rakathspseudonym | Degrassi: Next Class thoughts (Reply)

Alright, now that I've watched ALL THE DEGRASSI I am going to go over my thoughts on the season as a whole. I'll try to keep it spoiler lite. It won't be spoiler free. So everything is under cuts and y'all can get on Netflix and watch the block of episodes for yourself. Or find them on project free tv (they should all be up by now, if not they will be tomorrow). Or if you're in Canada they should all be up on F2N by 1 AM.

I'll start, as usual, with my favorite little trainwreck...

Maya 'Trainwreck in Tank Tops' Matlin

Honestly? I loved Maya but I hated her plot arc. Mostly because it painted Maya, overall, as an innocent victim in a big bad world. Now to explain the issue, past seasons, even as methods to extract the most drama from ships, Maya was an active party in her own destruction. Bad things happened, then Maya made them all worse through her actions. She'd face a challenge, react badly, learn from it.

This season however, she'd face a challenge, react fairly okay... and it'd still get worse. Only in 104 (NotOkay) was Maya actively making her life worse by reacting poorly... AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENED. However, her reactions and Olivia's acting in all of her plots were on the ball so I still enjoyed Maya, but she was center stage doing nothing this season.

Zoe 'Woman Scorned' Rivas

Zoe is... you understand why she is a terrible person, but she's still a terrible person. Remember that junk I said about Maya has bad things happen, then makes it worse because she's Maya? Zoe was doing that this season, Zoe reacts poorly to bad things. But while Maya (usually) is doing it for a postive constructive reason (which goes wrong and blows up)... Zoe just goes for the pain, every time.

The whole Zoe Maya fued of S13 was basically escalation of the two. Maya kept trying to put the fued to an end... and Zoe didn't believe it so she escalated it further. Only at the end was it Maya holding a grudge and Zoe just... sad.

Anyway, current events, Zoe gets hurt, she lashes out, it hurts others. Zoe then (and this is key) realizes she did wrong, but can't fix it. She figures this out a few steps after its too late, but that's who she is. She acts, it's always a terrible idea. But I still enjoyed her greatly.

The Hollingsworth Kids

The other big plot moves and shakers were these three. And they final out the pillars of the Season. Maya's plot of music, boys, and trolling. Zoe's plot of love attempted, failed, and scorn. And then each Hollingsworth being a dysfunctional mess because their family is a family of dysfunctional messes. And each of these actors nailed their fucking issues. None of them were all evil, none were all good, all of them were complete messes.

Miles is just more of the same from last season, just he was even more off the rails for reasons, but every time he screwed up, like Zoe, he feels remorse. Even if he can't handle it right. Franks is best summed up by Miles 'Frankie is a fifteen year old girl.' And thus is bad with her feelings, but tried the hardest to do it right. And then Hunter is... so full of rage because nobody sees him. And I will let you see this one yourself, but it is pretty goddamn great.

Most Valuable Newbie: Esme Song

So there's a lot of comparison between Esme and S11 Imogen. The dark mysterious waif that lead Eli down the worst path. Which is pretty much Esme, the difference is motivation. Esme is... well, in it for herself. How much she cares about Miles is unknowable because she's so messed up she could tell you she's a purple people eater and you'd believe her. She smashed it out of the park being both enticing and harmless enough on paper... and then evil as hell.

Least Valuable Newbie: Goldi Nahir

So... this is one of those issues I have, Goldi felt flat. Vijay, Baaz (for his three lines), and Yael were not just filling a slot on a fight card. They showed a little more of a defined character than their singular trait. Goldi never got there, she was just 'the feminist Muslim' and worse than that, she was only Muslim because she looked Muslim. She was there to set three plots off, and I hope she does more Season 2.

Shiny Tola

An odd shift from past seasons was instead of a 2-girl friendship (Paige and Hazel, Holly J and Anya, Holly J and Jane, Holly J and... this happened a lot, Clare and Alli) or a four person group (Emma/Manny/J.T./Toby, Clare/Alli/K.C./Conner, The Rubber Room Kids), we have a girl and her girl posse as an actual posse. But instead of hanging off Zoe who we expect, they center on the defense and protection of Frankie. ...and then fight over a boy.

But when Tiny isn't at the center, we get to see all three vehemently support each other at every turn. And we get to feel a lot more of who Shay and Lola are because of their support of Frankie, and Frankie's support of them when they are getting to run a plot (each only a few times). They aren't perfect, but they care and that's goddamn fantastic. Shay and Lola feel a lot more fleshed out now and I love them both.

And speaking of that beautiful Tiny cinnamon roll...

Tiny was given so little to work with, but he did so much with it. They gave him a theme to work with (expanding off his theme from last season), and it made him feel a lot less like the generic gang guy he was for a lot of S14. He was a goofy animal plantet watching nerd... who would definitely throw down if motivated properly. We also got to see him in settings without Zig, which was a nice chance from S14.

My Queen, Grace-ful and elegant

Grace finally has a plot to herself... and we see it from Zoe's POV. Which is fine, Grace is honestly the best secondary character on the cast. She works well with all the characters she needs to, supporting and assisting. And when she was given traits for herself... they didn't contradict the past, and set-up her own issues nicely. In context, and with thought, everything about Grace is flawless regardless of what people say.

Everyone else

So everyone else was... there, overall everyone felt right. Jonah felt the least like the past season set-up, he was still Jonah but it didn't investigate anything about what was set-up before. I'm hoping (like with Goldi, Vijay, Yael, and Baaz) that Jonah will be explored more in the second 'season' (which is the second half of this season, technically).

Winston was a flawless run of hitormiss. Charming and useful one moment, then foot in mouth the next. Zig's flaws shined nicely, no matter how much they destroyed everything. I still really dislike Tristan, I understand why he's this way but I have a lot of issues with how he handles... well, everything. Him being student council president felt really out of place. I liked him better than last season? But that's not saying much.

I really want someone (Grace, probably) to call Tristan out on his biphobic nonsense. It comes up once directly, and he seems really fond of trying to paint Zoe as his lesbian BFF when... she isn't that. Exactly.

Special Parenting Awards

Maya's Mom is the best mom in the series, ever. Nearly as fierce as Audra (Drew's mom) from past seasons but not as misaimed in her attempts to help. Shay's parents are fine, they mean well, they missed the mark. Mr. and Mrs. H are the worst parents ever and should be stopped. I do wish we got more parents than those, Grace's Mom is cool, Zoe's mom is forever a problem.