If you watch 13 Reasons Why you’ll know it’s a tough watch. I don’t know any other drama, let alone a supposed teen drama, that manages to squeeze in so many hard-hitting subjects but which rarely get so little air-time.
It’s hard to forget that in a world with “big news” like Donald Trump, Brexit and now, Conservative-majority rule for the UK for the foreseeable future, that’s it’s the smaller stories, the personal stories that really rule our lives and these are the stories that make 13 Reasons Why a hard, gruelling but necessary watch.
I nearly tapped out of season 3. I just couldn’t follow jumps between timelines (i think there are three maybe four… I’m a little foggy on that) and the introduction of a new character, Ani, was a little jarring. In fact, I watched the first two episodes and switched it off and left it for a few weeks.
But it lingered there. In the recesses of my mind. I wanted to know.
The season focuses on rebuilding lives after so much is destroyed in the previous 2 series and it packs a punch, it also contains some of the most emotional, heart-breaking acting I’ve ever seen on screen. Not from the main characters Clay (Dylan Minette) and Ani (Grace Saif), although they both pull in a solid performance, the real powerhouse deliveries come from rape survivors, Jessica (Alisha Boe) and Tyler (Devin Druid). Devin is good, actually beyond good. I think we’re looking at one of his generation’s finest actors.
13 Reasons Why season three is a slow cook drama, it takes around 4 or 5 episodes to really get going, but when it does, oh man does it hurt.
Stick with it. Don’t close it down because it’s too difficult to watch or too harrowing to hear. Let’s, as Jessica says, hear these stories.
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