I decided to binge the newer seasons of Degrassi recently, subsequently stumbling upon their very active Reddit page. Long story short, people ask for other recommendations, and there's been a few mentions of actors from the show who went to do other stuff. I wasn't that interested in seeing another of their actresses don a bald cap and fake cancer, but apparently the creator of the show decided to try and do a series set in LA about struggling actors, featuring Manny Santos, the struggling actress from Degrassi. The LA Complex.
It's total trash but I have a few notes. I don't know why you would let a character wear the same shirt for the first two episodes which happen over two days, other than he's forced to sleep elsewhere. Just like Melrose Place, you have the resident older bitch (only Amanda kinda came on the scene later from memory, I don't think she was part of the spin off pilot), played by Jewel Staite, and she pulls it off. Her arc is more interesting as a recovering alcoholic (her denial is pretty big) washed up actress who may or may not be scamming a rich dentist out of seed money for some proto-Cohen Brothers to make a movie. The dentist doesn't care she's doing this and later on the proto-Cohen Bros don't even seem to give a shit they lost funding for the movie that may or may have not starred Ellen* Page (who was still big in 2012, but barely - she got done dirty). Apparently it's mentioned in season 2 and they got Ellen but you don't see much of these two again so they were background characters. They lose Ellen, of course. But you don't much care about this storyline since it's so C tier. Later drunky's washed up enough to get a role on a Sharknadoesque movie, which she's also fired from to have to take a celebrity rehab role even though she's not really an addict (according to her). She's smart enough to keep control of her own narrative but she still bails when she realises nobody gets real help there. She ends up filing for bankruptcy to get out of being sued and actually becomes a waitress. Then she goes back to try and make the Cohen kids' movie in the complex, so they suddenly matter as characters. Washed up alcho manages to skim money at her new job while guerilla filming the project with no money and the Cohen's filming it in single takes. Which is illegal as fuck but funny as fuck too. They pull it off to make a cool artsy trailer by the end of the show.
I like it's an ensemble but I don't like everyone I guess. It's not trash. The gay closeted rapper storyline has more depth to it than what's going on with the rest of the cast and it ends real bad by the end of the season. It's a 2012 show so you're going to have to put up with a lot of words that you can't say now. Plus self-hating violent gay man is getting old now too. It's what happens if you binge shit like this from that period but at least he's more developed than that. He has to keep the role of straight gangsta rap artist who can't finish his album while he's forced to go ultra straight and marry a good Christian girl rather than the intern love of his life he beats the shit out of. He tries again with some lawyer instead, gets all aggressive again. It's not handled badly. The lawyer says he has to go back to the poor intern kid who was like a main character season 1 and suddenly just gets written out because he wasn't interesting enough compared to the gay rapper. The intern kid just wanted to cut beats and produce. For like Drake and shit (YES they MENTION DRAAAAAAAKEEEEE). Manny flies all the way to Montreal with gay rapper to see kid and of course she comes back and says "he doesn't want to see you" because we couldn't get the kid back. Oh but wait they do. (I forgot the kid has another boyfriend on the IMDB list). Gay rapper apologises, it's touching. Then you're left wondering if Manny and Gay rapper will get home without crashing. Manny's fine and has a new hunky guy she picked up at an extras beach shoot, who turns out to be a pilot who can't talk about his job. Sounds like a set up for a bigger plot in the non-season. And Gay rapper ends up okay in the end. Hooray for him. He works it out with the lawyer boy, it's all cutesy but wow way to fuck over the poor intern kid who taught him how to love. Then his dad's in a coma and he keeps stroking out and dies. He gets more story time considering he's not technically a main character, the intern is, but he has more going on that's worth exploring, I guess. Another Degrassi alum BLT (Dayo Ade), comes back as the rapper's record producer.
