The recent two episodes were boring. I lost interest and ended up going on my phone.
This series so far has been the worst. CBBC has already commissioned Series 5 (20 episodes) and Series 6 (24 episodes). They are running out of ideas and the increase in episodes will just result in decrease in quality. A 13part series allowed for an story arc, event episodes and a few fillers. A 20Part series means more fillers and a stretched-out story arc.
I guess TDG is relatively inexpensive to produce compared to more high concept dramas.

Finally, an episode that was actually good! I thought episode 5 was great. It was a good plot (though I found it kind of predictable at some points), and the subplot was vaguely entertaining to watch and actually fitted in with the main plot. I liked Chloe, too, though she looked nothing like Ryan and had a completely different accent! It was the same for Tee and Johnny, though, so I guess it's not too bad. Ryan's backstory also made sense, and explains a lot about Ryan's character, as well as all the letters Chloe sent him. Anyway, this has definitely been the best episode in the series so far. Hopefully there will be some other good episodes to come.

I liked the last episode too, good to finally see Ryans backstory. Was it that he did not push her, and she accidentally fell out the window?
It would have been better if Chloe had a scouse accent , she sounded more scottish than anything - sounded nothing like Ryan.

That was an outstanding episode, easily the best of this series. The B-plot was fun and cute, I was chuckling along at Floss as ever and by the end I was in bits. And there was even a Tracy mention! Brilliant. This has been a shaky series but that episode was absolutely on form.

I thought this episode was pretty good. It wasn't quite as good as the previous episode in my opinion, but definitely much better than the earlier ones in the series. I loved the plot, especially as I'm at the same stage in life as Tee, thinking about what universities to apply for ect, so I could really relate to how she was feeling throughout the episode. Though actually, ironically, watching the episode distracted me from working on my art portfolio for school!
Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good episode. I liked the subplot, too, especially the scenes between Floss and Tee. At least it seems like the series is getting slightly better now, anyway...

Well that was a shock! No inkling at all over all Tee's stay at the DG that she is the arty type.

I started watching this show a bit for nolstagia, and boy IMO its become really boring and stale, compared to The original series and Tracy Beaker Returns the last time I watched was when Tracy left. And they've really stretched the episode counts!

I thought this week's episode was pretty good. They seem to be getting better now, at least. I liked both Sasha and Kazima's plots, and it was good to see those two characters have more to do. I didn't think it was that well-written, though. There was no real build up to Sasha breaking into the house, and the drama was over way too quickly. Mike and May-Li just seemed to forgive Sasha without giving her any punishment at all, which really irritated me. The sub-plot was also quite random, and didn't make much sense. Other than that, it was a good episode, though.

Regarding the art college episode with Tee, I found myself rolling my eyes at some parts. No way would they offer her a place without her explaining her portfolio/being interviewed and also making an absolute mess of it like making herself seem anti social. I guess they just wanted a happy ending but it was highly unrealistic.
There is only a certain amount of places on each course and you don't get anywhere without an interview.

I think so far my fav episode has been the one about Ryans backstory, good to finally hear it.

Episode 8 was... okay, I guess. The election thing was kind of boring, and it's been done before in series 3 of Tracy Beaker Returns; I was surprised that May-Li just let the kids hold an election and didn't do anything to check how Floss and Tyler were "persuading" people to vote for them, especially with Mike getting so stressed about everything.
The end was good in that it had a big impact of the storyline, but to be honest I'm getting pretty fed up of the Ryan storyline now. It's just been going on for so long! It also made no sense, since there wasn't any real reason why he'd want to hurt Mike.
I also feel the plot would have been better as the double episode of the beginning of the series, rather than the Bailey storyline. This way it doesn't really work, and just makes for really uneventful episodes at the end of the series, with subplots about Ryan being evil which to be honest I'm past caring about.
Anyway, a lot of people probably thought this episode was good, especially with the cliff-hanger, but I just didn't think it was particularly great.

I agree, it was ok. I think even the original series of Tracy Beaker had an election episode too iirc.
And did Ryan fall out with Mike at some point as I also don't remember it. Dunno if it was because he(Mike) yelled at Harry ( it wasn't particularly harsh yelling imo).

A few episodes ago (the episode with Ryan's sister), Ryan thought that Mike had told the other kids about what had happened with his sister. At the end of the episode Mike asks Ryan if he's OK/no longer upset with him, which he says he is, but that episode ended with a close-up of Ryan, implying that he was still upset with Mike.

(Mid series finale) It was awful. The episode was filled with music tracks! There wasn't enough plot for a 30 minute episode. How many times has Mike nearly left? This plot was done in the second series of TBR. The episode which Mike actually leaves will have to be VERY good. I can't see another exit apart from him dying. This whole series has been pretty poor. Badly edited aswell - the flow of the episodes has been so slow with many dire scenes.

