JustMe2000

Besides, of course, the alien invasion & zombie weddings that we all know are going to happen?

Are you ready for Showdown?

Yes, that's actually the name of this summer's batch of episodes.

Anyway, you know the deal with these things. Watch the promo below and have at it.

ihavealife2uknow

I'm hoping something escalates with the Dave situation. A bunch of people were blaming Dave on facerange so I'm hoping we get to see more of Dave's POV with it. It could be a different take on the Rick situation in a way. Rick really hurt Terri and then a large part of the school turned on him, however Dave didn't physically hurt Jacinta but Jacinta's friends are blaming him and she seemed rather popular from the glimpse we seen of her facerange page. Whether it blows up to be as big as the school shooting or Lakehurst fued is up to the writers but I think there is potential there.

I think I said it in another thread but I'd love to see a b-plot about Connor having to deal with the Nelson family having troubles and fearing he'll have to leave Degrassi to go back to his real family. Not only would it add depth for Connor but it'd add to Snake as well who's character did a complete 180 since becoming principal.

mellifluouscloud

I love this idea. I'm dying for a Snake storyline and this would be a perfect, natural way to bring his story to the forefront. It would give Snake much needed depth again, and it would give Connor a storyline that's not about his Asperger's diagnosis or social awkwardness. Plus, it takes advantage of the fact that Connor is in Snake's custody, which the show seems to have forgotten. Great suggestion!

Holland Fan Forever

I would like to see Imogen get her own storyline outside of being with Fiona but, I am not holding my breath for it. I would also like to see Marisol get a storyline where it's actually about her because to me she's still more like Chantay and Hazel in that her issues will always play second fiddle to Katie's. I think that I might like Katie if the writers would actually follow through on her storylines and let her have some kind of personality because to me Holly J and Paige's storylines were generally followed through and we got to see their interests and not just hear about them or see them just to move a storyline forward.

literarylolita

I would really like to see someone struggle with ADHD.

I in no way, shape or form WANT anyone to get raped, but I have a bad feeling it's going to happen. If not in season 12, sometime in the nearish future. It's been a while since it's happened on the show.

I'd also love to see a mental illness that is NOT bipolar disorder. I've struggled with severe depression since I was fifteen and found out I had Crohn's disease, so I'd like to see that interpreted.

I want Maya to become a more fully developed character.

I want more Adam. I'd love to see him in a plot line about him that doesn't have to do with being transgender.

ihavealife2uknow

Another storyline I'm looking forward to them covering is teen marriage. They've done actual pregnancy 3 times, a scare once, and a mom who came into the show with a 3 year old. For a show that is so dependent on relationships I'm suprised they never went this route with anyone (I dont count Spemma because I think they were about 20 and because they were out of high school).

I thought about who would be a good couple to do this with and I think if they ever go the Jake/Jenna couple route they could be good candidates. Jake works but probably doesn't make a ton of money and Jenna's family life sucks. She lives at the Bhandari's, no one else around except for her brother and got out of a relationship where she put her kid up for adoption because KC wasn't around enough to help her. I can see her wanting to marry Jake to secure her relationship will last. It's also a way to keep Jake on while Jenna's a senior.

literarylolita

I've thought about the teen marriage thing!

I think they might do it with eclare. So Clare can keep her purity vow (ala One Tree Hill's Nathan and Haley)

Also, let's face it, they want Munro on that show as long as possible. I don't like the way the writers/producers/other powers that be play favorites but it's true.

I would have said Clare is far too sensible for such a thing before, but let's face it, she's changed a lot...

She's still tied with Adam for my favorite character though :-)

kaleidocat

I think I suggest this every year but I want to see a character who is sexually abused. Like actively sexually abused, is fully aware of it, and how they deal with that. I'd like it to be a newly introduced character with the intention always being that she or he was abused. I'd prefer it was a male character but heck, television as a whole has never had a female who was actively being abused so I'll take what I can get. To the best of my knowledge, all the female characters in sexual abuse related storylines have dealt with repressed memories or no longer but we see the memories in flashback sequences. It'd be a pretty go there issue to tackle. They don't have to have a graphic scene, at least nothing more than what tv series usually show with implied abuse.

literarylolita

Yeah. As much as I love Eclare, I'm sick of the show focusing on relationships more than real issues.

Anyone remember way back when the TeenNick (or, at the time, The-N)'s logo for Degrassi was "If your life was a Tv show...this would be it"?

It seemed like there were more issues then. Of course, I was 12, so who knows. Maybe I just saw it differently.

I LOVE this cast. Just as much, if not MORE, than the "originals". I just want more issues and topics covered like the Degrassi days of old.

mellifluouscloud

That was the best. Better than "it goes there" or "100% intense" (which are the only other slogans I remember). It was so accurate for the time and the era of the show in its early seasons. I really do wish Degrassi would try to go back to that, to remember the issues and realism and teenage angst which used to be the heart and soul of the show. I am inclined to think (when I want to rationalize the terrible storylines) that this "new era" of Degrassi is reflective of the new generation of high school students vs. high school students 10 years ago. I fall into the latter category, so is that why I relate to them more? Are kids today really like that now? Do I put "original TNG" on a pedestal for purely selfish and nostalgic reasons? Maybe viewers who grew up on DJH and DH thought that TNG was overstylized and soapy and ridiculous. Maybe it's a neverending cycle.

