Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.9 “Extracurricular Activities”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

This week, everyone’s either self-centered or foolish.

Episode 2.9 “Extracurricular Activities”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on January 14th, 1991)

Caitlin or Lucy, it’s hard to say who is worse in this episode.

Caitlin is excited when her mother invites her to come home for a meeting with her father.  Caitlin, who has been imposing on friends ever since she discovered her father was cheating on her mother, is all excited because she thinks her parents are going to get divorced.  Instead, her parents announce that they’re staying together.  Caitlin gets angry, telling her friend Maya that she’ll just get an apartment and a job and she’ll never see her parents again.  Maya, who is in a wheelchair and actually knows a little more about hardship than Caitlin, reminds Caitlin that “they’re your parents,” which I think is Canadian for, “Good Lord, stop whining!”  Seriously, Maya — who actually has a lot that she could justifiably be upset about — never complains about anything while Caitlin — who is from a middle-class family and has a nice house and somehow only got a slap on the wrist after being arrested for trespassing and vandalizing — never shuts up about her difficult her life is.  We get it, Caitlin.  It sucks that everyone in the world isn’t as perfect and principled as you are.

(Does Caitlin ever ask anyone how they’re doing or does she just enter a room and automatically start talking about her life?  Based on the second season, the latter would appear to be true.)

Meanwhile, Lucy is dating Bronco, the student body president.  When Bronco tells Lucy that everyone’s favorite Degrassi band, the Savages, are going to be shooting a video at Degrassi, he swears Lucy to secrecy.  (Actually, Gourmet Scum was everyone’s favorite band on Degrassi High but I guess the Savages were cool too.)  So, of course, Lucy tells the creepy Farrell twins and then they make plans to break into the school on the weekend to watch the video shoot.  Joey and Snake also decide to break into the school for the video shoot.  Of course, they all get caught by Mr. Raditch and Bronco gets in a ton of trouble because Raditch assumes that Bronco let all of his friends into the school.

“Sorry,” Lucy says.

Gee, Lucy, that’ll really help!

You may have noticed this episode annoyed me.  Some of that is purely personal on my part.  With my mind slipping into summer and holiday mode, I’m missing both my mom and my dad so I wasn’t necessarily sympathetic to Caitlin’s demand that her parents split up or else never speak to her again.  As for Lucy and Bronco, Bronco should have known better than to tell Lucy.  And Lucy sure as Hell should have known better than to tell the Farrell twins.  Everyone was just too dumb this episode.

Next week, though, we have the first part of one of Degrassi High’s best-remembered episodes.  Fear not, we can put this episode behind us.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.8 “Home, Sweet Home”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

This week, everyone is sick of Wheels.

Episode 2.8 “Home, Sweet Home”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on January 7th, 1991)

Oh, Wheels!  Always in trouble, that one.

Ever since getting kicked out of his grandma’s house, Wheels has been staying with Joey but, after several weeks, Joey and his parents are sick of their houseguest.  Wheels easts all the food, never says thank you, and has yet to even to start to look for his own place.  Instead, he steals a bunch of money from Joey’s mom’s purse.  As a result, Wheels not only gets kicked out of the Jeremiah residence but Snake’s parents announce that Wheels can’t stay with them either.  Trapped outside during a thunderstorm, Wheels calls his grandmother and promises to obey her rules if she allows him to come home.

“I don’t believe you,” she replies before hanging up on him.

OUCH!  Though, to be honest, she’s right about Wheels’s sincerity.  Wheels is a pathological liar who takes advantage of anyone who trusts him.  It’s been a while since he was the cool kid that everyone wanted to date.

Wheels eventually crashes on Snake’s back porch.  (“My parents cannot know you’re back here,” Snake says.)  The next day, at school, Wheels promises Joey that he will pay back the money he owes.  Joey turns his back on Wheels and walks off.

And, again, Wheels really has no one to blame for but himself.  And those of us who know our Degrassi history know that things are soon going to get even worse for Derek Wheeler.

Meanwhile, Michelle returns home so she can have a quiet place to study.  She is shocked to find her father is at the house.  (She thought he would be at cooking class.)  Michelle agrees to move back in but on the condition that she pay rent and that her father stop trying to control her life.  Her father reluctantly agrees.  I guess, now that she’s broken up with BLT, it no longer matters that her father was previously portrayed as being a raging racist.