If you hated it that much, there's not much point watching it anymore, is there?

I enjoyed it, it has been a patchy series to put it mildly, but the Mike storyline was the boost it needed. I loved the scene where Mike and Ryan squared up as well - it was tense and engaging, but they didn't overegg it and Ryan didn't get off the hook completely.

Lol remember the good ol' days when Tracy told Justine Littlewood to shut her gob. That was the sh!t back in school lol.

He completely disappeared after the first series of Tracy Beaker with no on-screen explanation and randomly returned in series 5 of Tracy Beaker again with no explanation either.

Have you ever wondered why it's always sunny on the dumping ground?

I know Reuben who plays Finn who told me It's filmed in the summer holidays.

This series has been pretty terrible all together, to be honest. I didn't even watch the final two episodes, which is definitely a first for me as I'd never missed an episode before. I guess the dumping ground has just kind of jumped the shark now, which is a shame...

They should do more gritty storylines like kids being groomed for sex but they can't due to the age of the audience

The camera is so white and yellow as hell now I just got used to it.

No, that's not true at all. Mike left towards the end of TSOTB Series 1 to take a better paid job - there was a whole episode about it! He then came back in Series 5 as the new chef.

I think this series has been hit and miss. I prefer the more dramatic episodes, most eps this series have just been a bit light (street dancing, art, partying etc). I know that (and the modern read:annoying soundtrack) has been included to appeal to the young audience.

Only just caught with the first half of the series. I kinda stopped watching after episode 5 which was arguably one of the better episodes. This is mainly cos I've been busy in terms of trying to catch up with other CBBC dramas such as Eve and Wolfblood which I also enjoy. Hate to say it but I'm really disappointed with the first half of this series. It's been very underwhelming and unengaging which really hasn't satisfied me. To be honest, I found most of the episodes pretty boring. The only episodes that really stood out or were remotely interesting to me were Episode 5, 9 and 10.

But at the same time, I have to criticise those good episodes for having mini rehashes of plots that were already done in TSOTB and Tracy Beaker Returns. The double episode was a huge waste of potential. Tiana Benjamin really should have been Bailey's real mum. I too also felt that she was wasted in those episodes. I was pretty disappointed with that especially after recently rewatching again.

Episode 3 and 4 were completely boring. Episode 5 was really good and easily one of the best episodes so far. Episode 6 was okay. There were nice scenes between Tee, Carmen and Floss but I also found it quite unrealistic especially when it came to Tee's college interview. Emma already explained that better than I could. Episode 7 was meh. Got to see more of Sasha who was battling between her old and current persona. But unfortunately, it suffered from a weak build up and it wasn't very satisfying in the end.

I only rate episode 8 as okay mainly for the consequences that Mike faced at the end. But as other members have said, the whole election thing has already been done before in the predecessor shows. I felt like I was watching a diluted version of the penultimate TBR episode. It was nice to see Tyler taking it seriously this time which shows he's matured a bit but this has already been done more than once. If it wasn't for that ending, then I would have rated it lower.

I liked episode 9 and 10 mainly because of the emotions that were running through characters like Carmen and Harry who felt guilty for Mike's potential sacking. Kazima's leadership skills were portrayed well and it was nice of the YP to protect Bailey when the guy bullied and dismissed Bailey's victory because of his dyslexia.

However, I have to criticise the last three episodes too because of the rehashing of old plots. The whole situation of Mike's job being in jeopardy has been done to death now. The court scene was practically a mini remake of the double episode in the second series of Tracy Beaker Returns where Tracy, Liam, Frank and Harry interrupted the course case and begged the representives to keep Mike at Elm Tree. He's been close to leaving many times that's it pretty much lost that emotional impact because you know how it will end. I already knew that Mike would end up coming back before the plot had even finished. This is why I can't rate them any higher than just good.

Ryan is really getting on my nerves though. Even though I'm glad Mike found out the truth and confronted him, I still felt that Ryan got off way too lightly. He may be forced to report the case to the police but he won't have to face the music and backlash of the others which Carmen didn't deserve at all.

So overall, the first half of Series 4 has been very disappointing. It's also my first time where I haven't bothered catching up till the end. I genuinely lost interest with this series because it's been really boring and quite rubbish if I'm honest. Here's to hoping that the second half will be significantly better than the first half.

How would I know if I didn't like something if I didn't watch it? I decided to watch the finale to see if it was any good and I came away feeling disappointed. My younger sister watches TDG (past few years has been pretty obsessed with it) and even seemed uninterested in this series. Since the next set of episode are of the same series/production I don't seem being much better. The whole series has felt 'off' in terms of production/editing.

Can't disagree with you, really. This block generally has been the first time I've not enjoyed TDG as much. The early episodes of the series in particular were really poor.