#the one non-problematic character and he gets ZERO screentime or character development | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kierofrp · 7 years

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thoughts on degrassi: next class season 3 :) it’s nearly 3,000 words because apparently i had a lot of emotions.

i...honestly was expecting the worst. the way they refused to promote the show until the last second and the fact that everything was hush-hush... i was expecting it to be awful. but this season is the first season in forever that reminds me of the degrassi i fell in love with when i was growing up, and it honestly makes the last few seasons look a little garbage in comparison. i cried at least 1 time per episode - maybe i’m just in an emotionally vulnerable place, but everything was getting to me. every emotional beat held my attention and brought me so deep into the world. i don’t even have words. the characters were all realistic as hell - and all a little problematic in their own ways - and it was just... wow. and everyone actually got enough focus and nobody got too much screentime imo. even maya -who had the most important plotline (in my opinion) & has been degrassi’s princess for the past few seasons - even maya had an appropriate amount of screentime. i’m here for it. i don’t want this class to graduate, unlike clare’s class, who i was so damn sick of... i’m gonna go into each character (and their related plots) now while the emotions are still so raw.

zoe - i LOVED zoe’s storyline. i love her falling for rasha. i loved her finding herself and feeling secure and safe and having a friend group. i loved her being student counsel president. she is perfect for it. i love that they showed her actually being a president, not just throwing dances and bullshit like the past few presidents. she was actually doing well for the school and... killing it. i hate her mom, but i loved the way they portrayed it. it was seriously so realistic and it was hitting me hard as someone who just recently came out to my mom. that’s how it is for so many people who come out, but i love that she decided to refuse giving up her happiness - especially since its’ taken so long for her to achieve. i cannot wait for more gay zoe thriving and living for herself. she was one of my favorite characters this season. she has had so much shit happen to her, and for her to finally be coming into her own and finally finding herself, even if it means losing her mom... fuck i loved zoe so much and ana did such an amazing job.

rasha - raSHA RASHA RASHA !!!!!!! i am so fucking in love with rasha. her claiming her faith the way she wants to, her crushing on zoe and being so fucking ADORABLE WITH ZOE i was so here for every bit of it and i wish she was only a sophomore or something because i need her to be the main character once the seniors graduate PLEASE. she was literally possibly my favorite part of this season. casting a+, acting a+, the only thing i could wish for would be more plots with different people. i liked her little parts with miles, i loved the stuff with goldi, i loved the stuff with zoe (gracevas who?)... i just want her to be more than just zoe’s girlfriend and goldi’s friend.

goldi - OK so.... i liked her storyline about her struggling with her faith. i liked her storyline with her struggling to accept beliefs that weren’t strictly muslim.. however, i wish they hadn’t made her a feminist. because although feminists are completely able to have their own beliefs on things like homosexuality and other ‘sins’, it reinforces the other parts of her that represent white feminism to me. she’s not intersectional. she’s a feminist about ‘equality’ with men and she’s a feminist about her hijab. great strides. but that doesn’t make her the poster child for feminism in my opinion. i’d rather her be the leader of the social justice club or something rather than feminism club (that, lol, doesn’’t exist now that it’s not convenient to the plot)

winston - this is gonna be short lol but i DIDN’T HATE HIM THIS TIME AROUND OOPS. he wasn’t bad! this is the max involvement i want out of him. tiny doses of him are alright - he was cute with zoe/rasha/goldi, which is my top friend group this season, especially since zig’s friends are GAAArrrRbbbAAAAGGGEEEE)

zig - speaking of! i didn’t hate zesme. i actually liked them better than zaya. i liked that they were sexually active and (other than the gross slut shaming plot) were sex-positive and not ashamed of being sexually active. i’m here for it. i’m here for them having all of the sex they want. zig was a pretty small part of the season which i am... COMPLETEly ok with because i honestly... got sick of him the past few seasons. especially if the writers aren’t gonna flesh him out. i’m struggling to think of other plots other than the stuff with esme and his friends being absolute garbage which LEADS ME TO....

tiny - i liked him so much in the past but fuck but he was acting like garbage this season. other than the scene after 7 minutes in heaven where he says ‘you only like me when i’m the perfect science student’ or whatever to shay -- i liked that. and i guess i liked the period stuff with him. but he was acting kinda garbage. i’m ok with it because i love that they’re making these characters flawed and interesting and problematic.

