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Last night, TeenNick wrapped up its late-night rerun of 13C and 13D.  Tonight they begin a 3-day marathon of 13A:

Monday 6/29
11pm EST: Summertime

Tuesday 6/30
10:30pm: All I Wanna Do
11pm: My Own Worst Enemy
11:30pm: About A Girl

Wednesday 7/1
10:30pm: Cannonball
11pm: Honey
11:30pm: Young Forever

It’s safe to say that most people hated 13A, which is why I’m kind of excited to watch it again.  Will I still feel the same way toward this block? Will I catch some things I didn’t before?

I know my views toward Alli’s plot changed over time.  It went from “Wtf are you guys doing?” to “Damn, this is interesting,” after seeing the bigger picture.  My judgment was definitely clouded on that one based on the show’s past tendencies in terms of how they typically deal with romance from a general standpoint.  Also, I ended up giving Adam’s sudden death a pass because it was such a messy situation complicated by a need to suddenly (and permanently) write off a complex character.

The biggest hurdle 13A had to face was a lack of the show’s most-important element: the school itself.  Having the kids take a summer trip was a good idea in theory.  Even I had been interested in seeing episodes that follow characters during summer break.  However, it’s hard to understand how important the building itself is to the show until its involvement is greatly reduced.  When the show takes place away from the school for such a lengthy amount of time, Degrassi no longer feels like Degrassi; you’re basically watching a bunch of teenagers frolic around in Paris.  I’ll be interested to see if I still feel this way after this marathon.

After TeenNick finishes 13A on Wednesday, it looks like they’ll move on to airing 13B:  The schedule currently has them airing This Is How We Do It, You Got Me and You Oughta Know on Thursday night beginning at 10:30pm EST.

Posted by Kary

5 Comments

  1. Have you ever considered doing blogs for other shows like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Hannibal, Breaking Bad, etc.

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  2. I hated this block n watched it last night and still dislike it! Allis plot could have been interesting but they rushed it! I mean all of the sudden she gets married? Yeah not interested! Maybe it’s from where I’m getting older and degrassi TNG will always be my fav, but today’s degrassi seems so fake to me!

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  3. I rewatched this block not too long ago. probably the worst stretch of Degrassi period. that or the 2nd half of season 7

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  4. My main problem with Alli’s plot is that they paired her with Dallas so soon after. They really should have kept her single for the rest of her time on the show and showed how affected she was by her abuse. Since Terri never came back, we never got to see any long term psychological effects on her and this would have been a great storyline for Alli in Season 14. And instead of making Dallas nothing more than a love interest, they should have focused on him being a teen dad. The writers had two great opportunities and they really dropped the ball here.

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    1. I wanted to see Alli and Dallas together, and I know there’s way more to Degrassi’s overall plans than working out individual storylines then meshing them together in episodes, but thinking back it would’ve been nice to see them stretch Alli’s out into season 14 instead of having Bhandallas “just there” this season. They were so close to having a balanced plot in terms of how much they focus on the before/during/after. For the past 2 years they’ve been killing it with showing the lingering effects Cam’s death has on Maya. Surprisingly, they done it with Drew quite a bit the past couple of seasons in terms of his low self esteem. But seeing it happen with an abusive relationship is something that needs to be shown, and I agree they missed an opportunity.

      Once they brought Dallas on to essentially replace Dave, it was obviously Dallas was only going to be Alli’s love interest. Don’t even get me started on the teen dad thing, lol. The lack of them wanting to show a teen parent struggling long term is frustrating dating back to Mia Jones, and it makes me wonder why the show bothers to begin with. However, I will say at least they’ve made the effort continuity wise in season 13 and 14 to acknowledge Dallas is a dad and Rocky still exists. I was totally expecting them to blackhole Rocky after the allergy incident.

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