Disclaimer - spoilers in this article.

13 Reasons Why has been shrouded with controversy from the very beginning, with the premise considered to be tactless and damaging by many. Perhaps, though, the most recent season was its most controversial, with the plotline centred around defending rapists like Bryce and Montgomery and in a curveball trying to redeem them after two years of alienation.

The backlash has not prevented the show being confirmed for another season, however, and we have been graced with a trailer that has left me less than satisfied. 

Now, I tend to like myself an edgy show or two, and have shame-facedly followed the show since its release. I understand the show to have good intentions in wanting to ‘start a conversation’, but I am of the opinion that it has lost its way and is throwing so much empty drama around for shock value that it now watches like an aged soap opera. Let’s get into this. 

So what are our expectations? Well, season three pivoted the teen drama from what tried to be a meaningful and relatable piece on the hardships that today’s young people face into a high-school-whodunnit following Bryce’s murder. 

It is told in a non-linear, messy format mostly following new girl Ani, who comes across as the busybody neighbour who posts on Facebook asking everybody if they know what that police car is doing at the end of the street. 

It ended with the bag of weapons that Tyler attempted to use at school being fished from the docks, and Winston, heartbroken over the loss of Monty (for some stupid reason). He knows that Monty didn’t kill Bryce and wants revenge. We should expect something to come of this. Does the trailer give us what we need?

Sidenote - don’t even get me started on why Ani was willing to risk literal imprisonment for a group of kids with anger issues that she only just met. 

The opening scene of the trailer features the gang in school, staring dumb-founded at graffiti (red, of course, because drama) that reads, ‘Monty was framed. AA”. Very Pretty Little Liars.

Sidenote - HOW ARE THESE KIDS STILL IN HIGH-SCHOOL THEY SERIOUSLY LOOK LIKE FULLY GROWN ADULTS AND HAVE DONE FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS. Hasn’t this trial surpassed their graduation? 

Anyway. Signature 13RW, there are a few ass-kicking scenes, which have definitely lost their value to the story and the realism that once followed the show. 

Perhaps most dramatically, there is a scene featuring Clay in a dark alleyway being pursued by police cars with sirens ablazing. If the last season is anything to go by, though, this will most likely be a) about an entirely different incident, or b) his paranoia, and really the police are after some stoned guy further up. 

And if the police really are pursuing him this way - why? What crime has Clay committed? Perjury, of course, maybe aiding and abetting...but wouldn’t such crimes be dealt with in a calm manner, with police coming to his door and taking him down to the station for questioning where he would be smoothly arrested and maybe given three years? 

Awful for him, sure, but dramatic? Sirens chasing him? No, probably not. 

It amuses me also how many filler scenes there are in this trailer, of angsty teenagers staring at each other or at themselves in mirrors. In addition, it features a nightmare of Clay’s, and if this is the most dramatic content that could be used for a trailer then I suspect this season, like the last, will be lengthy, slow-paced and anti-climactic. 

In another ohmigod moment, one scene features Clay crouching over a bloody body, pointing a gun at a large group of people. It seems...so exaggerated. Winston could just go to the police and tell them that he was with Monty that night, the investigation would continue in a very boring and formal way. It just seems like an easier way to deal with it, especially if he is grieving. 

It rings strange to me that the trailer seems to be back to focusing on Clay - not Alex, who actually killed, or Jessica, who was actually there, witnessing it, and aided and abetted him. Not Zach, who assaulted Bryce prior to his death, or Ani, who was the instigator of the lies they told to the police. 

Or even the chief, Alex’s father, who definitely broke a few laws disregarding evidence to protect his son. No, the show is focusing on Clay, who played only a minor role in season three. 

It seems clear to me that the show is trying to spread the plot very thin and milking it until it is dry. As much as this show meant to me once, it feels cheapened with loose ends and red herrings. 

This season will be slow and pointless, with either a sad ending that maybe befits the crimes of the cast, or an unrealistic one in which they get away with everything and all is right with the world. Neither of these endings, as both are so predictable, are worth devoting the time to binging the show. 

Sadly, it has entirely lost its way from an indie show wanting to discuss teenage suicide. Hannah who?

Not to worry, though! I am not biased. You bet I’ll be watching the final addition to the show, for closure, and if I am wrong about it I promise you right now that I’ll be releasing an article entitled ‘Eating My Words.; 

By Jasmine Lowen. 

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