JustMe2000

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It seems we lose the game,
Before we even start to play
Who made these rules?
We're so confused

Lady Azura

A Plot - Pretty solid. I always enjoy Papa Bhandari and I liked his heart-to-heart with Dallas.

B Plot - I watched this on mute so I have no idea what happened.

C Plot - Tristan is all sorts of cringe while Mr. Yates continues to be inappropriate.

Maple Crunch

the episode was fine i guess, but they grouped the worst possible 3 plots together. I don't care about Tristan or Clew, and Dallas is only good when emotions are at their peak, examples being bittersweet symphony and the Leo stuff. He was mad here, but it still involved a lot of talking, and Joyette isn't a great actor.

There was just nothing that implied any creativity went into this episode, it was a pretty average episode with nothing spectacular in it, and maybe it's because I saw Building a Mystery over the weekend, but i guess i expect more from a tv show, I don't want to struggle through it, i want to enjoy myself and think a little bit. I know there are archives for this stuff, but it's just a big ****ing chore to watch Degrassi. Clew couldn't be less hack, the writers seem to understand that Clare needs to work with someone otherwise she is one of the most dull characters ever because all her character was built around Eli, but if that's the case, put her in Imogen territory, where you pull her out occasionally for situation stories, because it's clear that the writers aren't going to put in the effort to make Clare a decent character at this point, they've had 5 seasons to do so. Drew is even worse because he is only good when characters are built up around him, he was good with Bianca, but Bianca was built around Drew, so he had a wall to bounce off of that was BUILT for him. Clew is really a throwback to when Degrassi was ****ty, everything else seems to be moving forward, having somewhat of a serious tone and being less cheesy and cartoony, but Clew is still there, being awful, and I don't get anybody who likes them.

Tristan's plot was even less creative, if the fanbase of Degrassi can predict a plot from the beginning, then there is no creativity there. I get that the writers are appealing to this fanbase, so maybe i'm complaining for nothing, but if the irrational fanbase of this show can say "YEAH, THE TEACHER IS A CREEP!" and it's blatantly obvious that the guy is a creep, then it's uncreative and boring. This might be my hatred of Tristan, who was offensively bad in this episode, but i don't care about this plot, and the fact that they left the ending open for later upsets me.

Maybe i'm judging too harshly because i watched a perfect episode in Building a Mystery, but i didn't hate this episode, it was fine, i give it 6/10, but I guess i want more. I don't want to go on autopilot when i watch a show, I want to think just a little bit. Television excels when it asks the audience questions, and Degrassi has a platform to do that, but instead they're ****ing squandering it to pander to little girls.

Dallas raising the trophy was a great shot though.

MegaJ

A-Plot. Dallas was using his terrible experience with the cops to judge all white people. As a black male, I've been there =/ This hit really close to home. There was some smart writing choices here; Alli (Indian/Muslim ethnicity and a girl) did not accuse Dallas of lying/overreacting and also offered to back him up (remembering the detainment) but getting mad he didn't handle the situation well and Alli's father recounting his experience and telling Dallas he had to fight smart. That's something some social justice warriors need to remember as opposed to blowing up Twitter (#CancelColbert anyone?) And finally, the Bhandallas trigger was pulled. Solid stuff.

B-Plot. CLEW! I'm so happy because I love this couple and nothing good can come out of this so I'm here for all of this drama. Clare is a mess, but I get it. She's in love with Eli. She's mad he cheated on her while she was recovering from cancer. Her ego's bruised that she didn't think Drew admired her. She's all over the place but I really can't blame her. And Drew saw through that dating site thing, so I guess he isn't as dumb as I thought.

C-Plot. UGH. I'm going to take this storyline as an apology for Sav/Ms. Oh. I know Sav was of age, but he was still a student and she was a teacher and it was wholly inappropriate and while I know that sometimes Degrassi deliberately throws in the questionable moral, I was very angry they did that. So this storyline, while it makes my skin crawl, was needed to show that teacher/student stuff is not acceptable. Arteest Teacher is clearing preying on him, knowing Tristan is in a vulnerable place and Tristan is too thirsty to see it for what it is. Also, good writing for Zoe to immediately be suspicious especially after what she went through with Drew.

wakaflocka643

I know what you mean. I really understood Dallas' feelings, especially also being a black male. I really did enjoy the dialogue between Dallas and Mr. Bhandari because it really did present a good idea of not carrying around anger as a result of racism, but using your experience to do something positive to affect the future ( in regards to racism). At least that's what i got from it.

