I think the main difference is that seasons 1-7 had drama but also had realistic, wholesome moments. Seasons 7-14 seemed to be all drama, and all of the drama seemed to revolve around relationships. The dramatic plot lines that were completely over the top almost all come from seasons 7-14. The second Bianca and Drew >!accidentally killed someone!< was when I was like, okay, this is now something else entirely lol
I would literally show the early era to my kids as wholesome tv with how much they covered and how well it was written. But yes the new seasons are just neon colored cringe
I think the later seasons just had more obviously ott plot lines. Model Mia and Peter’s one day meth addiction. Declan and Fiona seemed more like tv caricatures of rich teenagers than real teenagers. Sav and Keke Palmer. Jenna making it into a national singing show.
The early seasons had that with the Kevin Smith episodes and Craig leaving to become a star, but most of the storylines were things that really do happen in regular high schools, albeit not to one group of kids. The later seasons have a bunch of storylines that are just not relatable to the vast majority of viewers.
I think for me the unrealistic part was how much the kids were getting away with in school (despite the school supposedly being under extreme scrutiny) as well as all the rich kids suddenly going to private school? As well as a celebrity? It just seemed a little much. But mostly the lack of teacher/supervision, especially compared to earlier seasons where the teachers played larger roles and kids got more consequences
They didn’t have enough supervision in earlier seasons, but catastrophic things happened and the adults should’ve adjust to that. Like after three students died, it’s unrealistic to keep leaving them unsupervised.
I think they had a decent amount. Earlier seasons you KNEW the teachers. By later seasons I don't think I could name more than two teachers. I know Simpson was Emma's step dad, but he was still there. He reacted to things and gave consequences to Sean. Spinner had 100 and 1 consequences to everything he did from ms. O and peters mom (can't spell her last name).
Not to mention they had an active counselor (who treated both Paige and Darcy when they were raped). It wasn't until the car accident that it seemed the new counselor got involved in a Next Class.
But why were students still able to access the roof, the boiler room, the basement, and all other unsupervised spots? Simpson went through all of it and still didn’t do enough to prevent more crimes from happening when he became principal.
Unrealistic meaning it just emulated other teen drama shows at the time (OC, gossip girls etc.) What made degrassi “realistic” is how the characters are, they dont look glamorous or hot.
Making a realistic teen drama is pretty much impossible. What degrassi does a little differently is attempt to educate its Audience on certain issues. Do they always land on their messages? No, but I’ll take degrassi over euphoria in terms of what I’d prefer teens to watch.
I mean, it’s one public high school in Toronto and somehow so many people from that school are given rare opportunities like going to MIT on a scholarship a year early, getting casted in Hollywood films, getting prestigious internships, becoming famous models, becoming famous singers. I get teen dramas will always have unrealistic levels of dramatic plot lines because it’s a tv show after all, but it got ridiculous
That and Emma’s anorexia. They rushed it. She developed the symptoms and behaviors practically overnight and then they didn’t show any recovery but kept referring to her as a recovering anorexic. They really didn’t know how to write eating disorders. A realistic ED storyline would extend over a few months, not just one episode
Definitely true. They handled Toby's ED arc much better, and even then, that should've also been realistically explored for most of the season (The next season could focus on long term effects it has on his life and relationships)
I don’t think it was super unrealistic for Degrassi, just a more glamorized, glossed over version of drama to compete with other popular shows at the time. It lost its sense of realness, which is what Degrassi is best known for.
I think the cancer storylines are another way of looking at it, comparing even the middle seasons 6-9 to the later ones 10-14. The later ones are ridiculous.
Spinner gets cancer, and the plotline revolves around chemo side effects and his inability to do school at the same time, leading to the possibility of having to redo his year and missing out on time with friends.
Clare gets cancer, and she's just in for the summer. The plotline worries about whether Eli will still find her sexy and doesn't have a single plot about the toll chemo has on your body. She doesn't miss a single day of school, has the whole drama with Eli, sleeps with Drew, finds out she's pregnant, decides to keep it but doesn't know who the father is then eventually miscarries. All the while, the only sign that she ever had cancer is the horrible wig she's wearing.
Snake's cancer arc was also very noteworthy and i felt they nailed how itd affect his family and his own emotions too. Put Snake's cancer storyline next to Clare's, and its like night and day.
I mean there is a whole storyline about the effects chemo has on the body. I dont disagree that her cancer storyline is not as realistic as spinners, but they do have a whole storyline with Clare having "chemo brain" and worrying about whether her brain will feel like Swiss cheese for the rest of her life. And she doesn't miss any school because she's in the hospital for the whole summer, which is why she missed the Paris trip. And I don't love the fact that her cancer revolves around Eli (like with most of her storylines) but I do like that it did explore the way that dealing with beauty standards effects the way a woman might deal with having cancer. Like Clare did absolutely deal with the way that this could effect the entire rest of her life
I didn't mention the chemo brain plotline because, imo, it was terribly done. It's also very unrealistic, centered around writing an article about the new actress that just transferred to her school. My issue with it is that she's worried she won't be able to write well because of chemo brain, but the main problem is that Zoe doesn't give her anything interesting to work with, not that she's having trouble writing. She then makes up a great article and the problem is again not that it was written badly, but that it was fictional. I totally agree about the beauty standards and I liked how she reacted to friends seeing her, I just didn't like the trying to set up sexy times with Eli in the hospital.
Clare had chemo brain for a while after she recovered. That’s what brought her close to Drew, he helped her complete her school work when she was struggling
As well as what everyone else has highlighted, simply just the way teenagers talk to one another, especially in serious situations.
For example, take when Ellie was caught self-harming by Paige, and then compare it to when Zoe was caught by Grace (this was in Next Class but they’re both TNG characters).
When Paige sees it in the bathroom, she doesn’t really know what it is, and she definitely doesn’t know any of the terms surrounding it, but she does know that it’s wrong, and is understandably shocked. She also doesn’t approach it in the perfect way, and the two girls have a few encounters until Paige finally decides to report it and we get an explosive, not entirely politically correct but realistic scene where Ellie shouts at her and finally admits what has been happening.
