DEGRASSI: AFTERMATH - SEASON 8 EXPLANATIONS
I´ll give you the good news first. Season 9 is almost finished already and I´ll release the first four episodes this weekend. On top of that, I think that it´s one of, if not the best season in the entire series. There´s more drama, more surprises and I´m sure, you loyal fans will enjoy it. As always, I appreciate your support like you wouldn´t believe. Without you, I would have given up on the series long ago and just let it die.
Now for the bad news. Season 9 WILL WITH 100 PERCENT CERTAINTY BE THE LAST SEASON OF THE SERIES. There´s several reasons for this. The biggest of them is that the more of season 9 I wrote, the more it felt like the right time to end it. Many characters will be heading off to college after the season and the series just wouldn´t be the same without them. I´d also rather end it, before I feel like it´s going too much downhill. Constantly coming up with new stories is hard and I feel like I´ve come to a point, where I´ve almost told every story, that needed to be told and I´m starting to repeat myself.
The second largest reason is simply, that the reader numbers have been tanking these last seasons and I don´t get any reviews anymore. Without reviews, it´s just one way communication and that´s not why I started writing it. It´s not like I´m crying and moaning over it. The series has had a good run, but when you don´t feel like anyone cares anymore, then you lose the desire to continue with it. I don´t spend days and weeks pining over stories like some writers do (probably because I´m a borderline ADD case!), but it´s still a lot of work to put a season together and with me working full time again, I can´t justify spending all that time on something that I get so little response on. Then I´d rather move on to a new fandom and see, where that takes me.
If you still want YA stories from me, I suggest you check out my Dawson´s Creek Fan-fic "Amy´s Creek", that I will still be continuing with. I will also be finishing "Glory Days", but it has so few readers, that I´m taking it at my own pace. If you want to do your boy here a favor, check out my super old school Degrassi series "Lakehurst High"; that´s just 20 episodes with the old cast from the late 80´s/early 90´s. It´s already finished and is on the site, ready to read. Almost no one has bothered to, so it would be very appreciated.
With that out of the way, let´s get to why you´re here.
Storylines:
Allison losing her friends and winning them back - This was a classic type Degrassi storyline, of how you can become so wrapped up in your own self hype and ambition, that it ends up costing you much more than you were gaining from it. It started last season and carried over to this one, with Allison eventually biting the bullet and getting them back. I hadn´t done a school election storyline and since it´s a Degrassi stable, that you almost have to have in the series at some point, I put it in there. I needed her and Jamie to break up too, so I could bring Jamie back together with Chrissy.
Lola and Zoe becoming parents - I feel like Zoe and Lola´s journeys from where they started to where they should end up, has more or less been completed after this season. They started as couple of single lesbian girls, with little in their lives in order and have now matured into adults, without losing what made them lovable in the first place. Their story was mainly about adjusting to being new first time parents and what comes with it, whether you´re a straight or a gay couple.
Chrissy and Jamie getting back together - Let´s face it, they´ve been my new Sean and Emma, ever since Jamie was introduced with Simon and Jack, way back at the beginning of season 2. Unlike Emma and Sean, who there´s no doubt, should have been an end game couple, or at least not have their story feeling as incomplete, as their story did at the end of Next Generation, I don´t plan on making that same mistake. Jamie and Allison ending the right way was important to me too and I thought Allison giving them her blessing was the perfect way for all of them to move on with their lives. But will Jamie and Chrissy make it to the end of season 9 and still be together? You´ll have to keep reading to find out!
Seb, Heather and Hannah´s Sex storylines - This was mostly done for comedy and as a way to get Hannah and Heather to become friends again. It ended up probably being my least favorite of the major storylines this season, but the ending of it worked out pretty well, I thought.
Lisa and Nick getting back together - I threw in several "decoys" along the way, to keep you guessing as to who would end up together. The plan was always for it to be this way, but whether they´ll make it to the end of the next season together, I´m not telling you here.
Bringing in Imogen - Imogen is one of my favorite characters in the Degrassi universe, but I was sceptical of bringing her in, because I felt like if I couldn´t write her like I wanted to, then it was better to not do it. I re-watched a lot of her old episodes up to writing this season and as much as I like Fiona, I needed it to be Imogen who was the centerpiece of the story. Pairing her up with Becky and Eli made for a nice little blast from the past feel, so to speak. Amy and Frankie had mentioned in an earlier episode, how they idolized her, so tying her into Frankie´s farewell made perfect sense to me. This was a storyline, I personally liked a lot and episode 3 of the season ("Goodbye To You"), where she has to bury her dad, is definitely in my personal top three episodes I´ve written. I try to keep personal things and the story separate, but I had just lost an old friend to Covid, not long before I wrote it, which is part of why it´s so special to me.
