Degrassi Original Movie: Don't Look Back

[possibilities]

In the original Canadian movie DEGRASSI: DON’T LOOK BACK (Sunday, Aug. 2 at 9 p.m. ET), Maya (Olivia Scriven) has high hopes of spending the summer lifeguarding at the beach with Zig (Ricardo Hoyos), but her hopes are crushed when she fails her CPR class. Determined not to let her summer be a total bust, she sets her sights on a nanny job for a prestigious music producer, but is foiled by Gloria (Nicole Samantha Huff) who swoops in and gets the job. Frankie’s (Sara Waisglass) pumped for her summer job as a city hall intern but finds it’s an uphill battle with the other older interns. Meanwhile, Zoe is determined to coast through summer school with Tristan (Lyle Lettau) by riding the coat-tails of Hunter and Grace. And while all the kids have challenges, what really overshadows the summer is that sexy and infuriating Gloria goes missing. This cloud hovers over everyone’s summer as they are all, in one way or another, touched by her disappearance.

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/mtv-bids-fond-farewell-degrassi-season-14-finale-special-movie-event-july-31-august-2/

 

 

 

I did not see that Zoe-Grace thing coming. I'm looking forward to seeing Zoe become interesting (to me) for the first time, whenever the show starts again on Netflix.

 

 

I like Maya, I really do. I like that she's brave. I realize she's also stupid, but I think they need to season her with some stupid so she doesn't seem like a holier-than-thou type.

 

 

I also thought everybody looked good in their zombie make up.

 

 

I did not like how whiny Maya was about flunking the lifeguard test, and that she blamed Zig's and Tiny's rudeness on the girl for wearing a bikini, but I also thought it was strange that they were taking the test as a group and basically she was the only one who had to demonstrate that she understood everything, while one of the group lay still in the sand and the other two stood around discussing breasts.

 

 

Frankie, oh Frankie. I like her, like I like Maya, but she was sooooo gullible. And after her reaction to Winston's transgression with Lola, she really showed herself badly by not being more lucid with New Guy. I think it's teen-normal, but it made me sad anyway.

 

 

A lot of people were kind of whiny in this thing.

Edited August 3, 2015 by possibilities

[luckyroll3]

My stupid DVR only recorded 30 minutes of this, and of course, it's nowhere on the upcoming schedule again.  Recap anyone?

[LadyNebula]

I loved seeing Scott Thompson as the science teacher.  I hope he pops up when the show moves to Netflix.

[aradia22]

Will they put this online? My DVR taped over it with repeat episodes of Degrassi because they marked them as "new".

[AngYouDontStop]

 

My stupid DVR only recorded 30 minutes of this, and of course, it's nowhere on the upcoming schedule again.  Recap anyone?

My DVR recorded 30 minutes too, because I think it was listed as four 30-minute individual shows - only the first 30 minutes was considered new, so the rest didn't record. I'm annoyed.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Uptown Sasquatch

[MegaJ]

Finally seeing this. After hearing that it was terrible, I can say that...actually wasn't too bad. Not as good as Degrassi Takes Manhattan but a million times better than Degrassi Goes Hollywood and whatever the fuck Nowhere to Run was supposed to be.

 

- Rolling my eyes at Frankie's intern friends. Inviting her to an adult party and letting her get drunk? Losers.

 

- So Frankston is done. I was mad at Winston until I thought about it from his point of view. He is such a guy. I guess they have plans to put Frankie with someone else but I'm kinda worried about Winston. His actor isn't the best and I don't know he can handle a storyline by himself. Shrug.

 

- I could've taken or left Maya's plot. She was right about the music producer but it wasn't her place to criticize her. Shrug again. The kids were irritating.

 

- Speaking of irritating, Tristan...he's still mooning over Miles. Whatev.

 

- Grace/Zoe...I'm on bored. I liked that it was more from Zoe's POV. Grace was probably crushing a bit but judging by her reaction to the kiss, she definitely wasn't expecting a kiss. I could buy Zoe as questioning; it's probably something she didn't expect until she met a girl she really liked. And it would go a long way into explaing why her relationships with other girls is pretty antagonistic, whether it's rivarly (Maya and Frankie) or asserting dominance (Power Cheer). Maybe she was subconsciously driving them away? Food for thought.

 

- I have a feeling Scott Thompson's appearance was a one-off but I hope he's there for Next Class. Gloria too, she was interesting.

 

- So overall, this was a test to see if the new kids could be interesting without the seniors and I would say that they passed the test. So until then, see you guys until 2016 or until the press release and materials come out.

[luckyroll3]

- Grace/Zoe...I'm on bored. I liked that it was more from Zoe's POV. Grace was probably crushing a bit but judging by her reaction to the kiss, she definitely wasn't expecting a kiss. I could buy Zoe as questioning; it's probably something she didn't expect until she met a girl she really liked. And it would go a long way into explaing why her relationships with other girls is pretty antagonistic, whether it's rivarly (Maya and Frankie) or asserting dominance (Power Cheer). Maybe she was subconsciously driving them away? Food for thought.

