"13 Reasons Why: Season 2" TV Show Review

By: James Southworth
Rating: 1.5/5 Stars

The first season of "13 Reasons Why", an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jay Asher, is probably one of the most honest and powerful Netflix originals I have seen. It honed in a great focus on Clay Jensen and his relationship with Hannah Baker, who passed away by suicide. In that season, we saw him listening to tapes that she left behind, detailing 13 people who ultimately led her to her suicide. The show generated a lot of controversy, mainly for depicting a sexual assault scene as well as depicting a scene of suicide (the latter in particular drew a lot of anger). While I admittedly understand why both of those were controversial and even agree to an extent, I still thought the show did a good job of not dwelling on either of those violent moments for too long. It was always in constant conversation about suicide, not ever offering an easy answer. Instead, it explored how people reacted to it, and ultimately, how suicide should never be the answer. The first season did have a questionable ending with a cliffhanger, which meant it would be drifting away from the source material of the novel. I was very skeptical about it, and it looks like my skepticism was justified. Season 2 of this show has some good moments in it, as well as many great cast performances. However, this season is far more problematic than the first one with its attempt to discuss too many hot button issues, as well as having an ending that makes the whole season feel entirely worthless and infuriating.

Before we even get into the show itself, there is a segment with all the actors out of character, where they are telling the audience that they should view the material they're watching with caution. They suggest that younger viewers should watch with a trusted adult. I liked this idea, as it did give the audience preparation going in that there would be heavy topics. So, what exactly works about this show? There's unfortunately not a whole lot. This season takes place obviously after Hannah's suicide, and we are now into the Bakers in a court case against the school, where they are trying to make the school out to be guilty for not being responsive when Hannah came to them multiple times for help. They are also trying to convict rapist Bryce Walker. What primarily works about this film is most of the cast performances. Dylan Minnette is once again absolutely excellent as Clay Jensen. He owns his performance, and even when as he is written is making choices that seem out of character, he still makes his performance convincing. Clay's sense of trying to seek justice for Hannah is inspiring, and the anger he has about her unjust suicide is entirely sympathetic. He is a high point of the show. The same goes for Ross Butler as Zach Dempsey, who is one of the best cast members of this season. He gets a surprisingly complex arc in this season, going from someone who seems like one of the cliched jocks to someone who is far more than any identity that high school puts on him. Butler does a good job at making this transformation work, and where his character ends up is extremely satisfying. I have to give the best performance of this season to Alisha Boe as Jessica Davis, without a doubt. She has some of the toughest material in the show to deal with, as she portrays a victim of sexual assault. She portrays it with grace, though, and seeing Jessica go from a broken down individual to someone strong and confident is nothing short of inspiring. Justin Prentice does almost way too good of a job at making you entirely loathe Bryce Walker. He disappears into this role, and there was not a moment in this season where I wasn't hating this character with every bone in my body. He certainly excelled on that front; I have to give him commendation for that. Other highlights include once Christian Navarro as Tony, Devin Druid as Tyler (who has some poorly written material to deal with, but still somehow gives a convincing performance despite that), Kate Walsh as Olivia Baker, and Bradon Flynn as Justin Foley. The weak performances will be talked about later.

In the midst of all the poorly written and problematic material this show has to offer, there are some good moments. Episode 9 as a whole is definitely the best episode of the season, as it centers around developing the school counselor Kevin Porter. Derek Luke as Porter gives a heart wrenching turn in this episode, delivering something that is one of the most honest and truthful moments of the whole show. This season has a running theme of how to deal with guilt and accountability, and whenever the show is addressing that theme, it does pretty good. I also found the episode focusing on Zach Dempsey to be a highlight, because it featured some of unexpected character interactions. These unexpected interactions more often make the show far too confusing, but this is one of the moments where it actually works and feels convincing. A lot of the character arcs in this season end up having an unsatisfying or straight up offensive ending, but what the show did with Jessica Davis was the one part of this show where it was pretty much perfectly executed. The writers of the show transformed her from victim to victor, and her change was charged with legitimate emotion. This was one of the few parts of Season 2 that kept me watching. There are also a couple of new characters that are introduced into the show, and most of them work well. Probably the one that works the best is Chloe (Anne Winters), Bryce's girlfriend. I somewhat rolled my eyes when I saw her for the first time, as it seemed like she was going to be your very typical high school mean girl. But the show actually takes her in a surprising direction, making her have a sympathetic arc. The same goes for Jessica's friend Nina, who turns out to have also been sexually assaulted. I like the relationship her and Jessica formed, and maybe her character works because, like I said before, Jessica's whole arc is one of the only things about the show's plot that is executed well.

