13 Reasons Why: Season 3 Review

13 Reasons Why: Season 3 takes place 7 months after Tyler nearly commits an unimaginable act at Spring Fling. Clay, Jessica, Tony, Justin, Alex and Zach help Tyler in his recovery whilst finding ways to deal with the burden of the cover up. Though there are serious repercussions from Homecoming - suddenly turned into a grave situation. Everyone finds themselves as suspects under the police's inspection. With the addition of a newcomer, they are steered towards revealing their own secrets, leading up to the shows most shocking reveal.

Season 3 tackles sensitive topics; rape culture, gun violence, drug use and sexual abuse. Thankfully, it's managed to make an enjoyable season without any incredibly nauseating, yet still meaningful scenes to get its point across.

Though the small occasional flashbacks to Tyler and Jessica's sexual abuse weren't necessary; watching those scenes for the first time was scarring enough. The audience already knows what happened, and seeing their rapists in the school hallway would obviously remind them of that - which is more than enough. Speaking of, I really appreciated this season's strong emphasis to sexual abuse survivors that they should only speak up when they are ready - definitely an improvement from season 2 as Clay constantly pressured Jessica to speak up in court, to the point where she felt, quote on quote "hunted". It was done in a way that felt natural and real instead of overbearing. When Jessica made a speech about being a survivor in school assembly, then members of the audience stood up and called themselves 'survivors' (Episode 12) was beautifully done - I genuinely loved that. Seeing Tyler speak up was amazing.

Surprisingly, the narration from newcomer Ani Achola (played by Grace Saif) made little to no difference to the overall storyline, and felt slightly odd. For someone who's new to the school, she acted as though she knew everything about the entire situation, when really all she did was accuse people of doing things based on false assumptions - like when she suggested Jessica slept with Bryce to 'take back control' in episode 5. That clearly shows her poor judgement of her own friends, and those kind of assumptions make it harder to trust her. Ani was always a questionable character to me, but it was a shock and a disappointment to see that she quickly became a rape apologist...? Of all people to be defending Bryce, it was a real shock. It was so hard for me to like her at all initially, but her comments in that scene made her one of my least favourites this season. Whilst watching, I noticed that the episode titles were quotes from Ani taken in the episodes. Plus, her as the narrator (talking to the police) made me think that perhaps she killed Bryce (I know, sounds like a crazy theory) or had a big part to play in his death. My point is, these small additions to the season made Ani appear as an important- maybe even a central character. But was she, really? The only way Ani related to the story was that she lived with Bryce. Thats it. No other relation to the story. I'm sure if Ani was taken out, only a small part of the plot would be different/altered. I was expecting so much more from her character, to be completely honest.

I can't be the only person who was confused by this seasons timeline and the constant change from present day to past within the first 2-3 episodes. I didn't realise at first how dull the lighting this season had into the scene changed into bright, normal saturation you'd see on any show (though that was obviously deliberate to set a tone for the season). Sometimes, flashbacks would have characters talk about situations that I didn't know about, or had forgotten. In the season 2 finale, Jessica and Justin kissed in a locker room, so I assumed they would be dating from that point (even though Jess cheated...). Though instead, in the first episode Jessica kissed Alex, meaning she never told Alex about what happened and strung him along, essentially. That should've been addressed somehow; it was confusing to try understand what was happening back then and now. Though it became easier to differentiate between past and present as the season went on as it was made clearer.

Theres obviously no doubt about Bryce being a vile person, but it's important to also understand from a writers perspective how important it is to show Bryce is a different light (somehow). Characters - just as real people - are complex, obviously. It was actually surprising to see Bryce so differently - such as him genuinely wanting to help Tyler, apologise to Jess and Mrs Baker. It made Bryce more dimensional as a character. Though the writers were over-doing it. The entire purpose of seeing Bryce from a different perspective was to make the audience understand him more as a character, but not to the point of feeling sympathy. Ultimately, Bryce is meant to be the antagonist of the show. Not to discredit his want to change, but sometimes an apology and a different act just doesn't cut it. As much as I hate Bryce, him being bullied at Hillcrest and his death doesn't equal as 'payback'. It would've been better to see him get actual, fair and justified punishment. Honestly, if he didn't move schools or get bullied, he would be exactly the same as he was two seasons ago.

That being said though, his death and the way it happened was not justified. At all.

The reveal of Bryce's killer(s) was shocking, though personally I thought other characters had stronger, and more believable motives to kill Bryce - specifically Clay. There was a certain amount and kind of evidence against him to the point where I was very much convinced. It baffles me how everyone can live with the fact that one (actually two) of them were involved in Bryce's death, and feel somehow free because the situation managed to sort itself out, thanks to Ani. The ending thankfully had no shock value, but in figurative sense, it did have shock value - because of how insane and unpredictable it was (which essentially, is the whole point, but still). The situation was so convenient in everyones favour which was so wrong. Those physically responsible for Bryce's death should honestly be in jail, no matter who it was. It's anti-climatic and unsatisfying that lies were told to keep everyone together. It would've made the finale much better if those involved were caught, as opposed to being saved by friends. Bryce should not have died the way he did.

Another season has been confirmed - the fourth and final one. No date has been confirmed, though it should be released mid 2020. Overall, I was really engaged in this season, though it'd be better with less episodes as the plot felt stretched out and if they kept Bryce being dead a major plot twist instead of spoiling it in trailers. I'd rather have the show end here; what more can be added and stretched out for another 13 episodes?

Did you enjoy this season or not? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below! I'm interested in hearing what you think!!

- Edna