Yahoo News Why has 13 Reasons Why been cancelled?
Season four of cult teen drama 13 Reasons Why is set to drop on Netflix on June 5.
This season will be the show's last, as confirmed in a statement by the streaming site.
Although the drama has proven consistently popular, it has not been without its fair share of controversy over the years.
Despite this, Netflix and showrunner Brian Yorkey insists that the show is ending purely because of creative reasons.
Read on to find out more about the cancellation, as well as the backlash that the show has faced over the years.
Why has 13 Reasons Why been cancelled?
According to Netflix, the show will end because it has reached the natural conclusion of its narrative arc. Season four “will feature the core cast’s graduation from High School," which will be a "natural conclusion to the show.”
Showrunner Brian Yorkey elaborated on the logic behind this decision to Entertainment Weekly.
“Somewhere in the midst of making season two, when it became clear that we might have the chance to make more seasons of this, I pretty quickly got to a place where it felt like a four-season story.
“I’m always a little bit suspicious of high school shows that go beyond four seasons because high school is four years long.
“It felt like bringing these characters to their graduation and to scattering to their next things felt like the logical ending point. So for a long time, the idea has been, should we be so lucky to have the opportunity, we would do four seasons of this. So certainly going into breaking story for season four, we knew it was the end.”
What have the producers said about ending the show?
That's not to say that Yorkey didn't feel a sense of pressure when ending the show, and was keen to ensure that the finale served as a fitting conclusion to the story.
"Hell yeah, I felt that pressure. Before we went into the writers' room for season 4 I got obsessively into it, I read every review of the end of The Sopranos, of Lost, of How I Met Your Mother, of Breaking Bad, of Gossip Girl, all those shows that got planned endings, I read everything.
"I rewatched maybe a dozen finales, and then I was like, 'Okay, I'm setting it aside and writing the show and we'll see where it ends and we'll try to end it as we began it', which is as honestly as we can and as truthfully as we can and whatever happens happens."
He added: "And I will say, I'm incredibly proud of our finale episode. I think it's very special and it's also supersized. It's a supersized finale, so even if people aren't super happy with the ending, at least they can't say we were stingy."
"We wanted to end the series hopefully, but we wanted it to be earned hope. The series was born in darkness and as is often pointed out, it is a dark series, but we have always tried to infuse it with hope and with humour where we can, and we wanted to end on a note of hope that was earned and that was not forced and also not overly sunny in a way that wouldn't be consistent with what had gone before."
What is the backlash around 13 Reasons Why about?
13 Reasons Why has been controversial ever since its first season premiered in 2017.
Much of this backlash was due to the graphic way in which it depicted difficult issues such as teen suicide and sexual assault.
Those who defend the show praise it for starting a conversation about these tough areas of teenage experience, whereas others claim that it was insensitive - and that mishandling such issues could lead to potentially dangerous results.
Controversy was primarily centred around a particularly graphic depiction of protagonist Hannah Baker's suicide in the finale of the first season.
This scene was removed in 2019 following repeated criticism, as well as medical advice which claimed that there had been a spike in "copycat" suicides following the show's release.
Explaining the decision to remove the scene, Yorkey said that: “No one scene is more important than the life of the show, and its message that we must take better care of each other.
“We believe this edit will help the show do the most good for the most people while mitigating any risk for especially vulnerable young viewers.”
13 Reasons Why season 4 premieres on Netflix Friday, June 5.
Read more
Everything you need to know about 13 Reasons Why season 4
Controversial Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why to end after fourth series
