The last season of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why premiered last week, and for a series that began around suicide it ends in a very life-affirming manner, with most of the characters moving on into an uncertain future though what always interested me is how this ever was a continuing series in the first place because it’s pretty grim.

I don’t mean in a Zach Snyder, grim for the sake of being grim kind of way, but grim in the sense that we all die, and it’s a question of “when,” not “if” that’s going to happen.

The series wears it’s heart on its sleeve and if one were to criticize it it wouldn’t be unfair to say that it’s oftentimes comes off as too sincere, in that even the worse people on the show come to accept the wrongs they visited upon others, even if they aren’t in a position to change their actions.

A problem with the series is Netflix’s business model, which is built on binge-watching–dropping all the episodes of a season at once.

This approach works for some shows, though isn’t particularly effective for this one because too much time passes from one season to the next, which means that it takes a bit of time to reimmerse yourself into the world of the series.

This had an unfortunate side effect of making some characters in Season 4 appear new, though it’s more a case of them not being main characters at the time of their introduction and so much time having passed between one season and the next that I had forgotten them.

Though once I got my sea legs, things proceeded pretty smoothly.

Though I also realized that the story of 13 Reasons Why is one of privilege as well, and how money and things may present the impression of contentment, but in truth are anything but because Clay (Dylan Minnette) is pretty well-off.

He has successful parents, friends who love him and all the accouterments that come with “success,” but as a person he’s deeply disturbed.

As I said, it’s pretty fascinating television.