Degrassi: Season 4 Review

I actually finished watching this at the end of April. School and stuff just got in the way, as usual, and… now I’m watching season 8. And seeing as the show has like 25 characters plus reoccurring characters, I’m not going to do the chart anymore.

I like Paige because she’s really grown as a person. The old Paige wouldn’t be nice to Rick or Alex but she’s becoming a nicer person. She’s also building an identity outside her relationship with Spinner, by dumping him.

I originally liked Ellie because she was the most unique girl on the show. And she stood up to old Paige. Now I like her because she has an emotional, non-relationship storyline. And she’s cute with Sean. Unfortunately, this is her last season as her own person. After the episode Queen of Hearts, Ellie gambles to earn rent to keep her and Sean’s apartment, but she loses and has to move back with her Mom. This would be a GREAT storyline to go back to. But the show never did. They just turned her into some boy crazy girl who shops at Hot Topic, not the goth girl we knew and love. But that’s for season 5 and on, so yeah. Did you know the people who wrote Juno modeled Juno after Ellie/Stacey (her actress)? I didn’t. I wonder why she wasn’t in the movie.

Jimmy kind of grew as a person, so I guess I like him now. I admit, most of the reason why I like him is because he got shot and I feel bad for him, especially considering the circumstances of how he got shot. I’d like to say he became more interesting after he got shot, but no, he didn’t.

I like Hazel because she supported Jimmy. Most people say she’s a shallow character but I think that’s rude. A shallow character would’ve leave Jimmy, but Hazel stayed with him and supported him when he needed her. And Andrea had a good performance when she found out Jimmy got shot.

I still like Ashley because she was dramatic and I agreed with her on most of her actions. I think she did a good job of supporting Craig when he needed her but she left when she felt uncomfortable. She showed that people should leave relationships that make them feel uncomfortable.

Liberty and JT finally hooked up this season. So that makes both characters more likeable, because their only plots aren’t Liberty wants JT but JT doesn’t want Liberty. Toby was forgettable this season, but I guess he was okay during the Rick storyline.

This is the last time I like Sean. I think he had a strong performance, but I want to know why Daniel Clark left the show. Especially if he decided to come back later. Oh well. He grew as a character and it feels like a full circle moment.

Emma and Manny are intolerable now. Manny breaks up yet ANOTHER couple (Paige and Spinner) while Emma becomes even more self righteous and hypocritical. Manny and Spinner was possibly the stupidest thing I’ve seen on Degrassi so far. Emma is slowly becoming out of character because the writers realized no teenager would protest for the environment during high school. Emma gained a new nickname from me: GonnorEmma, because… well, she did stuff with a guy in a van. Ironically, she also broke up a couple.

I liked Alex, the new bully girl, even if she caused the shooting. She was nice in Mercy Street, King of Pain and Queen of Hearts. She interacted with a LOT of groups, and represents the demographic Degrassi doesn’t represent but should. She had funny dialogue (“Look at me, beautiful and a virgin!” “Now that’s acting”) as well. She’s that character that says what’s on the viewer’s mind at this point.

I DESPISE Spinner. At least before, he was just annoying or my hatred was just what I thought. But he actually got his best friend SHOT. What the hell? He also cheated on Paige (sort of) with Manny. And he got such a stupid haircut. Normally I don’t pick on the actors or their looks but goodness. He was terrible.

I hate Craig because he hogged most of the season and he didn’t even interest me as a character. I just got bored by all of the relationship drama, screen time and everything else he got.

Marco started to get boring this season. He starts off strong and independent and even comes out to his Mom. But then he discovers his boyfriend is cheating on him and his character falls apart as clingy and boring. Yawn. At least Ashley’s depression featured music. Marco just got whiny.

The Shooting

I want to know why Rick came back to Degrassi. They don’t have anything education wise, so it’s not like he’s missing out on much. I think Radditch should’ve have an assembly the day before he came back or have a teacher walk him from class to class or SOMETHING. The paint-and-feather scene reminded me of Carrie. I think Ephraim Ellis was a great actor.

Paige and Spinner and Some Other Drama

I think the relationship fell apart because Spinner became ‘in charge’ and started to abuse his power. I’m glad Paige dumped him before he got serious with Manny or he was worse to Paige. I think this started a downfall of Paige, sort of. She started to have a crush on Mr.Oleander and then he gave her pot and she befriended Alex who taught her to be more carefree and then her breakdown happened… I’m getting ahead of myself. And then Spinner started hanging out with Jay then the shooting happened. So yeah, they kind of needed each other. Spinner and Manny annoyed me because the build up was longer than their relationship. Paige and Mr.Oleander was forgettable.