This episode was okay but it felt very familiar.  We’ve done the whole Wheels-is-awful thing already.  Add to that, as terrible as Wheels is, I don’t really agree with Grandma’s decision to refuse to allow him to come home.  Wheels promised to abide by his grandmother’s rules and that was the condition that Grandma set for his return.  Wheels is a handful and undoubtedly was being insincere but I think Grandma is going back on her word here.  If Wheels had come home, she could have at least continued to talk to him and kept trying to get him to go to therapy.  Instead, she left him out in the middle of Toronto in a rainstorm.  Shame on her for that.

Some characters are just doomed no matter what and that’s certainly the case with Wheels.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrasssi Hibh 2.6 “Crossed Wires”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

In yourself, you must believe …. let’s return to Degrassi High.

Episode 2.6 “Crossed Wires”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on December 10th, 1990)

Alex is dating Tessa but he has yet to kiss her and Tessa’s getting tired of waiting for him.  Arthur and Yick (remember them?) both tell Alex that he’s a total wimp.  Myself, I’m just wondering how Alex somehow went from being a background character to suddenly getting storylines.  For the record, Alex does eventually kiss Tessa and he leaves her breathless, which seems like a bit of an overreaction.  I mean, it’s just Alex….

Of course, any Tessa storyline that doesn’t involve Joey is going to feel somewhat odd because true Degrassi fans know that Tessa is eventually going to end up pregnant after sleeping with Joey, leading to a jealous Snake dropping the first F-bomb ever heard on Canadian television.  But, that was all far in the future.  When this episode aired, Tessa was still just the girl who apparently only owned that one blue dress.

Alex and Tessa’s rather silly storyline is matched with one where Liz, after going on a date with Tim (Keith White, finally getting a storyline after spending so much time as a background character), freaks out after Tim attempts to kiss her goodnight after taking her to a Pogues concert.  Liz eventually tells Spike that she was sexually abused by her mom’s ex-boyfriend and that’s why Liz doesn’t allow anyone to get close to her.  (In many ways, this episode feels like a dry run for the Jane Says episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation.)  This episode handles the subject with sensitivity, as Degrassi (to its credit) always did.  Tonally, it can be a bit of shock to go from the silliness of Tessa’s story to the seriousness of Liz’s but that’s kind of the way it is when you’re a teenager.  One minute, you’re in a sitcom.  The next minute, you’re in the most depressing drama ever.  That’s certainly the way it was for me when I was in high school.  I preferred the sitcom moments but the fact that I can cry on cue came in useful whenever things started to get serious.

Finally, Dwayne’s moronic friends are upset because Dwayne will no longer let them beat up on Joey.  Dwayne doesn’t care.  Joey’s the only person that knows that Dwayne is HIV positive.  Joey has kept his word and not revealed Dwayne’s secret.  Dwayne helps Joey fix his car and Joey, in return, gives Dwayne a life home.  Dwayne going from being a bully to a sensitive guy is another character arc that would become a Degrassi tradition.

Next week, Kathleen finds some marijuana.  Oh no!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.5 “Body Politics”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

Just when Lucy thinks that she’s out, they pull her back in.

Episode 2.5 “Body Politics”

(Dir by Phillip Earnshaw, originally aired on December 3rd, 1990)

Lucy is depressed because the big dance is coming up and no one has asked her.  She makes another one of her video diaries for L.D., in which she says, “I know I can be kind of mouthy.”  That’s true but being “kind of mouthy” is a Degrassi tradition and screw anyone who can’t handle someone having an opinion!

Anyway, Lucy does get a date with Dale (Cameron Graham), a jock with a cute smile.  But when the Girls Volleyball Team discovers that the Boys Basketball Team has been given all of the best practice slots in the gym (basically, the basketball team gets to practice in the afternoon for as long as they want while the volleyball team only gets a few minutes in the morning), Lucy finds herself starting another protest.  However, when she discovers that Dale is the captain of the basketball team, Lucy starts to wonder if she should back off.  She wants to go to the dance!

The creepy Farrell twins insist that Lucy has to be their leader and their spokesperson.  This episode was the first time that the Farrells were prominently featured in the second season and I had forgotten how annoying they could be with their constant demand that Lucy lead every single protest.  Seriously, I’m kind of sympathizing with Lucy’s desire to avoid getting involved.

