"13 Reasons Why" Has Been Given A VERY Low Rating On Rotten Tomatoes

24 May 2018, 14:27

Hannah Baker 13 Reasons Why Rotten Tomatoes
Picture: Netflix
Katie Louise Smith

By Katie Louise Smith

It's official... the tomatoes have spoken and it's not great.

It's no secret that the second season of 13 Reasons Why has had a real mixed reaction online. Following the backlash surrounding season one, viewers and critics alike have been quick to call out the show over the continued inclusion of those controversial graphic scenes but have also been full of praise for the incredible job that the cast have done portraying the characters in the show.

Since it dropped last week (May 18), the new season has getting some pretty savage reviews and after just one week since its release, the show has only managed to garner a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes so far with 21 of the 31 critics reviews being classed as 'rotten'. (The first season of the show is Certified Fresh with an 80% rating from critics and 80% rating from the audience, despite the immense backlash.)

13 Reasons Why Season 2 Rotten Tomatoes
Picture: Rotten Tomatoes

A lot of the critics reviews focus on the same thing that the audience have called out about the show - by deviating from the original source material and diving deeper into the backgrounds of the people in Hannah Baker's life, the show loses track of what made it so interesting in the first season, on top of having scenes that only seem to have been included for shock value.

Vox claimed that the show is "not fundamentally interested in starting a conversation. It's interested in shocking, and it does not care how cheaply it might go about creating that shock."

ScreenRant said "it becomes clear the season's narrative foundation is built on sand, which is worsened by a lack of forward momentum and over-reliance on rehashing the past."

And Rolling Stone asked the question: "Compelling Teen Drama or Just Hot-Topic Exploitation?"

While the majority of the reviews aren't quite as positive as season one, the show has also been met with some pretty great praise too - particularly after in which we learn about Hannah and Zach's secret relationship. Episode 6 has been called one of the best episodes in the season, because it was a storyline that actually pushed Hannah's story forward and gave us an actual revelation rather than a rehash of things we already knew.

Despite the bad reviews, the show rocketed to the number one spot as the US's most popular digital original TV shows and continues to be one of the most talked about shows on Twitter.

Now that you've had the chance to watch it, if you had to rate the second season out of 10 - what would you give it?