More Craig Drama

The season starts with a Craig B plot and continues with a Craig and Ashley relationship. But Ashley became an accessory to Craig this season. Then he gets diagnosed with bipolar disorder, becomes attached to Ashley until he drives her away and runs away. But the show can’t go on without Craig, so he comes back. I don’t like how the show revolved around Craig, especially because he never paid for his consequences.

Degrassi Jumps the Shark

The season started out great, but got extremely boring after Time Stands Still. Too much Craig drama. Then the show started to bring famous people. And I use that term loosely. Kevin Smith, an American director or something, had to film his latest movie at their school. This created an extremely boring and unrealistic arc. And the point where Degrassi jumps the shark.

 

Overall, it was a good season, but the second half fails by featuring too much relationships and not enough issues, a problem the show would later have more frequently. And people started to become out of character for the plot.

Happily Divorced

I watched Fran Drescher’s new sitcom, Happily Divorced, right now. It’s alright. It’s based off of Fran’s real life. Fran’s husband of 18 years came out to her, but they can’t afford to move out so they still live together. Now we have to watch all of their wacky hijinks and shenanigans as Fran is now back into the dating pool and Peter is gay.

I think that based off of the pilot so far, the show feels like one big gay joke. Peter, the ex husband, goes to sing along nights for Sound of Music at bars, grooms himself (Okay, so this isn’t exactly a gay stereotype because I tweeze my eyebrows but I’m straight; but Peter obsesses over his appearance, waxes his chest, has blue contacts [just for his appearance], and dyed his hair blond apparently, so I guess this falls under the feminine stereotype), and he’s into ‘feminine’ things like landscaping the house, watching Glee or Gray’s Anatomy, and so on.

This really surprised me because Fran Drescher seems like a nice, non-homophobic person. She even posed for the N0h8 campaign. And she didn’t make gay jokes on The Nanny, which featured 2 episodes with gay people and a reoccurring joke that Max was gay because he works in Broadway. Then again, I don’t think she’s the writer, so I don’t completely hate her for it, and I guess anybody would be surprised/bitter if their spouse came out after 18 years of marriage. Peter, Fran’s husband in real life, also is working on this show, so as long as he’s okay with it, I guess it’s fine.

It has a good supporting cast. Rita Moreno is playing Fran’s Mom, and the Mom from Everybody Hates Chris is Fran’s best friend. There’s also Ernie from George Lopez who I’m meh about. I didn’t recognize anyone else, though.

I think the show would’ve been better if it was slowed down. Peter comes out to Fran and then there’s a time lapse thing where the show goes 6 months into the future. I thought it was weird. They could’ve have the first episode with Peter coming out or Fran dealing with Peter coming out. Also, when Peter came out, Fran looked completely bored. Her face was literally a type of face. I know she couldn’t be surprised because it’s based off of her real life, she has control over it, and they probably rehearsed it several times, so she had no reaction to it, but still. She’s on a show and she’s expected to act. Then the episode continued with Fran meeting a new guy (Asking if he’s gay, first), then their first date, the morning after, Fran’s parents coming again, and Fran’s second date. I don’t know how to describe it. It just felt really rushed. I really really hope that this was supposed to be a made for TV movie first and it was 90 minutes but they had to chop it down because TV Land liked it so much that they wanted to turn it into a show.

I’d give the show a 76 out of 100, which is surprising because I really love Fran Drescher. I hope the show gets better as it moves along. I remember Melissa and Joey had a bad first episode, but they’re coming back tonight and I’m actually looking forward to it. And Raven’s new show is on tonight as well. And there’s a third episode of Happily Divorced airing tonight, so that’s 3 shows in one night. Then once Degrassi comes back, that’s four shows in one night. Is it sad that my definition of making plans is watching TV? Yes? I thought so.  

 

 

The Jersey Shore

It bothers me when I see articles from ‘professionals’ on Yahoo! complaining about something on the Jersey Shore. A few weeks ago, there was an article about how people are annoyed that there weren’t any bathrooms nearby. And all the comments were cliché jokes like ‘Snooki flooded them’ or something. It’s really ridiculous. I mean, the boardwalk and the Jersey Shore are like the one thing that people like about New Jersey and sort of help us generate money, but ever since the Jersey Shore premiered on MTV, people have been treating us like we’re filthy, backwards people who are useless to society. And only one third of that is true.  

