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Old 06-07-2011, 06:01 PM
  #16
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I still remember staying up late far too many times to download episodes during Season 4. That sense of getting something secret (no pun intended) probably had something to do with my excitement for this season as a whole.
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Old 06-07-2011, 06:59 PM
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Favorite season of all time for me.

Everything about this season was perfect. Especially the shooting episode. Fave episode ever.
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Old 06-08-2011, 08:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JustMe2000 (View Post)
I still remember staying up late far too many times to download episodes during Season 4. That sense of getting something secret (no pun intended) probably had something to do with my excitement for this season as a whole.
Yup, I have fond memories of fighting to be the first in the line at soulseek to get the episodes. I'm kind of surprised I wasn't involved in the fandom until after GDTR aired in the US because I think that when season 4 was airing that was me at my most intense and happiest. Intense emotionally anyway. Now it seems like I do more in the fandom. I wouldn't be this crazy about the series if it wasn't for season 4. Only for Degrassi, man.
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Old 06-08-2011, 09:27 PM
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The other thing that is special about Season 4 was that it was really the first season that I watched as it was airing. I came in as fan during one of the N's long breaks during Season 3. I actually ended up downloading and watching all of the remaining Season 3 episodes (from This Charming Man on) on one Sunday afternoon.

I can't believe it took them so long to synch up the schedules so that the episodes aired at the same time in both Canada and the US.
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Old 06-08-2011, 10:29 PM
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I became a fan of the show during season 2 while I was home on holiday break and had my family send me episodes on VHS. Sometime before season 3 began airing I got a cable package that had Noggin/The-N so I watched live then. I actually don't know if I was aware it was airing earlier in Canada? I have this vague memory of being on a message board that wasn't or tvtome.com and discussing season 3; I called Craig Strokes kid and predicted that Alex would become a lesbian. I remember saving promo pictures of Craig and Ashley from The-N.com in the earlier seasons...including going through the degrassi.tv gallery on freaking dial up. But that was as far as my fandom interaction went. Once season 4 happened I was spoiling myself while the episode was airing like in Canada and reading fans recap the episodes and then running off to download the episode ASAP on soulseek.
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Old 06-09-2011, 11:09 AM
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It sucks cause I didnt have cable or internet when season 4 aired so i had to wait to watch it Saturdays on channel 5. it came on after cartoons lol so thats how i watched all of season 4 ;p
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Old 06-10-2011, 01:28 AM
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One of my favorites, in spite of TeenNick's growing influence. Just about everyone from the writers and actors brought their A-game, and I think the mounting pressure of being a stateside hit brought out the best in everyone.

And then they blew it with season 5.
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Old 06-10-2011, 07:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JustMe2000 (View Post)

I can't believe it took them so long to synch up the schedules so that the episodes aired at the same time in both Canada and the US.
This makes me laugh, season 4 aired for the first time in Australia earlier this year. Seasons 1-3 aired at the same as the US I think
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Old 06-15-2011, 01:00 AM
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I've been doing the recaps for this on TV Tropes, and wow this season is a lot better than I remembered. A loved the little nuances in these episodes that I didn't catch the first time like

-Paige and Spinner's relationship. Not only was Paige upset that Spinner was treating her like crap, it was because the dynamic in their relationship had changed. Paige pretty had him wrapped around her finger, and now that she was in a position of Number Two and of owing Spinner something, she couldn't handle it. Spinner flirting with Manny and being a jerk didn't help but that was one of the main driving forces of their break-up.

-Toby bonding with Rick. At first when I watched this, I thought they just needed to have Rick bond with someone before he died, but Emma's actions towards him in the episode and J.T. dissing him again (and people wonder why I don't like J.T....) Toby realized he isn't that much different than Rick social-wise.

-Moonlight Desires got a little bit better. I can't believe I never caught this. Marco wasn't only just freaking out about the cheating, but he went on a crusade to prove that his blood was as good as everyone's else and he wasn't promiscuous like the common gay stereotype - yet his boyfriend wanted to open up the relationship and start ****ing other people. You saw how downcast Marco was when RA boy invited him over to his room.
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Old 06-15-2011, 11:46 PM
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The title of this thread makes me giggle inappropriately.


Something like this will always be taken well by one of your peers. Really!!!

Re Mega J:
- Interesting insight on Spaige. I had always assumed that their relationship was already under pressure because of the rape trial with Dean. I think that Spinner flirting with Manny was what caused their relationship to crumble. I think that maybe he did it unintentionally too. There was a lot of pushing that the two characters did back and forth in the relationship. It was interesting...but I don't think they needed to have their fling in season 5...and 6? Wasn't there was another love triangle with Jesse?

- I always have appreciated the Toby/Rick friendship. It evolved so naturally and was one of the main factors that allowed us to see Rick as human and he wasn't just the guy who bounced Terri. The Toby/JT friendship was always a bit rocky once JT started to fit in with the more popular kids during season 3. There was a lot of fabulous crossover of season 3 issues being brought up again in 4. You don't see quite as much of that in later seasons...it feels like the writers think in seasons, at least with the majority of characters. We had so many subtle and brilliant carry overs in season 4.

