Season 7, the longest season of Degrassi ever(24 episodes) is finally over. After seven years we finally got to see Emma and her best friends graduate, no longer bound to the halls of Degrassi. With that said, all of the original cast of Degrassi: TNG has graduated and are moving onto their lives post high school.

Now what? The creators say it's now onto Season 8. I'm not sure that's a very good idea.

In seasons 6 and 7 we saw the younger part of the cast at Degrassi, while the older cast was living the college life. Now with all of the original cast either off at college, or being written off, Where does the school Degrassi stand itself? It's going to be left in the hands of a group of newer characters who joined the show in season 7, and a brand new group of characters that will be introduced in season 8.

Anyone who has watched season 7 knows that this group of newer characters are incapable of holding up this show as main characters. Danny, Derek, Peter, Jane, Holly J, Anya, Holly J, Lucas, Mia...Mia and Lucas have potential, but the rest of those characters have no depth to them whatsoever. I'm sure the new characters that will arrive in season 8 will be worse.

Degrassi was always good at introducing new characters. Even during the Degrassi High series of the 80's. Characters would usually appear, first as background characters, then they'd become main characters in a slow-transition fashion. Now characters just appear out of nowhere, and they're supposed to take the place of the characters we've known and loved for years. Think of it this way: would you still enjoy "Friends" or any other tv show as much if after 7 or 8 seasons they decided to replace Monica, Chandler and the gang with a whole new group of people?

Even worse is the fact that it's obvious the writers are running out of ideas for compelling storylines that made Degrassi what it is. Darcy is the only character that would possibly have an interesting storyline in season 8, and she'd be the best character out of anyone at Degrassi if she were going to be around. However, the actress that plays her (Shenae Grimes) is leaving the show for a lead role in the new 90210 show.

Since the stories of the Degrassi students are going to be crap in season 8, one of the biggest questions is going to be how will they focus on the college kids? Emma and Manny are going to the same school, so it's obvious they'll still be around. Since Liberty is going off to Banting by herself, consider her gone from the show. What's going to happen to Jimmy and Spinner? Since Marco, Ellie and Paige aren't roommates anymore...oh wait...hopefully Marco and Ellie will be written off because their characters have become useless. The actress that plays Paige (Lauren Collins) will leave the show in season 8, and if they don't follow up on Paige's possible illness before she does, then the show has screwed itself.

The quality of episodes in season 7 was up and down. One episode could be great, then the next episode could be absolute crap. I have a feeling season 8 may be the worst season ever by a landslide. However, here's some things that may keep Season 8's head above water:

*Focus a lot on Mia/Lucas. They're Degrassi's only hope.
*Don't give big storylines to any of the new characters that will be introduced in Season 8.
*Lots of Emma/Manny interaction. Don't allow either of them to get back together with any of their exes.
*Don't write off Jimmy and/or Spinner.
*DO write off Marco and Ellie.
*Find out what happens with Paige's illness before her character is written off.

Degrassi:7 Ways Season 7 COULD Be Great

by Kary Bowser

It doesn't take much to notice that Degrassi isn't the same show it was when it started six years ago. I remember when I started watching the show during season three, the best season hands down, and the characters seemed so innocent, yet vulnerable. Change is inevitable, since it IS a teen drama about growing up and becoming mature, but somehow that message is becoming lost in the shuffle of a teen drama who's putting more emphasis on the drama part these days.

This show isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the storylines have definitely gone downhill since the school shooting in season four. Degrassi is about to go into its seventh season. Here is a list of seven things Degrassi can do in season seven to help return the show to its mid-series glory:

1) Tone down the relationships.

Just to make a point, I'm going to list all of the relationships or hookups that were focused onin season six:

- Emma & Peter
- Emma & Sean
- Jimmy & Ashley
- Spinner & Darcy
- Peter & Darcy
- Jesse & Ellie
- Ellie & Craig
- JT & Liberty
- JT & Mia
- Toby & Liberty
- Craig & Manny
- Manny & Damien
- Marco & Dylan
- Alex & Carla
- Paige & Spinner
- Paige & Jesse
- Paige & Alex

Focus on relationships much?

