Season 1, Episode 2: No Worries

Hello again friends. Last we left off, we met about 250 kids who live in Edgemont and all have issues of which I have varying levels of caring about. Arguably the most important one being a minor is missing, and that’s how we ended off the premiere of Edgemont!. So let us continue on, with hopes that maybe this episode we will be able to devote a bit more time to specific people and problems and not have everyone crammed in at once.

The episode opens with Mark having returned home after looking for Travis all night around the neighbourhood. Kat is freaking out, thinking that their brother could’ve gotten on a Greyhound to God knows where. Apparently their mom still doesn’t even know he’s missing, with Kat being pissed she left for work as if nothing was wrong. Well why aren’t you telling her her child is missing?? Like I get it, they think the parents can’t handle it. But like these teenagers can? Anyway, it’s an extremely short scene, then we get into the catchy theme song immediately.

After the opening credits, we see a guy at the coffee shop with his head down looking like he is asleep. I thought it was Mark at first, given the whole overnight search, but no, it’s Gil, and we’re still on that stupid essay plot from the first episode. Chris comes by and is happy to see Gil completed the task and ends up taking the essay Gil did for himself because that one would likely be better. Then Gil spills coffee on his essay like a dumbass.

We then go to Mark and Kat at the school with Mark telling his sister if Travis isn’t found by noon they’ll call the police. Kat asks why he’s even in the school because he’s suspended, which he somehow forgot, but I guess he’s got shit on his mind. Kat takes off, then Scott rounds the bend to bug Mark about being in love and not being able to talk to Laurel properly. Holy shit, this character is by far the most annoying one so far. His whole thing so far has been awkward weirdo who doesn’t have social skills. Mark tells him to just be himself and leaves, with Scott being like, well who am I? At least he’s aware his character has zero personality.

In the washroom, Anika and Erin are talking, with Anika bitching she didn’t get as high a mark as Erin on a test, even though she copied Erin. Erin says her pea brain answers were the wrong ones, which somehow Anika blames her for as well. Laurel comes in, and Anika acts fake nice to her, informing Erin once Laurel is out of earshot that she’s going to regret moving to Edgemont by the end of the day.

We then see Erin telling a bunch of girls that Laurel did something so bad “she can’t even show her face in Toronto anymore.” Listen, we had a crack smoking mayor, there’s very little that shocks Torontonians, so unless Laurel committed a terrorist attack and is on the run, I doubt anything she could have done would matter at all.

Laurel then see’s a bunch of the girls that Erin was talking to, looking at her and saying shit, so she can tell something is going on. Scott comes by, and actually makes a semi-decent attempt to talk to Laurel, asking her if she wants to study for some test that’s on Friday. Laurel is so preoccupied with rumours starting and probably sick of being followed (by Scott), she barely acknowledges him and walks off.

In the halls, we see Jen has now met up with Mark, whose telling her the news that the principle has dropped the suspension to detentions because of Mark’s broken home situation. Mark then asks Jen for a quarter, who asks, “for what?” Which maybe nowadays to the youngins who never encountered a payphone this would be a weird request, but he’s clearly asking her for it to use the phone. I am kinda surprised he doesn’t have a cell, but I sincerely cannot remember when I got my first cell phone, so maybe 2000 was just before it started becoming a thing. Mark tells her the Travis thing, and her response is normal in being like wtf why haven’t your parents done that, with Mark confirming he hasn’t told them yet. Ugh, stupid teenagers, stop trying to handle things that are way outside of your capacities.

Mark calls the cops, who seem to not really give a shit given how the phone call ends. Scott, of course lurking in the shadows, comes out and yet again bugs Mark to help him with Laurel, whose sitting on the floor on her laptop. How Mark hasn’t told this guy to go the fuck away yet, I have no clue. Mark finally gives in, as clearly Scott is not going to be satisfied until Laurel is chained in his basement, and goes to try and help him out with her.

