University administrators negotiated a deal with Netflix, in which Professor Wartella and her team would have autonomy in creating the questions and analyzing the data collected by a third party, even though Netflix partially funded the research. Ellen Wartella, the director of the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University. Netflix then released the research and infographics like one titled, “What Should Parents Be Watching? A Netflix Guide to Connecting with Your Teen.” If you want to have “a tough convo” about stress, you should watch “Grey’s Anatomy.” If you are trying to “find more in common” with your child, you should watch “Gilmore Girls” or “Friends.” If the goal is to “understand my teen,” Netflix says, watch “13 Reasons Why.”īy the fall of last year, Netflix took a more serious tack.
Simultaneously, Netflix executives enlisted Zeno Group, a public relations and marketing firm, to conduct a study that Netflix used to promote the idea that TV shows help parents and their kids to bond over difficult issues. But it also alarmed parents, mental health care professionals and school administrators who worried that the show glamorized suicide without providing meaningful context or relevant information for young viewers.
Based on the 2007 novel, “Thirteen Reasons Why,” by Jay Asher, the first season of the show became a viral sensation among teenagers and young adults, inspiring memes, “ promposals” and cassette-shaped slime. The first season of “13 Reasons Why” did spark its share of fraught discussions, much to the surprise of the producers and Netflix. “By shedding a light on these difficult topics, we hope our show can help viewers start a conversation,” says Katherine Langford, after introducing herself as the actress who plays the character Hannah Baker, the teenager whose suicide is the centerpiece of the show’s story line. The show’s stars address the camera directly, out of character, and issue trigger warning after trigger warning. Far more overt is the opening of the first episode of the new season, which begins streaming on Friday at 3:01 a.m. If the show’s writers were aiming for coy self-reference, they achieved it. “Movies and shows are a wonderful way to open up a dialogue,” one of the dads says to the other, as Courtney sighs, annoyed.
They flip through a stack of DVDs - all about lesbian relationships.
Wanting to be understanding, caring parents as the news ripples through town, her two fathers hold a family movie night.
In the second episode of the new season of Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why,” the high school student Courtney Crimsen publicly reveals that she is a lesbian.