MovieChat Forums > The Kids of Degrassi Street (1979) Discussion > What this is like...

What this is like...

posted 12 years ago by apfmh_LP
5 replies | jump to latest

I've been a degrassi fan since I was about 10 (im 22 now) and started out watching junior high with my mum. I like the old series better than next generation but i still watch that too :)

anyway, about 6 months ago i watched the first episode "ida makes a movie". i initially didnt go any further than that. I wanted to see where the show startedit because i love it so much but that first one, while it was ok, i didn't feel like watching a whole 26 episodes of it...

Recently i tried again. You have to give this show a couple of episodes. It helps that there was a couple of years between Ida makes a movie and the rest of the series. The characters are a year or so older, and it gets more issue based, like junior high etc.

It's really interesting to see the actors from junior high as little kids, it's really cute!!!

Now I'm into it, (about 16 episodes in) and it's fun to watch. less serious than junior high as it is younger kids, but it's still good :) worth watching, just give it a few episodes before you make up your mind!

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DoubleDareYa 11 years ago

Very accurate review.

I grew up in Toronto, and still live there. Recently I picked up all 3 seasons of DJH on dvd for $10 each at a discount store due to the price, nostalgic enthusiasm, and the fact that my American girlfriend has never ever seen them. Being a Canadian cultural touchstone, especially due to the fact that the series was filmed in Toronto, it's almost a civic duty to experience Degrassi. So we watched all 3 seasons - well, I watched. She occasionally glanced at the tv while working away on her laptop - and I wanted moarrr!! So I got my hands on Degrassi High, and of course I remebered seeing them all as a kid when they aired on CBC, and I still love them.

I just picked up TKODS yesterday, used at the BMV in the annex for $20. Felt kind of weird about it - a grown man buying a kids show - but figured meh, it's a Degrassi collection at this point. Five minutes into 'Ida Makes a Movie' I regretted the decision. It's kind of unwatachable - documentary-like realism, seemingly shot on cloudy-a$$ Super 8mm film, coyingly sweet musical accompaniment, very loose direction, etc. It's a beautiful document about Toronto childhood in its way, but as the previous reviewer mentioned, no one would watch 26 episodes of it.

But I watched a bit of the 2nd episode 'Cookie Goes to the Hospital' and the show's quality improved dramatically. So, yeah, 'Ida Makes a Movie' was obviously a very low budget short film / pilot. I'm not as stoked on TKODS, but eventually I'm sure I'll watch the rest.

[–] BlueMoon666 11 years ago

Did that BMV location have anymore Kids of Degrassi Street DVDs???

[–] DoubleDareYa 11 years ago

No just the one, but bmv is so random they buy stuff like that all the time from sellers, and the annex location is the biggest in Toronto (with four floors) so keep checking it out.

[–] BlueMoon666 11 years ago

I will!