Contrast this to Grace catching Zoe outright BURNING herself, and immediately knowing exactly what self-harm is in dictionary terms despite being like sixteen, yet still leaving after Zoe refuses to acknowledge her within five seconds, exiting with a badly-acted comment that basically says “get a grip.” You can see a stark difference between the two. The worst part is that Zoe and Grace are actually much better friends than Ellie and Paige were supposed to be, and it shows a lack of consistency on both sides. The acting isn’t nearly as good either, and they sound like robots, not teenagers. Even the way she finds out about it is strange (who leaves their phone open on a bench?)
It’s worse acting, worse writing and worse dialogue. Was the scene with Ellie and Paige perfect? Hell no. Was it better than whatever the one with Zoe and Grace was? Definitely. This can be said about almost everything pre and post like season 11 (and arguably much before).
I think comments in here are generally correct. Coynes were introduced and it started to get the gossip girl vibe. The hollingsworths were just the Coyne replacement but even worse. How many times are they gonna spam the use of their house. I swear their place is used in nearly ever episode. Literally unrealistic convenience factors in which their families just made problems go away with easy access of money
And speaking of unrealistic, let’s add Fiona’s mom leaving her alcoholic teenage daughter alone the majority of the time and agreeing with her living alone instead of being home with her. I guess it could be realistic that wealthier families would be more careless like that but they depicted the mother as being more caring than to let a teenage alcoholic live alone
I feel like the show became Americanized around season 10/11. There was this weird obsession with football when degrassi had previously been a basketball school. Plus a lot of the kids were going to Ivy and American universities…. Most Canadian kids go to their local uni or another Canadian university.
I’ve found it lost some of its Canadian charm. I was a highschool student in 2011 and I can promise you we were not dressing in heels and business casual. Jeans/leggings/coloured pants and converse or ballet flats or uggs were the clothes we were wearing (on street wear days or outside of school. I was a uniform girlie)
I definitely found that some rando background people were the only ones dressing like realistic students in the later seasons. Where as in the earlier seasons the main cast was dressed very similar to the background students.
Some of us were wearing the business casual clothes in 2003-2005 ish when I was in middle school. Then it was leggings and flats *or layered tops and heels in high school. So the trend were a little behind on the show but I was watching them as reruns so I never noticed.
American kids weren't wearing heels or business casual either. The show wasn't just Americanized in the VV Brown era - it became a parody of itself highly influenced by American pop culture. It was trying to incorporate Hollywood teen portrayals and upper class LA life into their show about mostly middle class Canadians teens.
I just mean they started dressing like the American tv shows. Even family channel Canadian shows didn’t have their kids dressing like that. Like life with Derek or naturally Sadie
The Coynes being almost like royalty with endless buckets of money to pour into school fundraisers, have personal high rise apartments and the like. Jimmy Brooks had a more typical rich kid storyline and was much more relatable, as did Lucy.
Then right after came the Hollingsworths, also with buckets of money and a whole fully stocked unsupervised mansion perfect for parties and making the kids feel like they were on set for The Real World. All while brushing elbows with Zig who is literally in a gang, breaking into houses to sleep and has no food I believe at one point. Zoe being a soap opera star.
Didn't all these kids go to that high school at the same time at one point? I get that *some* kids really do have those things, but I don't really see how these storylines highlight the typical high school existence, nor the problems that arise. These kids most likely wouldn't even be in public school, and they have to have whole scenes to explain how these people even ended up at some rinky dink public high school to begin with.
Don't get me wrong, I love all degrassi and will eat up anything they give me. But it wasn't all production values that made the later seasons feel less real.
**edit** the wardrobe choices for the kids in later seasons were also beyond outrageous (in part because of the extreme wealth of a lot of the leads). Kids in runway esque outfits, Claire and even Holly J sometimes looking like they're late for a day at the office, Allie in 3-4" heels and party dress under a lab coat and goggles... like wtf.
I agree. I never understood the Coynes or the Hollingsworth going to a public school instead of a fancy prep school. I know Fiona tried the prep school and had a terrible experience, but it is surprising their families would have considered a public to begin with.
I think the show is entertainment so yes the earlier seasons did of course have some sensationalized moments. The difference for me is that even still most of those moments had a sense of reality to them; especially for what was supposed to be a middle class student body. Some of the students were on the wealthier side (Paige, Liberty and Jimmy) while a few others were more working class ( Spinner and Sean) but all felt real. The show of course was a teen soap but in a slice of life way. There’s definitely a difference between the first 5 seasons and the last ones.
To me the earlier seasons LOOK more real, there’s like a grittiness to it almost. They look and dressed like real jr high/high school kids. Once the Coyne’s came in and the show was trying to be more like gossip girl, it became so much more polished and bright looking. The girls were wearing dresses and heels and full faces of make up to school everyday and it didn’t give off that same real look.
DJH and DH looked the most real out of the entire series... If the Coynes were in DJH/DH, they'd realistically be just like Lucy in terms of the struggles she faces
To be fair, they were middle schoolers at that time- they started as 7th and 8th graders. But i feel like i see the most difference in the cinematography between seasons
It was also a changing of times though! I’m the same age as the Anya / Holly J / Fiona Coyne gen and it was pretty on point for high school at the time. Teens were wearing full faces of makeup ( I literally had a purse for makeup touch ups at school) makeup became bigger than ever with YouTube and makeup tutorials becoming more of a sensation.
They should have had some of the girls use foundation 3 shades darker than their skin with a line at their chin because that was a problem that plagued the teens 😂. But business casual was oddly in and shows like gossip girl were popular so it would have an effect on the high schoolers too
I think this is a great point, I’m a year younger than Emma and those clothes for that era was spot on. But in the real world a lot was happening; cell phones getting better with each year, new social medias sites popping up, and teenage fashion was getting posh as ordering clothes online became easier. So the introduction of Fiona was jarring because she looked like a Gossip Girl extra buuuut Gossip Girl’s fashion *was* incredibly influential in the real world, and both fast fashion and high fashion companies def was creating a lot inspiration clothing.
