My Big ‘Degrassi’ Rant – Everything the Show Did Wrong

Next to Full House, Degrassi is my second favorite show of all time! And when I say Degrassi, I mean Degrassi: The Next Generation with Paige Michalchuk, Spinner Mason, J.T. Yorke, Eli Godsworthy, and Clare Edwards. From 2001 to 2015, the show centered around teenagers as they navigate their way through life. They covered a wide range of issues such as parents’ divorce, alcohol addiction, mental illnesses, suicide, self-harm, and cancer. It was this show that taught me to accept people for who they are and their differences, and I will be forever grateful for what Degrassi taught me.

I’ve been a fan of the show for 10 years now and as much as I love Degrassi, there are some things I need to complain about, in terms of the show format, character development, mismatched couples, and everything else I love to hate. So for this post, I thought it’d be fun to discuss 10 things about Degrassi that irritate me, just so that I can get this rant off my chest. With that being said, let’s get started!

10. Clare was so annoying most of the time and Eli deserved better

As much as I love Eclare, Eli was an amazing human being and there were times when I wanted him to dump Clare because of what she put him through. First of all, she dumped him when he needed her the most and his bipolar disorder was spinning out of control (there’s a thing called communication, sweetheart). Then when Eli showed (seemingly) no emotion following their break-up, Clare got upset and made a big deal out of it (“Did you flip a switch and erase me from your memory?”). Clare broke up with Eli AGAIN because she developed feelings for Drew. Finally, she mistakenly told Eli that the father of her baby was Drew because she never bothered to ask her doctor about those details. Though the writers made her go through a lot with the cancer, getting pregnant, and having a miscarriage, that doesn’t give her an excuse for her behavior towards Eli (and for being whinny).

9. The writers screwed with Peter’s happiness

While Peter started off as an a**, he eventually put his old ways behind and I started to like him in season eight. Unfortunately, the only thing that stood out to me about Peter was his bad luck with women. He dated Emma for a little bit, but she was still in love with Sean. He then dated Darcy, who eventually left him to go to Kenya for charity work. He also dated Mia, who left him to go to France for a modeling gig. I never liked Darcy because of how she treated Mia and falsely told the school that Mr. Simpson made sexual advances towards her. But I actually liked Peter with Mia because they were sweet together, and after all of Mia’s other failed relationships, she deserved to be with a decent guy. When he professed his love for her, however, they broke up two episodes later because Peter couldn’t fit in with Mia’s crowd, got hooked on meth, and Mia dumped him for being a meth-head, ouch!

8. Spinner did not deserve all the blame for the school shooting

I know Jay got expelled for his involvement in the school shooting, but it seemed like Spinner got all the hate because he returned to Degrassi after being expelled too. I’ll never forget the look on his classmates’ face when word got out about what he and Jay did to Rick the day of the shooting. Though it was wrong of Spinner to go along with Jay’s dumb idea, he felt guilty and worked hard to gain Jimmy’s trust again. Jay was always a questionable character for me anyways because it seems like most of the time, he was causing trouble or making people mad. Yet, people still talked to Jay regardless of his actions.

7. After Bianca and Drew broke up for the final time, the writers kept on pairing Drew with EVERY single girl on Degrassi

I didn’t like Drew and Bianca together at first because I thought she was a bad influence on him and she basically stole Drew from Alli (which sucked because I thought they were cute together). However, as Bianca dropped her bad girl persona and changed her old ways, I grew to like her and Drew together, and actually I started to like Bianca more than Drew because he got annoying overtime. When Bianca broke up with Drew for the final time, the writers decided to pair him with all the other girls that he hadn’t hooked up with at that point. From Zoë to Becky to Clare, I mean thank goodness they didn’t pair him with Jenna. He and Clare were pointless, but most importantly, you don’t date your brother’s ex-girlfriend (Becky)! 