2) Get the Lakehurst kids involved, ASAP.

Lots of people are having a hard time understanding why some of the Lakehurst kids are suddenly having to transfer to Degrassi halfway during the school year. My response: stop overthinking it. It's not as if the reason they're transferring is because the school board decided to "paint all of thehallways pretty new colors" or something. Anyway, I think the writers need to thrust these kids into the spotlight immediately. Degrassi has a long history dating back to the Degrassi Junior High days of using people as background or secondary characters, THEN bringing them to the forefront as a main character after a while. Some believe that only the characters who have been there since forever should be the ones getting the major storylines, but I disagree. The logic is simple: fresh faces present an opportunity for fresh storylines.

3) Create intriguing subplots.

In season seven, twenty-four episodes are going to take place over the course of one semester of school: that's more than double the amount that could've occurred inany other season. The subplot is a great way to have fun with the show, but at the same time tie into the overall message of the episode. The subplots for Degrassi have been lackluster the past couple of seasons because they're either not interesting, or they focus on one of the other main plots from the season. Whatever happened to the fun subplots, you know, the ones with JT and Toby being silly or following around Spinner, Jimmy and the rest of that gang? Derek and Danny are supposed to be the "new" version of the "JT and Toby comedy relief duo", but they are not funny to watch at all. The main story archsfor season seven are probably going to be streched out longer, since this is the longest season Degrassi's ever had. I'm not saying the subplots need to be funny, but they do need to be interesting.

4) Spread out the characters' plots.

In season six, Paige dealt with the pressures of college in a two-parter called "Free Fallin". The episode directly after that, we follow Paige as she tries to spice up her love life in "Love My Way". The same thing happened following the Sean/Emma/Peter love triange in 601, 602 and 603. Focusing on a Degrassi character formore than two consecutive episodes is character overload (Best example: See Manning, Craig: Seasons 3-4). It might not seem like it in the overall scheme of a season, but to the average Degrassi fan it seems as if you're spending too much time with one character, when you could be spending it onone of the characters who doesn't receive as much face time.

5) Have more than one breakout star.

Deanna Casaluce (Alex) wins my award for "Breakout Star of Season 6". I thought she did a phenomenal job of portraying Alex throughout all of the ups and downs her character had to go through. I don't think anyone's had a breakout season like her since Jake Epstein in season two. Cast members that I'm predicting could have a breakout year in season seven: Shane Kippel (Spinner), Sarah Barrable-Tishauer (Liberty), and possibly one of the Lakehurst transfers.

6) Don't make the college kids lame.

...Too late. The college kids (Paige, Marco, Ellie, Dylan) provided what were the most boring and/or disappointing storylines of season six. Rarely did we actually see any college action, but 99 percent of the storylines for them were self-contained, relationship plots. How many times do we have to watch Ellie deal with her love life, or hear Marco complain about how he feels Dylan doesn't love him enough? Though they're technically still in high school, the only saving grace for the group of college kids was that Jimmy and Spinner still hung out with them. Oh, and on a side note: Where in the hell is Jay?

7) Get back to focusing on the ISSUES.

Degrassi's trademark is its ability to deal with real teen issues, in a realistic manner (most of the time). However, if you've noticed in seasons five and six, the issues have been pushed aside and nearly replaced by the catty relationship bug that is the focal point of all other teen dramas today. The executive producer of Degrassi himself recently admitted that the show has "veered a litle bit too much into the relationships, and didn't explore the issues and their reamifications quite as deeply as in the past." The fact that he's aware of it and intends to make a change gives me hope that season seven will indeed be pretty great.

I currently have a blog that I write in daily over at wordpress.com. I recently started posting Degrassi newsin my blog that other fans find. My blog hits have easily quadrupled since then, with people searching all over the web for season 7 info (wordpress allows you to see what people were searching for when they visit your blog). My thing isn't about "trying to take credit" for finding the info or whatever, I just want it to be available to everyone....there are a lot of uninformed Degrassi fans out there, who rely on the-n.com and imdb as their "sources".

