 | | 10-04-2017, 06:55 PM |
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#109
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Elite Fan
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 37,647
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Quote:
after rick murray (ephraim ellis) is humiliated in front of his classmates, he attempts to get revenge by bringing a gun to school, where he shoots — and paralyzes — jimmy brooks (aubrey graham aka drake).
"we started developing degrassi: The next generation a year or so after the columbine school shootings. Back in 2000, mass casualty shootings (like the one at columbine, and a tragic list of other schools) were still a relative anomaly. Columbine was horrifying, and it stuck with me, the writing team, and linda schuyler and stephen stohn, because the shooters were teenagers.
"canada, of course, has had our own share of horrific mass shooting deaths, the most shocking happening when i was in high school. In 1989, 14 female students at montreal's École polytechnique were gunned down by a deranged man full of hatred towards women. Canada is not immune to gun violence. No country is.
"in degrassi, rick murray was always a character with problems, particularly around his anger, and his fragile ego. These manifested in his controlling, abusive relationship with his girlfriend, terri macgregor, which we explored in season 3 – and then everything came to a head in season 4, when other degrassi students pulled a prank on rick, humiliating him live on tv, and he decided to get his revenge.
"it was important to us (and brendon yorke, who wrote the two teleplays) that we present rick as both a perpetrator, and a victim. Rick was violent, and the victim of violence. When pushed to the edge, rick decided to get revenge in a terrible way. Ease of access (rick goes home and grabs his late father’s unsecured handgun), plus mental instability, led to rick returning to the halls of degrassi with the intent to 'get back' at those he perceived had done him harm, only to target the two characters (jimmy brooks and emma nelson) who were actually on his side.
"we wanted to explore why. Why do teenagers do such terrible things? And how. How does a teen get his hands on a gun and bring it to school? How does no one see the warning signs? How does no one act on the warning signs? Or choose to turn a blind eye? How does someone as young and intelligent as rick sink so deeply into his own anger, and hatred, that he decides to kill?
"when a tragedy occurs, like in las vegas, gun rights advocates cry, 'people kill, not guns.' yes. People do. But they kill because they can access guns. In the fictional world of degrassi: The next generation, rick murray shot jimmy brooks and then himself because, while consumed by a blinding vengeance, he was able to get his hands on a gun."
—aaron martin, co-writer and executive producer
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