NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix has renewed the watercooler hit "13 Reasons Why" for a second season. 
 
 The streaming service announced Sunday that it has picked up the series revolving around the suicide of a high school girl. Season two will debut on Netflix next year. 
 
 While Netflix doesn't release ratings information, "13 Reasons Why" has proven a conversation-starting drama. 
 
 Some have criticized the show for glorifying suicide, which led to Netflix adding an additional warning ahead of the series. 
 
 The Selena Gomez-produced "13 Reasons Why" is based on Jay Asher's young adult best-seller. 
 
 The second season will also be 13 episodes long. ||||| It’s now official: 13 Reasons Why, Netflix’s adaption of the bestselling 2007 YA book by Jay Asher, has been renewed for a 13-episode second season to premiere in 2018. Season 2 will pick up in the aftermath of Hannah Baker’s death and the start of the characters’ complicated journeys toward healing and recovery. (Watch the first teaser below.) 
 
 Executive produced by Selena Gomez, 13 Reasons Why has been a breakout. It was well-received by critics and has gotten a lot of attention on social media. Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winner Brian Yorkey, who wrote the adaptation and serves as an executive producer on the series, will take the reins as solo showrunner in Season 2. Diana Son, who was executive producer/co-showrunner on the drama’s first season with Yorkey, is leaving. 
 
 Season 1 follows teenager Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) as he returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker (newcomer Katherine Langford) — his classmate and crush — who tragically committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are 13 reasons why she decided to end her life. Kate Walsh, Brian D’Arcy James, Derek Luke, Brandon Flynn, Justin Prentice, Alisha Boe, Christian Navarro and Tommy Dorfman also star. 
 
 The series, which deals with teen suicide, bullying, drunk driving and rape in graphic detail, has been the subject of active discussion, drawing criticism by some mental health experts who say the show could pose health risks for certain young people, especially those with suicidal thoughts. In response, Netflix amped up its content warnings. 
 
 13 Reasons Why is directed by Oscar winner Tom McCarthy; written by Yorkey; and executive produced by Gomez, Yorkey, McCarthy, Joy Gorman, Michael Sugar and Steve Golin from Anonymous Content, Kristel Laiblin and Mandy Teefey. The series is produced for Netflix by Paramount Television. ||||| Hannah Baker has killed herself. 
 
 So begins Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, a searing, melancholic 13-episode television series based off Jay Asher’s young adult novel of the same name, and produced in part by singer and actress Selena Gomez. The premise: Before committing suicide, a teenage girl records a number of cassette tapes calling out the role that other students at her high school had in driving her to the brink. After her death, her classmates are forced, one by one, to listen to them. Netflix doesn’t release ratings, but since its premiere a month ago, 13 Reasons Why has become the most-tweeted-about show of the year. 
 
 That’s in no small part because it’s the most controversial. While some viewers are utterly aghast at the show’s graphic and occasionally cavalier treatment of suicide, others praise its sharp exposé of teenage pain and declare it a “must-see” for young people. Variety’s Maureen Ryan admired the show for subverting the exploitative trope of the tragic dead girl, while feminist writer Ijeoma Olou wrote that the show “Scared the Shit Out Of Me, And It Should Scare You Too”—arguing that her 15-year-old son is essentially watching a “how-to” guide glorifying suicide as a successful method of revenge. 
 
 This fear, that the show exalts suicide and may inspire real-life self-harm, has taken hold everywhere in the world that the show is streaming. In the US, a Minnesota school district emailed parents this week warning that the show offers a problematic depiction of high school life, and an Indiana district advised parents not to let “vulnerable” children watch it. Similar notices have been sent by schools in other states and in the UK. New Zealand created a whole new rating for the show, requiring that anyone under 18 watch it only with a parent or guardian present. 
 
 It’s a lot of commotion over a streaming-only show that appears, on the surface, an over-the-top teen drama filled with predictable character tropes. But the show has struck a chord with young adults, who seem to be at once paying homage to the series and making light of it—with some even working Hannah’s suicide into prom proposals and makeup trends. 
 
 However problematic you believe it to be, 13 Reasons Why is still the first television series to address the prickly topic of teen suicide head-on. And the unprecedented alarm among parents—warranted or not—reveals a painful, undeniable truth: Many parents know next to nothing about what goes on with their kids at school. 
 
 Suicide rates in the US, particularly for teen girls, are climbing. Half of parents say they worry their child is being bullied or struggling with anxiety or depression—a concern that is especially pronounced amongst racial minorities. At the same time, a study from the Pew Research Center a year ago found that only about half (53%) of parents with school-aged children say they’re satisfied with their level of engagement in the kids’ school lives. And 46% say they wish they could do more. 
 
 Is there more to be done? Of course. Studies show that increasing communication between parents and teachers can dramatically boost both students’ academic performance and overall achievement. Similarly, spending time at a child’s school—whether volunteering, helping with assignments, or meeting with instructors—is one of the most common recommendations that psychologists and educators give to parents who seek more connection with their children. The lure of technology has cut down on face-to-face time in modern families, so parents need to make a point of carving out time for genuine, real-world conversation every day. 
 
 In part, Netflix’s show likely resonates with teens because they recognize its depiction of this truth: Its mothers and fathers are not paragons of parenting whatsoever, flitting in and out of scenes with little purpose in the high schoolers’ lives. Hannah’s mother—concerned, compassionate, and determined as she is throughout the series to get to the root of her daughter’s suicide—is ultimately absent in all the ways it matters. Her father, a blanket cliché of the quiet, distracted dad, is doubly clueless. As the couple begins to wage a lawsuit against Hannah’s school, it turns out neither is able to even identify her friends, let alone her enemies or tormenters. 
 
 Tear away all the sensational teen angst and frivolous girls’-bathroom drama of the show, and you arrive at its real horror: a deep, yawning chasm between children and adults, never directly addressed, never even recognized until far too distant in the rearview mirror. That, in the end, is what’s most responsible for Hannah Baker’s death. If parents are alarmed by the show, it’s because they ought to be.
– Netflix has renewed the watercooler hit 13 Reasons Why for a second season. The streaming service announced Sunday that it has picked up the series revolving around the suicide of high schooler Hannah Baker. Season two will debut on Netflix next year, and Deadline reports it will begin "in the aftermath of [Hannah's] death and the start of the characters' complicated journeys toward healing and recovery." The second season will also be 13 episodes long, reports the AP. While Netflix doesn't release ratings information, 13 Reasons Why has proven a conversation-starting drama. Some have criticized the show for glorifying suicide, which led to Netflix adding an additional warning ahead of the series. The Selena Gomez-produced show is based on Jay Asher's young adult best-seller. The show's creators insist it doesn't glamorize suicide; more from them here.