Why Can't This Be Love? (Pt. 2)

I AM SO SORRY that this post is like, a week (two? three?) late!

I had no time.

Actually, I did have time.  Not an insane amount of time, but enough that if added together, the review could've been out.  But I recently won the award for Teen With Worst Time Management Abilities.

I'm really really really REALLY sorry!

Let's get this party started!

So within the first five minutes of the episode, Sav just keeps dropping bad news on Anya like there's no tomorrow (even though it's already tomorrow in Australia by now).

And then Chantay comes in as Dr. Phil... Thanks for the insight.  Now get off the camera.

"Va-va-va-voom!" -Sav Bhandari
^I swear - NEVER AGAIN. ^

And now begins Farrah's dropping of the hints.  "Bhandari-Hassan family?"  Give me a break.  Being pretty is only like, 1% of it.  Give it up, Hassan.  "What will our children think?"  Puh-lease.  Your accent FAILS!

You ready for this?  I don't know if this has like, a literary device in it or something, but it stuck out so bad I just have to put it here:

Peter: Oh, Anya, could you uh... (waves her away)
Sav: You better get out of the picture.

OUCH!

Farrah: Say 'ghee'!
Sav & Farrah: Ghee!

Oh, you're flippin' hilarious.

"Oh, hold on.  I just want to get a few shoots of Sav for my cousins back in India."

^ SHUT UP! ^

In case you've become addicted to it like me, the song playing when they're entering the school and Farrah pulls a slatternly (thanks Jane Eyre for teaching me that word) move by ripping her dress is "Army of One" by Hill.  I'll check the availability iTunes-wise and post that later.

Here comes the best part of the episode, in my opinion.  Holly J. and Declan :D

Declan: Hello Future Mrs. Bhandari.
Holly J.: (wacks Declan)
Declan: I mean apathetically.
Farrah: Please, it's just all likely I'll marry you.
Declan: (makes a "Bring it on" face)
Farrah: What's your name?
Holly J.: Uh, the natives call him "Puts-Foot-In-Mouth".
Declan: I was joking.  Sav's lucky to have Anya - She's such a hottie.
Anya: (makes "Er..?" face)
Farrah: Mr. Foot In Mouth is right.  You look amazing.  Frankly, I don't think Sav deserves either one of us.
Sav: (walks in to decorative shrubbery - LOLOLOLOLOLOL)

"A nickel, for your trouble.  Buy your niner friend some candy."  Johnny's hair looks especially bad, don't you agree?

Bathroom scene!  Farrah, the bad girl, finally comes out (not of the closet).  And just like in every other cliche, Anya can't tell Sav because then it'll seem like she's jealous.

Anya, you're not Sam (the lifeguard from Beat It).  Stop the mouth-to-mouth.

Another song obsession - "Raise A Little Hell Now" by Shiloh (album: Picture Imperfect).

Peter: Hey Farrah!  How about a dance with your 'date'?
Farrah: (makes a "Puh-lease I'd rather hang out with those blogging losers JJ n' Mango from DegrassiPwns" face)
Peter: Okay...  Maybe not.
^ SHUT.DOWN. ^

Anya: Don't worry, I've taken care of it.
Sav: Wait, like, the pill?
Anya: Come 'ere you.
^ She never actually said that she  Okay nevermind, she flat out lied. ^

Anya: I did something very stupid last night.
Holly J.: Other than the Macarena?
^ HJ - I LOVE YOU (: ^

Personally, although I always say otherwise, I really like(d?) Sanya.  And them breaking up... ouch.  Samantha Munro did an EXCEEDINGLY great job on staging it, though.  Possibly the best breakup scene ever.

SUBPLOT: Alli and Dave (:

I'm actually beginning to like this "couple".  Finally someone came along and told Alli to just... ERGH!  THANK YOU DAVE!

Dave: "We'll call it... The Bhandurner.  Bhandari plus -"
Alli: "Turner.  I get it."
^ Oh, let the poor kid finish his lame crack. ^

"You're too cool for school."
^ Lame line, but nonetheless BURN for Alli.  Loving the Dave.  Loving it. ^

Skip ahead to the formal, right as Anya is whisking Sav off his feet, Dave is showing off his insane dance skills.  I LOVE HIS FACE WHEN HE DOES THIS.  It is exactly the face my friends and I make when we spaz-dance.

Dave: Hey, check it - the Bhandurner slide. (spazzes)

And Alli and her random attempt at the Bhandurner slide.  L O V E.

Overall, this episode (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2) earned itself somewhere in the B section.  It definitely hit "real", but it was just a tiny bit too cliche.  But it's Degrassi, which is worth like a bazillion brownie points.