- Moonlight Desires was a great blend of being a serious issue for reasons you mentioned and also was memorable for it's "when in doubt, kiss Craig" moment that we all know. I think season 4 probably has many more of these great combos.
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Old 06-16-2011, 04:20 AM
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.it feels like the writers think in seasons, at least with the majority of characters. We had so many subtle and brilliant carry overs in season 4.
Yes! Last night I posted a really long review of "Mercy Street," and basically my whole point was that I had forgotten how good Degrassi was. There was all this plot continuity with other storylines and seasons and it just made me
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Old 06-16-2011, 08:49 PM
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I had always assumed that their relationship was already under pressure because of the rape trial with Dean. I think that Spinner flirting with Manny was what caused their relationship to crumble. I think that maybe he did it unintentionally too. There was a lot of pushing that the two characters did back and forth in the relationship.
One of the lines the leaped out at me was when Spinner compared his situation with Manny to her and Falcone. Not to mention to "put in his place" line at the end. I mean, just why was Spinner such a dick to his girlfriend who just lost her rape case? Then it hit me that Spinner is acting that way because deep down he resented being wrapped around Paige's finger and trying to please her. Throughout the third season, he's stressing about making her happy, getting her the perfect locker, not being jealous she's crushing on hot driving teachers and talking to J.T. and all the while he's supposed to just deal with it. And when the dynamic shifted, he was relishing in Paige doing things for him for once.

Quote:
It evolved so naturally and was one of the main factors that allowed us to see Rick as human and he wasn't just the guy who bounced Terri.
One of the best lessons from Degrassi - no matter what Rick did, NO ONE deserves to be treated like that and violence counteracting violence is always wrong. I wish the show did more lessons like this, though I'll admit season 10 was pretty good about that.

Other insights:

-Emma's evolution to GonorrEmma makes a bit more sense. Not only is she still suffering from PTSD, she may have thought she was the reason Rick did what he did (this was before Spinner confessed). Plus she's someone with an idealistic view of the world and how things should be and how people should act and right and wrong and black and white and her actions towards Rick and Sean dumping her Gangsta Gangsta (and with all her righteousness, she could never relate to how Sean feels and what he deals with) it just completely broke into pieces and led her to the hookup van.

-I take back my beliefs that the writers were always going to set up Craig and Ellie. I think they were planning on doing a lesbian storyline - but with Ellie and Alex (look at the two of them in Queen of Hearts). But for whatever reason, they put Paige and Alex together. And it was awesome.

-I think Melissa McIntyre's desire to go to college put a wrench in their plans because I think they were going to pick Crash up where they left off, but decide to substitute Ashley with Ellie and then just build that up.

-Eye of the Tiger is even more devastating then I remembered.
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Old 06-18-2011, 12:02 PM
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I think you are right about Spaige, MegaJ. All this time I've excused it as dealing with Paige's rape just took a toll on their relationship. But I think it's obvious that something else was lurking under the surface and I think it's exactly what you've described. It wasn't until Paige crashed Spin's car that she would start to do something for him to make it up to him. She had always made it the complete opposite. Their relationship has always been rather unbalanced with the taking and giving. But I think this might have been a problem in all of Paige's relationships.

Emma's evolution to GonorrEmma: We're talking about the whole possibility of a PTSD storyline for characters like Jimmy and Sean in the Degrassi Ramblings thread. I'm not completely sold on Emma being the one to get the plot but I like the insight you have into her. I can see how her black and white outlook on the world would lead her to question everything and hook up in the van. But I also think that Emma was looking to shatter her identity...there were a lot of lines about her having virtue (I think Jay said this and Emma looked disappointed) and then the argument with Manny where she says something to the effect that Emma is better than what she's doing and Emma responds that Manny doesn't know what she's worth. Emma wanted to be someone different (and the play just fueled this desire). This might have had to do with the shooting but I think it was at least 50% Emma having an identity crisis (which has become the consistent storyline for her over the years).

- I think they were planning on having Ellie and Alex hook up too. I remember there was one of Alex's journal entries at d-tv where she wondered if Ellie had a crush on her.

- I've always believed that actor availability is what destroyed Crash so I have never been that heart broken. They were forced to be apart because of it. And it seemed like the writer's were extremely torn about how to have Ashley exit the show because there's a deleted scene for WEG that is a complete contradiction to the speech she gave Craig about wanting to try something new.
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Old 06-18-2011, 03:25 PM
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This might have had to do with the shooting but I think it was at least 50% Emma having an identity crisis (which has become the consistent storyline for her over the years).
Granted, it has been quite a while since I've seen Secret, or really ant post TSS season 4, but I'd be incline to agree. Early in the episode, Mr. Perrino mentions that her grades are slipping, and that is probably related to the shooting, but I don't think that most of her actions in secret had as much to do with it. I don't remember when the Emma/Manny reconcilation was, but, assuming it was not before Secret, Emma basically had no friends. I think she wanted to be a fun person and have friends, and performing sexual favors seem like a route to this. That is, she was clearly not of particularly sound mind after the shooting, but I think that only lowered her inhibitions. This allowed her to act based on feelings she already had. I don't really know...

Anyway, I think the Spaige discussion here is insightful, but I hate to find flaws in their relationship because it's one of my favorites. It was authentic, like the early season relationships, while also being fun, like the gratuitous and unrealistic later season relationships.
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Old 06-18-2011, 08:41 PM
  #30
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Best Season EVER.
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