Ready to watch Netflix's hit high school drama now the series has been released? Check out our full spoiler-free guide to the new season including plot, trailers and new characters
“Their story isn’t over”. 13 Reasons Why season one may have ended where it started with Hannah Baker’s tragic suicide, but Netflix is not done with one of its most successful series ever launched.
Advertisement
Season two was released on Friday 18th May with 13 brand new episodes. The cast are acutely aware of the tough issues they will be confronting in the new run, recording new content warnings and explaining what viewers can do if they are affected by the series.
However, the series is once again set to be one of the most talked about shows of the year. Here’s your updated guide to everything you need to know about 13 Reasons Why season 2 on Netflix (updated 18th May 2018).
When was 13 Reasons Why season two released on Netflix?
The first season of 13 Reasons Why was released on 31st March last year, but one year later there was still no news of a season two release date.
Finally, though, the date was revealed: 13 Reasons Why season two would be released on Friday 18th May 2018. The show landed around 8am UK time, and fans have been quick to start streaming the new episodes.
It’s arguably unfortunate timing though for UK fans, with exam season just getting underway. We talk about that in more detail here, but Netflix has said in a statement that if anyone is concerned about the distraction to revision, they can use PIN controls to limit access to certain shows.
“As 13 Reasons Why is a global show, season two will launch at the same time on the same day in all our 190 markets. In the UK, it coincidentally coincides with exam period, but within regular school term in other countries,” a statement explained.
The release date announcement followed a short tease for the new season along with the tagline, “The truth is developing”. Later trailers and the official season two synopsis confirmed that Polaroid photos would be key to the new episodes, replacing Hannah’s tapes from season one.
The truth is developing. pic.twitter.com/rwCobzhbC0 — 13 Reasons Why (@13ReasonsWhy) April 30, 2018
Read more: 13 Reasons Why cast record new content warning video ahead of season two
Is there a trailer?
Yes, a FULL trailer for season two was released on Tuesday 8th May 2018. The spine tingling footage features all sorts of premonitions for what could happen in the upcoming episodes, from mysterious Polaroid photos to Clay possibly drastically taking matters into his own hands.
Watch in full below.
It’s the first proper look we’ve had at the new series after weeks of build-up. The stylish date announcement video below shows all the major players in season two in freeze frame surrounded by polaroid photos, all but confirming that these will be the new “analogue technology” creator Brian Yorkey teased last year.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what the song playing in the 13 Reasons Why trailer announcement above is, it’s Depeche Mode’s 1993 single I Feel You.
Who’s in the cast for 13 Reasons Why season 2?
Dylan Minnette as Clay, Brandon Flynn’s Justin Foley and Alisha Boe as Jessica Davis all return, along with Christian Navarro (Tony), Miles Heizer (Alex) and Justin Prentice (Bryce).
The cast is also set to include Ross Butler as Zach and Michele Selene Ang as Courtney.
Even season one star Katherine Langford is set to return, although in a very different form to season one. She appears in flashbacks, but also as a kind of hallucination inside Clay’s head. Her presence, for better or worse, is keenly felt in the new episodes.
“The Hannah that we saw in season one, we were able to tell her story fully and she didn’t really come back in the same capacity or sort of as the same Hannah,” she recently told W Magazine. “It’s a different Hannah that you see in season two.”
era A post shared by KATHERINE LANGFORD (@katherinelangford) on Apr 16, 2018 at 5:26am PDT
There are also set to be a number of new faces, both young and established actors. Tony Award-winning Kelli O’Hara makes her show debut as anti-bullying campaigner Jackie, with at least 10 other actors confirmed to be joining the series.
Read more: 13 Reasons Why adds new actors to season two cast
New cast member Anne Winters – who’ll play a new high school ‘It’ girl named Chloe in season two of the Netflix drama – has said we should “expect A LOT more answers” ahead. She along with fellow new character Scott Reed is one of the most intriguing new characters, as she is introduced as Bryce’s boyfriend.
Given what we know about Bryce from season one, Chloe is set to be a very divisive character.
Speaking to Flare, actress Winters said, “The people [in the show] who are doing wrong maybe don’t even understand that it is wrong… this season will explore a little of those grey areas—it’s not as black and white as last season—so that when people raise the question of, ‘Well wasn’t it her fault that she did this or that?’. This season shows a different take on it. You’ll have a lot more answers this season on why people are doing what they’re doing.”
What could happen in 13 Reasons Why season 2 (no spoilers)?
What we know about @13ReasonsWhy season 2 — so far pic.twitter.com/PMUaIe6Zy8 — Netflix US (@netflix) May 9, 2017
“No more tapes” – yep, those retro cassette tapes are no more. Apparently there will be “a new piece of technology for 13-year-olds to Google”.
The recent teaser and season two synopsis confirmed that that “new piece of technology” will be Polaroid cameras and photography. Check out the trailer above and the new video below.
