Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.

Season three proved one thing. 13 Reasons Why has overstayed its welcome on Netflix with that season four renewal. While I personally believe this season is superior over season two in a lot of ways, it should’ve ended here. The main characters had definitive endings to their stories, the plot was brought whole-circle, albeit in a troublesome way, and… the show is just so tiresome.

Let’s dive into the main plot: Who Killed Bryce Walker? Yes, that’s a typical teen-drama scenario that has been done a couple times. Riverdale is about to do something similar in their fourth season. Worse than that, it was narrated by a new character named Ani (Grace Saif). Her character received negative backlash for being that character who should’ve minded her business.

Ani lives at Bryce Walker’s house because her mother is a house nurse taking care of Bryce’s grandfather. This is how she is introduced into the story, where she begins to make friends with Clay, Jessica, and the other core characters. I understand what the writers were trying to do with her character, but they ended up creating a Mary Sue who didn’t really belong.

In addition, the flashback sequences weren’t done properly. They tried to recreate the perfect structure of the first season but fell flat mostly, as not all flashbacks had the centric dead character, Bryce Walker. This will bring me to another point regarding Hannah Baker, whose character was resolved in season two. The avoidance of evoking her name was unnecessary. Her impact on the other main characters was obviously significant, and waiting until Hannah’s mother, Olivia Baker (Kate Walsh) to bring her back up was low-key insulting to her character.

The cliffhanger from season two was lazily put as a sub-plot, disappointing the fans who were looking forward to that resolution. I kind-of understand why they pushed Tyler’s school shooting story aside… because the Bryce Walker murder mystery needed to take off, but the writers should’ve figured out a better way to handle it. Although, Tyler’s character arc this season was indeed beautiful.

Clay Jensen got worse as a character in a lot of ways. He is always anger, brooding, and helps people out for his own selfish reasons. Pairing him with Ani was incredibly forced too. Clay’s only bright side was the friendship he developed with Tyler after what happened last season with Monty. I cried, but it didn’t save the season as a whole. It was a simply a bright spot in a clunky season three.

Overall, the characters seemed to have gone backwards in character development (except Justin, Tyler, Tony, and Zach, maybe Jessica), the plot is pretty straight-forward, which made it boring at times, and a show that tries to make me feel bad for a rapist is… that’s just something you shouldn’t do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m definitely going to watch season four, but there shouldn’t be one.

back to blog