the rape of Tyler in the school bathroom. Most comments I have read online suggest that this scene is easily the most graphic scene included on the show, and is borderline-unwatchable due to its gruesome, nausea-inducing nature. Tyler is brutally beaten and drowned multiple times in toilet water. He is then sexually assaulted with an inanimate object, screaming in pain as the event occurs, before audio is cut out.
I have not watched the scene myself, nor do I plan on doing so. However, from that description, I think I have an accurate representation of what happened to Tyler. Clearly, 13 Reasons Why decides to go the route of shocking the audience, rather than learning from their mistakes from season one and creating a less controversial, more socially aware show. The fact that the scene is so incredibly graphic and detailed proves the fact that 13 Reasons Why is not a show attempting to help educate the public on suicide and sexual assault; it is simply a show that wants to be shocking for the sake of being shocking and, as a result, get more people to watch. Many of the comments on the scene itself that I have read indicate that the scene left viewers nauseated and absolutely shocked. Just like Hannah’s suicide in the season one finale – and perhaps to an even larger extent – no content warning label can prepare an audience member, let alone the age range that 13 Reasons Why aims to appeal to – for a rape that graphic and that brutal. Including that scene to the extent that it is shown is simply unnecessary, extremely disturbing, and dangerous.
I read an interview of one of the people involved in the show where (s)he claims that people are only more disgusted with that rape scene than the ones involving Jessica and Hannah because the one in question involves male-on-male rape (I don’t remember the interviewee or interviewer – I only truly remember the answer to this question because of its ignorance – or I’d include a link). Statements like this are what tell me loud and clear that 13 Reasons Why simply isn’t attempting to help educate the public; it just wants to create controversy and boost its viewership. The rapes of Jessica and Hannah in season one are disturbing, brutal, and over-the-top, yes, and there is no sense of comfort watching them, nor should they have been shown with such brutality to such a young audience. The rape of Tyler, however, is on another level, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it is male-on-male. He is literally beaten to a pulp, drowned in toilet water, and sodomized with a broomstick, all largely on-screen. How this scene could have passed through so many people, including Netflix producers, with its graphic, upsetting, and nauseating nature is beyond me. This, of course, doesn’t excuse the excessiveness and horrific nature of Jessica and Hannah’s rapes, but it puts the show on a level that I don’t think anyone thought it would go, especially considering the public outrage of season one’s graphic nature.
Wrap-Up
13 Reasons Why is incredibly graphic, and clearly (to me, at least) only wants to shamelessly continue its graphic nature in an attempt to get more viewers. I don’t believe it cares about educating the public on sexual assault and suicide; it just wants to be shocking. The graphic, horrifyingly violent rapes of Jessica, Hannah, and Tyler, and extreme amount of detail and blood present in Hannah’s suicide prove this. The fact that 13 Reasons Why knows darn well who is watching the show, and even targets that 13-18-year-old audience, yet still includes all of this over-the-top, excessive brutality is downright shameful. The show never should have had a second season greenlit, and it honestly shouldn’t ever have been produced at its massive levels of sexual violence, violent suicide, and glamorization of suicide.
Despite being bingeable and dramatic, 13 Reasons Why is an extremely dangerous show that has no business being available for the public to watch.
