13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why features no shortage of missteps. But it’s a show that so deeply feels for its characters, so deeply feels these scenarios, that it’s hard to be mad at it.

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.

The encore, alas, can't replicate that appeal, detouring into courtroom drama in a manner that provides far fewer reasons to watch or binge.

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.

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.

13 takes the heat off itself with an over-packed second season that doesn't quite walk back the controversies of the first, but attempts to talk them back.

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.

The courtroom scenes are among the least convincing scenes in the series.

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.

The Netflix teen drama’s second season is occasionally arresting, but wholly unnecessary.

This wallow in angst ends up being mostly insufferable. [28 May - 10 Jun 2018, p.17]

While it contains some touching moments as well as tender performances from its ensemble cast, the second season of 13 Reasons Why is, above all else, a string of 13 episodes struggling to justify their existence.

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.

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].