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!

Season 5, Episode 7: Get A Life

Hello loyal readers, how is the month of February March treating you? I am personally over it with winter by this point, but livng in Canada, I know that I won’t really see spring until possibly mid-April? So I’m just accepting my life.

Edit: So I started this back in February, and it is now March 16h, hopefully this will be up soon, but when I went to go continue this entry it was entirely gone. I freaked out, and luckily kind of got it back from an old revision, but it was missing a decent part of the episode, so I am irate. Stupid WordPress.

Well I can’t believe we are about halfway through this final season. I am really going to try and just plow through this and finish this blog by the end of the year. It’s time to put this horse out to the pasture. I can confidentially say I do not remember much from this episode, so let’ see if it’s a Toot or Boot.

The episode opens with Amanda coming up to a loitering Busy and Sag in the hallway. P.S. Already off topic, but why did I think Sag disappeared after Record store episode? I clearly have a bad memory. Anyway, Amanda asks them if they are going to a guidance counsellor seminar in regards to choosing their high school. Ok, so like maybe this a middle school thing, or my elementary school did not give AF, but we did not have anything like this when I was in school. I went to Catholic school, so it was JK to grade 8, but maybe it’s different in middle school, but most of the kids just went to the expected high school’s in the area. There were a couple exceptions, with the really motivated kids choosing specific schools, and then there was me who didn’t want to go to any school my peers were at and I didn’t want to wear a uniform lol. The point is, this whole thing seems a lot more geared towards picking a University as that has way more relevance then a high school. But I digress.

Busy kind of states what I said in that it’s pointless as she and Amanda want to go to Central Tech and so who cares. Sag is lost and doesn’t know wtf he wants to do, which is VALID as he’s 14 years old. But Amanda insists they at least go check it out for a bit, and drags the unwilling teens off with her to this boring sounding activity.

So they go to the classroom, which has a big “Get A Life” bristol board outside, hence the name of the episode. A guidance counsellor is talking to the students, and really overemphasizing how important is to their entire futures to make sure they pick the right high school, or God knows what will happen to these people. No wonder my generation has anxiety issues. Anyway, Sag asks what the big deal is, as most of them end up automatically going to Central Tech (funnily that is a real high school in Toronto, not sure why they didn’t make up something like they did with Dorsey), to which the guidance counsellor tells them, that is true but there is other options. She names some, and then suggests Riley (not a real school) which is the arts high school. Amanda and Busy both get super excited at that, since they are artistes.

Later on at lunch, the girls are looking over the Riley brochures and getting all excited about the prospects of attending. Amanda points out the drama department has a stage and dressing rooms, and Busy states that they even have a recording studio. I’m sorry, but this has to be a private school, no way is a regular high school having a recording studio. Busy asks Amanda if she’s sure she wants to do this, as the other day she was saying she wanted to be a marine biologist. This a small comment that doesn’t really matter now, but will later. But Amanda says nope, acting is still her number one and she’s in. Busy says the only issue will be convincing her parents, as we all know the Ramone kid’s are expected to eventually take the mental of the butcher shop empire Sam has built.

Later we see Sam and Lucy trying to put together a crib for Manny and Sheila’s imaginary baby. Busy’s annoyed because her parents won’t sign the papers for the art school, citing that “careers are limited in the arts.” Again, unless they are paying tuition, there’s no reason why she can’t just go to a stupid art’s high school. High school has no baring on future work opportunities. But I guess since Sam already has one kid who has ruined his dreams of a successful academic career (Dom), they are putting all their eggs in Busy’s basket. Busy of course is pissed, but Lucy says they aren’t exactly saying no, they just want more information. Anyway, the scene ends with Busy happy and the crib falling apart.

The next scene, Sam Busy, Lucy and Amanda are all touring Riley with a tour guide. We see various arty aspects of the school such as a dance troupe, and a nude sculpture, which Sam is none too impressed by, but Busy reminds him that music students don’t deal with naked people. Sam’s about ready to write everything off, but hears a girl singing opera and he’s pretty enamoured. He seems to be now seriously considering allowing Busy to attend.

