Degrassi: The Next Generation

[NothinButAttitude]

@cassadine1991, I love Tristan and Miles. I want them to be more than friends. I enjoyed their little romance. Tristan wasn't as uptight as Maya or nutty as Esme. Tristan is Miles best romance. 

 

I don't care for Esme. The actress doesn't impress me for one but I can overlook that. The character is just too nutty for me. 

 

My faves are: Zoe, Tristan, Miles, Shay, Jonah, Tiny, Grace, Zig, and now Frankie.

 

I see potential in new characters, Goldie, Vijay, Yael, and Baaz. I think I might grow to like them all.

 

Maya I go back and forth with.  I like her some days. She days she annoys me. 

 

I don't care for (but don't hate) Hunter, Esme, and Winston. Hunter and Esme are too damn nutty. I haven't cared for Winston since he went after Zoe on the last season on Next Generation for Frankie. 

Edited January 16, 2016 by Nothin'ButAttitude

[cassadine1991]

@Nothin'ButAttitude I looks obvious that Esme serves as angst for Tristan/Miles, almost like how in the beginning Imogen did that for Eli/Clare before they put her with Fiona I'm okay with that. Since Eli/Clare are no longer around, these two will be my couple to root for. i do wonder if Esme and Winston might eventually have something. 

I wonder if Miles say he's going to boarding school around the time Eric Osborne went to film Crazy House with Connor Jessup

[All My Shadows]

I just watched the first 5 in a single sitting and generally enjoyed it. I'm glad the show is available in this format because it really does make watching it and keeping up with it much easier.

A big thing I noticed is that the cast is TINY compared to the cast of any given season of TNG, and I can see both positives and negatives in it. Positively, it means we get to spend more time with the cast of characters we have, and hopefully that means more development. Also, there are no random irrelevant characters who are supposed to be regulars but do nothing and add nothing to the show (which was mainly a characteristic of latter-day TNG). On the other hand, one of the things that made TNG feel so real was that the cast was large and the characters didn't all know each other or hang out with each other. You could have an episode be about Paige and Spinner along with a completely unrelated story about JT and Liberty. It just made the school feel bigger, busier, and more alive. It's no huge deal, though, and it certainly marks a new era.

Having three Hollingsworth siblings makes it feel like they're the central characters, and honestly, it feels like they're trying to make Miles THE lead of the show. I didn't watch the last few seasons of TNG at all, except for Cam's suicide, so Miles at the center of the show is taking some getting used to.

Now that I'm a teacher watching this, I definitely have to feign ignorance to roll with some story points. I think it's so precious how TV makes it seem like the student council can decide which clubs the school will have or make it mandatory that everyone participates in intramurals LOL Also, Shay taking her pants off in class is perfectly fine, and approximately a week or two after the Gaming Club is created, they have branded hoodies.

Surprisingly, I'm fine with the pacing so far. DTNG was really only semi-serialized in its heyday with self-contained episodes fitting into a bigger picture, and that's what I'm seeing here, though it's a little bit more serialized.

[YRBB]

I'm up to episode 6 and really enjoying it so far.

 

I find Zig and Maya adorable. I even like Maya's songs, although I wish they'd make them sound less like studio versions lol And Zig is my boo.

 

Goldi, Yael, Baaz, Vijay all have great potential and hopefully they'll be developed more.

 

Zoe and Alex Vause's sister are also very nice. LOVED getting to see David Sutcliffe and laughed so hard at his line about GILMORE GIRLS being on Netflix and him getting a whole new generation of crazies lol And he still looks so daaaaaamn beautiful.

 

Hunter is also a little psycho in the making. His anger issues are massive.

 

NO SPOILERS below:

@All My Shadows, I see what you're saying about Miles. I love him and find him a fascinating, complex character, but it does feel like he's very central. Perhaps because his one storyline (his father's return) is heavily serialized and gets development in every episode so far, and on top of that he has another three storylines (Esme, Tristan and the pill addiction). I don't know if they did it on purpose or if he is just a drama magnet (which is a good thing for the show).

