What Happens Now? 13 Reasons Why Is Back For Season 2 On Netflix

Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why, now streaming on Netflix, opens up five months after the events of season 1. A trial is about to start, or is it? Clay Jensen and Skye Miller are an item. Jessica Davis has left Liberty, while her rapist remains as the star captain of the football and baseball teams and has twisted the story of their encounter.

Like season 1, season 2 has been met by controversy. At least one advocacy group is caling for Netflix to cancel the series.

More on season 2 and what you need to know before starting episode 1 after the jump.

PSA Opens Season 2, PTC Calls For Netflix To Pull Series

The first episode of season 2 actually opens with a PSA about watching the series. As was the case with season 1, 13 Reasons Why deals with sensitive and important issues. The entire series revolves around the suicide of Hannah Baker, but it also deals with issues of mental illness, sexual assault and other important issues.

Actors Dylan Minnette, Katherine Langford, Alicia Boe and Justin Prentice warn viewers in the opening PSA that the series deals with those difficult issues and encourages people to talk about issues they might be facing. They suggest that anyone struggling with issues themselves might want to avoid watching the series alone.

Despite these warnings and the actors’ stated good intentions, the Parents Television Council is urging Netflix to pull the series. The PTC has issued multiple warnings about the series dating back to when season one was first released. The latest call to pull the series is in reference to a scene in the season 2 finale,

The creators of the show have maintained that bringing these issues out in the open and talking about them is much better than silence. Critics have panned the second season, but one has to wonder how much of that is related to the actual episodes.

Katherine Langford’s Presence In Season 2 Causes Controversy

Katherine Langford, who plays Hannah Baker, appears in season 2. She didn’t return from the dead like in a daytime soap opera, she’s more of a ghostly narrator figure. At least one doctor says her presence in the second season is another problematic piece of the show.

“There was a kind of romanticization, and at the core of the story was this idea that you can kill yourself and be dead and yet not really be dead,” Don Mordecai, Kaiser Permanente’s national leader for mental health, told Business Insider. “Because, of course, [Baker] continues to be a character — she’s in scenes, and she’s still there in many ways.”

Justin Prentice Opens Up On Playing Bryce

Actor Justin Prentice plays Bryce Walker on 13 Reasons. His character has sexually assaulted both Hannah and Jessica, the latter of which he goes on trial for in this second season.

Prentice talked to Bustle about how it is important that his character, while a villain in the series, isn’t just shown to be a complete unrelatable monster figure.

Like everyone else on the show, Bryce has a backstory, and it’s one that includes absentee parents, a dad who shows little respect for women, and access to plenty of money, which, combined with his top athlete status, puts him in a position of power. “Bryce just assumes what he thinks is right and he can take whatever he wants to because people are lucky to be around him,” Prentice says. “And that’s a dangerous way of thinking.”

Model Commends Selena Gomez

Ellie Gonsalves, an Australian model whose father committed suicide in 2015, commended Selena Gomez, who is the executive producer of 13 Reasons Why. She spoke to Daily Mail Australia about how see feels that it is important to talk about issues like suicide and mental illness.  Gonsalves herself posted an Instagram video last year talking about her father’s suicide.

Will There Be A Third Season 3 Of 13 Reasons Why?

If you truly plan on watching this second season, I would advise that you avoid reading too much on the internet about it until you watch every episode. As much of the controversy centers on the second season finale, it’s almost impossible to avoid spoilers.

It has been reported that preliminary plans at least are in place for a third season of 13 Reasons Why.

Analy High School in Sebastopol, California is tranformed into the show’s fictional Liberty High School. The district’s school board recently approved an agreement with Paramount Pictures to film the third season. According to The Press Democrat, the district was paid $124,000 by Paramount last year.

The money from the show’s filming saved video production classes for the students that would have been cancelled due to budget cuts.

 

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