Last night I started watching "Degrassi: The Next Generation" on DVD. I was a huge Degrassi Junior High fan in junior high. It used to air on PBS in F-town in the late '80s. Degrassi, along with Judy Blume books and Sassy Magazine, was among my favorite bullshit-free media influences. Sure, every episode included a soap-operatic "issue" that a character would confront: drugs, cheating, teen pregnancy, dead parents, car accidents, child abuse, But it was never with any judgment or scorn, thanks to the very wise and very Canadian perspectives of the producers. Three years ago I got to meet some of the original stars and asked them if they ever confronted a-hole censors like the ones we have here in the US of A, and the answer was a resounding NO!
The first two episodes are great because all the original actors are the adults now. The first character you meet is Emma, which, if you're an old fogey like me, you'll remember as Spike's teen pregnancy baby! (somehow, the original Degrassi episode that has stayed with me the most is the one where one of the twins has an abortion and Spike and her skinbird friend take it upon themselves to give her pictures of dead fetuses and write Baby Killer on her locker) The first two episodes are a cringeworthy exploration of current dangers posing the youth of today, namely, Emma getting ensnared by a creepy internet predator who poses as a teenage boy only to lure young Emma into a hotel room where he plans to get oogy with her in front of a videocamera. I found myself yelling, "NO! HE'S A CHILD MOLESTER! TELL YOUR MOM!" at the TV, hiding my face in a pillow. Fortunately, her Degrassi pals are able to break into her e-mail and find out where they went and alerted Spike and Snake (Snake came to Austin three years ago for the Alamo Degrassi marathon), who called the T.O. po-po and arrived just in time to save Emma from further ooginess. A lesson to tweens everywhere: don't meet people from the Internet alone!
I look forward to six amazing seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation, and can't wait to see Emma reunite with her brain damaged bridge-jumping dad Shane. Gourmet Scum indeed!
Posted by Zerd at September 7, 2007 01:36 PM