I wish there was more good to say about this show. However, as I watched more and more of "13 Reasons Why", I was left more and more cold and empty. After such a superb first season, which is actually better than its source material in my opinion, I held some cautious confidence that the show's creators could do right with a second season. They should've just left the show at the first season, and left it off with Clay in Tony's Mustang, driving off into the sunset. That was the ending this show deserved. Now we have to deal with teen conspiracies, courtroom drama, and this show's attempt at trying to be serious and starting conversations. One of the problems this show has almost right away is its flimsy attempt at using the Baker's court case as a framing device for each episode, in a similar way to how Hannah's tapes framed all the episodes of Season 1. Hannah's tapes worked well for a reason: they had a singular voice anchoring the show; you knew what each episode generally was going to be like. There was a singular theme of one girl's harrowing experience of her being broken down by bullying to the point that she felt the only way out was taking her own life. While the first season had a large cast, the focus was clearly on Hannah and Clay's relationship, and Clay wanting to hold others and himself accountable for what happened to Hannah. In this season, there's FAR too many voices trying to take control. Every episode tries to center around a different character, and it just doesn't work. Some characters like Alex Standall, Skye Miller, Sheri Holland, and many more just come across as forgettable. This is partly due to forgettable performances by the actors, but even more so due to the characters having terrible writing. But the biggest problem (character wise) this season is actually Hannah Baker. The show has her come back in the present as a ghost. Yes, I'm not kidding. A show that is trying to be gritty and realistic has a dead girl come back as a ghost. It's somewhat insulting, and just too bizarre and out of place. I don't think the fault entirely lies on actress Katherine Langford (who was superb in season 1), but the chemistry between her and Clay feels so awkward this time around. It's disappointing, because that was one of the highlights before. Anytime Hannah was in this season, I became annoyed. Maybe if the show used her a little more sparingly it would've worked. But her presence in this season felt very forced.

Where the bigger and more infuriating problems of this show lie are in its attempts to try to bolster conversation about many hot button issues. Season 1 benefited from an almost singular focus on the effects of bullying, as well as how suicide impacts a whole community. Season 2 tries to forward the conversation of addressing suicide, as well as talk about mental health, sexual assault, gun violence, drug addiction, white privilege, homophobia, the failure of the justice system, the effect of media on us, and more. Does that list sound bloated to you? Well, it should, because it is. Because of the show is wanting to address all these issues, it ironically leaves none of them with a good conclusion. The show has a cheesy "thesis statement" for suicide in the final episode (more on that episode in a whole separate paragraph) where Olivia Baker basically says how there are even more than thirteen reasons why not to commit suicide. Unlike the first season, this phrasing made the show feel like an after-school special. This statement comes across as unconvincing, especially when you see what comes after it. The show does pretty well on the front of sexual assault, like I've mentioned before. Out of all the issues here, I'd say this is the one where the show at least knows what it wants to say. But the stuff about drug addiction, mental health, while privilege, etc. all comes as an afterthought. Most of it is given one singular statement or just a couple of minutes dedicated to it. That makes me wonder why these things were included in the first place. If the show wasn't going to try to talk about them in a sensible way, then why include them? The show is much more interested in making these things ways for characters to go into melodramatic monologues. They would much rather their show be more of an excess of sadness porn than of actually talking about the issues.

Speaking of sadness porn, let's talk about how the final episode of this season takes away any potential message the show had been trying to build up. For the first half of the final episode, I was actually generally satisfied with what was going on. The show had a very powerful speech given by Clay in which he said that he would move on from Hannah's suicide; that they all needed to move on. We see the ghost of Hannah smiling at Clay and then going through the church door that her funeral was taking place in, out into a bright light. That is where you should stop watching this season. If you want a satisfying closure, that's the best you're going to get. Almost directly after Olivia gives that awful speech about how there's more than thirteen reasons why not to commit suicide, we see what is one of the most disturbing bits of television I've ever witnessed. Tyler, a photographer who went through a pretty complex arc in the show, has come back to Liberty better than he had been before. But, any of his transformation is entirely destroyed when the show decided to have him brutally raped. Three football players invade him in the bathroom. The main one smashes his head against a mirror, then against a toilet, then dunks him into the toilet water. While the other two players are holding him down, the player pulls down Tyler's pants and shoves the stick of a mop up his butt. Is that description vulgar to you? Well, the scene visually plays out even worse. I was sick to my stomach watching this, shaking with anger. Why did the show think that this was necessary to depict? It was disgusting, abhorrent, and wrong. It was shocking just for the sake of being shocking. What happens after that is even worse. Tyler ends up going home, getting a lot of guns, and going up to the school dance, preparing to kill everyone. It's only after Clay gives a tearful speech to Tyler that he rides away with Tony and no one is harmed. This is where Season 2 ends. On the pathetic romanticization of a school shooter, claiming that the only reason he went to shoot up a school was because of how he was treated. Having two shock moments- a sexual assault followed by a potential of a school shooting- was just too much for me. It left me feeling more disgusted at this show than I've felt at any TV series in a long, long time. What was the show trying to accomplish with this? All they're doing is undeservedly humanizing someone who was going to murder people. This show's creators aren't making a statement. They're being controversial just because they want to be.

The final episode of "13 Reasons Why" took away any good will I had for this season. Sure, there were some great performances. And sure there were some plot arcs that worked. But when you have a show that says suicide isn't the answer, and in the same breath tries to give a school shooter justification for murdering people- I just don't have any respect for something like that. Looking back on it now, maybe I was wrong when I defended season 1's commentary on suicide. While I will still say that I really liked season 1, I can now see more clearly the problems that people had with it. And if people had issues with the first season, then they will have even more with this one. This show tries to act like it's important. But it just wallows in misery. None of its characters truly reach a redemptive arc. At the end of this season, Clay asks "What do we do now?" It's clear that there's going to be another season of this show, and it's just going to be more of every character being miserable, as the show refuses for them to ever find any sort of actual solace or help for what they're going through. This show wants to have profound insights, but loses them with every wrong move it makes. This is a sick season of TV. It doesn't deserve recognition. It doesn't deserve praise. It doesn't deserve anything beyond all the critical lambasting coming its way. Thank goodness people are seeing this show for what it actually is: a piece of TV that enjoys being controversial just for the sole reason that it can.