'13 Reasons Why' Season 3 Is Coming To Netflix In 2019

The first season of Netflix's teen-centric drama 13 Reasons Why cut through the Peak TV clutter and got people talking, but when season 2 debuted late last month, there wasn't nearly the same amount of buzz around the show. Most of the reviews pointed out that the show had already extended itself too far beyond its initial premise with its second season, but Netflix, cackling in the face of logic and reason, has officially announced that 13 Reasons Why season 3 is coming to the streaming service next year.

#13ReasonsWhy has been renewed for a third season. All 13 episodes will premiere in 2019. pic.twitter.com/UPtOWyIvJq

— Netflix Queue (@netflixqueue) June 6, 2018

A press release tells us that production on season 3 will begin this year, and that showrunner/creator Brian Yorkey will be back behind the scenes.

The show's first season, which tracked the aftermath of Hannah's (Katherine Langford) suicide through tapes she left behind which explained the reasons she killed herself, left a few unanswered questions, but largely wrapped up its story in a satisfying way. Netflix, though, was so impressed by its viewership numbers (which, of course, they won't release publicly) that the company decided to bring it back for more. By nearly every account, that decision was a huge mistake.

Our review round-up for season 2 cited a bunch of critics who didn't think a second season needed to exist at all, with one even referring to it as "a tawdry, unnecessary exercise, a blatant grab for the headlines the teen suicide drama garnered last year." TV critic Alan Sepinwall, one of the most respected voices in television criticism, bailed after only four episodes of season 2, calling the show's decision-making "disheartening":

With each new revelation, each new flashback that adds additional context to one of last season's flashbacks, it begins to feel less like a sensitive teen drama than like one of those forgettable Lost rip-offs that thought the key to success was introducing five new questions for every old one that gets answered.

Netflix refuses to release their viewership numbers, but Nielsen claims that 6.1 million viewers watched the first episode of 13 Reasons Why season 2 within the first three days of its availability. That's more than double the numbers for The Crown, which had almost 3 million viewers watch in its first three days.

I guess as long as people continue to watch, Netflix is going to keep handing this show green lights for more seasons – even if it puts the show into an impossible position on a creative level and drains what goodwill it might have left after an unnecessary season 2.