Mental health group: Will Forte's Peacock suicide drama is "wildly irresponsible and callous"

Variety

In the "dark suburban soap" Expiration Date, announced last Friday, Forte plays a man named Robin, who "consumed by grief, finds a life insurance policy that covers suicide, provided that the individual doesn’t carry out the deed within one year. Content that his family will be provided for, Robin sets his expiration date and contemplates how he will spend his final year." Bill Smith, founder of the mental health group Inseparable, said in a statement that Expiration Date would only serve to glorify suicide. “What a wildly irresponsible and callous concept that will, no doubt, endanger countless viewers,” he said in a statement. “Glamorizing suicide leads to contagion, that is a fact. At a time when our country is already suffering a mental health crisis compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left Americans’ mental wellbeing at a two-decade low, the last thing we need is a reckless show hinged on the question of ‘will he or won’t he’ succumb to the devastation of depression — an all too real and painful experience for millions of Americans.” Smith compared Expiration Date to 13 Reasons Why's irresponsible depiction of suicide, saying it should do the exact opposite of the Netflix teen drama. “It almost doesn’t matter what’s in the script,” he said. “People are already seeing that there’s going to be an entire series about a person who (believes) whether or not they’re going to decide to die by suicide is the only way out, and the damage that that is going to cause is already happening.” Peacock has yet to comment on the potential series.