I'm done with Drew and Clare tbh though. Drew and Clare are so one-dimensional characters which really don't appeal to me whatsoever. How they keep on getting storylines is beyond me. They aren't even the most interesting or appealing characters at all. Imogen, Zoe, Zig, Maya, Dallas, those are characters who I would like to see developed more and have more screen time.

Word that whole Teacher/Student relationship thing is real creepy.

lexiness

I literally paused the video on Teennick's website to Google what the hell the Pedo Teacher had told Tristan about being 'a romantic story'. Ew, ew, ew. Way to be obvious. His next choice of romantic book was probably Lolita or Kodomo no Jikan.

...Muslim is a religion. Middle Eastern (?) is an ethnicity. Only really good point about that whole exchange was the 'subtle' chat about Alli's father facing discrimination and not yelling at Dallas like he probably would have years ago (because he used to be less tolerant/had a short temper).

It still seems too early for Alli to be dating again...but meh.

Clew stuff in the Clew thread; but my reaction was mostly excitement.

MegaJ

Some people might debate you on Islam not being an ethnicity...it's all wrapped in the gray area of what you could call culture particularly in the Middle East.

On my second watch, I caught Arteest Teacher being mentally abusive...not letting Tristan in the collective, then letting him in, berating his work but saying that he liked him...ugh.

Maple Crunch

I think you are retroactively putting that on there. I saw a post on the Degrassi wiki after Army of Me pointing out every single instance of Leo being abusive or aggressive, and it was such garbage. If you're looking for something in an episode, it's happening. If you want to see something vague like that, it's not really a stretch.

But to say it's mentally abusive is pushing it, a teacher can like a student but then criticize their work because that's what the **** you're supposed to do. It's why i hated Tristan in the last episode, it's annoying to see him think that he deserves special treatment when he hasn't earned it, it's maybe more infuriating than his insistence that he deserves bigger parts in drama class. I am, honestly, hoping that this entire plot is a misunderstanding, because if it really is "THIS TEACHER IS A PEDOPHILE AND TRISTAN IS FALLING FOR IT BECAUSE HE'S A DUMB****", then it's just so tired and played out. I feel like Degrassi has done this plot 26 times, but that might be too many. I get the obvious argument is "THIS IS SOMETHING THAT IS STILL HAPPENING, SO IT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED", but there is also other issues, like thinking someone is a pedophile for the sole purpose that they give a **** about kids. Making mr bates or whatever blatantly creepy, it's just uninspired.

Lady Azura

@MegaJ - I don't think Mr. Yates is being mentally abusive so much as... grooming Tristan, if that makes any sense? Still creepy, though.

"Child grooming comprises actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, to lower the child's inhibitions in order to sexually abuse the child."

Got that off Wikipedia, but that's basically the gist of it and to me that's the vibe I get from Yates.

Honestly, with the exception of Lucy way back when, I don't think they've quite taken this route. I mean, they had Sav/Ms. Oh but that wasn't really... portrayed as creepy, you know? Probably because Sav was 18 and ready to graduate, although still inappropriate nonetheless. The only other one I can think of is Paige/Mr. Oleander (that was his name, right? I can't remember) which, while it was consensual on Paige's part, it definitely got called out on. But that was back in season 4.

Astroman129

Agreed, mostly. Except the whole "Building a Mystery" being a perfect episode thing. I thought it was mostly boring. At least, from what I remember. It was based 100% on relationships. The episodes I love are the ones that aren't solely based on relationships.

This episode felt extremely preachy to me and I lost all ability to come up with my own opinions. My first thought was that yes, Dallas was being very disrespectful to the judge and maybe he wasn't racist at all. But I eventually submitted to whatever Ramona wanted to think.

I guess the Clare/Asher plot counts, too. At least, in my opinion. They weren't teacher/student but close enough.

I should probably mention that I loved the Dallas/Mr. Bhandari interaction when they were talking about racist moments.

This episode was a huge step up from S7's "Got My Mind Set On You" and definitely deserves more praise.

MegaJ

^yall are seriously overthinking this. Your first thought was correct, that Dallas was projecting his bad experience into the judge.

Lady Azura

Oh, right. I forgot about that... much like the writers did, apparently.

