SEASON 2 - MID SEASON EXPLANATIONS
it´s time for another round of telling you why I wrote things the way I did. I´m well aware that I´m not keeping everyone happy all of the time, especially by leaving out some of the favorite parts of some readers. I´m glad to see though, that most of the readers, who read season one are still hanging in there.
In setting up this season, I knew that I had to keep shaking things up to keep the series from feeling stagnant and I hope you feel like it accomplished that. To all of those, who review the series and leave comments, a big thanks. It might not always seem that way, but you are helping to shape the series into what it´s becoming.
Just to make these a more interesting read, I´ve decided to add some "Did you know?" bits to it. Let me know if you liked it in the comments.
The Manny/Craig/JT/Paige story: In setting up the season, or half season as it turned out, I made a list of all of the major characters and decided where they should be at, when the half season ended. One problem for both of those couples was that one part of them would most likely end up leaving the series soon, due to them graduating and having to move on with their lives in a different place.
One important aspect of Craig´s character, was him constantly putting himself first. Usually at some girl´s expense, whether it be Manny, Ashley or Ellie. Not that it´s uncommon for a teenage boy, but it doesn´t really work, when it comes to fatherhood. I used him being stuck in a position, where there really wasn´t much to look forward to, as far as the future goes, as his great motivator. Manny on the other hand, needed the perfect baby daddy, who she knew she could always rely on and that´s where JT, with their history and his natural love of children, made for the perfect fit for her.
On his side, it made sense too, given that the two of them had such a great natural chemistry between them and getting the chance to have everything he wanted in one package would be something, he couldn´t say no to. There´s no doubt that they´re both better off now, than they were when the season began, even if they still have their kinks to work out. I also thought that it played in nicely with Paige´s character, that she would let a few simple comments get to her so much, that she would mess things up for herself. Her then reverting to her old schemer self, when she realized it, made sense to me too. A leopard can´t change it´s spots, as they say!
Another reason why I wanted Craig to maybe not leave the series entirely, but be reduced to a recurring role, was to make room for stories with the younger cast, as in Jane, Mia etc. It also fits into the real world, where Jake Epstein (Craig) left the series to attend the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal and become a stage actor.
The title of the song "Thong Girl, Right Girl", is a play on one of the songs from Craig´s fictional first album being called "Thong Girl, Wrong Girl" and was also (obviously) about Manny. The lyrics were written by me and were deliberately written to be bad, just to accentuate how little Manny would like it being heard by the world. The chord progression for it is C-Am-D-G, a very generic chord progression in pop music.
Did you know? - That despite not being a musician on the show, Cassie Steele (who played Manny) is actually the second most successful Degrassi actor after Drake, as far as their music career goes? Her two first albums (from 2005 and 2009) both went gold in Canada (for sales of over 25.000 copies) and she has since released two EP´s, one in 2012 and one in 2014.
Hazel and Jimmy´s Break Up: I´ve seen this happen a lot of times in real life. A couple breaks up and it turns into a competition between them, to see who´s moving on the best. Knowing that I wanted him to end up with Liberty when the half season ended, it was really just about finding out how to break them up and connecting the dots to get them to where I wanted them to be.
I was a little in doubt about whether it was right to have Hazel smoke weed, but at the same time I felt like it would give her some more character development, to want to break out of the role of always being the "Lackey" to Paige and wanting to step out of her role as always being the one, who did everything she was supposed to and was expected of her.
The only thing I might regret a little, was not making this story longer, but there was just so much I wanted to fit into the season as it was, including some major storylines, that will be done in the second half of this marathon season in stead. To me, the key to writing a good Degrassi episode is to keep the balance between drama and comedy/feel good moments. I always have to keep that in mind as well.
Did you know? - That Andrea Lewis (who played Hazel) put out her first album, five years before Drake put out his first? She has released two of them (one in 2005 and one in 2010), plus a handful of singles, the last one in 2013. As far as how much success they´ve had in music, there´s no comparison, though!
Bringing in some new blood to the series: This was something, that I felt like they should have done sooner in the OG series, because it did start to feel a little stagnant to me, by the time we reach season 7. From what I´ve read on Wikipedia, the viewing audience agreed with me, since the ratings went down quite a bit at this time and never recovered again.
Now the only question was who to bring in. I can read from the comments, that Mia wasn´t exactly a popular character, since she got between JT and Liberty. No one can deny though, that she was one of the best acted characters in the series, as evidenced by Nina Dobrev´s great career after she went on to making out with vampires in "The Vampire Diaries". I liked Mia most of the time, even though she was a pretty terrible mom sometimes. When you eliminate those parts of her character though, it´s pretty easy to make her more likable and her past in the "wrong part of the city" was another fun aspect to play around with.