I read one comment complaining about how the beaches are dirty 24/7. I understand the beach is supposed to maintain everything, but 4 out of 5 cars I see are from other states. And people still think it’s NJ’s fault that we have obnoxious tourists. But anytime someone says something MILDLY negative about NYC, the first thing I hear is ‘it’s the tourists’ faults’. I swear. When I grow up, I want to work for MTV so I can have a reality show about NYC and watch them get crappy articles on Yahoo.

Now I read an article about some jellyfish-like thing washing up at the beach. There have been jellyfish over there forever and they’re only starting to complain now? Gosh. And it’s probably at other beaches, too, but ‘Jellyfish at Delaware’ isn’t as interesting as a title.

This reminds me of how in the ‘80s (I think?) Oprah said she stopped eating meat or whatever during the peak of Mad Cow Disease. Then the beef industry claimed she hurt their business and they sued her. Can’t New Jersey do that to MTV or Viacom? I’d rather have a show about mallrats on TeenNick or something instead, and it could be in the style of Jersey Shore. With people like ‘Orange’ Julius, DJ Mickey D… I swear. One day this is going to be made into a show and they’ll be making millions off of this idea.

Free EA Store Content

If any of you are interested in EA’s Regal Living Kitchen set, today it’s available for free. It normally costs 350 SimPoints and includes 7 items, but today it’s free. The sale ends tomorrow, so download it while you can. It’s nothing special, and I would much rather get something else, but hey, it looks pretty and it’s free. I like some of their clothes but I don’t plan on buying it anytime soon. And it’s EA, so they’re probably gonna do something stupid like make it free with a certain EP after you buy it. Didn’t that happen with OLS and Generations?

Finals are Over

Finals are over at my school. Tomorrow’s my last day of school. I know, what an entertaining post haha. I don’t think I did too well on my finals but I can’t change that so no point in dwelling on the past, right?

That’s it for now. I’ll be spending the rest of today chilling and stuff.

Again?

What’s with EA and making a million EPs and SPs so close to each other? Who could afford to spend 40 dollars an EP and 20 dollars and SP every 2 or 3 months? I mean, I still haven’t done everything in Ambitions, which I have almost owned for a year. I haven’t even gone clubbing in Late Night yet. I still don’t even know all the features in Generations. Honestly, they’re just gonna go through the Sims 3 way too quickly then in 2013 it’s gonna be all ‘Coming soon: Sims 4!’. And it’s not that they’re making so much EPs too quickly, it’s that they’re all identical. Generations, Town Stuff and Pets all have a suburby feeling to me. At least in TS2 they’d have box sets of stuff like University then Teen Stuff. But now they’re not even doing that so having all of these similar EPs is poor planning on their behalf.

Wish Me Luck!

Finals start tomorrow for me. I’m really nervous this time. I forgot a lot of stuff while I was working on my reviews so that’s not a good sign. And I’m really unmotivated right now. Fun times.

And in honor of finals, I’ll express my feelings with some Sally Forth comic strips I found from this website.

^ How I felt last week. Especially because I had absolutely no homework last week and it was 95 degrees ish.

^ My thoughts while working on my review guides.

^ Hillary’s last line made me chuckle.

 

But yeah. Time to study and stuff. :/ Wish me luck!

I’m kind of back

And I use that loosely.

I’m going to be honest: School ends on the 23rd, finals start next Friday. And I have a lot of review work until then so I won’t be on as much. But I have a lot of post ideas to make including… 2 Degrassi reviews, what sophomore year has really taught me, Just Dance reviews, and my usual EA shenanigan rants.  

In other news, there are three video games I want to buy that are coming out but seeing as they’re 40 dollars each (30 on Amazon) and I’m a high school student who can barely play the few video games I have on a limited budget, I won’t be getting them. Well, two of them are Pets and Generations but still.

Basically, I’m kind of back from my break, but I know I won’t be on that much. So… yeah.

In other news, it’s around 100 degrees in NJ. D: It’s not that bad because my house and school have AC, but only like 2 hallways of classes have AC so the school board thinks it’s good enough to have full days. I heard rumors of someone having heat exhaustion in the gym, but I don’t know how true they were.