If there has to be a series, I have really given my attention; it has got to be Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why”. Upon debut in 2017, I didn’t first give it that much attention since it was just new and in just season one; because of the thing that I have for not liking the cliffhangers that most series leave us with. So, I promised myself I would only watch this particular series once all seasons were out. When the official soundtrack for Season 2 came out in 2018; (Selena Gomez’s “Back To You”), it really kept tempting me to stream the 13 Reasons Why series since the song’s lyrics video was mainly filled with a few scenes from the series. Given the fact that I am big Khalid fan and dig his music big time, it was known to me that he and Billie Eilish’s “lovely” was a part of the new music collection soundtracks for the new season then; which was season 3 of the series. And now that we are observing the staying home directive, I decided to give Netflix a shot; and before I could start on this 13 Reasons Why journey, I first completed season 2 of my other former favorite Netflix series (Sex Education) and then decided to watch this one. From the start. And here the story goes:
Starring Katherine Langford as Hannah Baker. Dylan Minnette plays Clay Jensen. Alisha Boe, Brandon Flynn, Cristian Navarro, Justin Prentice, Miles Heizer, Ross Butler, Devin Druid and Derek Luke; the 13 Reasons Why series premiered on March 31st 2017. It’s the screen adaptation of Jay Asher’s 2007 novel by the same title about the aftermath of high school student Hannah Baker’s suicide, whose death is portrayed in the show’s first season.
Through a series of cassette tapes left behind to classmates, Baker (Katherine Langford) plays the role of a girl who became a victim of backstabbing, bullying and sexual assault during her high school. Lack of support from friends and family made her alone and sad. So, unable to handle the loneliness and pain she commits suicide! Before dying, she recorded 13 tapes. The recording explains everything that happened to her, every reason that made her take this step, ending her life. On the tapes, she narrates the reasons behind her decision, including a sexual assault and the failings of the institutions in place to offer support. The story revolves around the mysterious death of Hannah Baker.
The teen TV drama show has since been praised by some critics for its approach in dealing with young adult themes like mental health, sexual assault, and more. Elsewhere the season was met with more critical reactions over its portrayal of suicide.
Also, a fact that most of us don’t know, earlier is “13 Reasons Why” was to be released as a movie in 2011 with Selena Gomez as Hannah Baker. But then, the idea was dropped and the series was created instead; thereby making Selena its Executive Producer.
May 18th, 2018 the TV drama was renewed for Season 2. This takes viewers on a flashback spree as each person mentioned on the tapes; close friends, and family members of Hannah get embroiled in a civil legal battle between Hannah Baker’s family and Liberty High school; alleging negligence on the part of the school. Hannah’s mother embarks on a journey of attaining justice for her daughter’s death which costs her her marriage. Hannah’s story unfolds as told by those who were present in court for the trial; meanwhile Clay embarks on an investigation to find whatever evidence he can get his hands on in an endeavor to find evidence to expose the school’s corrupted culture that does not favour an average student and compromises young girls such as his deceased best friend; Hannah. The season closes with a Summer Fling after the Homecoming game between the Liberty Tigers and the team from Hillcrest. Thought I’d never see this day, but there was a scene that actually got a ninja called me (I) cutting onions; with the whole emotion of where Clay was alone on the ball room floor, and Lord Huron & Phoebe Bridges’ “The Night We Met” was played by the disc jockey and being that Clay had a memory of where he had once danced to that song with Hannah who was now dead; it arose feelings of melancholy in him and the rest of his friends; Tony, Alex, Jess, and the rest came and wrapped their arms around him as consolation and standing with him to strengthen him really got me. I actually tweeted about this scene. It really got me.
So, we are down to Season 3. This season which serves as the second last installment of the of “13 Reasons Why” series and was released on 23rd August, 2019. *just 5 days to my birthday [28th].
