"Family Politics"
aka, "Toby and Ashley have stepsibling rivalry"
Episode 3, Season 1
Original Air Date: 11/4/2001
Main Storyline Character: Toby Isaacs and Ashley Kerwin
We open on Ashley, chatting it up with Terri on the phone. "It's gonna be the best year ever!" Ashley says, repeating the likes of every teenager in every teen movie about high school ever. First step, though, is to get Terri a boyfriend. We all know how girls need to be validated by a man! We don't hear Terri's end of the line, but it sounds like she has doubts judging by Ashley's responses.
And the camera pans out to show that Ashley is coloring in some very glittery posters, because we all know more sparkle=more votes. "I am NOT a shoe-in!" Ashley says, clearly thinking she is a shoe-in. I feel like even if you didn't already watch this show, you'd know that Ashley's a popular girl. Loving high school? Running for class prez and thinking she's a shoe-in? Sounds like a popular girl to me.
Ashley hangs up with Terri and waltzes over to the bathroom where the door is shut. Ugh, annoying little brother Toby is in there! Because annoying little brothers are ALWAYS hogging the bathrooms when their teen sisters need to shower and do their hair! It's clear they are actually step-siblings by Toby's response: "How did you know it was me? Could be YOUR mom or MY dad!" Oh I get it. Family politics! Family AND politics? Guys, this episode is totally gonna be about her family politics AND school politics! Tropes are ALL OVER THIS EPISODE!
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
"Mother and Child Reunion" song
Almost all episodes are named after a popular 80s song, with the later seasons named after 90s and 2000s songs.
Season 1, Episode 1 and 2 are named after "Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul Simon.
The song appears to be about how a mother and child will reunite in the afterlife when they both eventually die.
Season 1, Episode 1 and 2 are named after "Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul Simon.
The song appears to be about how a mother and child will reunite in the afterlife when they both eventually die.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
"Mother and Child Reunion, Part 2"
"Mother and Child Reunion, Part 2"
aka, "Emma meets a guy in a chatroom"
Episode 2, Season 1
Original Air Date: 10/14/2001
Main Storyline Character: Emma Nelson
This is a two-parter because all the boring scenes of the parents looking at class reunion pictures just COULDN'T FIT INTO ONE EPISODE!
Let's get started...
aka, "Emma meets a guy in a chatroom"
Episode 2, Season 1
Original Air Date: 10/14/2001
Main Storyline Character: Emma Nelson
This is a two-parter because all the boring scenes of the parents looking at class reunion pictures just COULDN'T FIT INTO ONE EPISODE!
Let's get started...
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
"Mother and Child Reunion, Part 1"
"Mother and Child Reunion, Part 1"
aka, "Emma meets a guy in a chatroom"
Episode 1, Season 1
Original Air Date: 10/14/2001
Main Storyline Character: Emma Nelson
A bit of background...
As the original series took place in the eighties, I assume the new series' writers were like "Hey, what can we have the first episode center around that is new and fresh and hip?" That was "computers." Yes, computers. When I was in middle school, there were static websites and not much interaction online. No Youtube, no Facebook, no MySpace even. Just lists of websites like Virtual Bubblewrap that made your dreams of popping virtual plastic bubbles come true. There were chat rooms and comment sections on sites and blogs, but the internet was nowhere near where it is now, a mere 12 years later.
So yes, the writers decided "lets do an episode about evil chatrooms" because that was a big danger (read: Degrassi Big Dangers are not the same as Big Dangers For Real People) at the time. Imagine chatting with someone you don't even KNOW! No, you can't Google (try Altavista) their profile because all that information wasn't out there in the cyberwebz yet. You just had a name and you type-chatted away with them, no Skype (didn't exist) so you couldn't see their face. Think of all the 90s shows that had episodes of kids getting sucked into video games! This was the real-life version of that ridiculous notion. This was the state of TV in the early 2000s.
Enough background....let's get on with it!
aka, "Emma meets a guy in a chatroom"
Episode 1, Season 1
Original Air Date: 10/14/2001
Main Storyline Character: Emma Nelson
A bit of background...
As the original series took place in the eighties, I assume the new series' writers were like "Hey, what can we have the first episode center around that is new and fresh and hip?" That was "computers." Yes, computers. When I was in middle school, there were static websites and not much interaction online. No Youtube, no Facebook, no MySpace even. Just lists of websites like Virtual Bubblewrap that made your dreams of popping virtual plastic bubbles come true. There were chat rooms and comment sections on sites and blogs, but the internet was nowhere near where it is now, a mere 12 years later.
So yes, the writers decided "lets do an episode about evil chatrooms" because that was a big danger (read: Degrassi Big Dangers are not the same as Big Dangers For Real People) at the time. Imagine chatting with someone you don't even KNOW! No, you can't Google (try Altavista) their profile because all that information wasn't out there in the cyberwebz yet. You just had a name and you type-chatted away with them, no Skype (didn't exist) so you couldn't see their face. Think of all the 90s shows that had episodes of kids getting sucked into video games! This was the real-life version of that ridiculous notion. This was the state of TV in the early 2000s.
Enough background....let's get on with it!
A bit of background...
Season One of Degrassi: The Next Generation was a new series of the Degrassi franchise. However, when it came out, it was so far removed from the previous, that only late-20s and 30-somethings knew about Degrassi.
The original was from the 80s, and some characters Shane McKay and Spike Nelson had their obligatory story line of teen pregnancy, resulting in a baby girl, Emma (named after the Emmy that the show had recently been up for). Emma is now the center of the Next Generation reincarnation of the franchise.
The Next Generation premiered in the fall of 2001, roughly 11 years after the previous series. I was the same age as the characters when it first premiered, making the ads of "if your life were a TV show, this would be it" ring quite true. It wasn't anything super new from what was out there on TV at the time, but it did (and currently still does) have some great aspects. One is that the actors are the actual age of the characters they are playing. No 35 year old Dawson's Creek "teens" found here. The second is that the characters are real. They have zits, braces, are awkward. Even the hot or popular characters are sometimes a bit cringe-worthy, as any 14-year-old would be. And thirdly, for all the possibly adult storylines these kids were put through, they still were stupid teenagers that acted like teenagers. They had awkward lines and everyday troubles (periods, boners, etc) that weren't always dealt with on other programs. The cheesiness and sometimes over-the-top acting made the show what it is now, and I still watch to catch every awful/awesome (awfsome?) moment.
The original was from the 80s, and some characters Shane McKay and Spike Nelson had their obligatory story line of teen pregnancy, resulting in a baby girl, Emma (named after the Emmy that the show had recently been up for). Emma is now the center of the Next Generation reincarnation of the franchise.
The Next Generation premiered in the fall of 2001, roughly 11 years after the previous series. I was the same age as the characters when it first premiered, making the ads of "if your life were a TV show, this would be it" ring quite true. It wasn't anything super new from what was out there on TV at the time, but it did (and currently still does) have some great aspects. One is that the actors are the actual age of the characters they are playing. No 35 year old Dawson's Creek "teens" found here. The second is that the characters are real. They have zits, braces, are awkward. Even the hot or popular characters are sometimes a bit cringe-worthy, as any 14-year-old would be. And thirdly, for all the possibly adult storylines these kids were put through, they still were stupid teenagers that acted like teenagers. They had awkward lines and everyday troubles (periods, boners, etc) that weren't always dealt with on other programs. The cheesiness and sometimes over-the-top acting made the show what it is now, and I still watch to catch every awful/awesome (awfsome?) moment.
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