So Mark tries to give Scott an opening to talk to Laurel, and starts talking about the SkyDome (which it will always be known as, screw The Rogers Centre), but instead Scott decides to continue having stupid daydreams about Laurel. But while Scott continues to make an idiot of himself, Laurel and Mark kind of seem to hit it off a bit. But considering Mark actually knows how to have a conversation, I’d say the bar is pretty low.

We then cut to an extremely short scene of Craig at the coffee shop with Maggie, and he’s talking about goddamn Communism again. Actually he’s decided he’s now an Anarchist. Maggie slightly humours him, while gently touching his hands, which you know made him pop a chub. But anyway, we don’t need to go into that. Also this scene was not needed and pointless, because this is the only time we see Craig this whole episode.

Back to the main story line; Mark meets up with Kat to call the police (which he already did), and Kat is on the cusp of a mental breakdown because of Travis. Jen comes up running and tells the siblings to come with her. We then cut to her garage, and we see this kid, I’m assuming Travis, sleeping in the backseat of a car.

Kat is about ready to snap this kid’s neck, but Mark tells her to calm down and tells Travis to come on home with them. And that literally seems to be the end of that plot point. Also entirely offtopic, but these siblings don’t look related to each other at all and it bothers me.

At the coffee shop, Gil is still there, drinking coffee and whining about writing the two essays. I thought teenagers were able to stay up all night with ease. I remember doing stuff like that. Erin and Anika come in, and Anika starts asking Gil what’s his issue. Gil says he’s pissed at the teacher and Chris regarding the whole situation. Anika tells him to watch himself, as Chris is a psychopath (I don’t know why this is a thing with her, as so far Chris seems fairly normal). Gil responds that he’d kick Chris’ “black ass”. The girls are just like ooooooooooooookay…..

….And immediately go tell Chris exactly what Gil said, lmaaaaaaao. The girl’s of course come up with a bullshit excuse to be telling him, but Chris knows they just want to cause chaos. He’s pissed either way, and probably goes off to decapitate Gil.

At Mark’s place, he gives Travis the quintessential Canadian dinner, i.e. Kraft dinner and asks him where he went. Travis tells him he was basically just hanging around, and asks how their mom took his disappearance. Mark tells him they never told the mom, and Travis gets mad and runs off. So clearly he did it to get the parents to notice him. Ah classic pre-teen move for attention, pretending to run away.

The next day at school, Jen is basically saying the exact same thing to Mark, in that Travis was acting out to get his parents attention, and that Kat and Mark were stupid not to say anything to the parents. But enough about Travis, because Mark and Jen’s six month anniversary is coming up on Friday, and Jen wants to make it super special. Which we all know what that means on teen shows. Better go buy some prophylactics, Mark.

After Jen fucks off, Mark is walking down the hall and Laurel stops him and asks what the hell is wrong with Scott, i.e. does he have a keeper, and why isn’t he being handled properly? Mark subtly lets her know that he basically has a crush on her and that’s why he can’t act like a normal person. Laurel then lets him know that it’s not happening, and advises him to tell Scott that, lest she has to obtain a restraining order. Laurel leaves, and Anika asks Mark if he’s gotten the word on her.

Which leads to another scene of Laurel being confronted by Erin and some random girls stating the reason Laurel left Toronto was because she was pregnant. This is very stupid, but realistic high school drama, unlike shows like Degrassi: The Next Generation, where Laurel would’ve had to leave Toronto because she was a former teen stripper (actual plot of an episode, minus leaving Toronto).

Erin and her girl group leave, and Anika pops by to offer fake sympathy to Laurel, who see’s through it and calls her one sick puppy for starting this messed up rumour. Anika gives two shits, and tells Laurel that she’s pretty much done at this school reputation wise, and Laurel should catch the next flight back to The Six.