Lucy does eventually step up and make her argument about the girls deserving equal time to the Phys Ed. department.  It doesn’t do any good.  It turns out that, when Dale said that no one cares about Girls Volleyball, he was right.  Lucy loses her fight and her date.  But the president of the senior class, the never before-seen Bronco (L. Dean Ifill), is impressed by Lucy’s fighting spirit and asks her to the dance.  So, things work out.

(Lucy, of course, is destined to be crippled and blinded by Wheels in an auto accident but that’s a while off.)

As for the other plots in this week’s episode, Patrick, the Irish guy who was dating Spike at the end of last season, is single again and asks Liz out on a date.  Spike says she’s fine with it but actually she’s jealous. Hey, it happens!  And Alexa and Michelle finally decide to be friends again.  Yay!  Seriously, it’s always nice when friendships are saved.

This episode could have been better.  The main problem was that I didn’t buy a lot of the Lucy story.  I mean, how come there wasn’t a coach or anyone supervising the gym while the basketball players and the volleyball players were having their argument?  How come the athletic teams didn’t already have a set schedule for when they would practice?  Since when are the Farrell twins athletic and why can’t they ever do anything without demanding that Lucy be their spokesperson?  How exactly is L.D.’s father getting away with traveling around the world with his daughter who I imagine is legally required to be in some sort of school?  There were just too many unanswered questions.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.3 “Loyalties”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

In yourself, you must believe….

Episode 2.3 “Loyalties”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on November 19th, 1990)

Oh look, more Caitlin drama.

Seriously, if I was a student at Degrassi High, I would warn any new enrollees about becoming friends with Caitlin.  Caitlin may be nice and she may be sincere in her desire to be friendly with the new students but, ultimately, everything with Caitlin is a drama and being her friend means being a part of the drama, whether you want to be or not.  Last season, Caitlin had to go to court after he got caught vandalizing the nuclear plant and she immediately expected all of her friends to skip school and go with her.  This episode, Caitlin spots her father having a romantic lunch with someone who is not Caitlin’s mother and, of course, Caitlin’s friends are expected to forget about the own problems so they can listen to her obsess about it.  And while Caitlin did not tell her mom, she did suggest that her dad take her mom to the restaurant where she previously spotted him.

Caitlin wasn’t the only person with drama this week.  Michelle is struggling to deal with having gotten dumped by BLT.  When she discovers that Alexa and Simon are still hanging out with BLT and his new girlfriend, Cindy, she’s not happy.  Alexa and Simon, meanwhile, are tired of Michelle being such a downer.  And while I had sympathy for Michelle, I also had sympathy for Alexa.  It’s not easy when your friends break up and you find yourself expected to pick a side.  Snake has a crush on Michelle and they go out on a date but Michelle starts crying ten minutes in.  Later, Michelle apologize to Snake and says she’s not ready to date.  Snake, being the perfect guy despite (or maybe because of) his nickname, is totally understanding and says he’ll wait until she’s ready.

Awwwwww!

Compared to last week’s episode, Loyalties was not quite as memorable.  No one discovered they were HIV+.  Still, it was a nicely done episode and I appreciated the effort to try to realistically deal with Michelle’s feelings.  I’m not looking forward to the inevitable episode in which Caitlin confronts her father but I know it’ll happen.  That’s Degrassi!

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.2 “Bad Blood: Part Two”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

This week, Dwayne gets some life-changing news.

Episode 2.2 “Bad Blood: Part Two”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on November 12th, 1990)

After his summer girlfriend informs him that she’s tested positive for HIV, Dwayne goes to the local clinic to get tested.  He’s understandably nervous as the doctor draws his blood.  The doctor mentions that Dwayne is in a high-risk group because he had sex without a condom.  Dwayne gives about twenty different excuses for why he didn’t use a condom.  The doctor looks on, disappointed.  Two weeks later, Dwayne returns to the clinic and is informed that he has tested positive for HIV.  The doctor informs Dwayne that he’s going to have to start living life differently.  He’s going to have to take care of himself.  He’s going to have to give up any plans he ever had of being a father.  He’s going to have to be careful when it comes to his blood.

