13 Reasons Why (Season 3)

Creator: Brian Yorkey
Starring: Dylan Minnette, Christian Navarro, Alisha Boe, Brandon Flynn, Justin Prentice, Miles Heizer, Ross Butler, Devin Druid, Grace Saif, Amy Hargreaves, Derek Luke, Kate Walsh, Brenda Strong, Timothy Granaderos
Original Airdate: 2019

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

With a current rating of 12 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it's tough to recall a bigger collective groan accompanying an additional season order and trailer for a show as popular as 13 Reasons Why, and one only in its third season at that. The general consensus is that there's just no need to continue, which is a tough pill to swallow considering how a seemingly innocuous YA adaptation developed by Brian Yorkey and produced by Selena Gomez both captivated and angered audiences of all ages three years ago, as the deceased teen narrator Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) left 13 cassette tape recordings detailing the reasons she ended her own life. Teen suicide rates spiked, mental health experts argued and advocacy groups raged, making their case that the show's content was "triggering" for at-risk youths.  Despite the media's pronouncement of the show's waning popularity, the controversy continued, with the cast appearing in what amounts to public service announcements before and after each episode. Only recently, and perhaps tired of battling, Netflix threw their hands up in the air and removed the disturbing suicide scene.

The second season wasn't as strong, shoehorning Hannah's ghost into the proceedings while the show's loyal, avenging protagonist, Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) sought justice for his friend and Hannah's grieving, irate mother attempted to hold her daughter's classmates legally responsible for her death. At a school as messed up as Liberty High, that should have been easy. But that's precisely why it wasn't. Exposing a jock rape culture at the school carried consequences, but lost in the analysis was how expertly the writers handled two extremely challenging storylines centering around drug abuse and school shootings, the latter of which was brilliantly realized, culminating in last season's cliffhanger.

Hard to watch and painfully realistic, Tyler Down's (Devin Druid) deterioration from bullied oddball outsider to armed gunman made a startling amount of sense, and with a traumatic event finally pushing him over the edge, he walks right up to that line right before Clay stops him from crossing it. The season played like a frightening step-by-step psychological dissection of a shooters' mind and the institutional pressures that create them. And if the series didn't carry the media stigma it did, Druid's scary yet heartbreaking slow-burn performance would have been recognized at Emmy time. But most were still too busy complaining about the previous season's suicide to even notice an active shooter storyline, and an even more brutal rape scene, both of which you'd figure would send the public into a frenzy once more.

As Netflix continues to manage this selective outrage, it's easy to forget that the series, at its best and worst, tackles issues most shows are afraid to touch, and frequently does it with brutally honest performances and writing. As messy as Season 3 initially appears to be, it's still no exception, and even quite straightforward once you get past its odd start. Reinventing itself as a murder mystery, it revolves around the question of who killed the series' main antagonist, serial rapist, Bryce Walker (Justin Prentice). And even that's drawn criticism, with the showrunners facing accusations that they spent an entire season humanizing a rapist to engender our sympathies. But that's not what's going on here, with the writers taking a previously one-note rich jock character and squeezing more out of him than most expected was possible during the first couple of seasons. He was guilty of multiple rapes, somehow got away with it and now must live with that fact, as do his victims.

If anything, Bryce's character arc is one of futility, as he wrestles with the realization that no matter how much he tries to make amends or change as a person, it's useless. He'll always be defined by this. He'll always be rapist. Prentice's work conveying this is one of many reasons to stick around, as is Druid's as Tyler, with the latter coping with the deep psychological ramifications of the school shooting he almost carried out, as well as the brutal assault that helped lead him down the dark path to attempt it. The third season's sub-title may as well be "Recovery," since that seems to be what all the characters are going through in some form or another.

Mostly doing away with cassettes, Polaroids or any other retro tech successfully used as framing devices for the previous seasons, the circumstances surrounding Bryce Walker's murder is told almost entirely via flashbacks. So much so that it's often difficult to tell where those flashbacks end and the present-day investigation begins, with a constant cutting back-and-forth between two time timelines that really aren't all that far apart. And when the writers start incorporating multiple suspects and overlapping stories, it's a confusing introduction. That's not even mentioning that all the events are being narrated within an interrogation room by a character we've never seen before. Her name is Ani Achola (Grace Saif), a British exchange student who during her short time at Liberty has seemed to forge close relationships with everyone, especially Clay. For a while, the jury's still out on the exact nature of their friendship, but if we know anything, he'll be overanalyzing and obsessing over it. 

It's admittedly jarring seeing this much screen time and prominence allotted to an entirely new character that fans have mistakenly labeled as the "new Hannah." She's actually nothing of the sort, as the extent of her involvement more closely rivals Clay's in that she knows everything about everyone and isn't afraid to stick her nose where it doesn't belong And while her abrupt introduction is more than a little shaky and confounding, there's something to be said for just throwing Ani in there right away as the lead and committing to it, eventually resulting in a successful cast addition and framing device. But as far as unreliable narrators go, she probably even has Hannah beat.

It helps that Saif is a really talented actress, frequently rising way above the material she's given. It's through her we get everyone's stories and the details surrounding Bryce's murder start to take shape. And she would know. Residing at the Walker estate with her mom, who's taken a job as full-time caregiver for Nora Walker's (Brenda Strong) ailing father, she's one of the few to get a close-up look at Bryce's life after leaving left Liberty in shame following his meager, slap-on-the-wrist sentencing for raping Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe).