shay - i don’t,,, know. she was alright, i didn’t like the revenge bullshit because that’s so not shay. she’s not petty like she was acting this season. she’s never been petty. i prefer the plots about her scholastic life and her future goals. i liked that she didn’t get too involved in being extra and petty and dramatic, but this season she kinda became that person. it’s alright because again, i like seeing flawed characters and they definitely did that this season, but i did like when she was different than her friends.

lola - BLESS. LOLA. she was interacting with so many people and interweaving with so many different plots and it was just...expert writing tbh. she had so much going on but it all made sense together. the abortion plot gave me chills, i love that they showed the doctor and they showed the procedure and that line about her not being the first 16 year old to get an abortion in the day... WOW. seriously. amanda’s acting deserves some type of award. she killed it. miles/lola stuff... i was a fan tbh. it worked. so well. i loved it all. i loved that she didn’t struggle with her abortion. i loved that she shared her story and wasn’t sorry. i have zero complaints. i don’t want her to graduate. she’s the first one in a while that i really am starting to care about. i care about her the way i cared about jt and manny and all of the characters in the old days. i’m in love with lola. i’m in love with lola being vulnerable and sensitive and a little petty and more than a vessel for mediocre one-liners. and that blue hair was stellar. i have such a crush on amanda and the fact that she’s a good actress (she’s improved a ton since the last few seasons) and she’s super beautiful... maybe my new fave? it’s a three way tie between lola, rasha, and frankie. hoping for single lola next season because she is SO MUCH BETTER than these dumb boy plotlines she’s been getting. she’s come so far from being the boy-crazy dumb character. she’s developing so nicely. yes yes yes.

frankie - i’m mad that they dropped the racism plot. zero mention. everyone hated her and wanted nothing to do with her and suddenly she apologizes and nobody is upset with her at all? whatever though. i wish they just hadn’t done that because as i posted earlier, i related to her so damn much with her emotional issues. i hope they do some sort of plot with her being codependent and having emotional issues. i’m super clingy just like her - i give my all to my partners and i lose a bit of my identity, just like her. and seeing myself in her, seeing her not necessarily being demonized (in my opinion, other than the last bit with jonah) was meaningful. i just wish she wasn’t racist. i liked that the hollingsworth siblings were all interacting with one another throughout the season. i liked the continuity of her being kinda gross saying abortion was murder (its consistent)... sara is an amazing actress.

jonah - garbage garbage garbage but i appreciate that he’s realistic and consistent. but he’s lowkey gross. highkey gross. he reminds me of jay or something. that whole friend group (zig, grace, jonah) seems to non-stop talk shit about everyone and it was gross, but agaaaain realistic and i appreciate that the writers are writing the characters like this. and i see my partners in jonah tbh when it comes to frankie. i hope to god grace and jonah don’t get together though, i’m not here for that at all. not in the LEAST. just be friends for fucks sake.

grace - here for it here for it here for it. not here for her putting up with her friends’ shit talking women and being shady because in the past she’s definitely not put up with petty drama, but whatever. maybe this is more realistic. her CF stuff is so unique and great and i’m just here for degrassi getting out of their comfort zone and writing unique stories and actually doing research to represent a disease and props to nikki for portraying that fear of dying and the conflicted emotions and i’m here for it so HARDCORE. and her being mad at maya, here for it. she was justified, even though maya was going through shit, she was so justified and i just loved nikkis performance. all i can wish for in the future is maybe a plot about her being native and dealing with the issues that go with that. and drop your gross friends, especially jonah.

esme - she is SO intriguing and i’m so mad they’re wasting chelsea’s talent. the acting was out of this world and her emotional beats were so fucking awesome. if they don’t do a serious mental health plot before she graduates i will forever be mad at the writers. having her spiral even more after pretty much reliving finding her mom (with the maya situation) will be so traumatic. and chelsea would kill it. as i said with zig, i like zesme tbh, i love her being open about her sexuality and not ashamed of anything when it comes to being a woman. i didn’t like her shaming shay for having her period, but it seems about right for esme’s character. and again, problematic realistic characters. they’re high schoolers. they’re gonna be petty. and esme has some problems that would cause her to be bad with social situations and act in a way that gets attention.... more esme next year or i’m gonna riot.