At school, Dwayne takes out his anger on one of the condom machines in the bathroom.  Wheels witnesses this and quickly runs off to tell Joey.  Joey still needs a little over $300 to get his car.  He also needs some money to pay everyone who took a bet on the previous episode’s attempt to walk through the cafeteria naked.  Joey decides to blackmail Dwayne to get the money.  (Joey has figured out that Dwayne is the one who snitched to Raditch about the walk through the cafeteria so Joey feels that Dwayne owes him the money regardless.)  When Joey confronts Dwayne in the boys bathroom, it leads to another fight.  Joey cuts his head.  Dwayne ends up with a bloody nose.  As soon as Dwayne sees that he’s bleeding, he backs off and tries to end the fight.  Joey taunts Dwayne for being scared of a little blood.

“What if I have AIDS!?” Dwayne yells back.

Joey laughs off Dwayne’s comment, which leads to Dwayne throwing a fit and shouting that he didn’t do anything wrong.  Joey figures out that Dwayne actually is HIV+.  Later, Dwayne gives Joey the three hundred dollars in return for Joey not telling anyone.  “We’re getting a car!” Snake and Wheels celebrate but the look on Joey’s face indicates that Joey is not happy about the way he got the money.  In other words, Joey has a conscience!  Yay, Joey!

And so does Dwayne.  One of the things that Degrassi did very well was that it took characters who conformed to certain stereotypes and then dug underneath the surface and revealed that everyone — even the school bully — had their own individual fears and dreams.  This episode finds Dwayne’s bravado crumbling as he’s forced to face his future as someone who is HIV positive.  Darrin Brown, who is now a director, did a great job as Dwayne as did Pat Mastroianni as Joey.  Both of them really grew as actors over the course of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High.

While that was going, BLT finally broke up with Michelle.  Michelle was not happy.  Eh, who cares?  This was a good episode but BLT and Michelle were  a boring couple and it’s hard to get overly worked up about them splitting up.  Dwayne had a real isssue to deal with.  Michelle will eventually find someone else willing to deal with her nonstop drama.  Such is the way of the world.

One final note: in this episode, Lucy is shooting a video for L.D.  Spike appears with her baby, Emma.  Emma says, “Hi, L.D.”  These were the first of many words to be spoken by Emma Nelson on Degrassi.  (Emma, of course, will grow up to be one of the leads on Degrassi: The Next Generation.  We’ve got a while to go before we reach that point, though.)

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.1 “Bad Blood: Part 1”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

It’s time for another school year!

Episode 2.1 “Bad Blood: Part 1”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on November 5th, 1990)

It’s time to start another year at Degrassi High!  There’s a lot going on:

  • Michelle spent the summer on a trip, which gave BLT time to find a new girlfriend.  He hasn’t told Michelle yet.  BLT says, “Michelle is so sensitive,” as if that’s a bad thing.  Remember when BLT was like the perfect boyfriend last season?  I guess that’s all gone out the window.
  • L.D.’s cancer is in remission!  However, she’s not back at school.  Her father sold his garage, bought a sailboat, and now he and L.D. are circling the globe.  So, I guess L.D. is just going to be a high school dropout?  Lucy films a video for L.D.  Good luck delivering it to the middle of the ocean.
  • Condom machines have been installed in the bathrooms!  The Farrell twin who keeps getting pregnant is super excited.
  • School bully Dwayne also loves the condom machines because he can fill the condoms with water and drop them on his longtime nemesis, Joey Jeremiah.
  • Joey is upset that Dwayne and his gang are in Joey’s special ed class.  However, Joey does have one good thing happening in his life.  He finally got his license!  Now, he just needs a car.
  • Hey, here’s a car that’s for sale!  But it costs …. $3,000!  And Joey only has $75.  Ha.  Loser.
  • How can Joey raise money?  What if he asks everyone to pay him to walk naked through the cafeteria?  All of the teachers are going to be in a staff meeting so there’s no way Joey’s going to get caught!
  • Joey goes through with it, walking into cafe naked while holding his fedora over his …. well, you know.  Joey’s embarrassed but he’s going to get a car!
  • Except …. OH NO!  IT’S RADITCH!
  • Who snitched on Joey?  That’s right, it was Dwayne!  Joey gets dragged to the office and he doesn’t get any of the money that he needed for his car.
  • Dwayne is still laughing about it when he arrives home.  His father tells him that “some chick” called for you.
  • Dwayne calls Penny, his summer girlfriend.  Penny tells him that her ex-boyfriend has tested positive for HIV and that’s she tested positive for HIV and maybe Dwayne should get tested….
  • To be continued….