Wait a sec.  There was a Grace and Zoe hook up?!?  Now I really need to find this somewhere so I can finish watching it.

[Bubbles]

Wow, that was pretty bad. The plucky kids solved the mystery with science! So cringeworthy.

You just know that while they'll carry forward the romantic plot lines from this into next season, there's going to be zero lasting emotional fallout for Maya over the kidnapping. This is a girl who's been struggling with anxiety since Cam, but five minutes after being rescued she's somehow laughing and telling Zig she's fine.

I like Frankie but she was kind of an idiot here, and I really don't care about her relationship with Winston at all.

I have mixed feelings about Zoe and Grace. They're kind of an intriguing pairing, and it's nice to see Grace getting more to do. At the same time, it feels like the showrunners suddenly realized they needed new lesbians now that Imogen and Jack have graduated and just ran through the current crop of girls to decide who to pair up. Why did they even bother setting up a Zoe and Miles reunion if they were going to drop it as quickly as they dropped Zoe and Zig? I'm also hoping that the focus solely on Zoe's perspective was just to create a cliffhanger at the end and we'll see more of where Grace is coming from next season. I seem to recall she told Maya at one point that she's not gay, but who knows.

Can Tristan suddenly become a genius and graduate a couple of years early please? Or maybe just disappear to wherever they're keeping Dave and Wesley? I just can't with him.

[Lone Wolf]

My stupid DVR only recorded 30 minutes of this, and of course, it's nowhere on the upcoming schedule again.  Recap anyone?

 

 

Will they put this online? My DVR taped over it with repeat episodes of Degrassi because they marked them as "new".

 

 

My DVR recorded 30 minutes too, because I think it was listed as four 30-minute individual shows - only the first 30 minutes was considered new, so the rest didn't record. I'm annoyed.

I had the same problem.  Here's the solution:

 

http://www.teennick.com/videos/degrassi-videos

 

Yeah, it wasn't the greatest, but it was a good way to come down off the series finale and bridge over to the Netflix incarnation.  

 

I already miss the class that just graduated, though.  Maybe it was more the Scooby Doo plot than the cast but this episode seemed insubstantial and a little silly.

[viajero]

Finally seeing this. After hearing that it was terrible, I can say that...actually wasn't too bad. Not as good as Degrassi Takes Manhattan but a million times better than Degrassi Goes Hollywood and whatever the fuck Nowhere to Run was supposed to be.

 

 

I kind of agree.  It wasn't good, but they've had worse.  Though I don't really like Tristan, I did get a kick out of parts of his narration. 

 

 

I like Frankie but she was kind of an idiot here, and I really don't care about her relationship with Winston at all.

 

I have mixed feelings about Zoe and Grace. They're kind of an intriguing pairing, and it's nice to see Grace getting more to do. At the same time, it feels like the showrunners suddenly realized they needed new lesbians now that Imogen and Jack have graduated and just ran through the current crop of girls to decide who to pair up. Why did they even bother setting up a Zoe and Miles reunion if they were going to drop it as quickly as they dropped Zoe and Zig? I'm also hoping that the focus solely on Zoe's perspective was just to create a cliffhanger at the end and we'll see more of where Grace is coming from next season. I seem to recall she told Maya at one point that she's not gay, but who knows.

 

 

Frankie acted like she's 14.  I do still like her and also can only hope that she's finally done with Winston for good.

 

As for Zoe and Grace, my initial reaction was the same as yours.  When I started to realize they were heading in that direction, my first thought was that it seemed very contrived.  But in the end I think they did do a fairly good job of making it believable, in part because of the role Miles played in Zoe's coming to terms with her feelings.  It helps that the actress who plays Zoe is one of the better ones on this this show. 

 

As for that earlier scene with Maya, Grace did not deny outright that she was gay.  She simply corrected Maya's assumption that she was gay just because she got the phone number of that visiting cheerleader.  My take at the time was that she could very well be in the closet and I remember wondering if they would ever clear that up.  I'm still not sure they have.  Grace reacted more shocked than enthusiastic to Zoe's kiss.  She just kind of stood there, not even returning Zoe's embrace.  On the other hand, she didn't pull away from the kiss either.   Plus Miles was not wrong when he noted during that earlier scene at The Dot that the way Grace was looking at Zoe showed a lot more than simple friendship.

 

Overall, I'm surprised about the way I've been able to get back into this show.  I remember watching the original version back in the 80's and hadn't even realized they had a new version until about a year ago, when I caught my daughter watching a rerun from Season 9 dubbed into Spanish.  I'm glad it's continuing next season on Netflix.