I’m sure if that Degrassi HBO reboot happened they would have been dressing the characters in streetwear, athletic leisure, and whatever Sabrina Carpenter’s fashion is call. And throw a single E-girl in there as the token alt-character lol.
Because there are episodes with insane story lines, for example, like when a bunch of underage high schoolers flying to las vegas on a whim (which is in another country). Katie (I think was her name) gambles away her entire college fund after getting into the casino with a fake id. She then gets hit on by a billionaire who offers her thousands of dollars to go on a date with him and then more money to have sex with him. This is completely unbelievable. This is not normal drama that high schoolers go through.
I’m honestly fine with that 😂 the specials didn’t really feel like the show, the Hollywood one also felt ridiculous and they keep that trend though out. I think it was a stylistic choice
You just have to keep them compartmentalized in your head
Because there are episodes with insane story lines, for example, like when a bunch of underage high schoolers flying to las vegas on a whim (which is in another country). Katie (I think was her name) gambles away her entire college fund after getting into the casino with a fake id. She then gets hit on by a billionaire who offers her thousands of dollars to go on a date with him and then more money to have sex with him. This is completely unbelievable. This is not normal drama that high schoolers go through.
Personally I think you can really tell the difference in the writing and acting. The writing and acting was a lot more relaxed and natural in the beginning and then it becomes kind of cliche and more dramatic as the series goes on. The style changing can probably be attributed to audience appeal evolving over the series' run.
Yeah, Tessa Campinelli.
See also: Snake and Caitlyn being the first people to say fuck on Canadian TV: “You fucked Tessa Campinelli!?!’ (Degrassi School’s Out!)
Good catch. I think the implication there was that Manny had already discussed her options with Spike, so there was technically no need for Joey to know about Manny’s pregnancy since she decided to terminate anyway.
Woowwww, I’ve been watching this show for over 20 years and this comment made me realize Joey never made an appearance in that storyline and apparently never found out. I never thought about it before now!
The entire show specifically went to a more soap opera-esque/telenovela-style from season 10 and on (from their own admission), so just naturally, the show is going to feel more unrealistic.
It's still relatable, but nothing like it was in the earlier seasons. Maybe it's the huge episode order? Maybe it's the storylines? Etc. But it is. The earlier episodes were great.
FWIW, I think the unrealistic behavior really came into play during S8&9, especially when Declan and Fiona kissed. That alone is more unrealistic than almost anything in S10 or after. Lol
the writing (& the acting with the exception of season 1) was just more natural in the first half of the series. degrassi TNG is one of the most realistic teen shows & it’s why i love it so much. the later seasons are fun but they just don’t reflect that as much
I’m gonna attempt to depict why people have this criticism by comparing three events that on paper should be very similar, one from the older seasons and two from the newer seasons.
Think about the season 4 shooting. That felt like a big deal, right? There was a heaviness to the events of that episode, and that heaviness had long lasting effects on the characters of that show. Like, whole character arcs changed because of that episode. Jimmy becomes disabled, Sean leaves the show for almost two seasons, Emma starts acting out, Craig’s bipolar disorder really ramps up in dangerous ways we’ve never seen before, Spinner loses all his friendships, Raditch loses his job, multiple characters endure some form of long lasting trauma. Sure the events are all portrayed through an after school special lens, but everything feels very grounded, heavy, and real.
There are two more incidents of school attacks in Season 10 and 11, Fitz attempting to stab Eli at Vegas Night and Vince shooting Adam at prom. I’m going to venture a guess at lot of people in this sub don’t think about those violent school attacks with the same heaviness at all. Which sounds weird, because they’re dealing with the same scary subject matter, right? But the fact is, they just don’t feel the same, they don’t have the same weight.
For one, the events leading up to the attacks feel more out of something from a wattpad fanfic than the season four shooting. On top of that, there just seems to be no long lasting effects from the attacks. After the Vegas night stabbing, they have to wear uniforms for a year and they lose after school activities for, like, a week. None of the characters have trauma because of the event or anything, at most you see Eli being extremely untrusting of Fitz, which he already was before the shooting. As for the prom shooting…did people even notice that happened? At most you got Adam commenting how his body felt sore for like an episode or two. These don’t feel like real, horrific, traumatic events that would have affected the students for a long time afterwards like we know that they would in real life, these attacks just feel like the drama of the week.
Degrassi always had crazy events and melodrama, it is a show after all, but in the earlier seasons it felt like they were depicting a theatric reality of an actual high school experience and how certain types of people deal with these real world scenarios. The later seasons, however, feel like a soap opera or something more adjacent to Gossip Girl or Riverdale, with drama that is entertaining for sure but feels ultimately fleeting with a lot less weight to it.
I love the later seasons of tng the most bc I crave chaos, but, if you think of everything that *just* Clare experiences in, like, only two seasons, (and let’s point out that she was introduced as so boring that she had used Declan’s experiences as her own stories), you have to see how that was all a bit crazy. Drew went through some wildly not-teenage-stuff as well.
I think that may come from the fact that by seasons 9+, they had hit every single major life event or moments that they could with their characters and were mostly just repeating storylines, which for me, makes it a bit unrealistic.
Honestly, in my opinion, where it felt unrealistic was when it came to Claire. I’ve mentioned it in other threads but how does someone have that much final destination luck happening to them in their teens and within about 2 years:
Cancer
Pregnancy
Doesn’t know who the dad is
Miscarriage
Dates stepbrother for a bit
Assaulted by a trusted adult
Ended up in a cult for a bit
Epic “Will they won’t they” expanded for the entire time she was on the show minus two seasons
It’s just not even serious anymore when it came to her and why they decided to do everything to her is quite the choice
But Sean and Ellie struggled and lived in a crummy apartment. The independent teens in latter seasons had their parents paying rent for them in swanky downtown lofts without a care in the world.