Sally cutting ties with her former life and being accepted into Chrissy´s family - This had already been set up a little before, but was more elaborated on in this season. People in the media spotlight are very often victims of on-line bullying and it´s not hard to understand, why many start to resent being famous. Paige and Manny with their former Hollywood ties, were a great punching bag of sorts, to help built the story around and give her the support she needed to cut free from it and start building a more normal life. Sally becoming like Chrissy´s sister in the same way that Lisa has Suey, I thought made for an interesting aspect too.
Episode 100 - I had two almost whole episodes, that I scrapped before finishing on this idea. This was originally an idea from back when I did the "Summer Dreams" episodes, but I decided to keep that one to three episodes. Miles and Lola looked perfect together in so many ways and I still wish that they´d given them a happy ending together, since Miles got absolutely nothing out of staying with Tristan and Lola got thrown into that weird relationship with Saad, that made little sense to me. So looking through Miles´ rosy colored hindsight eyes, I came up with this story. There´s parts that are inspired by real life, especially Lola sending in Miles´ book and it ending up getting him his breakthrough, which mirrors Stephen King and the book "Carrie". This was why Miles´ book was named "Cassie". I wanted it to feel special and I think, it at least achieved that much.
Frankie and Winston ending up together - Frankie needed to have the right send-off from the series, after how big a part she´d played in it. Several of the Imogen episodes I watched, also had these two in it and God, were they ever cute. I had Frankie with Greg, who I was planning to develop more as a character, but I decided to just send him off into obscurity in stead. Little Frankie needed her fairy tale, super romantic, do it even if it´s against common sense, storyline to go out on and that´s what I tried to give her.
Esme and Hunter this season - They didn´t have a whole lot to do, but I still like their parts in episode ten, where they help out the Transgender Boy and his friend. I was thinking about making the trans kid a regular character, but I had more than enough already. It´s already been done so well with Adam in the original series anyway, that I doubt if I could write it better or even close to as good, as they did it.
Jay and Maya this season - Again I didn´t have them do a whole lot, because the kids have become more and more the focal point these past seasons. You have to admit, that the episode with them babysitting was hella cute, though! Jay of course, had his flash back story in the next episodes. I did these first of all, because I hadn´t done a pure flashback episode like this and I thought that if I had to pick one story that would be fun to do, then this was the most obvious one. I pretty much went all out humor with Jay here, portraying him as the ultimate anti-hero. Major inspirations for him in this episode include "Jeffrey Lebowski" from "The Big Lebowski", Kurt Russell´s character in "Big Trouble in Little China" and "Lone Star" from "Spaceballs".
The "Don´t Fear the Reaper" double episode - These are again among my favorite episodes I´ve done and to me shows, how I´ve grown as a writer since Charlie´s shooting in season 3. Not that those episodes were bad, but the intricate nature of working Carla and Regina´s story into the frame work of this suspected serial killer is something, I wouldn´t have been capable of writing at that time. Then with the framework of Becky standing up to be the one to unite the people in a time of crises, which I think has made her character arc more or less complete, I thought it had a really good message and feeling to it. The idea of framing it around a suspected serial killer on the loose came from "Twin Peaks" (which is why I did the little tribute to it in part 2), with the part of the racial tension mainly coming from the movie "Mississippi Burning", where the murder of an African American girl almost sparks a race war in a small town. With all you´ve read to get this far, you must know that I make a great deal out of teaching tolerance and forgiveness as the way forward, if we´re gonna make this a better world to live in. This was possibly the biggest episode so far, in that aspect.
Deb´s story - One of the things I´ve always found a little unrealistic about the original series, is that so few decided to drop out and find a different career path. I would say that around 15-20 percent of the ones I started the Danish version of High School with (which is basically grade 10 to 12), had dropped out and found different ways to get the education, that they wanted. If were talking ones, who went off to university, that was maybe 30 percent of those who graduated at most. If we count in those I went to 9th grade with, I doubt that it would be more than 10 percent. Deb and to some extend Jamie represent how I was as a student at that time, being bored in class all the time and just wanting to get the weekdays over with, so I could party the weekend away. School isn´t for everyone and it certainly wasn´t for me, but I´ve still had a good and I think very interesting job life, that´s been much more interesting than if I´d gone off to college/university, got an education and done that for the rest of my life. When I´ve done a job for a few years and it becomes too easy and the challenge isn´t there anymore, I usually move on, so I can do something, that does challenge me. That´s the ADD part of me, I think.
