Netflix suicide drama 13 Reasons Why has been slammed by mental health groups

Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why has been slammed by mental health groups who have criticised the show’s depiction of suicide and warned vulnerable people against watching the show.

The teen drama, which has been produced by Selena Gomez, focuses on 17-year-old high school student Hannah Baker, who commits suicide and leave 13 tapes for the 13 people that she believes to have played a part in her death.

But after the show debuted in March, leading mental health organisations criticised the show’s depiction of suicide and warned that it could lead to an increase in deaths.

Dan Reidenberg, the Executive director of non-profit advocacy group Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, warned: ‘There is a great concern that I have… that young people are going to overidentify with Hannah in the series and we actually may see more suicides as a result of this television series.’

Showrunner Nic Sheff has now responded to the criticism in an open letter, and claimed that his own experience of attempting suicide shaped the show.

He wrote: ‘When it came time to discuss the portrayal of the protagonist’s suicide in 13 Reasons Why, I of course immediately flashed on my own experience.

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‘It seemed to me the perfect opportunity to show what an actual suicide really looks like – to dispel the myth of the quiet drifting off, and to make viewers face the reality of what happens when you jump from a burning building into something much, much worse.’

Despite the criticism, the show has received a series of positive reviews from critics – with Entertainment Weekly praising it as ‘a frank, authentically affecting portrait of what it feels like to be young, lost and too fragile for the world.’