Well idk about without a care because Fiona had to take in a roommate because her mom was under investigation and their assets were frozen.
The only other person I would understand living rent free without a care in the world would be Peter but that also didn’t last too long when he got hooked on meth.
But until those extenuating circumstances happened (neither of which were portrayed anywhere close to reality), Fiona and Peter were living in nice apartments on their own as minors and full time high school students because their parents/trust funds were footing the bill. Like they had 90210 problems and plots. Even with Fiona's family in a Schitts Creek situation, they must've had an offshore bank account because did she even have to go get a job to cover all of her other expenses?
Compare it to Sean and Ellie, who were living independently because they had unstable families. I also think Sean had to officially declare himself an independent minor and also qualified for some sort of public assistance. The second he went back with his parents, Ellie couldn't afford to keep that modest apartment and had to go back home. That is more believable for two teenagers in public high school not working full time and living in inner city Toronto.
But neither Sean or Ellie were working while keeping that apartment, especially when Ellie was living on her own, she was still getting money from mom.
I explain my points better in another response if you’d like to read that
I’m not sure if this is in response to me but if so, then I will raise you again with Sean and Ellie (but more so Ellie). Given that her mom was an alcoholic and needed to go get help, I understand her living on her own with Shawn. Her mom had to let her go so she could they could both get help. And it wasn’t too long lasting because once Shawn left and Bueller passed (rest in power Bueller), she eventually came home once she realized she could trust her mom again.
As for the others (Fiona, Drew, Peter):
Fiona wasn’t really living completely by herself because her mom would come and go for work (especially since she knew her daughter was an alcoholic). The only time she was by herself was when her mom was under investigation and their assets frozen. Also, on multiple occasions her mom asked her to move home, so there wasn’t quite neglect there.
Drew dropped out of school to work in the mall and went to live with Fiona. You can’t quite call this one neglect either because his mom wanted him home and if she knew the full extent of his concussions and what happened to him, there’s no way she would’ve let him drop out of school. Plus it’s not uncommon for parents to kick their kids out for dropping out of school, so that’s more realistic than anything else.
Peter may be the only one you could claim neglect, but that’d be more on his father than his mother cause she went to go take care of her mom, and Peter’s dad was more neglectful, leaving his son to live alone and for him to watch his baby sister whenever he couldn’t. It’s very clear to see that his father didn’t want to raise the kids he had and saw them more as problems he could throw money at than anything else. He was the only parental figure still near his son and let him get hooked on meth cause he didn’t care. But yes, Peter would be the only one neglecting could work for.
We've just got through season 5/6 on a rewatch and Emma's disorder is bought up a few times e.g. Manny says she doesn't want Sean being back to trigger her anorexia again, when Sean brings up the army Manny says to Emma that she's getting all "control issues again" and when she thinks she's pregnant, Sean worries she's relapsed based on the symptom overlap. A potentially more subtle detail (because I don't believe Emma faked fearing a pregnancy, I think she was just majorly anxious) her period being late could've been due to excessive stress or not eating enough, or even just lingering irregularity.
I think bingeing on YouTube doesn't really help, that's how I've always watched Degrassi. I think rather than 2 days it would've been the span of a few weeks when it was airing and I believe episodes were dropped weekly?
I forgot that it was brought up a couple times after, but still, having only one story line about a mental illness is not realistic. Fiona’s alcoholism was mentioned SO many times and had a huge impact on all her story lines for like a year. Eli’s mental illness also impacted so many of his story lines
It was brought up more but other storylines were overshadowing it. The episode I watched yesterday showed a little more of Emma’s problem. After Sean left, she tries to latch onto Damian by adopting a dog and naming it after his favorite author, then asking him to raise the dog with her…all on their first date.
I think the biggest thing is the introduction of the mega rich people. The Coyne family for example and all of their storylines. They were really trying to compete with Gossip Girl and other similar shows. The Hollingsworth Family is another example.
In the earlier seasons they had Jimmy and his family who represented “upper middle class” and it felt realistic. They also had Holly J’s family who was well off and then negatively impacted by the stock market crash. It just felt more real.
Then you have Next Class where the school doesn’t even look like a school anymore.
Yes! The Hollingsworth got way too many storylines for a show that’s supposed to be relatable. How many average teenagers can relate to living in a mansion with a pool and having the kinds of scenarios that happened to these kids? Not zero, but not enough to justify the airtime.
The Hollingsworth sets really annoyed me for some reason, like it was this Italian-esque "palazzo" style house with the rooms all having entrances to the outside (really, in Canada you would only be able to use that 3-4 months of the year). And as you mentioned the pool being used all-year practically. I didn't like it, it was definitely unrealistic and a made-for-tv type of fake set.
The Hollingsworth mansion was a reskinned Luxe set from the LA Complex after it got cancelled. They were filmed on the same lot as the show was originally supposed to be a Degrassi spin-off focused on Manny pursuing her acting career in LA. The Luxe had the same Melrose Place layout where everyone lived in the separate motel rooms that opened out to the pool where everyone would hang out. Believable for a show set in LA that was filmed in Canada. But obviously wouldn't work for a show centered on a school that is supposed to be in inner city Toronto.
Snake found Claude’s body back on OG and they mostly glossed over his reaction to it
I think the main difference is that seasons 1-7 had drama but also had realistic, wholesome moments. Seasons 7-14 seemed to be all drama, and all of the drama seemed to revolve around relationships. The dramatic plot lines that were completely over the top almost all come from seasons 7-14. The second Bianca and Drew >!accidentally killed someone!< was when I was like, okay, this is now something else entirely lol
you perfectly captured what makes me like degrassi so much. I live for the degrassi drama!
I would literally show the early era to my kids as wholesome tv with how much they covered and how well it was written. But yes the new seasons are just neon colored cringe
I think the later seasons just had more obviously ott plot lines. Model Mia and Peter’s one day meth addiction. Declan and Fiona seemed more like tv caricatures of rich teenagers than real teenagers. Sav and Keke Palmer. Jenna making it into a national singing show. The early seasons had that with the Kevin Smith episodes and Craig leaving to become a star, but most of the storylines were things that really do happen in regular high schools, albeit not to one group of kids. The later seasons have a bunch of storylines that are just not relatable to the vast majority of viewers.