The kid comedian/writer is amusing and dorky, he gets shat on by Paul F Tompkins which is great, who pops up later. Man's a good sport. Comedian kid also manages to end up to his neck in pussy when he's struggling to get laid initially. He plays dumb a bit too much and it's annoying. The Australian first time actor on the ER/General Hospital plays a dropkick drunk self-abuser pretty well but he's harder to feel sorry for. I don't know if I buy his backstory as much. The dancer/porn star's probably more my favourite, I like she's not bitchy and we get to see the good side of porn, it's a literal candy land. You think she's going to get screwed by another washed up drug addict actor after they make a sex tape to launch their careers, then she agrees to the porn stuff then stuffs up another audition. Sorry, now I dislike her. The drug addict actor comes back where they follow through on him getting a job on the same rehab show and he plays off Straite's character as well, he was pretty good value for how little he's used.
They have a "house band" so to speak, a band who lives in the titular complex, which is a shitty motel so it's great they're not livin' large. But this band kinda provides music for the scenes and parties but they're living there rehearsing a lot so you wonder if they get real actual gigs, because the drummer looks WAY too happy to be playing parties in a shitty motel for I'm assuming room and board?? I can't really give that any more crap than Lynch having acts at the end of Twin Peaks the Return to promote them. And they don't suck as a band either, later on they kinda have a Pixies vibe with a bald male lead who does great harmonies with the brunette Kim Dealish girl.
It's a fun show, it's relatively interesting, you don't necessarily hate the fact they're struggling in LA, you give enough of a damn. It's calling out the industry on how stupid it is. Bad Momagers get shit to for forcing their lactose intolerant kids to eat dairy. And guess who shows up as one but DREW'S Torres's FUCKIN' MOM. Who's like a bigger bitch in this. Cassie Steele brings her A but she was actually good in Degrassi against a lot of people. Meanwhile she cuts a backing track for the gay rapper but somehow still winds up with no fucking money, there's no mention of her being paid at all. She even goes commando again! And sits in her bra in front of Alan Thickie. Check out those blurred lines. She's great pulling off the religious BS for a part and teaming up with the "incest" twins on the show to cover their offscreen banging, which is fun, especially when it goes into threesome mode. And of course they gang up on her and get her fired (but she does more work in that area instead of shutting up). There are some predictable moments but these ones are fun at least.
They nix the porn angle since the dancer gets the gig she doesn't think she was going to get for six entire episodes. She's replaced with some homeless kids who stumble on a commercial being filmed in the fucking woods and of course the younger one gets a moment onscreen. The sister is only 18 but that's only an issue when the wrong older man is hitting on her, mainly the director of the commercial who was not remotely interested in helping her or her brother. Otherwise some other kid's dadager (I don't know if they were a thing) is fair game after one free lunch. She's kind of interesting as she's navigating the hell of child auditions which is better than doing it from a momager angle, but the kid seems to figure out how shit works way faster than she does, plus she's fucking it up for him by not letting him act (which involves a kidnapping scene with a "pedophile"). She's still stupid quitting - they sue you for that, you know. So her character is more obnoxious considering she's got no Plan B if this fucks up. So she thinks she's protecting him when she's basically fucking up his whole life. You need the money, dumbdumb. And him screaming at her is like completely justified. Of course he runs off and freaks her out and she has to have a learning curve. Which she doesn't actually learn from and seems to be less responsible than her brother that ran away because she's sleeping around kinda. They make friends/boyfriends with the proto-Cohens and that kind of justifies them all being there still. The dad comes back after she begs him and he shows up the moment they don't need him of course, so he's deadbeat dad. Her getting mad and refusing to go is ridiculous considering it's kinda her fault he's there. He basically attempts to kidnap the boy in front of the whole complex and they all have to step up and stop him. Sis gets a 1900 on her SATs but can't afford college (I thought you had to pay for the SATs too I think one of the Cohen's pays). Of course dada takes him anyway because reality and the law so of course she may as well just stay. Which kind of disqualifies her since she's not gunning for a movie career which is the premise of the show. But she decides to go so that makes sense.
