Even some people actually involved with 13 Reasons Why are criticizing the show.
Indie rock band Car Seat Headrest, led by frontman Will Toledo, had contributed a song to the soundtrack of the controversial and popular Netflix series. The group slammed the show on Twitter Sunday.
"As someone who contributed to the soundtrack for 13 Reasons Why, I am obliged to tell you all that it's kind of f--ked," read one post on Car Seat Headrest's Twitter feed Sunday. "Writers: please don't tell kids how to turn their miserable and hopeless lives into a thrilling and cathartic suicide mission."
The teen drama, co-produced by Selena Gomez, focuses on the mysteries behind the suicide of a bullied high school girl name Hannah Baker, who leaves behind cassette tapes to the people she blames for her death. The show has stirred controversy over its graphic depiction of suicide as well as its portrayal of sexual assault and its overall message to viewers.
"Kids: this is not a narrative you need to subscribe to. Go watch Spring Breakers instead," read another post, referring to an R-rated 2013 crime drama film starring Selena.
Car Seat Headrest's song "Oh! Starving" plays in a scene in the second-to-final episode, in which Hannah absentmindedly loses a check she was supposed to deposit for her pharmacist parents.
Netflix had said in a previous statement from E! News, "From the onset of work on 13 Reasons Why, we have been mindful both of the show's intense themes and the intended audience. We support the unflinching vision of the show's creators, who engaged the careful advice of medical professionals in the script writing process. The series carries a TV-MA rating as well as graphic content warnings preceding specific episodes, along with an after-show and companion website with additional resources. Our members tell us that 13 Reasons Why has helped spark important conversations in their families and communities around the world."
Selena has said she is "a little overwhelmed and very surprised" by the success of 13 Reasons Why, which is based on Jay Asher's 2007 YA novel.
"I mean I believed in the project for so long and I understood what the message was," she told E! News last week. "I just wanted it to come across in a way that kids would be frightened, but confused—in a way that they would talk about it because it's something that's happening all the time. So, I'm overwhelmed that's it's doing as well as it's doing."
As for a possible second season, Gomez smirked and said, "Maybe?"