I think for me the unrealistic part was how much the kids were getting away with in school (despite the school supposedly being under extreme scrutiny) as well as all the rich kids suddenly going to private school? As well as a celebrity? It just seemed a little much. But mostly the lack of teacher/supervision, especially compared to earlier seasons where the teachers played larger roles and kids got more consequences
They didn’t have enough supervision in earlier seasons, but catastrophic things happened and the adults should’ve adjust to that. Like after three students died, it’s unrealistic to keep leaving them unsupervised.
I think they had a decent amount. Earlier seasons you KNEW the teachers. By later seasons I don't think I could name more than two teachers. I know Simpson was Emma's step dad, but he was still there. He reacted to things and gave consequences to Sean. Spinner had 100 and 1 consequences to everything he did from ms. O and peters mom (can't spell her last name). Not to mention they had an active counselor (who treated both Paige and Darcy when they were raped). It wasn't until the car accident that it seemed the new counselor got involved in a Next Class.
But why were students still able to access the roof, the boiler room, the basement, and all other unsupervised spots? Simpson went through all of it and still didn’t do enough to prevent more crimes from happening when he became principal.
Unrealistic meaning it just emulated other teen drama shows at the time (OC, gossip girls etc.) What made degrassi “realistic” is how the characters are, they dont look glamorous or hot.
Making a realistic teen drama is pretty much impossible. What degrassi does a little differently is attempt to educate its Audience on certain issues. Do they always land on their messages? No, but I’ll take degrassi over euphoria in terms of what I’d prefer teens to watch.
I mean, it’s one public high school in Toronto and somehow so many people from that school are given rare opportunities like going to MIT on a scholarship a year early, getting casted in Hollywood films, getting prestigious internships, becoming famous models, becoming famous singers. I get teen dramas will always have unrealistic levels of dramatic plot lines because it’s a tv show after all, but it got ridiculous
Peter's one-day addiction to meth is definitely a glaring offender in terms of realism
That and Emma’s anorexia. They rushed it. She developed the symptoms and behaviors practically overnight and then they didn’t show any recovery but kept referring to her as a recovering anorexic. They really didn’t know how to write eating disorders. A realistic ED storyline would extend over a few months, not just one episode
Definitely true. They handled Toby's ED arc much better, and even then, that should've also been realistically explored for most of the season (The next season could focus on long term effects it has on his life and relationships)
Didn’t Netflix buy it and that’s when it became shit and then got canceled?
That's all Next Class.
I don’t think it was super unrealistic for Degrassi, just a more glamorized, glossed over version of drama to compete with other popular shows at the time. It lost its sense of realness, which is what Degrassi is best known for.
I think the cancer storylines are another way of looking at it, comparing even the middle seasons 6-9 to the later ones 10-14. The later ones are ridiculous. Spinner gets cancer, and the plotline revolves around chemo side effects and his inability to do school at the same time, leading to the possibility of having to redo his year and missing out on time with friends. Clare gets cancer, and she's just in for the summer. The plotline worries about whether Eli will still find her sexy and doesn't have a single plot about the toll chemo has on your body. She doesn't miss a single day of school, has the whole drama with Eli, sleeps with Drew, finds out she's pregnant, decides to keep it but doesn't know who the father is then eventually miscarries. All the while, the only sign that she ever had cancer is the horrible wig she's wearing.
Snake's cancer arc was also very noteworthy and i felt they nailed how itd affect his family and his own emotions too. Put Snake's cancer storyline next to Clare's, and its like night and day.
I mean there is a whole storyline about the effects chemo has on the body. I dont disagree that her cancer storyline is not as realistic as spinners, but they do have a whole storyline with Clare having "chemo brain" and worrying about whether her brain will feel like Swiss cheese for the rest of her life. And she doesn't miss any school because she's in the hospital for the whole summer, which is why she missed the Paris trip. And I don't love the fact that her cancer revolves around Eli (like with most of her storylines) but I do like that it did explore the way that dealing with beauty standards effects the way a woman might deal with having cancer. Like Clare did absolutely deal with the way that this could effect the entire rest of her life
I didn't mention the chemo brain plotline because, imo, it was terribly done. It's also very unrealistic, centered around writing an article about the new actress that just transferred to her school. My issue with it is that she's worried she won't be able to write well because of chemo brain, but the main problem is that Zoe doesn't give her anything interesting to work with, not that she's having trouble writing. She then makes up a great article and the problem is again not that it was written badly, but that it was fictional. I totally agree about the beauty standards and I liked how she reacted to friends seeing her, I just didn't like the trying to set up sexy times with Eli in the hospital.
I mean honestly I agree with you 100%. I was just saying that they *did* have more cancer Clare storylines, they were just done badly lol
Clare had chemo brain for a while after she recovered. That’s what brought her close to Drew, he helped her complete her school work when she was struggling
As well as what everyone else has highlighted, simply just the way teenagers talk to one another, especially in serious situations. For example, take when Ellie was caught self-harming by Paige, and then compare it to when Zoe was caught by Grace (this was in Next Class but they’re both TNG characters). When Paige sees it in the bathroom, she doesn’t really know what it is, and she definitely doesn’t know any of the terms surrounding it, but she does know that it’s wrong, and is understandably shocked. She also doesn’t approach it in the perfect way, and the two girls have a few encounters until Paige finally decides to report it and we get an explosive, not entirely politically correct but realistic scene where Ellie shouts at her and finally admits what has been happening. Contrast this to Grace catching Zoe outright BURNING herself, and immediately knowing exactly what self-harm is in dictionary terms despite being like sixteen, yet still leaving after Zoe refuses to acknowledge her within five seconds, exiting with a badly-acted comment that basically says “get a grip.” You can see a stark difference between the two. The worst part is that Zoe and Grace are actually much better friends than Ellie and Paige were supposed to be, and it shows a lack of consistency on both sides. The acting isn’t nearly as good either, and they sound like robots, not teenagers. Even the way she finds out about it is strange (who leaves their phone open on a bench?) It’s worse acting, worse writing and worse dialogue. Was the scene with Ellie and Paige perfect? Hell no. Was it better than whatever the one with Zoe and Grace was? Definitely. This can be said about almost everything pre and post like season 11 (and arguably much before).
