13 Reasons Why (Netflix) S04: B-

This is going to be another hard review to write. In the end the grade was better than I expected. The fourth season started slow, weird, not interesting and pretty much it looked like it would be worst than the third one. Is not until episode 6 where we start to see some light for the series. Just this past monday I wrote my review of Extracurricular and compared a little bit about how that series, although much more polemic than 13 Reasons Why was more interesting and got my attention. At that moment I was still before episode 6 from this series and I was so bored with it.

With this season we wrap the hole Monty issue. But of course more complications rise before that happens. Things turn from bad to worse for this group of friends and as a series finale they start closing story lines to try and leave them with a blank slate for their future.

I have no problem with the cast all of them are good actors and most of them will probably have a successful career. Even Ani (played by Grace Saif) who was a character that I didn't like when she was first introduced a couple of season ago I kinda got attached to her.

Clay Jensen (played by Dylan Minnette) had the worst season, his anxiety and paranoia got the best of him and we watch how he starts cracking, well he started cracking since the first season. I don't even know how this boy survived so much trauma But we are so used by now to see Clay being Clay, that those first episodes I struggle to connect with the story and his pain, I honestly thought that this would be the worst season of the four, and now...well not the worst.

The second half when we start getting some closure the nostalgia kicks in. As I realize that there a just a couple episodes left and we would say good bye to this characters. Of course the real drama begins and some scenes and speeches had me crying. It made me almost completely forget how awful the season started.

By the end some of the events are so close to what we are literally watching on the news, that is scary and gets you mad about it. Kids just want to be kids, without racism or discrimination of any kind, and also to not be treated like criminals in their schools. All those security measures that the government of USA has taken on schools for their safety are a little too much. It seems they forgot they are dealing with kids and treat them like prisoners. Thats the series reality but is also the reality.

Of course this kids have constantly taken poor choices and they will continue to do so as they mature and learn from their mistakes.

I want to give a shout out to Amy Hargreaves and Josh Hamilton who played Clay's parents. Their performance is magnificent and I truly felt the frustration on not knowing how to help their children, remember they adopted Justin (played by Brandon Flynn) a couple of seasons ago and Amy's performance is heartbreaking. It made me remember Kate Walsh performance back in season 1. I actually missed seeing Kate Walsh come back for a small cameo on the series finale. And was kinda bummed that Katherine Langford who played Hannah Baker, didn't really came back to say good bye.

I still think that they missed the opportunity of an amazing, but more obvious, story line with Tyler (played by Devin Druid) they had pure gold with it. Thriller and dramatic elements, so much dramatic elements. That could be as explosive as the first season story line with Hannah. But I understand that maybe school shooting were a very sensitive subject, since they occur so often. But for me Tyler was one of the most complex and interesting characters in the series. Still they gave him some respect and opportunity to have a good story arc.

And talking about thriller elements, that was my main problem with those first episodes, when the series started looking like Pretty Little Liars or Riverdale. With more suspense than drama and Clay trying to uncover a conspiracy against them. Fortunately they toned it down with the suspense, and turned up the drama for the second half.

13 Reasons Why had an explosive beginning, lost some fans for the second season, kept loosing fans during the third season, but somehow managed to give a good closure to the people that never gave up on the show.

For a more nostalgic ending to this post lets see whats in store for them:

Brandon Flynn will appear on Ratched from Ryan Murphy. Ross Butler on Swimming With Sharks and probably the sequel for Shazam!. Devin Druid has three movies coming up. Katherine Langford would star in Cursed a Netflix series by Frank Miller this summer. Tyler Barnhardt appeared on Amazon's Tales From The Loop. Dylan Minnette, Alisha Boe, Miles Heizer, Justin Prentice, Timothy Granaderos, Grace Saif and Christian Navarro surprisingly have no projects coming up so far.