13 Reasons Why continues to explore difficult issues
Every so often a television show comes along and instantly captures the public imagination. Last year, the series in question was Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why.
This high-school drama, adapted from Jay Asher’s 2007 Young Adult bestseller, chronicled the events leading up to the death by suicide of 17-year-old Hannah Baker and the ensuing fall-out.
The subject matter ensured it would be enormously controversial — Hannah violently slits her wrists — while its exploration of predatory sexual behaviour in school foreshadowed the Me Too movement.
Now the opinion-splitting drama is back for a second season. The focus remains the death of Hannah and the horrific aftermath.
As the story resumes, Hannah’s parents are suing her school for failing to intervene in the bullying that preceded her death. Meanwhile Hannah’s classmate Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe) is trying to piece her life back together after being raped.
“Thirteen Reasons Why was the only acting experience I had had up until that point,” says Katherine Langford, the young Australian actress sprung from obscurity to play the lead.
“It was the hardest job you could ask anyone to do but also the best. The last two years have been really interesting — it’s a really condensed period.”
The show became briefly notorious when its treatment of self harm was seized upon.
Some sections of the press accused Netflix of glamorising suicide while in New Zealand under-18s were banned from watching it (“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,” the censor’s office had said) .
“There is a great concern that ... that young people are going to over identify with Hannah in the series and we actually may see more suicides as a result of this television series,” said the US-based Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, a nonprofit group working towards suicide prevention.
"I’ve heard from others that are really concerned because its so sensational and so graphic that they’re worried about the copycat effect of suicide,” he added.
Going into the project, the cast sensed the subject would generate a great deal of comment. And they appreciated there would be valid concerns. What troubled them was criticism, especially in the tabloids, from individuals who hadn’t sat down to 13 Reasons Why.
“It’s frustrating,” says Boe, who returns as Jessica. “How can you judge it without seeing it? Everyone has the right to their own opinion. But at least watching it before your opinion becomes the basis of a newspaper article.”
Filming had just started on season two when Me Too hit the headlines, with women coming forward with accounts of abuse, initially in the entertainment industry and then elsewhere.
“That was incredible. The [first articles] came out in the middle of filming,” says Boe.
“Jessica’s storyline is her road to recovery and it was so empowering to read the headlines every single day. It made me realise how relevant our show was — the parallels were uncanny.”
The charge that 13 Reasons Why sensationalised suicide is of course rejected by the cast. Boe points to a university study in the United States which concluded that parents and their teenage children who watched the series together were more likely to have a serious conversation about the topics it raised.
“It opens up a discussion and bridges the gap,” she says. “Teens today are living a very different life because of the internet and social media. We are able to have a more open conversation because of the show — to talk about the tough things we weren’t able to talk about before.”
“Season two takes place five months after Hannah’s death,” adds Langford.
“It’s Hannah’s parents versus the school. Through the course of the trial we hear from different people – we are focusing on the narratives of the other characters and [exploring] a lot of unanswered questions from season one.
"At the same time, a big thing this year has to do with healing and recovery and the journey of the other characters. It’s a very different Hannah for a multitude of reasons. Every time you see Hannah it’s through the eye of someone else — whether at the trial or in flashbacks.”
“We’re telling a very honest, unflinching story,” says Dylan Minnette, who plays Clay Jensen, Hannah’s close friend, whose reconstruction of the events leading to her death forms the narrative spine of the first season.
“It’s naturally quite dark most of the time. One of the main goals is to make sure we find those moments of light. It is important to show that as well.”
The story told in the original novel concluded at the end of series one. So the decision to return as Hannah was one that Langford entered into with a degree of nerves. She had no idea where it was all headed.
“I had to put a lot of trust in the directors,” she says. “Hannah is not the same Hannah as in season one. It’s been interesting and challenging for different reasons. It’s not based on the book. We’re in completely new territory.
“This time, Hannah was found over the course of the shooting.”
With the MeToo movement ongoing, Boe hopes the discussion of consent and responsibilty will encourage young men to interrogate their behaviour and that of their peers.
“Guys have the power. If they see a shitty friend doing something shitty, don’t just stand by and be the by-stander,” she says.
“If you see something, say something or do something. I really hope this will encourage guys to take a look at their actions and behaviour and say, ‘No I have the power to say something and step in’.
“What we touched on, with Jessica’s rape… it’s the most common type — the acquaintance rape, where it’s someone you know and someone else just watches it often.
"It happens, way way more often. I hope it changes behaviour.”