The truth is developing. A post shared by 13 Reasons Why (@13reasonswhy) on Apr 30, 2018 at 7:10am PDT
UPDATE: creator Brian Yorkey and star Dylan Minnette have been speaking about what season two holds, and how Hannah Baker’s “whole story” has still not been told. Read more
Season two will continue to explore many of the characters’ issues that fans had only just begun to understand at the end of season one.
The series is also set to make some bold new changes to how it depicts the story. For an example of what to expect, find out more about the unique opening scene to season two episode seven.
Netflix has released an official synopsis for season two, teasing a “sickening secret” that is uncovered through a series of Polaroid photos.
Season two picks up in the aftermath of Hannah's death and the start of our characters' complicated journeys toward healing and recovery. Liberty High prepares to go on trial, but someone will stop at nothing to keep the truth surrounding Hannah's death concealed. A series of ominous polaroids lead Clay and his classmates to uncover a sickening secret and a conspiracy to cover it up 13 Reasons Why season 2 synopsis
Star Dylan Minnette told Yahoo that the action will begin “a couple months after season one, and there’s a lot that’s happened to Clay in between.”
Meanwhile, showrunner Brian Yorkey says that he knew very early on that the story could not end with the tapes at the end of season one.
“We realised at a certain point that we would end season one with a young woman who was just beginning to come to terms with the fact that she was a victim of sexual assault; with a young man who was suffering from severe social isolation and thinking of making a pretty tragic choice in response to that; with a character, Clay, who was really just beginning to grieve a girl that he loved and to understand what that grieving process was; and a whole community that had been traumatised in a number of specific ways, most centrally by Hannah’s suicide,” Yorkey said at a recent panel to discuss the show. “In a way it felt that to leave them there would be unfair to the characters and also to the viewers who really had come to care about them.”
Welcome back. A post shared by 13 Reasons Why (@13reasonswhy) on May 2, 2018 at 4:11pm PDT
He said that Jessica’s storyline in particular would be explored more in the new episodes.
“Jessica in particular, her experience continues to be a central part of season two. We wanted very much to look at her recovery. To look at what it is to go from being a victim of sexual assault to being a survivor of sexual assault,” he added.
Mr Porter meanwhile, the school counsellor who questions Hannah’s account of her sexual assault in the days leading up to her suicide, will face the repercussions of his actions.
“Mr. Porter, in particular, will be coming to terms with the mistakes that he made, with the ways that he let her down, and will be, I think, very determined not to let any kids down in the future,” he said.
“In fact, I think that his story is, I think, one of the most sort of compelling to me in season two. And we’ll see a man who is determined to reach every kid who needs to be reached and help every kid who needs to be helped. Whatever it takes.”
Advertisement
There were plenty of unanswered questions at the end of season one, and with season two picking up where the last episode left off, it’s probably worth reminding yourself of some of those cliffhanger moments below.
The lead is now a ghost (of plot devices past), and though it still tackles big issues, the structure of this high-school teen drama has crumbled
When Hannah Baker killed herself, she left behind a box of cassette tapes explaining why she’d done it. That was the first series of 13 Reasons Why, adapted from the book by Jay Asher.
Originally destined to become a film, Netflix got hold of it and gave it the Netflix stretch. It did attempt to explore important issues – not only suicide but rape, self-harm, bullying, high-school sexism – sensibly and seriously, even if any messages to emerge came across as simplistic and a bit preachy: be nice to people, be a real friend, otherwise bad shit goes down. It meandered, but the cassettes and the 13 reasons in 13 episodes gave it a structure of sorts. The performances, especially from Katherine Langford and Dylan Minnette as Hannah and her friend Clay, were good.
The second series continues to explore the same big issues sensitively, as well as taking on board some of the criticism and controversy the first generated (it now comes with a public service announcement, delivered by the actors, links to relevant resources, plus the parents – Clay’s especially – are more aware of what their kids are going through). And that’s about all that’s good about series two.
It’s a few months later, and there’s a civil lawsuit going on against the school for failing to protect Hannah. There’s a lot of dragging through the same stuff all over again. But this time without the framework of the tapes and the reasons. The trial, of which there isn’t much, perhaps provides the crumbliest of structures, and some photos are turned up that show Hannah wasn’t alone in suffering bullying and abuse. But if the first series meandered, then this circles aimlessly with its head to the ground.
Some of the acting remains decent, though Langford, the stand-out in the first season, now has to do hers as a ghost. The ghost of Hannah. The ghost of a lame device past.
I’ve only watched three episodes. But that was enough. It’s like being locked in a room with a bunch of self-obsessed teens, occasionally saying things like “the truth can free you if you let it” or “sometimes it seems that no matter what you do people see you the way they want to”.
I know teenagers are only concerned with what others think of them. I know if I was one I might connect better with this (it would be interesting to hear from them). I know the issues are very real, very important and, in fact, deadly serious. But they deserve a better vehicle. As drama this is pointless, cumbersome, baggy, badly written, ponderous and boring. That’s less than half of the 13 reasons why you shouldn’t bother.
In the UK the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