Cut to a new scene, and Gil is walking along, when Chris approaches all happy that he got a B+ on the essay he wrote for him. However, the love is short lived, as Chris tells Gil he heard from Anika that Gil planned on beating his “black ass” and he responds by literally crushing Gil’s balls with his vice-like grip. So yeah, not exactly helping Chris’ psycho reputation, but Gil had it coming. #questionablescreenshots

In the cafe, a short scene of Mark breaking the news to Scott that it’s a hard no from Laurel. He’s sad. Moving on.

At Mark’s, Travis is watching TV while Kat is freaking out looking for a remote, but in the background you can hear their parents fighting. Travis says they’ll likely end up in some dump apartment because their parents are going to break up and ruin their sweet Edgemont house situation. Kat says it’s unlikely and that they are just having a domestic, but no one is splitting up. Also, off topic, but Travis feels like such a 90’s name to me. Does anyone name their kid Travis anymore?

Back at the coffee shop, a postpartum Laurel enters, and Mark comes up to her asking how it’s going. She says obviously shitty, as Kool-aid head Anika and her minion have spread rumours that she was knocked up. Mark scoffs and says it’s obviously not true, is it? She’s like d’uh.

Mark invites her to sit down and asks how this all started. Laurel says Anika, but she’s not sure what her damage is. Mark says it’s probably because Laurel is hotter than her, and says she shouldn’t worry about Anika because basically no one takes her seriously. Laurel seems to give into that logic pretty quickly and is over it. Mark then asks her about Toronto, if she has a boyfriend (which Laurel keeps quiet about), if she’s had sex in a public place. She jokingly says yes and Mark’s like :O but then they start laughing. So obvi we can see there is definitely some chemistry between these two.

Oh and Erin see’s it too, complete with her pen from the movie Clueless.

Mark goes home and Kat’s all pissy because she thinks Mark is cheating on Jen with Laurel based on I guess either an IM or an email Laurel sent him, thanking him for cheering her up after her crappy day. Either way, why’s Kat reading his shit? Mark’s like yeah nothing happened, so mind ya damn business.

The episode ends with Anika on the phone with Erin who is obviously spilling the deets of the cafe encounter and now everyone will think Laurel is not only a teen mom, but also a homewrecker.

Overall I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the first. Annoying characters were cut down big time, and now major plot points for future story lines are starting to emerge. The pacing has gotten better as well, though I’m still not a huge fan of how many literal 5 second scenes this show still has, but definitely an improvement over episode 1. I love how Erin and Anika are the agents of chaos and just continue to cause problems for their own/my amusement. The Travis running away plot was pretty boring, but I guess it relates well to the parental issues the siblings are all dealing with.

The synopsis for next episode seems to be a continuation of the Laurel and Mark scandal so I’m looking forward to that and how far Anika and Erin can push ridiculous rumours. Also, why was this episode called “No Worries”? It seems like a lot of people were worried throughout it.

P.S. I just noticed a couple screenshots seem to be smaller, sorry about that, not sure what happened there.

Thanks again for continuing to follow the new direction of the blog, and I hope you guys will continue to read along as I tackle this questionable series. Until next time!

Season 1, Episode 1: Collateral Damage

Hello everyone, and welcome back if you are joining me again. While I have FINALLY finished the Ready or Not journey, I decided I just wasn’t done with cheesy 90’s teen Canadian shows. Actually correction, we have survived Y2K and we are now in the 2000’s with the series Edgemont. I’m honestly unsure exactly how popular this show was, I know for a fact no one I know watched it, but I thought the same thing of Ready or Not, and learned through this blog that it was popular around the globe, so maybe Edgemont will surprise me too.

So right off the bat I’m going to let you guys know I never finished this show. I think I saw up to season 4 maybe, and that was years ago, so I remember slim to nil. So I’m kind of excited to dive in and explore this show with a fresh pair of eyes. If you wish to follow along, I know for sure it’s on Tubi in Canada, and I believe it’s been uploaded to YouTube as well.