The next day at lunch, Sag is probably appropriating a culture, and using an I-Ching (I think that’s what he said it was), trying to figure out his future. Busy tells him to just apply everywhere because then he’ll have to go somewhere. Amanda, Monkey Ears and Carla all show up, and ME tells Amanda he’s surprised she’s going to Riley since she said she wanted to be an Egyptologist before. She said that wasn’t practical, with Monkey Ear’s correctly pointing out that acting isn’t exactly that either. Busy says now that Sam signed her forms all she needs is the guidance counsellor’s endorsement, and that should be easy peasy to get. Or…will it? (said in Keith Morrison voice). Also, gotta point out Carla’s hella 90’s outfit, tank top over t-shirt, love it.

The next scene is one that really pisses me off. So it’s both Amanda and Busy in the guidance counsellor’s office (her name is Ms. Thurmond, I think), but it’s flashing between two separate interviews with her. In Amanda’s interview, everything is going swimmingly, with Ms.Thurmond being under what I like to call “The Amanda Effect”, i.e. people swooning over Amanda because she’s Amanda (see the wort episode from last season). Whereas Busy’s interview is going much differently, with Ms.Thurmond giving Busy a hard time, saying her math grades suck, she doesn’t have enough musical experience etc. Meanwhile not even caring that Amanda had a shitty time like two episodes ago almost failing grade nine when she was skipping school/homework to go do acting. The scene ends with Ms.Thurmond giving Amanda a signed recommendation, but not Busy. What a bitch.

Afterwards Amanda runs up to Busy all excited because she doesn’t know yet that Ms. Thurmond just ruined Busy’s life. Busy kind of plays it off, and doesn’t tell Amanda yet. Amanda runs off somewhere and Busy looks devastated.

Later on at the Ramone’s house, Busy is still super bummed and Lucy is definitely noticing. Manny and Sheila come in with their baby’s ultrasound picture, but they don’t know the sex yet. Is that normal? I thought by then you could know what the kid was going to be. I don’t have kids, so maybe that’s normal. Anyway, Busy leaves the room still upset about the day’s events and Lucy follows her daughter to find out what’s up.

Lucy knocks on Busy’s door and Busy is all mad because her mom didn’t make her keep taking piano lessons as a kid. LOL this is so something I’d blame on my parents as well. Lucy says they gave Busy options for activities and it was up to her if she wanted to keep going. Busy tells her mom because of that she can’t go to Riley. Lucy asks if Amanda got the letter, and Busy’s non-answer gives her mother the answer. Lucy seeing the forest the trees, tells Busy that even if her and Amanda don’t go to the same high school they will still stay friends. Busy’s still bummed though. I think it’s honestly 50/50 in that Busy does want to stick by Amanda’ side, but I think she’s a lot more invested in Riley than Amanda, as Busy has been doing music since the start of this show and Amanda’s been acting for a couple seasons.

The next day Amanda’s chatting with Carla, who tells her she’s decided to go to Andover (no idea if that’s how they spell it) Academy, which is also a made up school. Amanda’s surprised, since Carla is her frenemy/rival with acting, so she was sure she’d also go to Riley, but then Carla says her and her parents decided focusing on academics is more important, since they are 14 and she has no clue what she wants to do. Honestly, that’s a realistic take, but the tour guide said Riley had good academics too, so not sure why they can’t all just go to this stupid school. Busy comes up and is about to tell Amanda she didn’t get in, when Carla kinda pokes her nose into their convo, stating she saw Amanda’s name on the audition list but not Busy’s. Busy then runs off, and Carla does this weird smirk. I really get the impression if things didn’t end up happening later in this season (which I’m pretty sure is next ep), Carla would’ve definitely tried to eventually steal Amanda from Busy.

So Amanda chases Busy into the can, where Busy confesses she didn’t get an audition, thanks to the swamp hag Ms. Thurmond. Amanda’s like wtf, and Busy pretty much reiterates exactly what I said before i.e. Amanda having a rainbow coming out of her ass cuz everything always works out for her, and Busy’s been doing music way longer than Amanda has been acting, but yet Amanda get’s accepted. Amanda’s kinda like….hmm we gotta put our minds together and figure out a solution.