You can find any Degrassi-related blogs over at http://wordpress.com/tag/degrassi/. It's the same info you'll find at theDegrassi forumhere as well as the updated Degrassi fansites, but probably easier to find if you're searching through google or something.

Before today, I had only seen 4 episodes of the latest season of Degrassi. I just hadn't been motivated to watch it because it seem like the show is going in a far different direction that I thought it should. Today I had nothing to do so I spent the entire day watching the final 15 episodes of the season, marathon style. Here are my random thoughts on season 6:

Degrassi has gone full circle with relationships...and it's silly.

Relationships seemed to take over this season more than ever before...more than actual issues. Maybe because I know nothing about relationships, but someone's going to need to explain to me the logic behind getting back together with exes and "taking your friend's leftovers" because I don't understand it. It happened way too much this season:

1) Emma and Sean (dated in seasons 2-3: got back together at the beginning of this season and broke up at the end of the season)

2) J.T. and Liberty (dated in seasons 4-5: though J.T. dated Mia the entire season up until his death, there was the constant tension between him and Liberty because they never wanted to admit they still cared for each other until it was too late.)

3)Ashley and Jimmy (dated in seasons 1-2: after they broke up in season 2 they didn't speak to each other for nearly 3 years...now they're suddenly together and in love? What's worse than that is the fact they've been reduced to much smaller roles, with Ashley being virtually non-existant after "Can't Hardly Wait".)

4) Paige and Alex (the writers have made their entire relationship one of those on again, off again types the entire season. Either keep them together as a couple, or keep them as just friends...the "will they? won't they?" is getting old.)

5) Paige and Spinner (dated in seasons 2-4: though they didn't date this season, they did hook up as friends with benefits. I mention them in this relationship category because Spinner did want to have a relationship with Paige, but she just wanted to "have fun" and see other people at the same time. A prime example of why friends with benefits is a bad idea (for me at least).)

6) Ellie and Jesse (dated throughout season 6: they broke up near the end of this season, but in the season finale Marco walks in on them in bed. Huh?!?!? First off a) Excluding Marco, Ellie is usually the type to hold a grudge against a guy who has hurt her, and b) I thought Ellie wasn't the type to get sexual, though I speculate that they didn't actually have sex.)

Emma truly is the epitome of mean, cruel and hurtful.

"Mean, cruel and hurtful"...that's how Emma described herself after realizing she's gone too far in one of the episodes. Emma's character is a perfect example of someone in your life who has to be in control of everything. It's they're way, or no way. They're opinion is always right...always more important than yours and they'll go to any measure (even hurting people) in order to prove it. Just ask:

*Manny, Emma's best friend. In "If You Leave" Emma tries to sabotage the spirit squad championship by protesting that Lakehurst shouldn't be allowed to compete (J.T. was killed by someone who went to Lakehurst). She didn't care that the competition meant everything to Manny (one of the leaders of the squad), and tried make her look like the bad guy.

*Snake, her stepfather. Snake finds out that Emma's becoming sexually active. He's upset that she wouldn't have "the talk" with him, and Emmagoes so far as to humiliate him with a presentation about women and sex during school(he is her Media Immersion teacher at Degrassi).

*Sean, her boyfriend. It seems that Sean finally figures out what he wants to do with his life, and he feels he can accomplish it by joining the Army. Emma doesn't agree and has this idea in her head of how her life with Sean is supposed to be, so what does she do?? She fakes a pregnancy scare thinking it would keep him from leaving from the Army, but he would still plan to go off anyway. She didn't care that Sean wants to have a future and that one of the reasons he wanted to join was to help her, but Emma only sees what she wants to see.

"Rock This Town" was hard to watch...even while knowing the ending beforehand.
J.T. gets killed in this episode. Because of spoilers, etc. everyone knew he was going to die months before the episode aired, but it didn't make the episode any easier to watch. Everything happened so quickly. The ending was heartbreaking to watch as Emma, Sean, Liberty, Toby and Manny huddled together in mourning at the hospital. J.T. is the first major character to ever be killed off in the 25+ years Degrassi has been around.