Of course, given all the other girls he raped, lives he destroyed and chaos he caused, few would feel sorry for the fact that he's emotionally struggling come to terms with his heinous actions. Newly enrolled at Hillcrest Academy, the bully is now the bullied, as Bryce is ostracized in his new surroundings, spending most of his free time at home drowning his sorrows in a bottle.

Aside from football, Bryce's only lifeline is Ani, the only person holding no preconceived notions about who he is and observes him wanting and trying to be better. Even if just about everyone else in Crestmont, especially those he hurt, would strongly disagree. All that anger eventually comes to a head the night he's killed, following an extremely controversial Homecoming game.

The list of suspects is plentiful, with each of their stories designated an episode. There's Clay, whose jealousy over Bryce's bond with Ani could have pushed him over the edge, much like it did before when he threatened him over Hannah's rape. There's also some damning evidence linking him to the crime, and the fact that Mrs. Walker and the D.A. seem convinced he's their guy. Bryce's former teammate and current captain Zach Dempsey (Ross Butler) always differed with him philosophically, but their feud escalated after he provided support for his ex-girlfriend Chlöe (Anne Winters) during a particularly challenging time.

Perhaps no one has more motive than the strong-willed Jessica, whose sexual assault at the hands of Bryce has led her to become a women's rights champion as student council president, and more determined than ever to put a permanent end to the toxic jock culture at Liberty. That she and Bryce were in contact before his death makes her the most likely suspect on motivation alone. Another rape victim, Tyler, whose traumatic bathroom attack by Monty de la Cruz (Timothy Granaderos), and thwarted plans to carry out a mass shooting, can both be traced back to his issues with Bryce. Despite making strides in his recovery, the fact that he still owns a gun worries many in his support system. But as Monty's anger issues escalate, Bryce's knowledge of his attack on Tyler and his threats to expose it, make a cornered Monty as dangerous as ever.

For Alex Standall (Miles Heizer), lingering anger over his physical limitations and rocky relationship with Jessica, have him turning to an unlikely friend in Bryce, even as he heads down a dangrous path of drug addiction and suicidal depression. The mysterious appearance of Tony Padilla's (Christian Navarro) trademark red Mustang in the Walker garage sets off an argument between Ani and Clay, with the latter denying his best friend could have had anything to do with Bryce's death. This even as Tony's shocking personal crisis may indicate the opposite.

Despite finding a home with the Jensens, and a new brother in Clay, Justin Foley's (Brandon Flynn) failure to kick his drug habit and continued inability to forgive himself for letting best friend Bryce rape Jessica has sent him into a freefall. But who he goes to for help is what's so surprising, and ends up making him a key suspect in the murder. The returns of terminated guidance counselor Kevin Porter (Derek Luke) and Hannah's mom, Olivia (Kate Walsh), to Crestmont for different reasons also raise red flags, as both have a contentious histories with Bryce, with the latter still very much wanting to see her daughter's rapist dead and buried.  

This is a lot to take in, and while the almost comical descriptions of these suspects and their motives do little to dispel the belief that these 13 episodes are laying it on a little thick, when this show hits on something, it really hits. And if those criticizing it weren't too busy calling for its producers to apologize for every little thing they do, they'd probably notice that. While plagued with undeniable narrative issues, there are many things it still does well, if not as well or better than the preceding one.

The aftermath of Tyler's attempted mass shooting was handled just about as well as anything the show's done thus far, never tiptoeing around the ramifications of how it affected him and those with the direct knowledge of what he almost did. Hardly ever do we see an aborted mass shooting in any series, with no one hurt or the gunman being talked down and safely returned home. One of the season's more powerful scenes involve Tyler being walked back to his room by Clay, finding the suicide note he wrote only hours earlier, and facing the parents he thought he'd never see again. It's heavy, emotional material matched only by how Clay, Jessica, Alex's rotating supervision of Tyler, fearing he still poses a risk to both himself and others. That they do this while also attempting to privately get him the help he so desperately needs makes it land even harder.

As for Bryce, we get answers, with the culmination of the mystery surrounding his murder coming to a satisfying end in the season finale, "Let the Dead Bury the Dead. It's a fitting title, and a proper send-off for the character's complicated legacy, as the writers don't beat around the bush when it comes to revealing the killer, or exploring the possible fall-out for those harboring knowledge about it. These secrets are sure to extend into the following season, set to be its last, and boy does that ever seem to be a good idea. You literally can't imagine the series extending past that, with this one feeling as if they're stretching it out already.

Credit the writers for at least realizing they had to go in a completely different direction following Hannah's suicide, even if it feels as if the show lost its top two protagonists in the process with her, and now Clay, who kind of took a backseat this season with the introduction of a new narrator and further development of the supporting characters It wouldn't be a bad idea to have the action circle back around around to him again for the last run of episodes. You may have more trouble now coming up with 13 reasons to keep watching, but Minnette's performance as Clay would have to be among them, along with a handful of others. But having long already exhausted the blueprint left by Jay Asher's source material, they're going to need more than a few new tricks up their sleeves to go out on the creative high this series premiered at.