[All My Shadows]

Oh, I like Miles. The actor isn't the best, but I like the character, and I see a lot of Craig Manning in him (though there are enough differences for him to not be a clone), which makes him very interesting to me. I just wish they'd spend just as much time developing the other characters, too.

I generally like most of the characters. Shay is lame as fck, but once we saw her home life, it makes sense that she's such a goober. I didn't really like much of what I saw of Tristan back in the day, but he's tolerable here. Maya is giving me plenty of post-rape Paige vibes, but like with Miles, she's enough of her own character that I don't feel that she's a copy of anyone. The characters and stories are all perfectly fine right now, and I'm glad it's not a big merry-go-round of triangles and quads. The Muslim girl is giving me life.

The sex has been amped up a bit, and I was kinda surprised by that, especially ol' girl (forgot her name) masturbating under her sheets. I appreciated the Zig/Maya sex story because that felt a lot like ol' school DTNG.

[NothinButAttitude]

@All My Shadows Goldi is the Muslim girl, who is hardcore feminist. She's one character I cannot wait to see what they do with her. Her being Muslim and a feminist, two totally differently ideologies that clash, is gonna be interesting if done right. 

 

Lola is the one who was masturbating under the sheets and I cringed when that happened b/c it was like watching jailbait. Thank God, I felt relieved to know the actress is of age in real life but it still felt icky. That entire episode made me wanna gouge my eyes out. 

 

And I personally love Shay! She gives me Degrassi traditional lead ingenue vibes (i.e. Emma/Clare). She's smart, dorky but not too dorky, with a hinge of neurotic. I wanted to sock Lola for ruining the potential pairing that was Shay and Tiny; however, I think Shay has a potential suitor in her future, which I am all for (don't wanna spoil it if you haven't seen episode 10 yet).

[cassadine1991]

@Nothin'ButAttitude @All My Shadows I hope Shay is written and lasts better than Hazel, they wasted Andrea Lewis back then.

I like how they aren't making these new characters into Manny, Emma, Clare, Eli, Paige, Darcy clones but their own characters 

[NothinButAttitude]

I hope she is utilized better than Hazel and Liberty too. This show has not always treated black female characters the best. Typically, they are written as the best friend and I hate that. 

[cassadine1991]

I loved Liberty, still can't believe it's been 9 years since JT died

[NothinButAttitude]

I loved Liberty too but they never gave her any good material until she got knocked up by JT and JT got killed. She was criminally underutilized. 

[cassadine1991]

From the TCAs yesterday 

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/degrassi-next-class-team-talk-856501

I agree Sarah Barrable-Tishauer was totally wasted. Seems like they focused more on Emma and Manny than her

[NothinButAttitude]

I didn't mind them focusing on Emma, Paige, & Manny b/c they were originals, but I didn't appreciate how newer characters came on (e.g. Mia) and dominating the show while she got left with scraps. That pissed me off. 

[cassadine1991]

Yeah me too

[All My Shadows]

To the show's credit, Liberty languished in supporting character hell with Toby for most of the heyday, I think, because they chose to focus on the more socially accepted characters. Toby and Liberty were the real nerds from the jump (whilst JT was more of a dork), and they got nothing. This was perfectly illustrated by them conducting a damn science experiment in the opening credits.

Now what they did to Hazel was dead wrong.

[YRBB]

UGH at Tristan finally getting a story again and it's a misdiagnosed STI. 

 

Diana is such a useless mother. Her son is JUST getting out of an addiction and is in counselling, so when he asks her to talk, she doesn't even look up from her laptop and dismissively says, "Does it have to be right now?" Bitch, use all that money you got and buy yourself a clue, because your son is suffering.

 

When did Hunter turn from geek with anger issues to psychopath? lol I understand he wanted revenge but he went sooooo far with it when he blackmailed Zig.

 

OMG at that twit Esme faking a suicide. Normally I enjoy these types of characters/stories but I can't decide whether the actress sucks or not lol

 

lolwut