To me, the absolute worst thing a character can be is bland and uninteresting and what they have them do on the series doesn´t make me dislike them as much, as if they were just part of scenery. It´s awesome that so many of you get personally invested in the characters (I sometimes wish, I could be more like that), but to me they´re just characters, that someone made up for our entertainment. Thereby not saying that I don´t have my favorites, but I don´t get as personally invested in them, like a lot of other fans seem to do.
Danny was a no-brainer to make a regular, since he already had heavy ties to some of the other characters. Chantay was WAY underused in her run on the series, except for her spending an unbelievably long time in high school! I´d like to know how many times, she flunked and was held back, but maybe that´s just me!
Derek isn´t exactly a well liked character, but he´s more of a minor character here, who´s only there to help move things along for the bigger characters, like when Danny became jealous over him finding a girlfriend and it leading to him and Chantay giving it a go. That´ll most likely be his role going forward as well. I might bring in Leia the LIAR! THE GIRL WHO JUST LIES AND LIES AND LIES SOME MORE and have her lie to him all of the time, just for the fun of it.
Which brings me to Peter, the character we all love to hate! They tried as hard as they possibly could to make us like him later in his run, but there was no coming back from how they introduced him. However, this series needed a character like him to shake things up and even if he wasn´t a big part of the series in this half season, he´s still a fun character to write and play around with, because there´s practically nothing you can´t do with him and still have it be believable.
Damien was another very unlikable character, who made a short appearance here. He was so unlikeable, that I almost feel sorry for Mazin Abuzeld, the actor, who played him. Here´s a few scenes of how I imagine his casting process went.
1. Int. Mazin´s Room.
Mazin is talking to his best friend.
Mazin:
I´m gonna be on Degrassi! This is awesome!
Mazin´s Friend:
Did they tell you, what your character is like?
Mazin:
No, but everyone gets a great character on Degrassi! I just know, that it´s gonna be some character with tons of depth, that I can really get stuck into! Hollywood, here I come!
2. Int. Casting Agent´s Office.
Mazin is looking hopeful.
Mazin:
Tell about my character.
Casting Agent:
He´s a guy, who tries to get into the pants of every girl, he meets.
Mazin:
That´s only one part of him, right? There has to be more to him than that!
Casting Agent:
No, that´s pretty much it! We can make him smart, if you want?
Mazin:
I guess, that´s something at least!
Mazin looks disappointed.
3. Ext. Casting Agent´s Office.
Mazin is on the phone.
Mazin:
Hi, it´s Mazin. Yes, I know that I quit my after school job, because I thought, I was going to become an actor. You haven´t hired anyone to take my job yet, have you?
END SCENE
Finally, I have to bring up Jane, who along with Ellie, Manny, Imogen and Maya might be my all time top 5 favorites of the female characters in the OG series. She´s just so lovable and so much fun to write, that I almost had to find a way to bring her in! I might have mentioned it before, but one of my best friends back in school was a girl, who was close to being the exact same way and that might play into why I like her so much. She´s also one of those characters, where there is almost no limit to what you can do with her and that´s always a big positive from a writer´s standpoint. Her chemistry with Spinner in particular is another aspect, I couldn´t not want to play around with at some point.
Did you know? - That Paula Brancati (who played Jane) was juggling being a regular on two TV series at the same time, while she was on Degrassi? The second one being the Canadian comedy/drama "Being Erica", where she played a character named Jenny, who as almost twice as old as Jane. She also during that time appeared in the sit-com "Life with Derek", that had guest appearances from other Degrassi actors over it´s run, including Lauren Collins (Paige) and Shane Kippel (Spinner).
One thing I didn´t like in the OG series, was how she went away from being the lovable tomboy and more just a "standard" girl character towards the end of her last season, so I´m trying to stay away from that and keep her more to how she started out, when she first arrived at the school. That they put her with Declan (a character I absolutely couldn´t stand), albeit very briefly, is one of my personal least favorite couples in the series. Her and Spinner should have been an end game couple, with Emma ending up with Sean. Speaking of those two ...
Emma and Sean´s story this season: After their storyline being sort of the "Money" story in season one, they got scaled back quite a bit in this one. Originally I did have more planned for them, including a story about Emma going through a depression because of the pregnancy and the uncertainty, that followed with it, but I decided to cut it for various reasons, the main one being (like I mentioned before) that I already had way too much material for the season as it was. Another one I considered was a "Juno" like story with Emma trying to find the perfect parents for her (at that time) unborn child, but I felt like it would be too obvious of a rip-off. So in stead I decided to have Emma play a role in the Manny/JT story, as Manny´s confidant and keep her and Sean´s story to a few, but I thought very poignant and to the point chapters.
No matter what you do in the situation, they were in, it´s bound to have personal consequences, even if the decision you make seems like it´s the right one. One place where I think they missed out in the OG series, was glossing over the mental impact that Manny´s abortion would have had on her. I know a few women, who have gone through one and they all said that it´s something that sticks with them to this day, even if it was years ago and made perfect sense at the time. I wanted to rectify this with the end of this storyline, by showing the impact it had on both of them, to give their child up for adoption.