6. Emma and Spinner getting together came out of NOWHERE

First of all, Sean and Emma should’ve been endgame. Second of all, Spinner and Jane were perfect for each other, so it made me mad when she cheated on him with Declan. But despite the writers screwing up two perfectly good relationships, Spinner and Emma were not a horrible pairing, I just wish their relationship was developed better. They hardly had any interactions together throughout their run on the show, then in season nine, in “Degrassi Takes Manhattan,” they act like they’ve been friends for years and get married after getting drunk at a casino. Maybe if Degrassi shot more scenes with Spinner and Emma together, it wouldn’t have been so bad, and a date would’ve been nice too. I mean who gets married after a one-night stand? 

5. The students took FOREVER to graduate high school

From seasons one through five, the school year lasted an entire season, then in season six, the writers had the dumb idea of making the school year longer. So season six covered the fall semester, while season seven covered the spring spring semester, season eight covered the fall semester, while season nine covered the spring semester, season 10 covered the fall semester and the first term of the spring semester, and season 11 covered the second term of the spring semester and the fall semester, etc. According to Wikipedia, the writers started using a semi-floating timeline so that the issues could be more relatable to the viewers, but it only made things more confusing and unrealistic. Clare was a freshman in season eight and she graduated in season 14. You can’t start high school as a 14-year-old and graduate as a 21-year-old; that’s ridiculous! 

4. Craig had horrible character development

Craig Manning was a babe, but the writers screwed with him BIG TIME!!! In season two, he was introduced as an aspiring photographer who lived with his abusive father, who was upset that his ex-wife left him for Joey Jeremiah. The viewers showed sympathy for Craig when his father tormented him and when he couldn’t cope with his father’s sudden death months later. Then in season three, he dropped his interest in photography and decided to be a musician instead, which I didn’t mind entirely. But they made him into a ladies man, which irritated me so much because that took away his likability factor. He went from a sweet and innocent kid that came from an abusive family and had ambitions to be a photographer to a jerk that always got distracted by girls and had drug problems. I’ll give Craig props for being accepting of Marco for being gay, but he also played with Ellie’s feelings, which was messed up.

3. J.T. and Mia were a mistake

Mia was partially the reason for J.T.’s death because her previous boyfriends were psychos. The members of Lakehurst did NOT take it well that her and J.T. were dating, which eventually led to a war between the two schools. Nothing against Mia; I felt bad for her when Darcy didn’t let her on the spirit squad for being a teen mom. But I think it was too soon for J.T. to start dating again as he was clearly still into Liberty. I don’t know why he and Liberty never got back together beforehand, but that’s for another time. J.T. was going to break up with Mia anyways, so what was the point in it?

2. Katie was such a flawed character

I never liked Katie to begin with; I only liked her when she dyed her hair black and got a new edgy wardrobe. Along with Marisol, she dissed Imogen because she wasn’t popular. Though she was hesitant about doing the senior prank, she still went along with blaming Imogen (and eventually Fiona) for it. Katie always blamed other people for her problems in hopes of keeping her innocent persona and making others look bad. When she overdosed on oxy after going to a party with Bianca, she told Drew that Bianca was the one who told her where to get the drugs. Finally, after Katie’s messy break-up with Drew, she didn’t want to get hurt, so she used Mike Dallas and hung out with him when she realized that she developed feelings for Jake. Katie already sabotaged the pep rally for the Ice Hounds and the fact that she played with Dallas’ feelings, I don’t blame him for destroying the rooftop garden not long after.

1. Marisol was a horrible person

Where do I even begin with Marisol? She stole K.C. from Jenna, who was a teen mom and needed her baby daddy to help her out. She even tormented her best friend, when Marisol ran against Katie for student body president and revealed to the school that Katie was suffering from bulimia (as acts of jealousy). The biggest reason why Marisol was trash is because she (and Mo) were making fun of Imogen’s dad when he showed up to the school in a robe. Eventually, she took a pic of Imogen and her dad when he was dropping her off at school, and made fun of him again (completely unaware of the fact that Imogen’s dad was suffering from dementia). Katie was almost as bad as her, but I cut her some slack because she was a target of Marisol’s bullying at one point.

There you have it everyone! That concludes my big Degrassi rant and I’m glad I got that off my chest. I know I talked sh*t about some of these characters, but it also means that the actors are good enough to make me hate their characters. But enough about this negativity, so let me know in the comments below who was your favorite character on Degrassi!

Take care and see ya real soon!

Lana