13 Reasons Why Season 4: Nothing Really Matters
(Clay Jenson having a mental breakdown or something)
The Good
I struggled to find any positives to this show especially this season. The mystery of who is disrupting the lives of the main characters is shadowed to the murder mystery of who murdered Bryce. What I loved about this season is Clay causing everyone's problems and how methodical he can be in the show. At one point he is breaking down like a crazy person followed by spray painting that Monty was framed, breaking cameras, and roaming the woods with an ax to scare the other characters. This was great if Clay was aware of what he was doing and that he was purposefully trying to ruin his friend's lives. They all had it coming as they abandon Clay when he has his mental breakdowns throughout the show but I'll talk about that later. I found it funny that nothing really awful was happening in the show but in Clay's head. No one killed themselves like in season 1, no one was on trial like season 2, no murder like season 3. This entire season could be summed up in Clay having a hard time. This is the only factor I enjoyed because this wasn't how Clay was responding to the world like the other seasons. This is how the world is responding to Clay.
I also liked Winston as a character. He's not a good person and at times he appears to have the upper hand just to be fooled by his own mistakes. Winston isn't one dimensional with wanting to bring down Clay and his friends at times while other times falling hard for Alex and befriending Zach and Tyler. Parts of me wanted Winston to bring the truth out. Monty was wrongfully accused of murder and Alex, Jessica, and possibly Zach should be held responsible for Bryce's murder. I also liked Tony's arc this season. The cop giving him a hard time just to push him to become a legit boxer. Same cop that gets Tony out of the riot and also calls recruiters for Tony to go to college. This is the stuff I want to see from the show. I was expecting the cop to be just as bad as other people, but he really wants Tony to succeed. Also Tony knocks out a literal nazi so that was nice. Another great character was Charlie. He is that blind optimism the group was missing and I enjoyed his screen time. Finally, it was good to see my boy Ryan in the last episode as well as Cyrus throughout the season.
The Bad
I bet the writers panicked when they realized they killed the two antagonists, rapist 1 and rapist 2. So they made another cliche stupid character Diego. I liked nothing about him and he offered nothing new to the story. He was pretty much Bryce 3 at this point and I hated everything about him especially with Jessica. Speaking of Jessica, shout out to her throwing it in Justin's face multiple times that he let her be raped by Bryce because he is trying to focus on not relapsing on his meth addiction. Justin clearly had bigger fish to fry with his recovery but since he's not ready to continue the relationship, make out in front of him with Diego, and guilt him about what Bryce did in season 1. Nicely done Jessica, you sure did show him with your girl power. Jessica did redeem herself near the end especially with Justin's AIDS. Of course, I'm going to bring up Justin. Someone who finally moved past his addiction, being adopted to a loving family, being accepted to college, dancing with Jessica at prom, and losing his mom all in one season. Shout out to the writers to disrupt the entire fanbase with killing off the most beloved character through AIDS. What an odd choice by the end with AIDS not being picked up with the main tone of current events. This show is made to start a conversation and having to talk about AIDS is important but seems outdated with the AIDS crisis being over 30 years old. I'm not going to knock it though because it still is a problem. Killing Justin though was a huge middle finger to every that loved him. I guess it is what it is and the writers can choose what they want with the series.
Let's see, what else made me angry? Oh yes, Zach. Zach almost raped a sex worker at prom. This show knows how to vilify Bryce and Monty for their sexual assaults yet Zach being stopped makes him A-Okay to the audience. He's going to be a coach for the football team. Zach never recovers from what he did in season 3 and honestly, he was apart of murder. Speaking on Bryce and Monty, I get Clay has audio and visual hallucinations from season 2 and 3 but they had to go overhaul this season with Clay being hospitalized for what he is seeing and hearing. An interesting side plot with Hannah's ghost being around season 2 was completely ruined in season 4 with Bryce and Monty showing up every episode. It's not just Clay this time as Tyler, Jessica, and Winston all see either Monty or Bryce. This isn't just them popping up for a second either. Winston literally dances with ghost Monty at prom. What is happening? Why is everyone going crazy in this show?