Deco and Regina´s story: I felt like the season needed an unlikely love story to cap it off, since the others had ended in kind of a predictable way. I was toying with the idea of having Regina end up following him to Ireland in stead, but I felt like it worked better this way. Some of you might not like how I play around with the sexuality of some of the characters, but you have to remember that they´re still at an age, where they´re finding out who they are. Many of us, myself included, thought that we practically knew everything, when we started High School, only to have to admit when we finish it, that we didn´t know anything at all. The show needs a certain amount of tension too, for it to keep being interesting and this helped to bring some of that into it.
Character Names:
Talia and Madison - Are named after a female wrestler named Talia Madison, also known as Velvet Sky.
Music Choices:
"Popular" by Nada Surf was one of the strangest rock hits of the 90´s, a decade that brought us "Wynona´s Big Brown Beaver", "Everyone´s Free to Wear Sunscreen" and whatever the hell that "Spaceman" song was, as hits. Mostly a spoken word song with deeply satirical lyrics about popularity in High School, that then goes into one of the most catchy choruses, you´ve ever heard, it is quite a one hit wonder marvel! Here it had to fit in with Chrissy and Sally being popular, so it was an obvious choice for that purpose too.
Putting "Santeria" in part two made no sense from a lyrics standpoint, but it did from a Lola and Zoe standpoint, since it was a another Sublime song, "What I Got", that they had their first dance to, way back in episode 1. It also has this great, mellow, happy and carefree feel to it, that fit the mood I was going for in the scene, sort of signifying that with Lola and Zoe becoming parents, they can now rest easier and start to enjoy this next phase of their lives together.
"We´ll Meet Again" is such a beautiful song from a more innocent time and to me exemplified the view of the world, that Imogen´s dad had passed on to his daughter, that although bad times and dark clouds will come, the sunshine will someday shine through them again and positivity is always the way forward. It´s also by far the oldest song in the entire series, dating way back from 1939. To most people it´s mainly known for being played in an ironic sense at the end of the satiric cult classic "Dr. Strangelove", when the entire world is about to be destroyed by an impending nuclear war.
Allison was being "Bad To the Bone" and enjoying it at that point, which is exactly what the song is about. Plus, George Thorogood is one the biggest ass kickers on the guitar to walk this earth, so putting him in one more time wouldn´t hurt. If you´ve ever watched sitcoms from the 80´s and 90´s, then you´ve almost certainly come across it as a montage song.
Lisa was just about the happiest she´s ever been in the next montage and what song is happier than "Singing in the Rain?". Unless, of course if you´ve seen "A Clockwork Orange", where it´s used in an extremely violent and dark scene, that you´ll never forget, once you´ve seen it.
It was perhaps a bit too literal to use "Mama, I´m Coming Home" in a scene about moms, but it never hurts to have some Ozzy in it, especially since neither him solo or with Black Sabbath have been in the series. Sabbath was perhaps my favorite band in my mid-teens and I can still play most of their best known songs on guitar.
I needed another cheesy and happy love song and a classic "Hairbrush Song", so to speak and "Love is in the Air" fills those criteria perfectly. It also reminds me of the movie "Strictly Ballroom" every time I hear it and that´s in no way bad thing.
Blondie is another great band, with one of the coolest female lead singers ever in Debbie Harry, that somehow hadn´t been represented in the series yet. Think of this, they had 4 number one singles in a row: "Call Me", a power pop/post punk song, "Heart of Glass", a pure disco song, "The Tide is High" a pure reggae song and "Rapture", the song that brought rap and hip hop into the mainstream for the first time. I can´t think of any other artist, who could ever do every style to perfection, like they did it. Bruno Mars is the only one I can think of today, who switches between styles a lot, but his songs still have a familiar ring to them all the time. The montage here was about people trying to call other people, so "Call Me" was a good choice for it.
I know that using "The Beaver Song" was like trying to get a cheap pop from a wrestling crowd, but hey, it´s a funny song and an easy one to do jokes around! I dare you to go to YouTube, watch that scene from "How I Met Your Mother" and not laugh. It´s absolutely impossible!
