Long post alert! All My Shadows you better read all this I like your feedback lol
Firstly, 14 years?! This show was a low key underground icon, it's crazy to think that this show which was so popular among my group of friends only hit 1 million viewers ONCE in its entire run on The-N/TeenNick. (I am feeling nostalgic thinking about The-N when it was strictly 6pm-6am and had shows like The Best Years, South of Nowhere, and Radio Free Roscoe *sigh* )
Secondly, let's marinate on the fact that the two most famous Degrassi alum are Aubrey Graham and Nina Dobrev. So random! LOL. I love Drizzy though.
Ok as far as my favorite storylines and characters, this show was everything to me Season 3-5, 6-7 were bad when I first watched but in hindsight were strong seasons that just suffered from the fact that they followed behind much superior seasons.
Season 1-2: These seasons were good for what it was, but seeing as the kids were in 7th and 8th grade there wasn't much room to do much of anything. Season 1 was particulary "childish". The strongest episodes from these seasons are Jagged Little Pill (Ashley taking ectasy), Paige's rape, and the two parters dealing with Craig's abusive dad. I also liked the one lead plot Hazel had but other than that I pay these seasons dust.
Season 3: It's pretty much unanimous among the Degrassi fandom that this was the best and strongest season overall. Every character had an A-plot, and it was a really good season as far as character development.
Favorite episodes: Pride (Marco's coming out was phenomenal and I could relate), Should I Stay Or Should I Go? (The Manny/Craig/Ashley triangle was flawless), Gangsta Gangsta (the end of Sean and Emma, and the introduction of Jay and Alex), and Accidents Will Happen (Manny is bae and the abortion episode was everything.) Other gems include Take On Me (the Breakfast Club episode) and the episode where JT bought the penis pump.
Season 4: The first half of this season is the best stretch of episodes the show ever had. Ghost In the Machine (Paige's rapist going to trial), King of Pain (Marco coming out to his mom/The return of Rick), Anywhere I Lay My Head (Ellie confronting her alcoholic mother), and of course the classic Time Stands Still two parter when Rick shot my husband in the back! The show went off the rails with the Craig going bipolar storyline and the introduction of Silent Bob or whatever his name is lead to the most horrendous subplot ever. The only bright spot of the second half of the season was Secret (Emma giving blowjobs in the ravine) and West End Girls (Manny v. Paige for Prom Queen)
Season 5: It was a dip in quality but the show was still strong. Venus is my favorite Manny plot ever and the "I'm gonna be famous" boob flash is iconic in its own right. This season was the first time I began to take Spinner seriously and I loved him and Darcy. His isolation from his former friends and him embracing religion was different and I liked that. JT and Liberty's pregnancy storyline could have been better handled and I don't like the awkward position the writers left them in, but I guess that's true to life. Not every high school couple stays together through that. Ellie and Craig were lame, and I was so happy to see him leave. Manny and Craig 2.0 was random and left a lot to be desired. Paige and Alex was random, but yet somehow it worked. I usually enjoyed Emma during these seasons but the anorexia episode was some of the worst acting Miriam McDonald ever did, Cassie Steele carried that episode as usual.
Season 6: I abhorred this season when it aired, but looking back it was really good. The Sean and Emma reunion was the worst plot the show could have ever went with. They were not that great, Ellie and Sean were far more popular and he should have came back for her. Darcy's plot with the posting pics online was good, but I hated she and Spinner broke up. Jimmy and Ashley 2.0 was a fail on many levels, and I feel as if Ashley was with him out of sympathy. The bright spot of this season was the scene at the end of Rock This Town when the gang learned JT had died. Once again Cassie Steele and Daniel Clark delivered amazing performances and the episodes when Paige dropped out of Banting.
Season 7: This season had loads of potential with the Lakehurst/Degrassi merger but it fell flat. Bright spots of course were Darcy's rape storyline. I really thought Shenae Grimes was going places after she got the 90210 gig. Roping Snake into it and having her accuse him of inappropriate behavior was interesting, and I felt they could have done more with it. Manny and Jay were a cute couple, but I felt they could have done so much more with her and Emma that season. They really made alot of missteps, probably because they were trying to prep us for the new characters. Mia/Sav/Holly J/Anya got on my damn nerves and I was not here for the newbies. Spinner's cancer storyline was a bright spot, but I hated his pairing with Jane. Also hated how we never got any real follow up on how Jimmy and Ashley dealt with Ashley deleting Jimmy's verse from her demo. We also had the awkward plot of Jimmy blackmailing his father about an affair so that he would let him get stem cell surgery. The most offensive plot was the finale centering about Liberty screwing around with Emma's boyfriend Damian. Really? SMH.
Season 8 and 9: Horrible
Season 10: This reboot provided us with the only strong season of the later years. The transgendered storyline was the brightest spot of the reboot as well as the introduction of Eli.
Season 11-14: I didn't watch consistent enough to have a real opinion but Cam's suicide seems like the best material out of these 4 years. They clearly have NOTHING on the golden years.
Overall, this show was amazing and thought it took a severe dip in quality for some reason I always popped back in to check it out even though I am old as hell. It'll feel weird not seeing Degrassi on TeenNick. It was literally there since the beginning on April 1, 2002 and outlasted EVERYTHING the network has ever aired. Wonder if they will abandon original programming all together.