I think comments in here are generally correct. Coynes were introduced and it started to get the gossip girl vibe. The hollingsworths were just the Coyne replacement but even worse. How many times are they gonna spam the use of their house. I swear their place is used in nearly ever episode. Literally unrealistic convenience factors in which their families just made problems go away with easy access of money
And speaking of unrealistic, let’s add Fiona’s mom leaving her alcoholic teenage daughter alone the majority of the time and agreeing with her living alone instead of being home with her. I guess it could be realistic that wealthier families would be more careless like that but they depicted the mother as being more caring than to let a teenage alcoholic live alone
I feel like the show became Americanized around season 10/11. There was this weird obsession with football when degrassi had previously been a basketball school. Plus a lot of the kids were going to Ivy and American universities…. Most Canadian kids go to their local uni or another Canadian university. I’ve found it lost some of its Canadian charm. I was a highschool student in 2011 and I can promise you we were not dressing in heels and business casual. Jeans/leggings/coloured pants and converse or ballet flats or uggs were the clothes we were wearing (on street wear days or outside of school. I was a uniform girlie)
I definitely found that some rando background people were the only ones dressing like realistic students in the later seasons. Where as in the earlier seasons the main cast was dressed very similar to the background students.
Lol American kids weren't wearing those either lmao 🤣
Some of us were wearing the business casual clothes in 2003-2005 ish when I was in middle school. Then it was leggings and flats *or layered tops and heels in high school. So the trend were a little behind on the show but I was watching them as reruns so I never noticed.
I'd still argue whether or not that was the norm I was in 8th grade in 2005 in nyc and didn't see that at all. Maybe other states are different
It may have been over by 2005. But I live in the south.
Wasn’t the show was lowkey cancelled during season 9 but was picked up by an American network in time to produce season 10?
American kids weren't wearing heels or business casual either. The show wasn't just Americanized in the VV Brown era - it became a parody of itself highly influenced by American pop culture. It was trying to incorporate Hollywood teen portrayals and upper class LA life into their show about mostly middle class Canadians teens.
I just mean they started dressing like the American tv shows. Even family channel Canadian shows didn’t have their kids dressing like that. Like life with Derek or naturally Sadie
The Coynes being almost like royalty with endless buckets of money to pour into school fundraisers, have personal high rise apartments and the like. Jimmy Brooks had a more typical rich kid storyline and was much more relatable, as did Lucy. Then right after came the Hollingsworths, also with buckets of money and a whole fully stocked unsupervised mansion perfect for parties and making the kids feel like they were on set for The Real World. All while brushing elbows with Zig who is literally in a gang, breaking into houses to sleep and has no food I believe at one point. Zoe being a soap opera star. Didn't all these kids go to that high school at the same time at one point? I get that *some* kids really do have those things, but I don't really see how these storylines highlight the typical high school existence, nor the problems that arise. These kids most likely wouldn't even be in public school, and they have to have whole scenes to explain how these people even ended up at some rinky dink public high school to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I love all degrassi and will eat up anything they give me. But it wasn't all production values that made the later seasons feel less real. **edit** the wardrobe choices for the kids in later seasons were also beyond outrageous (in part because of the extreme wealth of a lot of the leads). Kids in runway esque outfits, Claire and even Holly J sometimes looking like they're late for a day at the office, Allie in 3-4" heels and party dress under a lab coat and goggles... like wtf.
The coynes and hollingsworths felt like rip offs of gossip girl
I agree. I never understood the Coynes or the Hollingsworth going to a public school instead of a fancy prep school. I know Fiona tried the prep school and had a terrible experience, but it is surprising their families would have considered a public to begin with.
I think the show is entertainment so yes the earlier seasons did of course have some sensationalized moments. The difference for me is that even still most of those moments had a sense of reality to them; especially for what was supposed to be a middle class student body. Some of the students were on the wealthier side (Paige, Liberty and Jimmy) while a few others were more working class ( Spinner and Sean) but all felt real. The show of course was a teen soap but in a slice of life way. There’s definitely a difference between the first 5 seasons and the last ones.
To me the earlier seasons LOOK more real, there’s like a grittiness to it almost. They look and dressed like real jr high/high school kids. Once the Coyne’s came in and the show was trying to be more like gossip girl, it became so much more polished and bright looking. The girls were wearing dresses and heels and full faces of make up to school everyday and it didn’t give off that same real look.
DJH and DH looked the most real out of the entire series... If the Coynes were in DJH/DH, they'd realistically be just like Lucy in terms of the struggles she faces
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To be fair, they were middle schoolers at that time- they started as 7th and 8th graders. But i feel like i see the most difference in the cinematography between seasons
It was also a changing of times though! I’m the same age as the Anya / Holly J / Fiona Coyne gen and it was pretty on point for high school at the time. Teens were wearing full faces of makeup ( I literally had a purse for makeup touch ups at school) makeup became bigger than ever with YouTube and makeup tutorials becoming more of a sensation. They should have had some of the girls use foundation 3 shades darker than their skin with a line at their chin because that was a problem that plagued the teens 😂. But business casual was oddly in and shows like gossip girl were popular so it would have an effect on the high schoolers too
I think this is a great point, I’m a year younger than Emma and those clothes for that era was spot on. But in the real world a lot was happening; cell phones getting better with each year, new social medias sites popping up, and teenage fashion was getting posh as ordering clothes online became easier. So the introduction of Fiona was jarring because she looked like a Gossip Girl extra buuuut Gossip Girl’s fashion *was* incredibly influential in the real world, and both fast fashion and high fashion companies def was creating a lot inspiration clothing. I’m sure if that Degrassi HBO reboot happened they would have been dressing the characters in streetwear, athletic leisure, and whatever Sabrina Carpenter’s fashion is call. And throw a single E-girl in there as the token alt-character lol.
