Duncan Lay: Why 13 Reasons Why season 3 missed the mark
The third season of 13 Reasons Why leaves you with such a bad taste in the mouth, Duncan Lay writes. I really don’t know what the third season wanted to achieve. It called itself a murder-mystery but the only mystery is what the hell were they thinking?
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I was a huge supporter of 13 Reasons Why and the way it tried to open up taboo subjects for conversation but now I feel like breaking its arms and legs and shoving it off a jetty into a river — just like it did with a main character.
Forget jumping the shark, the third season of 13 Reasons Why leaves you with such a bad taste in the mouth, even a shark with a compulsive eating disorder would spit it out.
The first season made some mistakes, such as being way too graphic with the suicide scene starring Katherine Langford as Hannah Baker.
Netflix also completely underestimated the effect the show would have and the way in which teenagers and parents stampeded organisations such as headspace looking for help.
But its heart was in the right place.
The overwhelming message you took away from the first season was to be kinder to those around you. That one seemingly small action can have a snowball effect and truly hurt someone.
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There was also the extraordinarily valuable message that life is precious and, no matter how dark a place you are in and how hopeless you feel, there are people out there who will help if you just reach out to them.
I lost a young relative a few years ago and it still haunts me that there was something I could have said or done to change that.
Yes, the first season could have used a few tweaks to make it better but it was a spark that started many uncomfortable conversations. Conversations that needed to take place, no matter the comfort level.
The second season tried to fix that up and its messages were a lot better, although it went back and rewrote parts of the first season in doing so, which completely undermined several key plot points.
I really don’t know what the third season wanted to achieve. It called itself a murder-mystery but the only mystery is what the hell were they thinking?
There were some good parts and some intelligent messages about helping each other. It also spent much of its 13 episodes trying to show that “rapists are human beings too”. What the?
But the horrible moment when you realise that’s not a chocolate surprise in your bowl of cereal, it’s a steaming cat turd, came at the end.
The show that began with a message that life is precious, somehow morphed into one where it’s fine to kill people.
That you can kill someone and get away with it. That you can kill someone and it is a liberating experience, which makes you a better person. That your friends will rally around and protect you and help cover up the deed because that’s what friends do. Even though you were prepared to see one of them go to jail in your place!
That you can keep going to school and going about your business as if nothing had happened. There were no consequences.
Sure, a season four might bring some consequences but it’s all too little, too late.
By the way it killed Liberty High’s rich rapist Bryce Walker, the show killed its own legacy.