Perhaps the most confusing thing of all when it comes to the official warning video being made for viewers that will air before the second season of 13 Reasons Why is that it is a current addition to a show that has been preceded by a long list of movies and shows that have dealt with the same subjects. This is why an argument for what’s going on with today’s youth is so important since the shows that have come before did in fact release when those who are teens today were still very young or not even born yet. But it’s still slightly frustrating that such a thing has to happen in the first place, despite the fact that Hollywood has seemed to make suicide seem more dramatic and romantic than it really should be.
Anyone remember Girl, Interrupted? How about the Virgin Suicides, or Cyberbullying, or any other film or show that’s come about that has to do with the kind of issues that 13 Reasons Why details? Few if any of those ever had to have a warning label put on them and the fact remains that suicides and incidents of abuse and bullying did not rise when these shows came about. So what is really going on these days? Why are kids under so much pressure and feel that the best way to end things is to just literally end them? We could talk all day about “back in my day” until the current generation was ready to simply pass out from the sheer boredom of it and nothing would seem to change. The average teen today seems to be under so much stress that simply talking about the wrong subject tends to set some people off. Were people tougher a few generations ago? Or were we repressed and didn’t allow these fragile emotions out of the box as much?
It seems to be a mix of both really since if you look back at TV shows and movies in the 80’s, 90’s, and even in the 2000’s there were those that dealt with the painful issues of suicide and abuse, but they were far different than they are now. With the continuing changes in society it seems that the younger generation is being given a much heavier toll to deal with, but those that are delivering it to them still don’t seem to understand just why the kids are reacting the way they do. Having to warn a person away from a show if they’re dealing with hard times in their life seems ludicrous to some folks since there are so many other shows and movies out there to watch that it shouldn’t be an issue. But Netflix is covering itself after the influx of suicides that occurred after 13 Reasons Why started up its first season.
At this point it seems like everything is soon going to come with a warning label to alert people that might not need to watch or experience something can look away, rather than make up their own mind.
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