A controversial scene in the popular Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why in which a teenage girl kills herself has been removed, two years later.
Netflix said the decision had been made “on the advice of medical experts”. The first series of the show featured a graphic depiction of Hannah (Katherine Langford) taking her own life.
The version now hosted on the streaming site omits this three-minute scene and goes directly to a later scene in which her body is discovered, BBC reported.
Netflix said it had been “mindful about the ongoing debate around the show”, with the third season premiering later this year.
When 13 Reasons Why launched in 2017, it was praised by some for promoting awareness of such issues like rape, bullying and self-harm. But concerns were also raised that it glamorised suicide and went into too much detail about how the Hannah character killed herself.
Writing on Twitter, producer Brian Yorkey said the show had originally portrayed the “ugly, painful reality of suicide in such graphic detail [to] make sure no one would ever wish to emulate it”.
Based on the 2007 novel by Jay Asher, 13 Reasons Why tells of a high school student who finds out why his friend killed herself through a box of cassette tapes she recorded before her death.