Maple Crunch

I think you're letting the fact that it's relationship based cloud your judgement. Building a Mystery is almost a perfect episode, the only places it falls off a bit is the Eli stuff, and even then, it's still good. I always liked Building a Mystery because I love Beckdam a lot, but I watched it last weekend, and I was actually blown away by how fantastic it was. I was guilty about forgetting about this episode's quality because nothing huge happens, but it is maybe the best episode ever, I don't know, it's up there.

the Clare/Asher thing was good, but it also reminds me of why I don't care about this Tristan plot - This is a situation based story where the character will be no different afterwards. Clare literally didn't change at all after the Asher thing, and it's always bothered me, because it felt so significant when she was crying at her party about it, and then it just wasn't ever mentioned again. Not every plot has to have Darcy level impact on a character, but I guess if a character goes through something, I want it to be reflected in the way they act even a little bit. I wasn't as much in love with the earlier seasons of Degrassi because it was ALL issue based, and that is fine, but Degrassi is at it's best when they have an idea of a story that they want to tell. I referenced Darcy before because it felt like they had an idea of what they were doing with Darcy when season 7 rolled around, it felt like it wasn't made up as it went along, and it showed by how ****ing good I remember it being

As far as the episode being "preachy", it was less preachy than part 1, but they may as well have delivered all of the dialogue directly into the camera. It was better handled, but that might be because falling action is essentially reactionary to the building, and it's much easier to react than initiate. I wasn't as into the Alli's dad stuff as most people, but I couldn't get the Fresh Prince episode out of my head. It was good, but it felt too, I don't know, simple, and simplicity doesn't add to a plot about racism.

wakaflocka643

To the bold: I 100% agree. I think that the problem here is that the writers aren't really developing some characters like they should, and they give them the same "issues" to tackle week after week. Drew, Clare, and Alli come to mind. I also wish that the writers would stop picking favorites and just try their best to give the characters screentime + development. I know it's hard because the cast is so large sometimes that some characters get thrown under the rug (Dave) and you never see them..ever. As for this episode, I really did enjoy it. It was a nice shift from the usual relationship ish we'd been getting so far. Some people may find it too preachy, which I can understand. But I guess because I could relate so well too Dallas and Connor having been in a similar type of situation before, it really just hit home for me. And I thought the Dallas/Mr. Bhandari interaction was the best part about the episode.

I ended up watching that Fresh Prince episode a few days back and I think the way they handled it was great, like you had mentioned earlier.

Maple Crunch

The fresh prince episode was spectacular, it did such a better job of tackling the issue. Fresh prince is just a fantastic show.

You have to pick favorites, if you don't, then you get a bunch of very average characters, that's what the middle seasons suffered from. You had a bunch of weak to average characters all interacting, and it was very boring.

The problem with season 13 is that a lot of their most developed characters are gone and a lot of the ones that were left behind were there to make those characters better. Clare made Eli better, and Eli is gone now. Drew made Bianca better, Bianca is gone now. Imogen made Fiona better, Fiona is gone now. They couldn't switch any of the momentum from season 12 onto these left behind characters, so now they have whatever characters. People saying that they're sick of Maya are going to have to suck it up, because she is, by far, the most developed and interesting character around once the current class leaves. I would rather have Maya than Tristan, but the problem is that they stick characters like Maya and Clare with the same dumb plots that it gets boring, and any good will towards the characters are gone. I have more patience with Maya because i'm apparently the only person in the entire world who thought Zombie was a work of art and it made Maya one of my favourite characters, but that patience is running out, and a lot of that is mismanaging the character. It seemed like they had a direction at some point with Maya, but whether it be incompetent writers or not understanding what made season 12 so good and deciding to market the show to people who don't know better, that direction has been lost. People need to stop pretending like relationship plots shouldn't happen, relationship plots are fine, but if the entire story is "These two are looking at each other", like Clew is, week after week, then it gets dull, and it's unfortunate that something like Zaya, which is by far the most interesting storyline Degrassi has going right now, is lumped in with Clew because it is a relationship story.

It's a shame that episodes like Building a Mystery get lumped in with Everything is Everything because it's technically a relationship episode. These episodes CAN be interesting when the writer gives a ****, but Ramona Barckert clearly tricked me into thinking she was an angel because she wrote stories where it's built around big emotions. I guess I just want somebody to give a **** about this dumb show as much as I do.