A brief overview of the show as per Wikipedia. Edgemont debuted on CBC on January 4th, 2000. So 24 years ago. Does anyone else feel old as fuck after reading that? It ran for 4 seasons, and was filmed in Vancouver, BC. Unlike Ready or Not, Edgemont explored a lot more risky themes such as teen sexuality, prejudice and teen pregnancy (I don’t remember this plot at all, so it must be later in the show). Oh and apparently the name of the show is a fictional suburb in Vancouver.

So by far the biggest star to come out of this show was Kristin Kreuk, who plays Laurel. If you watched TV in the 2000’s you will definitely remember her from her role in Smallville. She also was in some movies such as Eurotrip (Scotty doesn’t know!).

In addition to Kreuk, we also have Dominic Zamprogna who plays Mark. You guys may remember him as Amanda’s almost date Cam, from Ready or Not. He has a much bigger role on this show. I think he’s also on a soap opera, so there’s that as well. Surprisingly I don’t believe there is any other crossover between the two shows, but I guess Edgemont debuted after Ready or Not was done, as well as filming on the west coast of the country.

To me, this show is like a cornier version of Degrassi in that it has an ensemble cast who each has their own ongoing storylines, but it has that early 2000 cringe to it, and some of the acting is questionable. But you know me, I loves me some Canadian TV content, so I’m excited to review this show in all it’s glory(?) So let’s get on with it!

The episode opens with a guy in a basement screaming for another guy named Travis. A girl comes down the stairs and tells him to pipe down, but the guy tells him that he’s looking for his math textbook and for some reason he thinks Travis might have it. The girl is like yeah that makes sense. You can pretty much tell right off the bat that these three are siblings.

The girl then informs her brother that she spoke with their dad last night, and it sounds like he’s flown the coop as apparently he tells her that everything going on is a good thing and that “they’ll all learn to grow”. Pretty sad excuse for parental separation, even Leonard did better than that with his reasoning. Her brother just scoffs and runs off.

Cut to a new scene, and we are now in a school with two different guy characters. The guy with the hat informs the other guy that he’s thinking about joining the Communist Party. God, I feel like every teenage guy goes through this stage at some point. It’s this, or deciding to read Atlus Shrugged.

He asks his friend what he thinks of his current enlightenment of learning that capitalism is evil, but before said friend can answer (I’ll start using their names once someone says them because I’m NGL, I forget everyone other than Laurel and Mark’s names…lol this is off to a strong start), he is blindsided by a new gal walking down the hallway.

He (Scott), starts to fall all over the place like a goddamn weirdo at the sight of this girl. She of course is not impressed with his public display of creepiness.

So after Scott makes a total ass of himself we jump into the theme song which is pretty damn corny but kinda catchy? Hahaha. It’s no Ready or Not theme, but it’s like an actual song that gives it bonus points. I wonder who sings this song. I will check the credits after, but if anyone knows shout out.

So after that riveting opening number, we’re back in the school, and we see two new girl characters talking to one another. One is telling the other she went to Pike Place market and saw a Mariners game, so clearly she spent the weekend in Seattle, which is pretty close to Vancouver. The guy from the beginning (ok no one has said his name, but it’s Mark so I’m calling him that now), asks how Seattle was to the one girl, while the other one jets off. The girl asks him how his weekend was and Mark says weird because of his family drama. She then asks if he is pissed about Friday night and he says no, and she says she is and walks off. oooOooo in person vaguebooking, how annoying.

Scott comes by from earlier and tells Mark he’s in love. They make some small talk about some assignment that Mark hasn’t done due to his home life being shit and he takes off. The mysterious girl is then seen again walking down the hall by Scott who probably just had an awake wet dream at the sight of her again.

We then go to two new characters, a girl whose gossiping about someone, and a guy talking to different random girl about anime porn. The girl, whose name is Anika, right off starts telling this other chick that the guy, Chris, is a psycho for some reason. I guess the show wants to quickly establish these two hate each other, so I’m sure at some point in the show they’ll end up hooking up. Anyway, I feel like the show is just trying to quickly establish who all the main characters are because….