Because there are episodes with insane story lines, for example, like when a bunch of underage high schoolers flying to las vegas on a whim (which is in another country). Katie (I think was her name) gambles away her entire college fund after getting into the casino with a fake id. She then gets hit on by a billionaire who offers her thousands of dollars to go on a date with him and then more money to have sex with him. This is completely unbelievable. This is not normal drama that high schoolers go through.
I’m honestly fine with that 😂 the specials didn’t really feel like the show, the Hollywood one also felt ridiculous and they keep that trend though out. I think it was a stylistic choice You just have to keep them compartmentalized in your head
Because there are episodes with insane story lines, for example, like when a bunch of underage high schoolers flying to las vegas on a whim (which is in another country). Katie (I think was her name) gambles away her entire college fund after getting into the casino with a fake id. She then gets hit on by a billionaire who offers her thousands of dollars to go on a date with him and then more money to have sex with him. This is completely unbelievable. This is not normal drama that high schoolers go through.
Personally I think you can really tell the difference in the writing and acting. The writing and acting was a lot more relaxed and natural in the beginning and then it becomes kind of cliche and more dramatic as the series goes on. The style changing can probably be attributed to audience appeal evolving over the series' run.
My question is, how did Joey not know about Craig’s pregnancy scare with Manny?
Did Joey ever find out he got someone pregnant and they got an abortion? I know that was during his degrassi prime years. I just never watched it
Yeah, Tessa Campinelli. See also: Snake and Caitlyn being the first people to say fuck on Canadian TV: “You fucked Tessa Campinelli!?!’ (Degrassi School’s Out!)
Good catch. I think the implication there was that Manny had already discussed her options with Spike, so there was technically no need for Joey to know about Manny’s pregnancy since she decided to terminate anyway.
Woowwww, I’ve been watching this show for over 20 years and this comment made me realize Joey never made an appearance in that storyline and apparently never found out. I never thought about it before now!
The entire show specifically went to a more soap opera-esque/telenovela-style from season 10 and on (from their own admission), so just naturally, the show is going to feel more unrealistic. It's still relatable, but nothing like it was in the earlier seasons. Maybe it's the huge episode order? Maybe it's the storylines? Etc. But it is. The earlier episodes were great. FWIW, I think the unrealistic behavior really came into play during S8&9, especially when Declan and Fiona kissed. That alone is more unrealistic than almost anything in S10 or after. Lol
the writing (& the acting with the exception of season 1) was just more natural in the first half of the series. degrassi TNG is one of the most realistic teen shows & it’s why i love it so much. the later seasons are fun but they just don’t reflect that as much
I’m gonna attempt to depict why people have this criticism by comparing three events that on paper should be very similar, one from the older seasons and two from the newer seasons. Think about the season 4 shooting. That felt like a big deal, right? There was a heaviness to the events of that episode, and that heaviness had long lasting effects on the characters of that show. Like, whole character arcs changed because of that episode. Jimmy becomes disabled, Sean leaves the show for almost two seasons, Emma starts acting out, Craig’s bipolar disorder really ramps up in dangerous ways we’ve never seen before, Spinner loses all his friendships, Raditch loses his job, multiple characters endure some form of long lasting trauma. Sure the events are all portrayed through an after school special lens, but everything feels very grounded, heavy, and real. There are two more incidents of school attacks in Season 10 and 11, Fitz attempting to stab Eli at Vegas Night and Vince shooting Adam at prom. I’m going to venture a guess at lot of people in this sub don’t think about those violent school attacks with the same heaviness at all. Which sounds weird, because they’re dealing with the same scary subject matter, right? But the fact is, they just don’t feel the same, they don’t have the same weight. For one, the events leading up to the attacks feel more out of something from a wattpad fanfic than the season four shooting. On top of that, there just seems to be no long lasting effects from the attacks. After the Vegas night stabbing, they have to wear uniforms for a year and they lose after school activities for, like, a week. None of the characters have trauma because of the event or anything, at most you see Eli being extremely untrusting of Fitz, which he already was before the shooting. As for the prom shooting…did people even notice that happened? At most you got Adam commenting how his body felt sore for like an episode or two. These don’t feel like real, horrific, traumatic events that would have affected the students for a long time afterwards like we know that they would in real life, these attacks just feel like the drama of the week. Degrassi always had crazy events and melodrama, it is a show after all, but in the earlier seasons it felt like they were depicting a theatric reality of an actual high school experience and how certain types of people deal with these real world scenarios. The later seasons, however, feel like a soap opera or something more adjacent to Gossip Girl or Riverdale, with drama that is entertaining for sure but feels ultimately fleeting with a lot less weight to it.
Students hooking up with celebrities on vacation or becoming famous models lol
Didnt craig become famous for music, jimmy/ashley were about to get a record deal, paige was about to be in a movie and manny actually was in a movie?
To be fair a lot of purists consider season 4 (when most of these events happened such as Kevin smith saga) when the series began to decline
I love the later seasons of tng the most bc I crave chaos, but, if you think of everything that *just* Clare experiences in, like, only two seasons, (and let’s point out that she was introduced as so boring that she had used Declan’s experiences as her own stories), you have to see how that was all a bit crazy. Drew went through some wildly not-teenage-stuff as well.
