The series 13 Reasons Why (USA 2017–2020, Netflix) has faced immense criticism: a detailed portrayal of suicidal acts could be accompanied by imitative actions on the part of recipients. At the same time, the Netflix production, like many contemporary series formats, receives recognition for a detailed and multi-perspective treatment of sometimes taboo subjects. This article uses this example to discuss how series may contribute to preventive education about suicidality in adolescence. As complex narratives, they can take on an advisory function and, as popular media texts, facilitate learning and educational effects within the adolescent target group. The textual analysis of the series 13 Reasons Why shows that active reception can expand one’s stock of experience and make it possible to experience new patterns of action. The popular production promotes education about suicidality in adolescence by facilitating a discursive reappraisal and encouraging a broad mass of young recipients to deal with the suicidal process, the ‘question of guilt’, and other backgrounds.