Netflix and Spill: 13 Reasons Why S3

When Netflix teased that Hannah Baker was not the only casualty of Liberty High, we were filled with some intrigue. Did Bryce Walker finally get what was coming to him, and how would this affect the victims he left in his wake? It should have been an interesting enough premise for the series based on the by book Jay Asher and developed for Netflix by Brian Yorkey.

Fast forward to the fated Homecoming night, and several characters from the previous season are perfectly culpable for his death. Least of all is the new addition to the cast, Ani (Grace Saif) who steps in as the new narrator. We’re supposed to believe she has the same invisible, omnipotent power as Hannah Baker, but this was in the context that Hannah was a deceased girl narrating on tapes in season 1, and then posthumously appearing as a ghost in season 2. The premise of the first two seasons was the suicide and aftermath of a girl and the reasons for her death, but switching the tone to a murder mystery of a broken man seeking reparation for his mistakes is misguided.

Ani is shown to be a key player in the mystery, having lived with Bryce and defending Clay (Dylan Minnette) from prosecution as she narrates from the police interrogation room . Therein lies the problem with the very first episode. With no establishment in the previous seasons, we’re supposed to believe she has an insider knowledge into the very psyches and motivations of the characters she claims to know. She’s nosy and yet speaks with the wisdom of a much older character, a psychologist perhaps who more or less tells the police to do their job. “You might have your man, but you’d be wrong,” she asserts.

So what of the characters that remain?

Each character becomes a poster child for the issues of the 21st teen, a walking zeitgeist into a high school. Zach Dempsey (Ross Butler) is the injured athlete, bitter about his season-ending injury that stalls his college scholarship dreams. Alex (Miles Hesier) struggles with expectations of physicality and masculinity as he battles a disability with illegal steroids and Jessica is caught between wanting more accountability for the jocks guilty of sexual assault and the radical feminist student body that wants the team disbanded. When you identify the characters based on their issue rather than their personality, it becomes problematic. What are these kids hobbies outside of solving the mysteries of their classmates extracurricular sins? The take home message is that everyone has secrets, but that tagline is more repetitive than the grey hue colour scheme that drapes the characters onscreen.

Some reasons remain to watch the show to the end, if you can make it that far. Clay takes on a brotherly persona to many of his male classmates whereas in previous seasons he was a loner drifting in the hallways, and characters who were easy targets for bullies and the perfect bait to fall in society’s cracks take a more positive, assertive stance on their weaknesses. School photographer Tyler Down (Devin Druid) is weird and a little bit creepy (he also nearly pulled a number on his classmates which keeps everyone on their toes), but his transformation is genuine and offers a rare insight in male sexual assault victims. He calls out other characters for their insincere attempts at friendship, and although he serves as an unconvincing, red herring suspect for Bryce’s murder, his loyalty and strength play out in the final episodes. It’s nice to know there are some real people out there, even if they are unhinged.

13 Reasons Why has been renewed for a fourth season, and it will be a test to take these characters on ostensibly another classmate whodunnit. The final episode of this season teases that the loose ends of previous seasons will unravel, and that there are even more atrocities lurking underneath the surface of this small town. An exasperated Jessica reflects on their high school experience: “I want better than that, we’ve been through so much shit and I want more .”

The same can be said of this season.

Netfix Australia

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Shahbaz Malik

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