The Season is centered around the death of school tormentor Bryce Walker. This comes eight months after Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette), preventing Tyler Down (Devin Druid) from bringing a gun to Spring Fling, Tony Padilla (Christian Navarro), Jessica Davis (Alisha Boe), Alex Standall (Miles Heizer), Justin Foley (Brandon Flynn) and Zach Dempsey (Ross Butler) find ways to shoulder the burden of the cover-up together while helping Tyler move toward recovery. But when it’s discovered that footballer Bryce has been killed after the homecoming game, everyone is forced to question each other about who did it – and Clay finds himself under police scrutiny. Several of the characters are involved in Bryce’s death – Zach (Ross Butler) who confronted, assaulted him; leaving Bryce with a broken arm and leg, Alex and Jess arrived later, and Bryce gave Jess the tape containing his confession before asking Alex to help him up. However, Alex, in anger over the hurt Bryce had caused to everyone in Alex’s life and circle, he instead pushed him into the river, where he died of drowning due to being injured and hence unable to swim; and Montgomery de la Cruz (Timothy Granaderos) got the blame. As Bryce’s murder investigation was closing, it transpired that Monty had been beaten to death in prison and so Clay’s friends pin the murder on him. At the end of the series Winston Williams (Deacon Bluman) confronts Ani Achola (Grace Saif) about the lie.
Season 3’s closing scene left us with many questions as viewers. Questions like:
- Will Clay get away with lying to the police about who killed Bryce?
- What happened to Tyler’s guns that were dumped in the lake by Tony and Clay and later found by an unknown fisherman?
- Whether the relationship between Justin and Jessica will work out? And
- What will happen to Alex, whose police officer dad is aware of his role in Bryce’s murder, as well as his drug use.
- What’s in store for the Liberty High seniors this time around?
Well answer to question 5 is to be found out this Friday 5th June when the FINAL season of the series arrives to the streaming service. This comes as good news and bad news at the same time to us “13 Reasons Why” fans; as the show has been renewed for a fourth season, however, it will also be the show’s last. Netflix first announced the news alongside the show’s final season 3 trailer that had people wondering who Bryce’s killer was. The release date of the final season of teen drama 13 Reasons Why has been confirmed, with season 4 set to return to Netflix in June 5th as revealed on the show’s Twitter saying: “the “final goodbye” is Friday 5 June.”
What to expect:
Season 3 ended in a huge cliffhanger, as 13 Reasons Why prepares to enter its final chapter, here’s everything I know about season four so far basing on the official trailer that was dropped on the 20th of May 2020, hinting at what’s to come next after Monty was framed for the murder of Bryce and then killed in prison at the end of the third season, with the real killer Alex still out there… Winston knows that Monty couldn’t have done it as he was with him all night, so that secret might become undone soon enough.
The last jaunt of the drama-ridden high school is coming back and promises to finally let all of its secrets out. This is because the trailer opens with series protagonist Clay (Dylan Minnette) walking into school, only to see the words “Monty was framed” spray-painted on a wall. It doesn’t appear that the tenuous peace the series’ remaining teens found during Season 3’s conclusion is going to last, given the trailer’s numerous violent shots and scenes of Clay’s distress — unsurprising, given the multitude of crimes he’s helped cover up over the last three seasons.
Here’s the fourth season’s synopsis, per Netflix: “As Liberty High School’s class prepares for graduation, they are forced to make life-changing and heartbreaking choices about how their past will impact their future.” At the beginning of the teaser, we see a few of the students at a school dance – so we should expect to see the group attend prom during at least one of the episodes.
According to Netflix, “In the series’ final season, Liberty High School’s Senior Class prepares for graduation. But before they say goodbye, they’ll have to keep a dangerous secret buried and face heartbreaking choices that could impact their futures forever.” Meaning Season four is likely follow the characters’ trials and tribulations as they move through the intensity of their final year of high school – with everything that entails, including senior prom and graduation.
Cast:
Along with the date and teaser, Netflix also confirmed the cast for season four and there are plenty of new and familiar faces that will be popping up. The season four cast includes:
Dylan Minnette as Clay Jensen, Alisha Boe as Jessica Davis, Brandon Flynn as Justin Foley, Miles Heizer as Alex Standall, Grace Saif as Ani Achola, Christian Navarro as Tony Padilla, Ross Butler as Zach Dempsey, Devin Druid as Tyler Down, Timothy Granaderos as Montgomery de la Cruz and introducing Jan Luis Castellanos as Diego Torres. Although he is not listed, Justin Prentice does appear in the teaser as Bryce Walker, so there’s a possible chance we might be seeing more of him in a few scenes (in form of flash backs).