But to your original point, I think a lot of fans, especially on this board, have been pointing out for the last few seasons that there seems to be a huge shift in the show to focus more on relationships and less on issues. I am kind of amazed that I watched this show for 10 seasons before I actually became a shipper of a canonical pairing. Before that, I only had a couple AU ships, but I didn't watch the show for the ships, obviously. It never seemed that the ships were at the forefront. The only time I remember that happening was all the hype around Holiday, and who did Craig end up with? No one. Which is what he deserved. That's a far cry from today's Degrassi with Drew have the luxury of "choosing" between two girls he treated like crap.

This too. I know I already posted about this ad nauseum in the episode discussion thread but I feel this is a huge flaw in Fimogen, which is that Imogen is still essentially a blank slate or even a sort of caricature. I have always found her to be compelling but I still don't know what to make of her. First she seemed like a fairly obvious Manic Pixie Dream Girl for Eli, and then she seemed like a stalker, and then she and Fiona became such fast friends that she was almost (dare I say it?) a MPDG again for Fiona. I still have no idea who Imogen really is; I only know how other characters view her (which is basically the definition of MPDG). Because she is such a mystery, she doesn't add layers to the Fimogen relationship. We don't even know Imogen's parents (except one glimpse of her dad), so I feel like if Imogen brings Fiona home to meet them, it's going to be a big "who cares." I am quite possibly overthinking this. Maybe the writers have some master plan and will totally surprise me. But I really don't see her getting her own storyline independent of Fiona, either. It's hard to imagine since their relationship has only just begun.

kaleidocat

I think season 12 is shaping up to be the season 6 of DTNG. Stephen Stohn even admitted this on the degrassi.tv forums that they focused too much on relationships; he didn't seem too proud of that and realized how much it alienated the audience. Shame that they forgot this mistake. I think you could even compare High Fidelity to In the Cold Cold Night.

Maybe it is a cycle like you said. It will probably reset itself when and if Clare's class graduates and a new crew enter Degrassi and they will be forced to develop the characters and not their romantic relationships. As much as I'll miss KC, Alli, Jenna, and Connor, I'm looking forward to a fresh start.

JustMe2000

I've only glanced through the posts here (I'll read them tomorrow when I'm not dead tired), but I can already tell there's a lot of good stuff posted.

I will mention one of my biggest pet peeves with the show over the last couple seasons (and one that sadly, appears to be happening this year as well), and that's having all the post-summer episodes be two-part episodes. The plots in the vast majority of those episodes just don't have enough heft for them to be stretched out and having just three plots for those two episodes (as opposed to six over two) takes away golden opportunities to give other characters more chances to get their turn in the spotlight. In the summer Telanova format, those two part episodes work fine as everything sort of bleeds into one another when it happens that rapidly. Once you move past that, though, and it's back to one episode a week, the shows loses momentum and I think the biggest reason is the format.

ihavealife2uknow

I agree, I usually watch on TV in the summer and always seem to forget it's on in the second half. I wish they'd go back to 24 2-plot episodes. If that means cutting some of the cast then so be it. In most cases the C-plot isn't memorable and the A and B plots appear rushed. I wonder if the show is more relationship driven now because they have too much filler.

As for issues, they've already touched on this with Johnny and Griffin but I'd love to see a character contract an STD they can't cure. Those stories were told in Alli and Paige's POV and it'd be interesting if a character contracted one by being careless with sex and how it effects their future relationships.

MaxiLuca518

First time user, long time lurker...

Anywho, I just wanted to say, I am very intrigued about Imogen. I agree that she probably won't get any depth or her own story, but what I would like to see for her would be a bad coming out story. I haven't watched Degrassi since Ellie and Alex graduated, not even attended college, but from what I read, no one really had a bad coming out. I'm talking South of Nowhere bad with yelling, screaming, crying, a possible slap across the face and mommy or daddy putting Person X under house arrest or trying to send them to a "de-gay" camp or whatever. I think it'd be interesting to see that for Imogen if she comes out to her family about her and Fiona's relationship.

Also I agree with the person here who said they want to see a mental disorder other than bipolar like major depression. I could totally see this for Imogen. She's eccentric and quirky and to me it screams hiding issues. Maybe she's majorly depressed and is using this bubbly, happy go lucky personality to throw, not just other people off, but herself?

In any case, I'm glad to be back into Degrassi. I thank Imogen Moreno for that because she's like the new Ellie... But not at the same time.

Holland Fan Forever

I think that what's often happened now is that there just aren't the consequences that a long time viewer is used to seeing in the past which helped make the show much more realistic than it is now.


I have never gotten the impression the writers and the powers that be care all that much for Imogen on her own and I just don't feel that we are going to get a real storyline that's actually about Imogen as long as Fiona is involved because it's too easy to make the Fimogen ship all about Fiona which is exactly what happened. I think that if Imogen is lucky enough to get her own storyline without Fiona or some other love interest that it will be rushed or way too little, way too late or both much like it was with Alex. I agree that Imogen could be a compelling character but it's clear that the writers like it or not see her as a love interest for a more popular character and not much else in my opinion. I think that when if the Fimogen ship is actually about Imogen that it will suffer because we aren't given much if anything from Imogen's point-of-view and to me it is obvious that Eli and Fiona will always be more important than Imogen will get the chance to be and she deserves better to put it simply. I also feel like if Imogen brings Fiona to meet her family that it will be a big "Who Cares" because the storyline wouldn't be from fan favorite Fiona's point-of-view for a minute.