Their story isn´t done yet, not by a long way, so there´s still plenty to look forward to with the two of them in the coming seasons.
Did you know? - That Daniel Clark (who played Sean) is one of only two Degrassi actors to be born in the US? The other one is Mazin Elzaheg, who played Damien. Daniel is from Chicago originally, but moved with his parents to Toronto at an early age.
Ellie and Jay´s story this season - They were another couple, whose roles had to be cut a little for time, but there´ll be plenty more to come in the coming season with them. I made a decision to have their story be mostly about how Ellie was dealing with being in a "real" relationship for the first time, since I always saw her and Sean more as being friends, who lived together. As much as we all love Ellie, she´s never had to compromise and open herself up to new things, like you have to do in a relationship, in order for it to work. This was a fun aspect of her to play around with and I´ve got more comedy stuff for her and Jay in the next season. Degrassi can´t be serious all of the time, or it wouldn´t be Degrassi.
Did you know? - That Stacey Farber (who played Ellie) auditioned for and was in serious consideration for the title role in the cult classic "Juno"? It went to Ellen (now known as Elliot) Page, who was nominated for an Oscar for it and became a huge star on the back of that role. Daniel Clark (Sean) is in the movie, albeit in a small role. Stacey shouldn´t cry too much over it though, since she´s been working regularly as an actress, since she left the series and currently has two series, that she has a recurring role in: "Superman and Lois" and "Virgin River".
Ashley´s coming out - This story started at the end of season one, with her and Terri sharing a kiss. It felt way too predictable to go ahead and put them together though, which is why I decided to have her go through sort of a transitional phase for most of this season, as she tries to find her new place in the world. I always knew that she was going to end up with Alex by the end of it, with Terri and Maria only being the first steps to finding out who she really is deep inside. One reviewer commented, that she´s a lot nicer here, than she was originally and that it definitely true, but I don´t find it unrealistic either, that her experiences have changed her for the better, just like it did for Paige.
The second half of that story is of course Alex, a character it´s almost impossible not to feel for, with how god awful her home life and upbringing was. Something in me enjoys giving these characters something positive in their somewhat sad lives and as much as I liked her and Paige together, they were kind of doomed from the start with how different they were. Alex needed someone, who was a bit more "rough around the edges", like she herself was and for that, I thought that her and Ashley would make for a nice duo, with Amy acting as the catalyst to finally getting them together.
Did you know? - That Deanna Cataluce, who played Alex, is by far the oldest actor to play a teenager on the series, with her being 26 in her first season on Degrassi? She had previously auditioned to play both Ashley and Paige, but as we know, she didn´t get either of those roles. Can you see her playing Paige? It´s almost too surreal to even begin to imagine!
Toby´s love life - Toby was almost always the odd man out, when it came to romantic stories in the series and as time went on, he sadly seemed to just accept it. He was one of many characters, who I felt like got the short (no pun intended) end of the stick in the OG series and I felt like I needed to rectify that here. His main role for this season was as the counterpart for what Emma was for Manny, as in being the confidant for JT, but I liked what I had him and Kendra do here.
Her stepping out of the role as the "innocent little girl" in their scenes at the dance, with the callback to the boiler room in later seasons, I felt was needed to not keep her from becoming stagnant and kind of boring as a character. It´s a shame that she left the series, before they could really begin to explore the two of them as a couple, so I´m trying to make that right here.
Did you know? - That the main reason why Katie Lai, who played Kendra, left Degrassi was because of her parent´s objections to her doing a sexual storyline in the series? It hasn´t been said specifically what it was, but I can only guess that it´s most likely, she was to lose her virginity to Toby. Who knows, if her parents had been willing to accept it, what it would have meant for the series as a whole? It could be that in stead of Craig getting Manny pregnant, it could have been Kendra that got the abortion storyline, or we would have seen her and Toby as teenage parents, in stead of JT and Liberty.
Marco not getting more storylines focused on him - This is one, I almost feel bad about, because he is one of my favorite male characters in the series, but again it comes down to time constraints and me wanting to keep the episodes to a certain length (around 4000 words, give or take, per episode) and me having so much material for the season already, that something had to be pushed into the future or dropped entirely. He´s still played a big part in other storylines, but he needs to have more stories focused on him as a character. I hope to change this going forward and I already have a big double episode with him as the main character written for the second half of the season, so look out for that one.
Did you know? - That playing Marco on the series helped Adamo Rugierro, who played him, to come out of the closet to his family? Thankfully, even though he comes from a Catholic family, they accepted his sexuality and didn´t cast him out.
THAT´S IT FOR THIS TIME, FOLKS! HAVE A GREAT DAY AND BE KIND TO THOSE AROUND YOU!