Reception
An episode featuring a storyline about a school shooting garnered the series an all-time high audience of 930,000 Canadian viewers. A second episode with a storyline about oral sex also earned just under 1,000,000 viewers. Overall, the season averaged an audience of 600,000 and was the top domestic drama for Canadian teenagers aged 12 to 17, and adults in three age brackets; ages 18 to 34, ages 18 to 49, and ages 25 to 54. In the US, the season received an 80% larger audience compared to season three, and one episode received 540,000 viewers and drew a Nielsen rating of 2.7 for teenagers and 4.7 for female teenagers, meaning that on average 2.7% of the nation's teenagers, and 4.7% of the nation's female teenagers were tuned in at any given moment.
The season was well received amongst critics, especially in regards to the episodes with Kevin Smith and the storylines on oral sex and the school shooting. The Palm Beach Post said the series "is told from a teenager's point of view since the writers have no interest in appealing to a broad-based demographic like the writers on, say, Fox's The O.C. ... it connects with teens on their level", though it was still "surprised Jay used the graphic oral sex term you'd hear in just about every high school hallway in America", that word being "blow-job". The Boston Herald said "it is important for teens to learn about sexually transmitted diseases and the cost of unprotected sex ... and should help parents begin conversations with their own children". PopMatters's Jodie Janella Horn described Degrassi: The Next Generation as "the most unnervingly accurate series ever of the high school genre". Another comparison was made between Degrassi: The Next Generation and The O.C., saying "The O.C. will never remind me of anything in my life", while the events in the two-part episode "Voices Carry" with "hotel room trashing, projectile launching, fist fighting at weddings bi-polar loon Craig, was like an actual scene from my actual teenage life and just like me, Ashley thinks they're going to pull through it together". AfterElton.com, a website that focuses on the portrayal of gay and bisexual men in the media praised the series for "not only focusing on gay teens, but it showcases gay sex, and relationships. By not stereotyping they are helping thousands of confused and shameful teenagers feel accepted, in Canada and America alike." Ben Neihart called Degrassi: The Next Generation "tha Best Teen TV N da WRLD!" (the best teen TV in the world) in a six-page article in The New York Times. Commenting that "the explosive-issue-per-capita ratio is seriously out of whack", he admitted that "the teen-diary attention to microissues (zits, periods, parents' night) gives the episodes a peculiar authenticity no matter how outrageous their story lines".
Two episodes were nominated for "Best Youth Script" at the Canadian Screenwriting Awards, which are administered by the Writers Guild of Canada. Shelley Scarrow's "Secrets Part One" lost out to "Mercy Street", written by James Hurst and Miklos Perlus. At the Directors Guild of Canada Awards, Stefan Sciani won the award for "Outstanding Achievement in a Television Series - Family" for the episode "Time Stands Still Part Two", and Stephen Stanley was nominated for the "Outstanding Achievement in Production Design - Television Series" category for the episode "Goin' Down the Road". The series won its first Teen Choice Award in the US for "Choice Summer Series" At the Young Artist Awards, Degrassi: The Next Generation failed to win any of the awards its actors were nominated for. Adamo Ruggiero was nominated in the "Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series Leading Young Actor" category, Aubrey Graham was nominated in the "Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series Supporting Young Actor" category, and Alex Steele was nominated in the "Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series Recurring Young Actress" category. The entire cast was nominated in the "Outstanding Young Performers in a TV Series" category".
Read more about this topic: Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 4)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)