MLML,

Mango

Give me an N! And then a Y, an R, and a D.

That's right, folks, today's NYRD!  And by NYRD (pronounced "nerd") I mean National Youth Rights Day, not Neptunian Yachtsmen's Reincarnation Day or Norwegian Yearly Roach Demolition.


One of the organizations that helped create NYRD was the National Youth Rights Organization (affectionately known as "NYRA," pronounced "N-eye-rah").  NYRA is one of the leading organizations on the youth rights frontier, working to lower the voting age and drinking age while fighting juvenile curfew laws, behavior modification camps, and just age discrimination in general.  If your town has anyone of those things and you're fed up with it, go to www.youthrights.org and see how you can get involved!  It's a great organization fighting for a cause that doesn't receive enough attention.


So... yeah :)
Do it.
Now.
America loves you.
The End.

Heart Like Mine (Pt. 1)

So the thing that made this episode for me is two words synonymous with Jesus: Adamo. Ruggiero.  And Marco had a pretty boring plot.  Well, I suppose it would've been an interesting one if I were, say, a student teacher coping with teaching at my old school or a retired old man with a passion for stalking youngsters pursuing careers in education and/or intergalactic farming.  But I'm a 14 year-old interested in high school drama.  So it didn't strike me as "WOW."  But Adamo Ruggiero was ON SCREEN looking as smexy as ever.  I just about died.
You see, if you haven't noticed yet, I'm a bit incredibly one hundred percent obsessed with the Jesus that is Adamo.  And even when Marco got to be a bit of a boring character, I lived for episodes with his face.  Even in his awkward brace-face days and his absurd facial hair days, he made my life.  So a Marco plot?  Highlight of the episode.  But I will try to be impartial when reviewing this subplot (though, I'm reviewing it before the main plot so I think I've kinda already ruined that).


So Marco's back, and he and Holly J (whom he fondly refers to as "HJ") have become tight since the last time we saw them.  That whole relationship between them sorta came out of nowhere.  What ever happened to the Sinclair hatred?  It was a little out of the blue for me, but I tried to ignore the absurdity of it throughout the episode.  The plot followed his journey as he tried to discover the role of a teacher and determine the line that sets the boundaries for students and teachers.  The thing that ruined it for me was the fact that this boundary was seen through Marco's eyes.  It was one of those things like Snake and Spike relationship issues or Joey and Caitlin problems... interesting story, but not really what Degrassi was designed to tell about, making it more awkward and less engaging than it needs to be.  Although this wasn't exactly the perspective I was hoping this would be touched on, it is a topic that should be touched on.  I was secretly hoping for both that and some YR (Youth Rights = win) stuff season 9, and 1 out of 2 is pretty good.  I would like to see this same issue touched on more from the student's perspective, but that might just be because I've dealt with some similar things.
Anyway, Adamo hasn't lost his touch as an actor and was still a convincing actor. And it was nice to see some of that big bad Holly J from season 8 that miraculously disappeared after she started dating Declan and hanging with Jane.  Although it wasn't my favorite subplot, it was 1) well executed and 2) ADAMO.  RUGGIERO.


Now for the main plot.  This is really one of those setting the scene things.  The whole Jenna-Clare thing was interesting, don't get me wrong.  But I'm pretty sure the couple will be back, so I wasn't really crying for Clare.  The whole break-up was really uncomfortable, anyway.  It was very spur of the moment, like he opened his mouth to say something and was just making it up as he went and somewhere in the middle realized he was about to dump her.
But the athletic dinner was when it finally got started, after 15 minutes of setting the scene.  KC hooks up with Jenna, makes out with her bearing an incredibly aggressive and intimidating facial expression (I wanted to shout "RAPE" but my 8 year old sister was in the room), yadda yadda yadda.  The whole dinner scene is very quick and random, KC seems to be receiving awards and room keys one minute and making out with Jenna while Alli tells him off in the next.
And now we get to the good stuff.
Now, I sorta already knew what was gonna happen (thanks, Kary!).  But my dear friend Anzykins (not her name, but I've always wanted to call her that) didn't and she called me up as soon as the episode ended (before I saw it, actually) because she was so creeped out by the coach.  And after I saw it, I realized why.  If I were in a room with that guy, I'd shoot myself.  It's very clear that the coach is supposed to be this creepy guy.
What I really liked about this was that it wasn't awkward or forced at all.  Throughout the episode, the coach progressively began to show his true colors, telling KC it's okay to be unfaithful and like other girls, that he should go after what he wants at all costs, that he can take Jenna up to his room, that he can stay late, that he can have a beer, that he can watch porn... bit by bit they establish this, making it more real and much more frightening.