Marvel’s Runaways’ Jan Luis Castellanos is set to join the cast as Diego Torres, as a grieving football team leader who has difficulties managing his emotions. Although his character is dead, Timothy Granaderos looks set to reprise the role of Montgomery (Monty) in some capacity, as he was one of the actors spotted at the final table read of the series. Monty’s shocking death in season three, after being framed for Bryce’s murder, looks like it will have huge repercussions in season four. Deaken Bluman is also confirmed to return as Winston, who will be a major player in the new episodes, after telling Ani that he’s Monty’s alibi at the end of season three… A new cast addition for the final season will be Gary Sinise, playing Dr. Robert Ellman, a family therapist who treats Clay.
Length:
The controversial high school drama’s final season is expected to be only 10 episodes long, making it the shortest season of the show yet. Each episode is to be 60 minutes (1 Hour) long; unlike the customary 13 like in the case of the previous 13 Reasons Why seasons which were 55- 70 minutes or more and each season came with it 13 Episodes each; of course, this follows the series’ title.
Brian Yorkey the creator and Showrunner said that the reason for this is purely narrative-focused. “It served the story better, and 10 episodes ended up being the sweet spot for us,” he said. “I think 10 episodes is a nice length for a season. I was adamant going into season 2 that it had to be 13 because the show’s called 13 Reasons Why…
“But at this point, heading into season four it was like, ‘We’ve given them 39 reasons why at least, so I feel like we can say, yes, the show is still called 13 Reasons Why, this season is 10 episodes.’ It’s the right number, you’ll see that when we get to the end.” However, fans can expect to see a lengthier season finale. “I’m incredibly proud of our finale episode. I think it’s very special and it’s also supersized,” he said.
“It’s a supersized finale, so even if people aren’t super happy with the ending, at least they can’t say we were stingy.”
Why there won’t be season five to 13 Reasons Why:
Netflix announced that the upcoming fourth season of the show will be the last. In a statement, Netflix insisted that it was purely a creative decision to end the series now, explaining that season four “will feature the core cast’s graduation from High School which will be a natural conclusion to the show.”
“Somewhere in the midst of making season two, when it became clear that we might have the chance to make more seasons of this, I pretty quickly got to a place where it felt like a four-season story,” said Brian; the show’s creator. “I’m always a little bit suspicious of high school shows that go beyond four seasons because high school is four years long.
Yorkey added: “It felt like bringing these characters to their graduation and to scattering to their next things felt like the logical ending point. So, for a long time, the idea has been, should we be so lucky to have the opportunity, we would do four seasons of this. So certainly, going into breaking story for season four, we knew it was the end.”
Luckily for us, Netflix thought ahead for this one and decided to shoot both season 3 and season 4 back-to-back, which means that the team working on 13 Reasons Why evidently managed to tape (record/shoot) all episodes by filming both season 3 and 4 at the same time; just in time before the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 and lockdown.
Check out the trailer for “13 Reasons Why” Season 4 below:
In addition to the trailer; the show also released a teaser video showing the show’s emotional cast and crew saying goodbye to the set, their cast mates, and their characters for the last time as they wrapped up shooting the final season. In it, we see an emotional video featuring some of the cast from the series, including Clay Jensen, Justin Foley and Alisha Boe, saying: “I will never forget this experience”. It contains hugs and tearful smiles all round as the cast conclude their last ever table read. The video also shows clips from the upcoming series and footage of the cast filming the show’s very last episode.
If you’re a big fan of this show just like I am, you’ll definitely want to grab some tissues before watching this. 😔😥😭 Take a glance here: –
Netflix has been churning out the goods in lockdown, with new seasons of Ozark, Dead to Me and After Life premiering alongside new hits like Hollywood, The Eddy and Never Have I Ever. So, fans of one of the streaming site’s most popular originals are in for a treat, with the fourth and final season of 13 Reasons Why confirmed to be premiering this Friday 5th June. Once am through with this one, I am planning to get back and catch up on Money Heist as I had ended on season one.
As a fan of the 13 Reasons Why Netflix web series, which character are you going to miss the most and why? Let me know in the comments section. Otherwise, can’t wait to catch up with its final lap of it this Friday. Do have yourself a good day.
