Is the book better suited to be episodic than told in one film?

TEEFEY One of the reasons it didn’t work as a feature was that there wasn’t enough time to tell the stories of the other characters and why they were making the decisions they were making. [Brian] was able to make them three-dimensional so that, at some point, you felt badly for them, too. That’s why the feature [script] didn’t work. Hannah just seemed mean.

YORKEY The book takes place in one night and spends most of the time telling the story of Hannah in the past. So we expanded the present-day story. Part of it was figuring out the best way to be very faithful to the book but at the same time to reinvent it as television.

What conversations did you have about the tone?

YORKEY We talked a lot about “True Detective,” “Mad Men,” about “Breaking Bad.” Not that “Thirteen Reasons” is anything like those shows. But they’re very adult shows that tons of kids are watching. [“Thirteen Reasons”] is not just for kids — it’s for everybody, we hope. First and foremost, it was about taking kids seriously.

TEEFEY Kids are smarter than you think.

YORKEY They’re sophisticated television viewers. They’re so savvy about story and conflicting motives and the way things happen in their lives. It’s like, “Let’s try not to condescend.”

Image The young adult novel “Thirteen Reasons Why.”

Mandy, how early did Selena show that savviness?

TEEFEY She was 6 or 7. I thought I wanted to be an actor. She went to one of my rehearsals with me and sat through the whole thing, not moving. On the way home, she was quiet, and then she goes, “You know, Mom, that might be funnier if you did it this way.” And I thought, Oh, no. She’s going to be an actor. I’m surprised she actually had friends. She used to make the kids in the neighborhood do casting calls and try to direct them.