Netflix and ’13 Reasons Why’ Can Learn From Paramount Network Scrapping the ‘Heathers’ Reboot
[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from “13 Reasons Why” Season 2 and general plot points from the unaired “Heathers” series.]
On Friday, Paramount Network had told IndieWire that the “Heathers” series reboot has been dropped completely from the channel before it even had the chance to air. The news was first reported by THR.
The decision comes in the wake of the mass shooting of students at a Santa Fe, Texas high school on May 18. The show had already had a fraught history with school shootings; following the one in Parkland in late February, the network announced it would delay the reboot’s scheduled March debut. Although a new July premiere date was supposedly announced on the show’s Instagram account, no evidence of such a post can be found. Currently, there are no plans for the show to debut at all, at least not on a Viacom-owned network.
Read More:’13 Reasons Why’: Season 2’s Dramatic Ending Isn’t Just Bad Timing, It’s Dangerous
The Problem With “Heathers”
“Heathers” was loosely based on the original 1988 dark comedy starring Winona Ryder and Christian Bale as high school students who are trying to navigate the peer pressure, bullying, cliques, suicide, and violence within the school’s hallowed halls. The series turned the formula on its head, switching the pretty popular girls who had made up the film’s title clique to a group of marginalized students instead. The self-described “pitch-black comedy” embraced the film’s transgressive subject matter and pushed the envelope for a contemporary audience. One early episode given to critics for review even opens with a first-person shooter video game that’s set in a school and then switches to a parallel first-person perspective for one of the show’s characters for the remainder of the episode.
In finally deciding to scrap “Heathers” altogether, Paramount Network read the temperature of the nation and realized that the subject matters depicted on the series required more careful consideration about their real-world impact. The show may not be entirely dead — it could still appear on some other platform — but for now, it’s living in limbo, where its problematic content can’t contribute to or be seen as a glib treatment of an issue that has become increasingly dire.
Some might say that the early negative reviews — wasting away on Rotten Tomatoes with a 33 percent rating — may have also been a factor in pushing “Heathers” aside. Nevertheless, having backed the show’s creative vision from the start, the network should be commended for understanding that this is neither the time nor is Paramount the place for the show’s controversial content.
The Problem With “13 Reasons Why”
The decision to drop “Heathers” demonstrates that this is a case where intentions don’t matter as much as the lives that could be affected. Netflix could take a page from Paramount’s book regarding its own controversial teen series “13 Reasons Why.” The show was already criticized for its treatment of teenage suicide and rape in its first season, and searches for how to kill oneself were on the rise after the first season aired. Studies show that thoughts of suicide often lead to actual suicide attempts.
In its second season, much clearer messaging was made available before and after episodes about where troubled youths can get help, but this course correction felt too late after having shown a suicide in such detail. Season 2’s finale had its own share of disturbing imagery with an even more graphic depiction of rape and a school shooting scenario that concluded in a muddled, unrealistic fashion. The student Tyler (Devin Druid), who had been violently raped in the boys’ bathroom, arms himself and plans to shoot up the school dance in revenge. His friend Clay (Dylan Minnette) talks Tyler down and then allows him to escape while police sirens can be heard in the distance.
As IndieWire had outlined earlier, multiple aspects of the finale are troublesome and potentially dangerous in their messaging. Again, it’s assumed that Netflix and showrunner Brian Yorkey do not intend for that to be the takeaway, and yet, it couldn’t have been a surprise that there would be a backlash about these depictions.
The unfortunate timing of the Santa Fe shooting occurring on the same day Season 2 was released just highlighted the link between art and life. While some shows can be taken as pure entertainment, the more realistic a show is and its depiction of real-world problems, the more scrutiny it invites. Therefore, “13 Reasons Why” could be seen as having more responsibility in how it depicts fraught situations than the satirical “Heathers” would.
Netflix knows that adolescents watch “13 Reasons Why.” In fact, the streaming service has been courting the audience with its recent increase in YA-centered programming. Kids are watching, and as the Google searches about suicide methods show, what the audience is taking away isn’t necessarily aligning with the show’s aims. It’s therefore critical to get ahead of the situation, not be forced to respond to issues retroactively.
What Netflix Could Learn From Paramount and Other Networks
Paramount Network’s decision to pull “Heathers” from its schedule is just one example of the way forward. ABC also recently canceled its revival of “Roseanne” following its star’s racist tweet. FX dropped Louis C.K. from all of its shows after the comedian admitted to sexually harassing women. Many more networks have cut ties with stars in the wake of #MeToo revelations.
While these may all seem like disparate examples – school shootings, explicit racism, sexual harassment/abuse – all of these are hot-button issues that each network has decided to take a stand on. Networks are declaring that as the patron of both the art and artists, it has a say in who represents them.
What it comes down to then is what Netflix decides is its ethos and then act accordingly. At this point, the strongest messaging the streaming service – which is notoriously close-lipped about ratings and programming strategy – has gone on record to say is that it will spend $8 billion this year to make its content 50 percent original programming.
Read More:Teenagers Are About to Conquer the World, and Netflix Saw It Coming
But whom Netflix is climbing into bed with could be a tacit indication of its perspective, at least from a political point of view. A recent poll revealed that some conservatives want to boycott Netflix, which isn’t terribly surprising because of recent content partnerships with Barack and Michelle Obama, Michelle Wolf, and even socially progressive uber-producers Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy.
Such creative heavyweights suggest both entertaining but also socially progressive programming in Netflix’s future. With this heightened awareness, it can’t sleep on the problem with “13 Reasons Why.” (The service already has an inconsistent history of #MeToo response: Netflix distanced itself from “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey and Danny Masterson on “The Ranch,” but has remained mum about Jeffrey Tambor on “Arrested Development.”)
It may not be necessary for Netflix to cancel “13 Reasons Why” to follow the fates of “Heathers” and “Roseanne.” Besides which, one executive producer feels that there is “still story to tell.” But the streaming service is also in a tricky position of allowing shows complete creative control as long as episode quotas are met. FX head John Landgraf has famously called out Netflix for being more focused on quantity and not quality. Perhaps it’s time for Netflix to turn its focus to its creatives – either by providing some sort of guidance or more resources.
The ending of “13 Reasons Why” Season 2 concluded in the style of a cliffhanger, one that left its characters with a new set of problems. It’s clearly meant to leave the viewers wanting more, but in the case of the school shooting plot, it seems rather gruesome to leave that storyline hanging when who knows how many actual school shooting would occur before the show returned.
“13 Reasons Why” doesn’t necessarily have to have all the answers. When the nation can’t agree on the best ways to keep our children safe — more gun control, arming teachers, better safety measures, and psychological profiling have all been proposed — TV shows can’t be expected to solve these problems either. But it can treat the subject matter in a way that doesn’t exacerbate the situation.
If Netflix decides to engage more with its content and its messaging, that’s the first step. And if it exhausts all possibilities and deems that “13 Reasons Why” has written itself into a corner, perhaps then it’s time to cut line. Given that the viewership for the series is even greater than that of costume drama darling “The Crown,” though, Netflix may have a strong incentive to renew it for a third season. It would just remain to be seen then what direction Season 3 would take to fix its problems instead of sensationalizing them.
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