This leads me to another issue I had with this season was the "shocks" at the end of each episode just for it to be played off in the next episode. Clay flips Zach's convertible yet the very next scene is Clay completely fine and Zach's arm in a sling which also magically heals by the next episode. Clay gets tackled by police for going crazy after the shooting drill just for him to be hospitalized, escape, and get the all-clear from his therapist. Clay even threatens to have a gun in a police station and gets off scot-free. He also receives no charges for burning the principle's car. Clay and Tony also get involved with a gun sting and are sent home afterward. This goes for everyone in the show. They do some pretty rough stuff throughout the season yet graduation goes great and everyone goes to college. Nothing matter in the show.
You Have No Friends
What killed me that most about this season were the valentine dance episode. Clay having a mysterious voice calling him, just to have the football team all show up in black hoodies saying they "own Clay now" like some stupid cult. What is this? When Clay walks back into the dance with the knife, Ani breaks up with him, and all his friends walk away from his except for Justin. Every episode after this one shows Clay spiraling down into insanity and no one really seems to care. Look how much Clay has done for all of them. Tyler is constantly giving Clay the run around this season even though Clay prevented Tyler from literally gunning down the school. Clay had an assault rifle pointed at him by Tyler, yet Tyler is going to be moody because Clay wants to make sure Tyler won't shoot up the school again. This doesn't make sense. Jessica tells Diego not to mess with Clay but only because Justin told her to. Jessica also gives Clay such a hard time and it doesn't make sense after what he did for her in the other seasons. Even when all his friends see him get taken down by cops, they just don't care to help him and be there for him as he was for all of them. This season just shows how rough because no one seemed to really care about Clay until they were on the same page. Jessica is all for Clay when the riots start but everything before causes everyone to bounce when Clay has his moments. Ani was a worthless character as always and she even goes out of town for multiple episodes. They just don't care about Clay and his "friend" speeches throughout the season just seem like Clay believes that they will be there for him like he is for his friends. Other than Tony and Justin, Clay's friends didn't care about his mental illness.
Bigger Problems
I know I have been the harshest on this post on the topic but this season felt that it was milking the franchise harder than usual. 13 Reasons Why was based on a book that encompasses just season 1 which means all these other seasons were created by writers for Netflix rather than the original author, Jay Asher. I'm starting to see the trend of having shows or movies being based on books series but when the author isn't continuing the story, it isn't the author's creations anymore but that of someone else who wants to continue the story. This is pretty much high production fanfiction at this point. The same argument could be made with the Game of Thrones series. Why can't we just have a single-season series that starts and finishes? This season offered nothing new with problems that seemed beyond avoidable with better communication and help for Clay. This is somewhat of a track record for Netflix milking a show to death. House of Cards, Sabrina, Stranger Things have run its course and 13 Reasons Why is also there. I recommend anyone with a Netflix subscription to watch Maniac with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. It is a mini-series and is one of the best shows I have watched. No multiple seasons, no push for more, just a good story with a beginning and end. I believe we need to embrace the ending of shows we like and understand that more of a good thing may not actually be such a good thing.
13 Reasons Why was so hyped at the beginning that everyone thought it was the next big change for teens and to "start the conversation" In reality, this was just another edgy teen-drama that didn't have cable censorship. Just go watch Skins which Netflix has the entire series. The show came out in 2007 and offers the exact same topics such as drug abuse, depression, anxiety, loss of a friend, violence, teen pregnancy, death, abortions, mental illness, domestic abuse, and friendship amongst people. At least Skins has some charm and British wit to it. It doesn't take itself so serious but it allows people to see the hardships of being a teenager in this new era. The final season is some of the characters grown up and living with the choices they made as teenagers. Skins doesn't end like 13 Reasons Why where everything is okay. The teens in Skins have to live with their mistakes and it shows that teens need to be more responsible and to actually have communication with their parents or guardians. Closing thoughts, go watch Maniac and Skins. This season didn't need to happen. Thanks for reading.
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