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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
18
Mixed:
12
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews
May 16, 2018
Season 2 Review:
The writers accurately capture the center-of-my-own-universe angst of the teen mind, and this season’s mystery delivers on twists and OMFG moments. 13 Reasons Why finishes season 2 as a show you don’t so much enjoy as endure and appreciate later--much like adolescence itself.
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Mar 22, 2017The Daily BeastApr 21, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Clay’s conduct sometimes borders on the insufferable. And while Hannah’s traumas are authentically dramatized, she’s forced to endure so many indignities that, in total, she occasionally comes across as a symbolic vessel for an important message, rather than a flesh-and-blood human being. Fortunately, Langford’s wounded-yet-bold lead performance is altogether charming, and Minnette is equally credible.
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Mar 27, 2017
Season 1 Review:
A steady 13-episode descent into grief and emotional confusion, 13 Reasons Why is an honorably mature piece of young-adult adaptation, fleshing out Jay Asher's well-regarded novel in a way that allows its cold-hearted high-school environment to breathe while revolving around tremendous lead turns by Dylan Minnette and particularly Australian newcomer Katherine Langford.
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TV Guide MagazineMar 17, 2017
Season 1 Review:
A compulsively gripping drama that could be thought of as My So-Called Suicide. [20 Mar - 2 Apr 2017, p.19]
Mar 29, 2017
Season 1 Review:
For the record, both Minnette and Langford are so good, you almost forget they are too old to be playing high school sophomores. While the script may be overly contrived at times, it at least aims to make its points about teen suicide through drama and only occasionally resorting to speechifying.
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May 16, 2018
Season 2 Review:
The strengths--the diverse cast, intriguing mystery--remain the same, while the weaknesses--an exploitative edge, inconsistent characterization--have failed to resolve themselves. What is new and improved, however, is Dylan Minnette as Clay Jensen. ... Minnette stands above the pack. His is a tour-de-force performance that goes a long way to making 13 Reasons Why’s second season feel worth the drama.
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Aug 28, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Just as the kids at the center of this show need to be held accountable for their actions, 13 Reasons Why needs to be held accountable for the messages it's sending. It's not good enough to have a few hits, the whole package has to make sense, otherwise, why are we here and why are we watching?
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May 22, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why takes a dive in quality from the show’s first which, for all of its flaws, remains a moving tragedy and a potent conversation starter. ... Season 2 employs Polaroid pictures as the breadcrumbs propelling along its feeble mystery. Along the way it also leads us through Jessica’s journey as an assault survivor, indubitably the season’s strongest storyline.
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May 18, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Although the second season tries to directly address some of the complaints against the series (it more explicitly links self-harm to mental illness and acknowledges the dangers of glamorizing suicide), it can’t help but return to the over-the-top drama it so clearly loves.
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May 17, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Season 2 is a worthy attempt at a do-over, if a flawed one. That’s until the final episode, when a plotline that’s been building over the past 12 episodes turns into a charged confrontation that undermines everything 13 Reasons Why has spent its second season doing.
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The Daily BeastMay 16, 2018
Season 2 Review:
There’s nothing to push the narrative gas pedal in this first half of season two. You’re spending hours and hours watching characters wait for something to happen, for something shocking to come out of the trial. You’re waiting, too. ... This is a show that mostly succeeds at blurring the lines between protagonists and villains, to the point that we’re even forced to sit through the character assassination of Hannah in court and question what we thought we knew about her.
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Mar 30, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The show doesn’t make [Hannah’s] downward progress convincing. It too often feels artificial, like a very long public service announcement. Another problem is a storytelling contrivance that quickly becomes irritating. ... The watchful, smart performance by Mr. Minnette is one reason to make the effort-- it builds up some cumulative force. In the last four episodes, two directed by Carl Franklin and two by Jessica Yu, it achieves a momentum and gravity somewhat equal to its subject matter.
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TV Guide MagazineMay 24, 2018
Season 2 Review:
This wallow in angst ends up being mostly insufferable. [28 May - 10 Jun 2018, p.17]
The Daily BeastAug 28, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Misguided, narratively preposterous, and arguably offensive season. ... I’m not sure what complex moral issues the season thought it was exploring when it comes to good vs. bad, abusers, survivors, and the connection between rape culture and jock culture. But in the end the series becomes, basically, How to (Barely) Get Away With Murder.
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May 16, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Unfortunately, the season's execution is frequently dismal. And although I didn't feel that the first season engaged in sadness porn or exploitation, I can't say the same for the second. It wallows, especially in later episodes. Using the trial as a structuring device might not have been a bad idea, except that there is no aspect of the trial that isn't absolutely ridiculous.
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UPROXXMay 16, 2018
Season 2 Review:
With each new revelation, each new flashback that adds additional context to one of last season’s flashbacks, it begins to feel less like a sensitive teen drama than like one of those forgettable Lost rip-offs that thought the key to success was introducing five new questions for every old one that gets answered. ... And each additional reason, each additional season, dilutes the impact of when we first heard [Hannah’s story].
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Mar 30, 2017
Season 1 Review:
A passive-aggressive, implausibly meandering, poorly written and awkwardly acted effort that is mainly about miscommunication, delivering no more wisdom or insight about depression, bullying and suicide than one of those old “ABC Afterschool Specials” people now mock for being so corny.
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IndieWireAug 28, 2019
Season 3 Review:
By focusing on rehabbing the image of a rapist, “13 Reasons Why” Season 3 quickly proves it’s creatively bankrupt. But only after watching all 13 hours of the new season do you learn that even the rehab was for naught, which makes the whole season one big confounding waste of time.
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