miles - here. for. it. EVERYTHING was perfect. the lola thing made perfect sense. his acting was out of this world. the interactions with tristan were amazing, the whole plot was great. i wasn’t really into the play but i get that it was a good plot device. i think they could’ve had lola and him bond and have the same great plot without the play, but bringing tristan into it needed the play, and i think it was overall a good idea i guess. the play was well woven into the entire season. the whole season was just so well interwoven i was shocked. usually it’s off balance and people don’t intersect, but... they killed it.

tristan - i didn’t even care about tristan before now. at all. but it was so jarring to see him in a coma and then waking up and in the wheelchair... i started crying when he was in the wheelchair typing the words. he’s changed forever. and i love it. the bus crash is forever changing his life. he may never be the same, and i hope he graduates in the chair with minimal speech capability. i’m fine with him relearning speech but if he returns to the sassy, personable guy he was before the crash... it’d be unfortunate to waste this opportunity to make a memorable and unique plot. i hated his last scene about pizza. the ending was such a serious and melancholy beat and then they were like PIZZA!!! trying to be funny. and idk if it was supposed to be him incapable of expressing emotions with maya literally almost killing herself but he literally didn’t make one comment about the girl that he met on his first day of high school and was so involved with for Y E A R S... they were best friends. they may have had falling outs but come on. give us something. he could understand emotions with miles cheating on him and could have a coherent conversation and understanding when it came to that, so why not this? btw i appreciate him not being totally biphobic with the lola thing and understanding it somewhat. of course, he has limited speech so it’s not like he can spout off a bunch of biphobic bullshit like usual, and hopefully there are more important things than miles hooking up with a girl... i liked how he took it and although i don’t care one way or another about triles, i liked their resolution, and i definitely 100% believe triles is endgame. i’ll be surprised if it’s not.

maya - the big one. i cried almost every time she was on screen because i related so much to her. i got her. i got what she was feeling and i understood every frustration and every action and everything she was going through. of course not 100%, but i got it. i loved the mention of cam and adam (although i would’ve killed for her to talk about how she thought suicide was selfish when cam did it and how she now gets it, i would’ve killed to hear her thought process there) but i was here for it. olivia is an amazing actress. she killed it. and i loved that she wasn’t a part of a lot of the plots. it really isolated her and it translated and it made sense with how isolated she was truly feeling. i liked the saad stuff - even though it was totally fucked up, i totally got it and i understood them finding solace in one another and the photoshoot stuff was seriously so interesting and (as i’ve said for 1,000,000 things in this review) SO UNIQUE. i’ve never seen depression handled the way they handled maya. i was never expecting to feel so strongly about maya but it was amazing. her slowly reaching her breaking point in the last couple seasons has been so masterful, and this was just perfect. the pill popping scene and the scene with katie and her mom where she was having one good night before she kills herself...that acting...you just knew. and it was heart wrenching. this has to be some of the best stuff degrassi has ever done. as someone who has seen everything since day 1 of tng, i’m seriously saying that this plot with maya - this arc that has been going on since cam’s death - is seriously some of the best tv i’ve ever seen. like amanda, olivia deserves a nomination or something for this. seeing katie was amazing - props to degrassi for that, considering in the past, like with clare, past family members just ceased to exist.

gamer club - idc IDC IDC and if these are the motherfuckers who are supposed to carry the show after lola’s class graduates i’m sorry but i may lost interest. it wasn’t HORRIBLE but it just reminded me of the past few seasons that were just mediocre. they held my interest enough, but i’m not invested overly. baaz is annoying, vijay is a piece of human garbage, hunter is mediocre, and yael... yael has potential if she stops lowering herself to the level of these losers.

overall, this is the best season in forever. the stories were interwoven so well, the writing was great, the plots were diverse and unique and not tired (like they have been in the past few seasons)... it was so emotional. and so real. and it gives me hope for this franchise and makes me want to write on their staff and continue to make content like this. i want season 4. i want these flawed fucked up teenagers. the production value went up. the writing went through the roof. the acting wasn’t cringey like it usually has been. it has flaws, but overall... i’m singing praises and i have hope. shouts out to degrassi for reviving this franchise (hopefully) and getting it right. HERE FOR IT. <3

#degrassi next class #degrassi next class spoilers #uhhh i wrote a little bit

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