The next scene Busy’s at Amanda’s place and Stephen is trying to create some corny jingle for a chicken commercial. They start talking, and Stephen tells her how before he became a jingle writer, he was an engineer and went to school for that. Busy’s shocked at the idea that Stephen didn’t attend an art’s high school and he has a career as a music writer, and he tells her no musicians he knows went to school for art. Pretty much reiterating that you can do it if you want to. I’d say of all the careers, arts, while the hardest to break into, is the one where you probably need the least amount of formal education. Obviously they all take music/acting/art lessons, but it does seem pretty possible to break into these fields with any background. Busy pushes one key on the keyboard and somehow makes the jingle cooler, I guess showcasing that Busy has natural talent.

Later in the evening, Busy is looking over the booklet for Riley trying to figure out a solution to her issue. Amanda suggests not going to Riley, which Busy responds is a stupid idea, cuz she wouldn’t want to hold Amanda back. But it looks like Busy has possibly found a solution to this whole dilemma.

The next day Busy rushes to Ms. Thurmond’s room to tell her off, well not really, but she does make her thoughts be known, which is why I love Busy. She tells the guidance counsellor that she found something in the booklet that say she can do an audition if she can demonstrate adequate musical abilities, as well as having an endorsement from a professional in the field, so she got a letter from Stephen. Ms. Thurmond doesn’t seem to really care that Busy did all this extra work, and Busy lets her know it was shitty she didn’t help her at all. Finally, she decides to give Busy her signature, since she’d look like an asshole even more if she refused this. I am glad Busy said something, because this lady sucked. She very much failed at her job title, and even seemed like she was actively trying to discourage Busy from even trying. Stupid adults, ruining children’s dreams. At least give them a couple years of thinking life can work out for them!

Elated, Busy runs down the hall to tell Amanda she defeated Ms. Thurmond and got the signature. But now it’s Amanda’s turn to ruin Busy’s day, as she drops the bomb that she’s decided to go to Andover instead of Riley. Busy is rightfully like what the actual fuck, but Amanda says it’s because she’s still not sure what she wants to do in the future. Busy’s pissed though, because you can tell that she’s super upset that her and Amanda won’t be at the same school next year. Busy feels really betrayed by this whole ordeal and walks off. Ok first of all, I wish I could take them both aside and say, One, It doesn’t matter if you don’t go to the same high school as your friends. I didn’t go to the same high school as any of them, and I basically remained friends with a couple of them until one moved away and then the others we naturally just drifted apart with age, but that happens to almost everybody. Two, just go to fucking Riley, Amanda. If there’s one time that you should just do fuck all, it’s in high school. I don’t really get the emphasis on how important this choice is to everyone in this episode. Maybe I went to a super lax elementary school, but all we were told was go to the Catholic school nearest you, and I didn’t even do that, I went to a public school, but never once did anyone ever tell us that our lives depended on this choice.

The next day Sag is sitting in the hallway still being annoying, and Busy asks if he’s finally decided where he wants to go to high school. He gives some stupid answer, and Busy says she’s nervous about her audition. Sag says she’ll be fine. Amanda see’s Busy and wishes her luck. You can tell things are still awkward between them, but I’m glad Busy is still doing the audition.

The episode ends with Busy at her drumming audition and there’s triumphant music in the background as she’s playing, so I’m assuming she got accepted to Riley.

This episode was pretty good. I wonder if the show knew this was the last season by this point, as they could’ve just had them go to different high school’s instead of what happens instead (I won’t spoil the almost 30 year old show, but just in case people are watching it for the first time). Yeah, I dunno, this episode continues to show that Amanda and Busy are different people, but now for the first time it feels like their differences may be pulling them apart instead of keeping them together. It was a weird vibe.

Next episode: Get ready for a tear jerker, as one of the students at Dorsey Jr. High is taken away from us too soon.