What Audiences Found in “Looking for Alaska”

When Hulu was preparing for the series premiere of “Looking for Alaska” last fall, they knew the show had a lot of things going for it. Among them were a built-in fan base of people who grew up with the bestselling book it was based on, published in 2005 by acclaimed Y.A. novelist John Green (“The Fault in Our Stars”); an executive producing team, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, whose track record includes TV hits “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl”; and a cast and script that skillfully pull off being faithful to the novel’s characters while fleshing them out further. 

The team at Hulu also knew that the series—following a high school junior, Miles Halter, as he leaves behind his underwhelming life in Florida to attend a boarding school in Alabama—warranted a TV-MA rating. Exploring friendship, love, and deep questions about the meaning of life and human suffering, the series highlights themes including mental health and grief, and the storyline features teens smoking and drinking. So Hulu decided to make sure the series had another thing going for it: a way of responsibly addressing these issues for viewers who might be struggling with them or know someone else who is. 

ProSocial collaborated with Hulu to produce an online page for the series that connects the audience with leading organizations that offer information and services related to mental health, addiction prevention and treatment, and sex education. These include Columbia University’s Go Ask Alice!, Rutgers University’s Sex, Etc., the .gov sites Smokefree Teen and National Institute on Drug Abuse, the mental health organizations Jed Foundation, Mental Health America, and NAMI, and the crisis-intervention service Crisis Text Line. 

When “Looking for Alaska” premiered in October 2019, reviewers applauded the series and the resources page. As Thrillist noted, the series “probably won’t have to backtrack to correct mistakes like ‘13 Reasons Why’ has had to do in the past. It offers mental health resources at the end of each episode, and at its core is more thoughtful in its reflection on how we can all be better to each other.” 

All episodes of “Looking for Alaska” are now streaming, only on Hulu.