In 2017, teen drama “13 Reasons Why” sparked controversy for its graphic depictions of suicide and sexual assault.
Parent organizations around the country issued statements sharing their concerns. Some schools even sent letters home, warning parents about what their children were watching.
For the series’ second season, now streaming on Netflix, showrunners have taken some measures to address their concerns. For example, each episode now begins with a sensitive-content warning video, telling viewers to seek help if they’re triggered.
But content-wise, not much has changed. Season 2 has a storyline that’s at least as jarring as the original (Season 1 depicted the aftermath of the suicide of teenager Hannah Baker, played by Katherine Langford) — and viewers are almost as outraged. Here’s what has parents up in arms.
Spoilers ahead for the end of Season 2.
At the end of the season, bully Montgomery de la Cruz (Timothy Granaderos) and his fellow jock friends attack the troubled Tyler Down (Devin Druid) in the bathroom and sodomize him with the handle of a janitor’s mop.
The scene plays out in brutal detail. And it pushes Tyler, who has already had a rough year, over the edge.
He later shows up to the school dance with a gun. Clay (Dylan Minnette) intercepts him and talks him down from carrying out a school shooting.
It’s a double-gut punch of a graphic rape scene and an unrealistically handled school-shooting scenario. Viewers took to Twitter to express their displeasure.
“13 Reasons Why was pushing it by graphically showing rape/suicide/heroin use but the bathroom scene in the last episode of the new season was shocking and disturbing and absolutely uncalled for, and I think the show should be taken off Netflix. There are kids watching that, too,” writes one Twitter user.
“The final episode of season 2 . . . super messed me up. If you can’t watch, DON’T. I wish someone else had warned me, because I couldn’t sleep after that,” writes another.
This week, the Parents Television Council — an organization that monitors media for sex, violence and profanity — urged Netflix to cancel the show.
“The content and thematic elements of the second season are even worse than we expected,” PTC president Tim Winter says, in a statement. “We would have liked to have 13 reasons for hope and redemption following the graphic suicide of the lead female teen character, but rather than providing a path forward, the season only provides cause for despondency.”