….We then go to another new character, whose name is Gil (awful), and apparently he’s shocked at the amount of Asians at this school despite the fact that he lives near Vancouver, and decides to openly be a racist and complain to Mark’s sister while she’s at her locker.

But Gil has reasons other than complaining about Chinese people to Kat (pretty sure that’s her name, let’s go with that). He lets her know that Mark has gotten kicked out of social studies for not doing his assignment.

Speaking of assignments, we learn that Gil decided to copy Chris’ essay and now they are both in shit for that. It’s literally a two second scene. I think it’s just establishing that Gil is kind of a piece of shit. He’s definitely a slimeball character from what I remember.

New scene, Anika is in the washroom with another new character whose name I can’t remember. She’s giving Anika the answers to some assignment, so I guess she’s kind of a nerd. Mysterious girl aka Laurel comes in and tries to make small talk. She makes the grave error of saying she’s from “Tor-on-toe” which is a no-no as everyone in Canada outside of Toronto hates Toronto. But the girls continue to be fake nice with her. Also, it’s fairly obvious that this character/actress is not from here, because no one pronounces the TO part of Toronto, it’s more like Turonno.

Later we see Scott and the other guy (whose name is Craig), staring obsessively at Laurel again, who is now sitting at a table with Anika. Scott also has somehow found out within the span of a morning that Laurel lives in a certain condo, so he’s definitely a grade A stalker. Anika talks about how they are both losers, but they hang out with Mark who has potential except for his girlfriend who sucks. Suddenly the girl Anika was with (whose name is Erin) bursts through a door and asks them if they heard what happened with Mark.

We then see Anika and Erin going around telling all the other characters (Mark’s girlfriend Jen and her friend Grace) that Mark basically assaulted the vice principal. Erin is shown talking to Craig about it, and I should probably point out now that Erin and Craig are siblings as well.

Later at a coffee shop (which is one of the places these characters hang out at often), Scott and Craig are asking Mark if he brutally beat up the vice principal and Mark tells them of course not. The vice principal was giving him a speech and he turned to leave, and the VP grabbed him and they both fell. Damn must’ve been a tight ass grip, maybe Mark should be the one pressing charges. But for some reason, this leads to Mark getting expelled from school. Seems a little drastic if you ask me.

Actually apparently he’s only suspended for two weeks, which seems a bit more reasonable then expulsion, but also still dramatic as the reason is him not doing some stupid assignment. Jen is losing her shit, but Kat tells them the reason Mark wasn’t able to focus on the assignment was because their parents were in the process of splitting up over the weekend. Anika tries to get nosy and learn the details, but they all tell her to fuck off, because Anika is the Carla of this show, and no one really likes her.

Later on, we see Mark at his locker cleaning out his stuff for his suspension. Jen comes running over all giddy because she thinks she’s solved all the issues, by telling the VP about Mark’s family issues. Mark however is not impressed, and tells Jen to back off, as he’s allowed to mess up his life on HIS terms.

The scenes flip so quickly between the characters on this show….was Degrassi like this? Anyway, we go back to Scott, who is clearly having another daydream, because in it he’s talking to Laurel about all the things he’s done when he went to Toronto, like see the Blue Jays and Raptors play. Laurel is very turned on by this for some reason, and goes in for a smooch which shakes Scott out of it. This kid needs to go home and download some porn on his 56k connection.

P.S. How great would’ve it been if Laurel had been played by Laura Bertram and Amanda was the exotic new Toronto exchange student? Would’ve been a great crossover haha. But I do like Kristin Kreuk in this role.

Anyway, back in the real world, Laurel is at one of those Coke vending machines that were in every high school in the aughts, and asks Erin how she likes living in Edgemont. Erin says it’s the same old, and Laurel says she misses Tor-on-toe, but mainly because her friends and family are there, but also kind of disses Edgemont, since apparently the only thing in this suburb is condos and malls. How far is it from Vancouver? It’s not like they are far from a major city if it’s a suburb. But anyway, she leaves and Anika gets all bitchy, so you can tell these gals about to turn on Laurel soon. Should’ve kept your Torontonian heritage a secret, Laurel. I do however think it’s hilarious that Anika actually pronounces the city the way a person from Toronto would say it. I looked up where the actress, Vanessa King is from, but she’s a BC native, so I’m impressed.