The older kids are more interesting to watch than the younger ones.
I thought that because most of the older kids were going off to University this season, their storylines would be more boring, but it was actually the other way around. Overall, the older characters are much more interesting to watch (especially Alex, Paige, Jimmy and Spinner). Out of the younger characters, Emma got the most airtime, but that gets old. Manny is awesome, but she went back to playing Emma's sidekick again since Craig wasn't around. Peter and Darcy are cute together, but it's only amount of time before their "forbidden love, we have to sneak around to meet each other" relationship gets old.

Ellie is ridiculously OOC (out of character)...but I feel her pain.
Ellie had one of the best storylines that ran through seasons 2-3, where she dealt with her mom's alcoholism by cutting herself. After that, any plot involving her has been all about boys. She officially went OOC in Season 5 as she hopelessly chased after Craig. She became his best friend, but she never lost feelings for him. That was obvious in "What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost Pt. 1 & 2", when he returned with the dark secret that he was now into doing drugs. In a brief moment they kissed, and she was heartbroken by him (again), this time it was the the drugs that caused it. Ellie is cursed when it comes to guys. Boy does it suck to be continually rejected by someone you truly care for. Ellie will always be OOC until the writers decide she deserves happiness.


I secretly like Peter.
Peter is a liar, and a manipulator. Some of the things he's done:
1) shot video of Manny flashing and posted it on the internet in season 5.
2) planted drugs in Sean's locker and got him expelled for it .
3) took racy photos of Darcy of e-mailed them to everyone.

Yeah, so after reading the list the word "pervert" comes to mind too. However, even after all of that, when he pursued Darcy he seemed genuine. I don't think any other person would've forgiven him for what he put her through in "Eyes Without A Face". It's as if his character did a complete 180. He seems like a completely different person with Darcy, and I enjoy watching the transformation.

The show CAN survive without Craig.
For the longest time Craig WAS Degrassi. Ever since he appeared in season 2, his character got a lot of the major storylines of the show...everything from child abuse to the Cranny/Crash love triangle. If Craig was around, excitement wasn't too far behind. I thought that after he left for Vancouver, the show would nearly go in the tank because noone could fill his shoes. However, I've been impressed with how the rest of the characters has stepped up. The whole J.T./Liberty saga was enjoyable to watch because I wanted to know how things would end between them before J.T. died. Though I'm getting tired of the Paige/Alex on-off relationship, I do enjoy watching them. Lauren Collins (Paige) is a great actress, and the various storylines involving Alex have been great this season.

Danny and Derek are the worst comedy relief duo ever.
The writers are trying to make Danny and Derek what J.T. and Toby were back in the early years of the show. In seasons 1-4, you could usually find J.T and Toby involved in a humorous subplot that was supposed to offset the seriousness of the episode's main plot. They were extremely fun to watch...Danny and Derek are not. Their humor seems forced, and it's almost annoying. I think the writers would be much better off giving these guys more serious storylines...I enjoyed the plot in "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" where Derek dealt with the verbally abusive teacher.

Deanna Casaluce (Alex) is the best actress (and character) of the season.
Alex is by far the best character to watch in season 6. Deanna Casaluce did a fantastic job of not only balancing her character out, but she brought character and flare to Alex. Once the girl who hung out with the bad crowd and living in an unstable home (she still is), I felt myself rooting for Alex as the girl who was destined to drop out of school got straight A's. Though I felt the concept of a 17-year-old teenage girl stripping in "Don't You Want Me" a little odd, Deanna conveyed the pressure that Alex and her mother were in perfectly, and made love Alex has for Paige seem believable. If there's anything to look forward to in season 7, it'll be the continued character development of Alex.

I work for a syndicated radio show called The Matt & Ramona Show. Of course I love Degrassi, and they bust my chops on the show for it, lol. Today I briefly mentioned Degrassi on the radio, and you can listen to it at the link below. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to mention the degrassi forum here at tv.com on the air, haha. :p

http://www.snapdrive.net/files/13216/degrassi%20on%20the%20radio.mp3