The comedy writer gets a gig on the team for Paul's talk show where the ruthless girl he stole the jokes from is still riding him but it's getting absolutely stale and she can't shake him anyway, and it's a fucking kink with them in the end. He's still annoying but you're more on his side. Plus, again, you have to factor in the transphobic he/she bullshit too. After the back and forth and duking it out for the job they wind up together even though he wanted Manny to begin with. Most of their stuff is funny especially with the head writer asshole on Paul's team and Paul coming back (decidedly trimmer than he started) to fire the kid when he takes a coke bullet for the head writer guy. The girl turns out to have kinda griffted her dad out of money to be a comedian instead of going to med school so she gets cut off and she has to live with comedy writer. Because they're good for each other really. You know those couples. Him and Manny make nice. Then she marries pilot boy but she doesn't know him and wants to annul the Vegas wedding they have after he proposes. I don't really understand how you can do this there seems to be some kind of money making scam here in quicky weddings and quicky annulments. The comedy duo wind up living together and she has to move to another state and why are we even setting that up - last episode. She won't take him with her despite porno dancer tells him over the phone to do it, he needs to stay or he won't get work.
The Australian manages to burn down his house but you're still waiting for the insurance agency to catch him, which doesn't come up again until near the end. Some celebrity signs him up as a rent-a-boyfriend, the washed up alcho telling him to do it then getting jealous because they end up boyfriend/girlfriend after casual shit. While he's rented out the husband of the celebrity comes back and they all end up buddy buddy where she's there controlling the shit out of both of them, but of course she reconciles with the husband and the Australian can't leave because abandonment issues. His self-harming arc is still believable. Someone shows up claiming to be his sister to the point she gets a DNA test.
Scientology even gets a drive-by dissing, because again, 2012, that was a banger year for their publicity team. And UUUGGGHH the sister is with the church and the Australian's dumb enough not to know, so I think they have to set up his indoctrination and the washed up aging actress will have to bail his ass out but I don't think they get that far because the show was canned after 19 eps and I think it'll end on a cliffhanger at this rate with 3 eps left. It's more than watchable. But she calls it the Church of Scienetics which is like what a portmanteau of Dianetics and Scientology? So they want the actor because he's supposed to have money and that's their demographic. Idiots with money. He falls for the sales pitch after the bogus evaluation so it's all stacking up so far. But he's smart enough to see the cost is stupid so he comes in with some reasonable doubt, which is nice so I'm hoping maybe he goes haha no and the sister fucks off. Boy needs family but not that kinda family. He breaks because the they break him. Washed up doesn't want him on Cohen Bros movie. And people laugh at him. I think they had to call it Scienetics to not get sued. Least dumb complex landlord clues him in and he trashes the sister. A book mentions this show in particular using the name. I'm thinking they wanted to avoid any possibility of glorifying or showing it in an positive light. There were shows doing this in the 90s that were way too fucking soft about it. They plant another famous actor to bait Aussie boy. And they even boast about that whole "We beat the IRS" slant. That's a selling point for them. He agrees to drunky's movie deal it's kinda sad but they hint at them reconciling at the end. The insurance people FINALLY catch up with him so I'd love to see how his new cult buddy pals get him outta that one. He gets ARRESTED oooh boy. And drunky starts to panic about the skimming credit cards, well same ballpark. This all doesn't come out how I expect they get bailed out by the Scientetics people then the sister macks him anyway and he leaves the cult because they want to kick her out and distance him from her and she gets "abducted" by a guy in the suit. He kinda just leaves the church and you see the sister at the end but you don't know where it's going (nowhere) So that blew my theory.
Of course we get a couple of cliffhanger moments you wouldn't give enough of a shit about if you really wanted a season 3, most of the main lines are tied up. I don't even know where you'd go with the rest of it anyway. It's trying to subvert those ol' expectations at points
but some of it's a bit ham-fisted. The story lines have some uniqueness
to them, even if they are kinda beat for beat. But obviously everyone's complex and the situation's equally complex (and it gives you a complex) so it's playing into its title well. I guess it had enough originality and enough of what was cool at the time to get picked up but I don't even know if they were thinking long term. I can't remember if six episode first seasons are kind of cursed to do badly, they give you 13 more as a caution and then look at the numbers halfway and go yes or no. It was serviceable. It kept me interested enough to pause it or go back over parts I missed. But it wasn't worth watching again.
*Post published prior to Elliot Page announcing transition.
No comments:
Post a Comment