To anyone who has seen Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why,” they will tell you that for a show featuring teens, the show’s tone is pretty heavy. The small screen adaptation to Jay Asher’s highly successful Young Adult novel explores bullying, sexual assault, and suicide, something even members of the cast admit to having a difficult time to play out in some of the show’s tragic scenes.
Although each of the cast members utilized a coping mechanism to deal with the difficult scenes, The crew of Netflix’s hottest series offered a comforting alternative: therapy dogs.
Dylan Minnette, who plays Clay Jensen in the series, revealed to PopSugar, "I know there was one scene, I wasn't around, but they had therapy dogs on set. There was a puppy per hour. They really tried to help out. The puppies helped."
Katherine Langford, who plays Hannah in the series, added, “We cover so many intense issues. I also want to reiterate how much support was there for me. When I was shooting with Justin Prentice, who plays Bryce, there's a scene we do in episode 12 which is physically hard to do, just as a human being. I feel like so much of Hannah's life, especially the last five episodes, is so tragic that you just have to put that shock aside and get through it.”
Whatever the show’s good intentions were, the subject matters explored in “13 Reasons Why” did not sit well with suicide prevention groups. Dan Reidenberg, executive director for the non-profit Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), told ABC News, "I've heard from others that are really concerned because it's so sensational and so graphic that they're worried about the copycat effect of suicide.”
Advocate MollyKate Cline wrote an essay in Teen Vogue where she pointed out how the show failed to show Hannah telling other people about her suicidal thoughts. She also stressed that “13 Reasons Why” did not show if Hannah did indeed suffer from depression.
She wrote, “If the idea is to scare people into reaching out to someone when they need help, this show will definitely do it. However, my problem is that the audience is shown what not to do without examples of what they actually should do.”
Selena Gomez, who is on board as a producer, explains how they developed the book material into its small screen adaptation with such heavy topics in mind. She said, "We wanted to do it in a way where it was honest, and we wanted to make something that can hopefully help people, because suicide should never, ever, be an option."