Yet another new scene, at the coffee shop, Craig is annoying this girl that works there by telling her his communist aspirations. I forget her name, but he has a major crush on her and bothers her a lot. Her boyfriend, who happens to be Jen’s older brother comes and and they kiss it up and Craig has to sit there and watch it and internalize his incel feelings. Actually Craig isn’t bad looking, kinda cute, but so far his character’s development has literally been I like communism, so let’s hope he expands beyond that.

Anyway, back to Mark and Jen. He visits her garage, where she’s doing homework inside some car. Then she starts yelling at him for not telling her about his parents breaking up. Ummm what? How are YOU the one getting mad? It’s up to him when he wants to tell anyone something like that. Plus you went and told the vice principal, which he didn’t like. I dunno, so far this chick is pretty annoying, like she’s somehow entitled to Mark’s information. I don’t remember disliking Jen, but she’s not making a great first impression. They make up quickly though and start making out. Oh and it’s implied the reason Jen was pissed earlier in the episode about Friday night was because Mark was trying to make her do the deed and she wasn’t ready. Ah such a classic trope on teen shows.

At Anika’s, she’s trying on some clothes, which includes a strapless shirt. It’s really nothing too scandalous, but when she leaves the room, Erin makes it a point to say she looks like a hooker. She then gets Laurel to try on one of Anika’s other shirts, and Laurel makes the mistake of saying she looks like a hooker right when Anika is back in the doorway. So yeah, definitely some drama is brewing between these girls. Also I think Erin is like the girl Gil, she loves to cause drama, and it’s pretty entertaining so I’m glad she’s here.

A short scene shows Chris and Gil, with Gil saying he was able to get them out of getting in trouble for the essay fiasco with the teacher agreeing they each write 2500 word new essays. Chris is like fuck that, you copied me so you are writing both. Gil says there’s no way he can write two papers in one night. Oh Gil…….. wait until University my friend. Chris is like tough shit and walks off.

Back to Mark and Jen, still making out in the car. Jen’s brother Derek comes in with Maggie (girl from the cafe) and basically kicks them out so they can bang in the car lol.

Back at Anika’s, Laurel has left but she’s fuming to Erin about the hooker comment. Erin, stroking the flame says that she can’t believe Laurel would say that and that Anika looks sexy and smart. Hahahha this little bitch, love her. Anyway, Anika has now vowed to be Laurel’s mortal enemy.

Speaking of Laurel, she’s now at the coffee shop, where Scott and Craig are. Scott spots her from his desktop computer and of of course starts acting stupid. Craig tells him to just go talk to her. So he does, and you can tell by Laurel’s face she wants him to immediately go away.

But Scott is delusional and thinks it went well, so yay for him.

Finally the last scene, Kat is talking on the phone to her mom, and is about to say something but decides not to. Mark comes home and Kat starts freaking out because Travis (remember him from way at the beginning?) their little brother is missing. The episode ends with both of them looking at each other in dismay as they now have to handle this new family crisis.

Thoughts so far? I hate the pacing of this show. I’m hoping it’s because it’s the first episode and maybe the creators felt they had to jam in every single character/conflict all at once, but it was way too much. I can’t remember if it becomes like Degrassi and they focus more on specific characters per episode, but I really hope so, because this back and forth was a LOT. Some characters felt like an afterthought and really had one dimensional personalities so far. The show definitely has potential to be entertaining in the Canadian teen drama sort of way, but so far it’s felt overwhelming and annoying.

So I’m assuming next episode will focus on Travis, yet another character…sigh. Maybe Anika vs. Laurel? Scott continuing to be a creeper? We’ll see. I hope you enjoyed this first review, and looking forward to tackling Edgemont with y’all. Until next time!