13 Reasons Why Season 2 Review: 5 Ups And 7 Downs

Downs...

7. It's Too Bloated

There are often complaints relating to the length of Netflix's dramas, with many subscribers arguing that they're simply too long. It's true. Even with their episode count being significantly less than shows on network television, the streaming service's original series have a habit for running out of steam.

13 Reasons Why faced the same criticism back in Season 1, when the series decided to have Clay listen to only one of Hannah's tapes per episode, so that story could be dragged out for 13 episodes. However the tapes actually acted as a pretty unique storytelling device, so the bloating wasn't particularly obvious.

But, without the tapes to act as a narrative structure, Season 2 is all over the place. It starts off relatively well, but the courtroom drama quickly runs its course, coming off as though writer Brian Yorkey is deliberately delaying story beats so that he could once again stretch the narrative out for 13 episodes.

Court case aside, the only verdict that matters here is that Season 2 would've benefited from having fewer episodes.