Thoughts on 13 Reasons Why – Season 2

Last year it seemed all anyone on my Facebook feed was talking about was the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why. It didn’t sound like my usual go-to show, but when something is hyped that much, my curiosity gets the better of me. If you’ve never watched it before, it’s a 13 episode series in which each episode features a different tape that a girl called Hannah (Katherine Langford) made, each with a reason as to why she killed herself.

So Season 1 was absolutely fascinating, watching the story unfold himself as the main character Clay (Dylan Minnette) works his way through the tapes. It’s also super clever and kind of immersive as when I was talking to friends about the show, we’d ask which tape we’d gotten on to, just like the characters in the show did.

No surprises here but at the end of the 13th tape, we learn all of the reasons why Hannah ended her life, and in a very unsettling scene, we watch her commit the act. The show’s over, rave about it and move on, right? Wrong. They decided it needed a Season 2.

Season 2 follows the aftermath, and the ongoing court case of Hannah’s Mum against the school, as she blames them for what Hannah did. We still have 13 episodes but this time, each episode follows a character giving their testimony in court. Throughout the case, a new mystery develops as each person taking the stand is sent threatening messages before going in, and some disturbing polaroid photos are left for Clay.

That’s as much as I can say without spoilers, so be warned from this sentence on!

After Season 1, I became attached to all of the characters, so of course I loved having another Season to find out how they’re coping and also find out more about what happened whilst Hannah was still around. Two of my favourite storylines here are Tyler finding a new group of friends, and Zach’s romance with Hannah, although the latter broke Clay’s heart a little which makes me sad.

However, I have 2, no actually 3, main issues with the Season as a whole. The first being, why did we need a second Season to begin with? It feels like the show did better than the creators expected and then scrabbled around to write more of the story. Which ties in nicely with my second issue – why weren’t some of these revelations in Hannah’s tapes? The romance with Zach was HUGE, and yet she mentioned none of that? It just makes my first issue even more obvious.

Finally, what an anti-climatic ending! I’m not saying that I wanted to watch Tyler commit mass murder, but why build up to him doing exactly that for so long, just to have him jump into Tony’s car at the last second? I thought for sure someone was going to take down Bryce for getting away with it all. I guess there’s always Season 3?

What did you think, if you’ve seen it? What about that awful scene involving Tyler in the bathroom? I’ve never felt sicker!