lasha4god

^ I was talking more in the context of what we were dealt as a storyline. But I believe they could of given the same results under realistic circumstances and it would of had more emotional-heft, and honest power.

mellifluouscloud

Agreed so much. I hated seasons 5 and 6... which is why it blows my mind when I see Degrassi fans who still, after all this time, want the old characters to come back. (Just watch the reruns!) I loved season 7 because we finally got some new characters which was a breath of fresh air (and Darcy's storyline was fascinating). But these past couple seasons have finally brought the show back to life. It's a relief not to have to witness characters like Paige, Marco, Ellie, and Manny become caricatures of their former selves. As much as I miss some characters who left the show prematurely (Darcy, Mia, and now Jane), we're probably better off not having to endure whatever ridiculous storylines they would have incurred down the line.

Mayberry

I think if the old characters got satisfactory endings, you wouldn't hear as many people asking to bring them back. And I'm not talking about Disney or Lifetime endings either. Take a hint from School's Out, writers.

mellifluouscloud

Yeah, but it's not like their lives are set in stone at age 18-20... you know? I'm fine with imagining a better future for them, and leaving it open-ended in case this show goes on for another 15 years and they make cameos again as parents.

Not every character got a satisfactory ending on School's Out. It was kind of depressing, actually... especially for Wheels. We didn't find out what happened to him until TNG's third season!

Mayberry

But they're all realistic, which is the point. A successful drunken wedding is not realistic, especially with everyone, including Jane, going along with it. Then, with Paige, they don't talk about her HIV scare or Jimmy with his stem cell surgery, which are just as life-altering as Wheels' realistic, unsatisfactory ending. That only takes one cameo and maybe three lines to write.

mellifluouscloud

Oh, true. I misunderstood what you meant. But yeah... I chalk that one up to two main factors: 1) different generations of fans, and 2) the American cultural influence. Every TNG movie seems to want to capitalize on the American teen drama pretty-white-kids-with-problems trend. (Sorta related, I really miss hearing their Canadian accents. I watched an interview with Landon and Annie and their accents were so obvious, but it never comes out on the show anymore. From anyone.)

OH... but another point. I don't think that a "successful" drunken wedding is as unrealistic as everyone is making it out to be. Well, we have no idea that it's successful... they might want to kill each other within a week but we have no way of knowing. Second, I know so many idiots who got married for the dumbest reasons while in college. Spinner and Emma actually reminded me of this couple I knew in college who are now married, but were barely friends for most of college and belonged to this incestuous group of friends in which everyone dated everyone, and when they started dating, nobody thought it would last... and now they're married. It's bizarre, and I've heard that they're constantly fighting, but yeah, in my opinion Spinner/Emma is not the most unrealistic thing to happen on this show.

Mayberry

Just curious. Did one half of that couple blow up the other person's place of business? What did their parents say? Did the other person's friend deflower the other half of the couple? Were they married by the guy that gave the girl gonnorhea?

Oh-Canada

lol exactly. And the funny thing is that they aren't very good at it. If I wanted to watch a TV show about a girl trying to get on Perez Hilton, I would turn on MTV. But I don't. I want to watch Degrassi.

I remember discussing this when the DGH promotion first started. A lot of people, including myself, thought it would be better if the old characters all got together on a trip to Montreal or something like that. I mean obviously Hollywood/New York would get them way more attention & promotion especially in the US. but you can't preach all the time about how you represent Canada and then have all of your characters wanting to move to the US.

For me there are 2 problems with these "movies": continuing the old characters' storylines (and often times ruining my perception of characters that I previously loved), and celebritizing (?) the show. I mean, I understand why they're doing it. It wasn't that long ago that fans constantly hated on every new character, and complained that Degrassi supposedly wasn't Degrassi anymore. That said, the exact same thing happened with Skins. Nobody was happy when they announced that they were changing casts, but once people started to really get to know the new characters they developed their own group of fans. The same thing is (finally) happening for Degrassi now. And obviously going to Hollywood or New York and getting all these celebrity guest stars shows everyone how popular Degrassi is in the US and omg-we're-so-famous-now. Fair enough. But it takes away from the integrity of the show and half of what they've been preaching all along (ie. we're real kids in a school in Toronto). I sort of think it makes Degrassi into a joke. And yeah - lots of people never took Degrassi seriously to begin with. But there are also a lot of people who did believe in the so-called morals of this show.

mellifluouscloud

LOL. The circumstances of their relationship was pretty messed up for different reasons and they both had hooked up with various people in their circle of friends so... of course, it's anecdotal, but I don't think Spinner/Emma is as out there as some fans are making it seem. I doubt they will last but we'll probably never know anyway... thankfully.

Now that I think about it, the second go-arounds of Craig/Ashley and Craig/Manny make less sense to me than Spinner/Emma. And Craig/Ellie... don't even get me started. Craig/anyone, really. Peter/Emma made no sense... and neither does Jay/Manny, really. And Caitlin/Kevin Smith???? hahaha. I've seen fans say that the Spinner/Emma wedding will ruin all the old episodes for them and it disregards the entire show's history and I feel like... dramatic, much? Isn't this still Degrassi we're talking about?

Mayberry

I find it perfectly valid that it would ruin the show for them. Emma has a lot of haters (not me), and the writers put her with a very popular guy. Then you have people who've supported Eman for ten years or another Spin ship for years and in a matter of days, they get another ship shoved in their face in the most ridiculous fashion. If you can find any set of parents that took that wedding as easily as Spike, Snake, and Ms. Mason did, I'll send you some money. Spike didn't even want Emma to get tied down to a man in Emma's LAST episode. And Manny was encouraging Jane to cheat in Manny's last episode and is now trying to punch her in the face? Why can't the writers remember what they did in the same season? No wonder people aren't buying it. What, you can't loop point A to point B? I mean, you can't accept something dumb if it's dumb.

mellifluouscloud

Degrassi has been a source of pleasure for me for 7 years so I guess I just don't see the point in being upset or angry about something so trivial. So many other TV shows have done far worse to their main characters and/or ships than Degrassi ever has. Degrassi has never favored a particular couple over the years like many other TV shows do, so mostly I'm confused that fans had expectations for any ship to be "end game" at all. I'm just happy we don't have to watch Spinner and Emma's likely-disastrous relationship play out on screen, and it was all contained to one episode. If only the same could be said for the countless other awful pairings on this show...

Oh-Canada

True but none of those couples ended up married. And all of them broke up except for Jay & Manny. I don't like Jay & Manny either but at least their storyline has been going on for years as opposed to a few days.

But for Emma and Spinner - this was their ending. Unless by some chance there is some kind of a spinoff, I think we're supposed to believe that Emma lived happily ever after with a guy she never had a storyline with during the run of the show. It just makes people feel like it was all for nothing.

mellifluouscloud

Since when is marriage "happily ever after"? Most likely we'll never find out what happens with them... so I'm assuming they'll eventually get divorced. Then Degrassi could do an episode about the perils of marrying young!

Mayberry

^ That, and they all but confirmed that they did it to shock viewers. I think Stefan Brogren said they wanted to throw the audience for a loop. What the frick? Nobody would be complaining if Emma broke up with Kelly and just kept on doing her charity thing, or Spane broke up and Spinner went off to police college. I mean, to most, it's shocking that they slept together. Why don't you just leave it at that? Or maybe they decide they like each other and we find out they get married later. Then, THAT would really be like Snake/Spike. It's not like they didn't have other options.

Oh-Canada

You could say that about any ship that ends up together on any show though. Of course people can write fanfic about what happens in the future. But from the perspective of the show she ended with Spinner.