Even though everything was done well, nothing in this episode made me go "WOW!  THAT'S SOME GOOD TELEVISION!"  It was mediocre in comparison to the rest of this exceptional season which is quite disappointing since I was looking forward to this episode.  But hopefully part 2 will show more potential.  It's seems to be a lot like the first episode ever with Emma and her creepy adult friend... maybe, like that episode, it won't really pop unless you watch it all together.

The Oatmeal

Basil introduced me to this wicked awesome website, theoatmeal.com and it told me this:

degrassipwns.blogspot.com

WANTED FOR THE ABNORMAL THEFT of a LUSH PIGEON

$2500

What's Your Blog Wanted For?

Oh, I also found out that there's an average of 966 words in each of our posts... it seems we talk too much.

Broken Promises and the Epic Return of Degrassi

So regardless of the quality of the episode, Broken Promises means Degrassi is BACK, my friends!  Of course, I was in Florida for the premiere in a hotel that was amazing until I found out it didn't have TeenNick.  Then it got less amazing.  But regardless, I managed to get my hands on some Degrassi goodness the other day and I am now prepared to review it for your well-being.


So overall, the episode was great.  I had higher expectations than usual because it was a premiere, but after thinking about it, I realized the episode wasn't designed to be one so I really shouldn't assess it like that.


I only had a few problems with the episode.  My first problem was the bizarreness of Farrah's will to marry Sav.  Of course it was obvious she liked Sav during the awkward "Who's Anya?" "Oh, she's my girlfriend..." scene, and she was kinda annoying when she wanted pictures with Sav, but that may have just been me trying to make her seem like a jerk in my head because I've seen the trailers.  But Farrah was a genuinely likable character.  It didn't fit for her to be the possessive and aggressive character she suddenly wound up being.


My other problem was the subplots.  I probably would've cried when Save dumped Anya, but the subplots are just anticlimactic.  The only decent part of the Bruce-Johnny conflict was the fight between them, but then it's so awkwardly resolved that I couldn't even bring myself to laugh at the comedic relief they're supposed to offer.  And the Alli-Dave plot was great, but it deserves more attention.  Alli seems to think she's better than everyone else and can't be "uncool."  Like many high schoolers today, she's caught between being cool and being herself and Dave and her have different ideas of where the line is drawn.  It wasn't too dramatic or flashy a storyline, but it was a real one that shouldn't have been awkwardly placed between an intense Sav and Anya plot.  Both the subplots were misplaced and distracting from the main plot.


Degrassi has dealt with sex time and time again, partially because it's a big high school topic, partially because there's so many possible ways to utilize it.  There's Holly J. and her doubts as to how sex contributes to her popularity and coolness and there's the genuine love aspect of it that Liberty and JT shared until the pregnancy got in the way.  There's the social consequences that Mia faced when she chose to have sex and the emotional consequences Paige and Darcy faced when they were forced to.  There's first time anxieties and worries with Alli and anxieties in general when Jimmy faces the physical reality with Ashley.  And now there's the pressure to have sex in order to keep your boyfriend with Anya.  And although I love this new take, there are two things I wish they would've done.
1) I wish the pressure was coming from Sav rather than from Farrah.  The typical high schooler is not dealing with pressure from the girl their boyfriend is supposed to marry.  Not to slight the issue, because it's a real one and arranged marriages aren't a thing of the past which is something people should realize.  However, in the sexual aspect of arranged marriages, there's much less pressure.  Farrah wasn't utilized as well as she could've been, serving purposes she didn't need to.
2) I wish Degrassi would show more of the effects of sex that the guy faces.  Sav was stressed about having a baby, but once they took the pill he seemed to be fine and unconcerned, breaking things off with Anya because he couldn't trust her.  The only guy who's really actually had good plots revolving around the effects and consequences of sex was JT during the pregnancy.  Otherwise, the guy has never been the main focus and I'm pretty sure (I wouldn't know for sure since I'm a female virgin) that guys are effected by sex, too.  I guess Johnny had to deal with whatever he was going through, but that was never really focused on as his issue, either, rather as Alli's problem as she stressed about it.


The acting didn't exactly reduce me to tears, but as I mentioned above, the distractive subplots may have had to do something with that since I was never fully able to feel completely involved in a scene.  Raymond Ablack actually shined more in his lighthearted scenes rather than his intense ones while Samantha Munro did the opposite, making them a good, solid team.  The episode provided little bits of humor and some deeper confrontation, taking you through the full spectrum of Degrassi awesomeness.


So Degrassi is back in my life.  And coming up next week?  Heart Like Mine.  Oh, an hour of Degrassi? Be still my heart...
And as a niner myself, any niner drama just makes me exceptionally happy.  Our lives are intense, too, ya know :)


Well, bye.
I need a creative acronym like Mango with her MLML...

