One of the things about Degrassi—and it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is an important quality the show carries as a trait whether it tries to or not—is that each of its episodes play as isolated incidents. I say this because as a serialized show, Degrassi is just about as un-serialized as you can get: every block of episodes play to a specific happening—relationship, really—in the show’s universe, and nothing else that goes on outside of that seems to be remembered at all. It’s just not the show to have an awkward Eli-Clare wave or a slight Bianca sighting in the middle of what’s deemed a Clare/Jake and Fiona/Imogen episode, and for what’s centric to that episode, it can be fine. Yet sometimes I wish that there were those moments, and the show could create smaller ways to show that hey, there are a lot of things going on here all at once. Degrassi as a series doesn’t have any troubles that any other normal teen drama doesn’t has to deal with too, but there is the fact that when characters aren’t on-screen or centric to an episode, they don’t seem to exist at all.
Degrassi Exclusive: Munro Chambers and Annie Clark Share Shipping Spoilers
For the season premiere, Fiona and Imogen, Clare and Jake, and Maya and Zig are chosen as the main players for what are sure to be the three biggest romantic drivers of the season (yet again, I can’t help but be reminded that come next Friday’s episode, chance are this won’t matter very much at all). Fiona deals with returning to school as an outsider and finds an ally in the eccentric Imogen despite the fact that the cool girls in school have already ostracized her. Clare decides—for no reason, which seems to be very unlike Clare—that she may want to have sex with Jake, only to be disturbed by his surface-level nonchalance toward what she sees as a really important step in her life and their relationship. Maya walks into school and meets Zig and that’s pretty much all she needs for love at first sight, despite the fact that Tori and Tristan alert her to the fact that Zig is some sort of terrible person.
For one, the Clare/Jake sex wedge is painfully obvious as a way to break the pair of them up, and it’s working for the pure reason that it needs to work, but something about it makes Jake uncomfortably dumber than usual, and where I’m very used to Clare being somewhat sure of her life and actions, to suddenly decide that sex with Jake is a great idea seems a bit much, especially since she has yet to forgive Alli. I could see a storyline where Clare tries to have sex Jake in order to spite Alli or to stake some sort of claim on Jake as her own, but this doesn’t seem to be either of those, rather than a girl who’s just young and confused and unsure of where relationships go when you’ve already been through everything you can think of. The problem is, not even that has come across well on-screen. That’s just my own deduction.
Just as Clare and Jake are being wedged apart (for this looming Eli/Clare reunion), Fiona and Imogen are being pulled together, and where you’ve got to admit that Degrassi has a knack of matching couples up just for the hell of it, they’re pairing these two up in a way that sort of makes sense. They’re both lost within their own worlds and struggling to fit in, and the fact that Fiona’s a lot better at it is sure to weigh on their friendship. But I can bite here, because Imogen has been so vaguely defined that I don’t think she’d have a problem kissing a girl, and I’d like a Degrassi where she’s willing to explore it without any hesitation, unlike so many times where being gay is so scary and fearful.
But the Imogen cliffhanger… something about it made me not care very much. The Fiona/Imogen relationship wasn’t built up to the point where we saw them as two allies yet: we clearly see that Fiona is trying to change Imogen for other people, and the direct draw that made them friends—when Fiona is opening up about her past—is clearly shot down when Imogen brings it up in front of the group. So I could totally see Fiona running along with everyone else and leaving Imogen to deal with the prank.
And oh, Maya. I don’t want to hate this storyline, but it’s too reminiscent of Clare’s arrival and how she was so smitten with KC that it’s tough for me not to dislike the show doing nearly the exact same thing. I’m thinking that these things will be taken in a different direction this time around- who knows, maybe this will be something that can last a while? Looking at how far removed Clare and KC are now, it’d be a bit refreshing to see something stick, sort of in the way that Emma and Sean did for six seasons or so (you know, before Emma married Spinner). I think Olivia Scriven had a good debut tonight.
At times, these recaps are difficult to analyze with part two of the episode so near, but hopefully Friday’s episode can pick these stories up and take them to new and interesting places. Eleven seasons in, it gets tougher and tougher, but the one thing that you never do is count Degrassi out.
SumOlogy: Here we go, 11.5, here we go.
Grade: 7/10
Leftovers
To elaborate on my big frustration with the show as a serialized series, there’s just so much that we have to get to this season with Eli/Clare and Drew/Katie/Bianca and Tristan and Tori as characters and Jenna and KC and whoever Owen is trying to screw and lots more things, but there was no alluding to any of that in the premiere, and the untrained viewer has no idea about any of it. Which is strange.
I’m not calling these recaps “New Beginnings” recaps, because I don’t feel the same love for the title that I did for In Too Deep or Nowhere To Run or Now Or Never. This one’s a little weak.
We’ll have interviews ALL WEEK running with the cast from the show, so stay tuned.
Let me just say that Alex Steele is GORGEOUS in person. Obviously, everyone in the cast is ridiculously good-looking, but after seeing them in person, Alex Steele is stunning and leggy Jordan Todosey really should be a model.
If you can’t tell, I’m still keeping the Eclare faith.
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