13 Reasons Why Season 3

Considering this show, which had a nearly perfect 1st season that already used up the whole source material, and expanded on it very well, certainly never should have had a 2nd season(and season 2 was bumpy as hell as a result), it's kind of amazing how its THIRD season, which is now far afield from both the book and 1st season, is actually okay.

I mean, I was into it enough to do the whole 13 episodes in one weekend.

The promo for the season was the tagline "who killed Bryce Walker?" so we know going in that the season will basically be a whodunit. And more or less each episode is designed around investigating a new possible suspect, until we find out at the end that, no, they didn't do it. It's at times annoyingly repetitive.

The big change for this season, and one that has been the biggest target for fan hate, is the new character of Ani. Ani is the new girl at school. The season takes place in a couple different timeframes, with one being right after season 2 in the spring, and the other being the following fall. Ani comes in in the spring, and instantly becomes intertwined with all the major players here.

The biggest contrivance is that her mother is a home care worker taking care of Bryce's ailing grandfather, so the 2 of them are living at Bryce's house, in a guest house. But Ani also becomes friends with Clay.

I really like the actress who plays Ani. She's cute, with an English accent and the acting is fine. But the character is blatantly here as a Hannah Baker substitute. She even narrates most of the season. It is just weird to insert this character into this pre-existing drama and then make her literally the main character. She has more screen time and dialogue than Clay.

And to make matters worse, she not only befriends Bryce she has a sexual relationship with him, even after learning about his rapey past. A big part of the season is the idea of Bryce trying to redeem himself. I'm sorry, but fuck that. This character is a literal serial rapist, who never faced any legal punishment, and really minimal consequences at all. And while we are shown a few flashes of him doing things to help people or try to make amends, I never bought what this show was selling. Considering what this show originated with, it is just creepy to see them turn the show's biggest villain into a conduit for some big redemption arc. I do not know what the writers are self-aware enough about here.

The cops here are also cartoon characters, at least the sheriff. They should have just given him a moustache to twirl.

What keeps season 3 from imploding is that a lot of these characters and actors are just really damn good. They can sell you on some ridiculous story and character beats.

Season 2 ended with that near school shooting incident with Tyler,  but that's largely disposed of as a plot point fairly quickly. But Tyler's storyline here is really good. They have their redemption arc right here without needing to do that whole "Bryce can be good" thing.

Jessica gets a great storyline to follow. There's a lot of post-#MeToo stuff here. The show does stumble again with  a new character, Casey, who is like a cartoon version of a right wing fantasy about what a lgbt/womens rights activist would be.

Katherine Langford is not in the season at all. Hannah is barely mentioned, really.

The season does not end on a cliffhanger. There's one thing that sort of could be one, but who knows if they go there. They've already announced a 4th and final season, which is probably good, since some of these actors look way too old to continue playing high schoolers.