Upcoming Episodes

 Are you ready... for the [updated] list of Degrassi episodes?!

Well, that really stinks if you aren't, because here it is!

1. Heart Like Mine, Part 1 & Part 2
2. Holiday Road
3. Start Me Up
4. Innocent When You Dream
5. In Your Eyes
6. Keep On Loving You
7. The Rest of My Life (Degrassi Takes Manhattan)

Marco: The Return

THAT'S RIGHT!

Adamo Ruggiero is in Season 9!

But which episode, do you ask?

Should I tell you?

Heart Like Mine, Pt. 1!  And THAT airs this Friday (in America, because the Canadians have already experienced his return).

On a side note, Why Can't This Be Love? (Broken Promises for us Americans) airs in the summer on Much Music for the Canadians.  SOOO (as JJ stated in a past post) we finally got our Degrassi-fix before the Canadians :D  Although they have already seen all of the upcoming episodes (Heart Like Mine, Holiday Road, and Start Me Up), we got the Sanya insider info ;) Admit to your jealousy, Canadians!

And remember, Why Can't This Be Love? Pt. 2 review is coming up later today and tomorrow JJ plans on whipping up an analysis of the episode as a whole.

MLML,

~Mango

Why Can't This Be Love? (Pt. 1)

After months...

Many weeks...

Countless days...

We were given...

DEGRASSI: BROKEN PROMISES (Pt. 1 for now).

-Yes, applause would be appropriate here-

The episode starts out with Sav opening his locker and confetti being blown all over him.  I love Anya for doing that.

Danny: You're getting pretty good at that. Keeping Anya happy - nice work!

Sav: One minor problem: she wants to come to my place for formal photos.

Danny: Kay, well come on you're not that ugly.

Sav: Very funny.

^ I agree, Sav.  This little exchange actually made me laugh (out loud). ^

This next part is what gets me.  If Sav really, like really, cares about Anya, wouldn't he not want to keep it a secret from his family?  Of course they're going to be upset, but if they know then it would lighten the stress load, even just a little.  Another thing that makes me wonder is Anya parents.  They know, right?

Danny: It's gonna blow up.

Sav: You're right. I gotta come clean.

Danny: No, the Bunsen burner behind you dude!

^ Suave, Sav (: Real smooth (like broken glass!) ^

Alli: Hey dork.

Sav: Hey spaz.

^ This is literally the coolest thing ever.  Honestly, I don't know why, but I am in love with it. ^

"No boyfriends or girlfriends until college!"

^ That's relatively close to what my parents declared ("No boyfriends until you're at least 16") ^

"Well, we walk past here everyday.  I thought it'd be the perfect place for our formal photos."

^ Nice save, Sav (save Sav save Sav save Sav HAHA).  This is the second smooth thing you've done.  Let's keep watching. ^

Wilford Tuxedos.  This was so awesome to watch because... I don't know.  Didn't you think it was awesome?  I sure did!  :D

Fast forward a bit (I'm sure my method of reviewing isn't as favorable as JJ's... sorry!)... When I first saw Farrah Hassan (played by Sarena Parmar) I was taken aback (like Sav) because she was... wow.  Painstakingly beautiful.  (Just a little note, she plays Chandra in How To Be Indie.)

"I hope you and Farrah have a nice life."

^ NO NO NO!  As much as I hate Anya for being with Sav, I need Anya to be with Sav!  I know, hard to understand, but since when does anything I say make sense?  Yeah, never. ^

OHHHHHH Sav wears green skinny jeans (: Can you spell "LOVE"?

Ergh, Chantay and Holly J. spinning off the questions.  As always I strongly dislike Chantay and I used to do the same for Holly J. until she showed that she really changed in Love Games... alas!

*drumroll*

SUBPLOT TIME! (:

This time it's Johnny and Bruce (the Moose, but he's probably gotten rid of that by now).  They've been together forEVER!  And now they actually get some spotlight (well, Johnny's gotten a lot in the last few episodes, but instead of being with Alli, he's with Bruce now).  

At first Bruce pisses Johnny off by acting immature in front a university girl named Lindsey (Lindsay? Lyndsay? There are so many spellings of that name!).  Afterward they get over it and Johnny buys their tickets to the Springtime in Paris formal (spiffy name, eh?).  Bruce (never growing up, "Mister Two Credits Shy") slaps Johnny on the butt and calls it their first date.  Gotta love that guy ;)

Stay tuned folks, for the review of the 2nd part of Broken Promises/Why Can't This Be Love (Pt. 2) is cominggggggg uppppp!

MLML,

Mango!