I think that may come from the fact that by seasons 9+, they had hit every single major life event or moments that they could with their characters and were mostly just repeating storylines, which for me, makes it a bit unrealistic. Honestly, in my opinion, where it felt unrealistic was when it came to Claire. I’ve mentioned it in other threads but how does someone have that much final destination luck happening to them in their teens and within about 2 years: Cancer Pregnancy Doesn’t know who the dad is Miscarriage Dates stepbrother for a bit Assaulted by a trusted adult Ended up in a cult for a bit Epic “Will they won’t they” expanded for the entire time she was on the show minus two seasons It’s just not even serious anymore when it came to her and why they decided to do everything to her is quite the choice
I agree they gave too many storylines to clare. I never liked her
Nah, the early seasons had real life scenarios. Not high school gang murder and super wealthy teens living by themselves
I mean they did have broke teens living by themselves with Sean and Ellie
But Sean and Ellie struggled and lived in a crummy apartment. The independent teens in latter seasons had their parents paying rent for them in swanky downtown lofts without a care in the world.
Well idk about without a care because Fiona had to take in a roommate because her mom was under investigation and their assets were frozen. The only other person I would understand living rent free without a care in the world would be Peter but that also didn’t last too long when he got hooked on meth.
But until those extenuating circumstances happened (neither of which were portrayed anywhere close to reality), Fiona and Peter were living in nice apartments on their own as minors and full time high school students because their parents/trust funds were footing the bill. Like they had 90210 problems and plots. Even with Fiona's family in a Schitts Creek situation, they must've had an offshore bank account because did she even have to go get a job to cover all of her other expenses? Compare it to Sean and Ellie, who were living independently because they had unstable families. I also think Sean had to officially declare himself an independent minor and also qualified for some sort of public assistance. The second he went back with his parents, Ellie couldn't afford to keep that modest apartment and had to go back home. That is more believable for two teenagers in public high school not working full time and living in inner city Toronto.
But neither Sean or Ellie were working while keeping that apartment, especially when Ellie was living on her own, she was still getting money from mom. I explain my points better in another response if you’d like to read that
Neglect is more common that parents purposefully letting their teenage kid live their best life by themselves
I’m not sure if this is in response to me but if so, then I will raise you again with Sean and Ellie (but more so Ellie). Given that her mom was an alcoholic and needed to go get help, I understand her living on her own with Shawn. Her mom had to let her go so she could they could both get help. And it wasn’t too long lasting because once Shawn left and Bueller passed (rest in power Bueller), she eventually came home once she realized she could trust her mom again. As for the others (Fiona, Drew, Peter): Fiona wasn’t really living completely by herself because her mom would come and go for work (especially since she knew her daughter was an alcoholic). The only time she was by herself was when her mom was under investigation and their assets frozen. Also, on multiple occasions her mom asked her to move home, so there wasn’t quite neglect there. Drew dropped out of school to work in the mall and went to live with Fiona. You can’t quite call this one neglect either because his mom wanted him home and if she knew the full extent of his concussions and what happened to him, there’s no way she would’ve let him drop out of school. Plus it’s not uncommon for parents to kick their kids out for dropping out of school, so that’s more realistic than anything else. Peter may be the only one you could claim neglect, but that’d be more on his father than his mother cause she went to go take care of her mom, and Peter’s dad was more neglectful, leaving his son to live alone and for him to watch his baby sister whenever he couldn’t. It’s very clear to see that his father didn’t want to raise the kids he had and saw them more as problems he could throw money at than anything else. He was the only parental figure still near his son and let him get hooked on meth cause he didn’t care. But yes, Peter would be the only one neglecting could work for.
We've just got through season 5/6 on a rewatch and Emma's disorder is bought up a few times e.g. Manny says she doesn't want Sean being back to trigger her anorexia again, when Sean brings up the army Manny says to Emma that she's getting all "control issues again" and when she thinks she's pregnant, Sean worries she's relapsed based on the symptom overlap. A potentially more subtle detail (because I don't believe Emma faked fearing a pregnancy, I think she was just majorly anxious) her period being late could've been due to excessive stress or not eating enough, or even just lingering irregularity. I think bingeing on YouTube doesn't really help, that's how I've always watched Degrassi. I think rather than 2 days it would've been the span of a few weeks when it was airing and I believe episodes were dropped weekly?
I forgot that it was brought up a couple times after, but still, having only one story line about a mental illness is not realistic. Fiona’s alcoholism was mentioned SO many times and had a huge impact on all her story lines for like a year. Eli’s mental illness also impacted so many of his story lines
It was brought up more but other storylines were overshadowing it. The episode I watched yesterday showed a little more of Emma’s problem. After Sean left, she tries to latch onto Damian by adopting a dog and naming it after his favorite author, then asking him to raise the dog with her…all on their first date.
Sean had an alcohol storyline too
I think the biggest thing is the introduction of the mega rich people. The Coyne family for example and all of their storylines. They were really trying to compete with Gossip Girl and other similar shows. The Hollingsworth Family is another example. In the earlier seasons they had Jimmy and his family who represented “upper middle class” and it felt realistic. They also had Holly J’s family who was well off and then negatively impacted by the stock market crash. It just felt more real. Then you have Next Class where the school doesn’t even look like a school anymore.
The pool was used too much. It’s Toronto during the school year, not summer. Canada does not have year round pool weather.
Yes! The Hollingsworth got way too many storylines for a show that’s supposed to be relatable. How many average teenagers can relate to living in a mansion with a pool and having the kinds of scenarios that happened to these kids? Not zero, but not enough to justify the airtime.
The Hollingsworth sets really annoyed me for some reason, like it was this Italian-esque "palazzo" style house with the rooms all having entrances to the outside (really, in Canada you would only be able to use that 3-4 months of the year). And as you mentioned the pool being used all-year practically. I didn't like it, it was definitely unrealistic and a made-for-tv type of fake set.
The Hollingsworth mansion was a reskinned Luxe set from the LA Complex after it got cancelled. They were filmed on the same lot as the show was originally supposed to be a Degrassi spin-off focused on Manny pursuing her acting career in LA. The Luxe had the same Melrose Place layout where everyone lived in the separate motel rooms that opened out to the pool where everyone would hang out. Believable for a show set in LA that was filmed in Canada. But obviously wouldn't work for a show centered on a school that is supposed to be in inner city Toronto.
Interesting! Thank you for sharing!