Another legendary band that hadn´t been on was The Ramones, the god fathers of North American punk themselves. It was a song for a dance scene, so why not use "Let´s Dance", their 1976 punked up cover of the 1962 hit from a guy named Chris Montez.
I used the early 80´s new wave hit "Don´t You Want Me", again because it fit that the scene was about Jamie and Chrissy both wondering, if the other one likes them or not.
Jay´s songs in the double episodes were meant to fit his anti-hero character of trying to pretend, that he´s all tough and macho, when he with age has become a bit feminine and easy to hurt, when it comes down to it. Since I´m hardly an expert on Taylor Swift, I went to Wikipedia and looked up what were her biggest hits at that time, looked over the lyrics and picked the absolute girliest verse, I could find! That just happened to be from "Blank Space", which I had heard before and isn´t anywhere near as bad, as many make it out to be. It´s just innocent pop music, like it has existed for decades and will for many more. No harm in that and she clearly knows, what her audience wants, so good on her! There´s some people who automatically hate anything that´s popular, I suppose. "Unbreak My Heart" on the other hand, is so sad and girly, that it´s almost cringe worthy, but good again for what I was going for with Jay.
"I Love To Hate You" was used just because the montage was about Carla hating on Regina. Erasure was a huge hit duo in the 80´s, that many seem to have forgotten about, which is kind of a shame, because they made some both catchy a smart pop music for it´s time.
"Destination Anywhere" was chosen, both because it´s a song I love and how it fit with Regina´s character at this point. 60´s and 70´s Motown at it´s best will always be a music style I love. It also gave Carla and Regina a point to start their friendship from and at the end helped to give the episode a happy and hopeful way of ending on.
What other song than the old "Buffy Intro" would be right for a scene, that´s basically Lisa and Suey playing vampire slayers for the boys?
"She Sells Sanctuary" was used in the next montage, because that´s basically what Deb was doing there, selling Deco and Regina on a sanctuary of being drunk and high.
"Why Does It Hurt, When I Pee?" by the legendary musical mad man Frank Zappa, is one of the funniest songs I´ve ever heard. If you´re gonna do a montage about kids with VD´s, there can be no better song for it. For once, an episode had two montages and for the sadder one, I used "Glycerine" by the Pearl Jam/Alice in Chains/Nirvana/Radiohead/Smashing Pumpkins clone named Bush. It´s a good song though, even it sounded like a lot of other songs that were hits around that time. Their lead singer won in the end though, since he got to marry Gwen Stefani.
"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac is another song, you´ve probably heard in a sad montage on TV or in a movie. It is an incredibly beautiful song with the mix between Lindsay Buckingham´s acoustic guitar and Stevie Nicks´ amazing and sad voice in the song. She really makes you feel the pain in every word of this song about her and Lindsey´s break up after their multi year relationship. I wanted this to be a heartwarming and at the same time nostalgic feeling montage, to show how these characters are ready to move on now.
I wanted the last episode to have an Irish feel to it, in Deco´s honor. This also made room for Spike´s favorite band The Pogues, as sung by a drunk Deco anyway. Try finding a video of them and you´ll be surprised how an absolutely fugly guy like Shane McGowan could have been a music star! He was a good singer, but he also looked like someone, who would spend all his free time drunkenly street fighting against all comers! I wanted to end the season on as happy a note as possible for Regina and Deco after all they´d been through. Renaming "Come On Eileen" to "Come On Regina" was a bit on the cheap side, but at the same time quite cute, I think, for the montage over the pictures of their holiday together.
Episode names:
Welcome to the Jungle (Guns n´ roses)
True Happiness This Way Lies (The The)
Goodbye to You (Michelle Branch)
Boys and Girls (Blur)
Back in Time (Huey Lewis and the News)
Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)
Sorry (Justin Bieber)
Be My Baby (The Ronettes)
Hollywood (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
Don´t Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)
Mother (Danzig)
Three Little Birds (Bob Marley)
Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)
Independence Day (Bruce Springsteen)
SEE YOU IN SEASON 9. I WILL GIVE YOU THIS ONE SPOILER: AT LEAST ONE MAJOR CHARACTER WILL GET KILLED OFF. IF YOU WANT TO VENTURE A GUESS AS TO WHO IT WILL BE, THEN LEAVE IT IN THE COMMENTS OR SEND ME A PM.