Agck!  That’s quite an ending for what was, otherwise, a fairly light-hearted episode.  But that’s one thing that made Degrassi such a good show.  It understood how being in high school was often a bizarre mix of comedy and drama.  This episode spends a good deal of time portraying Dwayne as being the biggest jerk ever and then it ends with him looking absolutely terrified.  It’s a powerful moment.

Next week, the story continues as Dwayne’s life is changed forever.

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.15 “Stressed Out”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

This week, the first season of Degrassi High comes to a close!

Episode 1.15 “Stressed Out”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on February 13th, 1990)

The first season of Degrassi High comes to an end with an episode that once again establishes Caitlin as being the worst.

The school year is coming to a close and everyone is stressed about final exams.  Michelle is taking speed to stay up and study.  Normally, this would be a big deal but this episode only devotes a few scenes to it and we don’t even get a big dramatic meltdown on Michelle’s part.  I mean, I guess it’s good that Michelle finally got a plotline that doesn’t revolve everyone being shocked about her dating BLT but why would you do a drug storyline without a meltdown?

The majority of this episode is taken up with Caitlin getting upset because Ms. Avery will not be working at Degrassi anymore.  Under the impression that Ms. Avery has been fired, Caitlin passes around a petition.  When Ms. Avery says she appreciates the support but that she’s actually the one who decided to quit, Caitlin freaks out (in much the same way that Michelle should have freaked out) and gets all upset and says that she’s not even going to go to the end-of-the-year school party.

Hey, Caitlin — IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

Seriously, Caitlin — Ms. Avery is an adult.  She has every right to quit her job.  Now, it does turn out that Avery quit because the school board wanted her to become a substitute teacher.  Avery wants her own classroom.  Caitlin is still upset.  How can Ms. Avery be so selfish to abandon the one student who actually cares about whether or not she has a job or not?  Avery really should have just told Caitlin to get a life but finally, Ms. Avery takes a job teaching at another school.  So, Ms. Avery will get her own classroom and, even more importantly, she won’t have to deal with Caitlin anymore.

Whatever happened to Caitlin’s court case?  Shouldn’t she be doing community service or something?

This finale was a bit of a letdown but it happens.  Not every school year ends with something exciting happening.  Next week, we start the second and final season of Degrassi High!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.14 “It Creeps!”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

Wake up in the morning, it’s time to make a feminist slasher film….

Episode 1.14 “It Creeps!”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on February 6th, 1990)

Shane’s back!

We haven’t seen Shane since he showed up at the last junior high dance.  Shane, of course, is the ex-boyfriend of Spike and the wayward father of Emma.  Shane took LSD while at a concert and either jumped or fell off a bridge.  When we see him in this episode, he’s suffering from brain damage.  One minute, he’s greeting Spike like his best friend.  Another minute, he’s yelling at her and suddenly acting aggressive.  Spike still tries to be nice to him, despite Liz’s comment of “He’s creepy.”  (Seriously, what is going with Liz this season?)  What’s really disturbing, though, is that Shane’s only close friend still appears to be Luke, the idiot who gave him the acid in the first place.

(Seriously, how did Luke get away with that?)

That was the B-plot of this episode.  The A-plot featured Lucy finally making her feminist horror film, It Creeps!!, for her creative writing class.  Personally, I like the idea behind It Creeps!!  It’s a slasher movie where, for once, it’s the guys getting knifed in the shower instead of the girls.  It’s the type of thing that would get Lucy a deal with Blumhouse today.  I’m a little bit surprised that she was able to get away with making it for a school project but I guess that 80s were a more innocent time.  If a student shot a bloody slasher film in her school today, she’d probably be suspended.

Lucy shows her film to the class and is shocked when they laugh at certain parts.  She runs out the room but her creative writing teacher assures her that class is enjoying her film.  He tells her that she did a good job, considering that it was her first film.  (It’s a hundred times better than Michael Scott’s Threat Level Midnight.)  Lucy returns to the classroom, just in time to find everyone cheering as Wheels dies on screen.

Of course, those of us who know our Degrassi history, know how this is going to turn out.  After graduation, Wheels is going to be driving drunk and he’s going to have the accident that will not only send him to prison but will also leave Lucy crippled and temporarily blinded.  Seriously, this show is a lot darker if you already know what’s going to happen in School’s Out!

As for this episode, it was a good one.  The plot with Lucy’s film worked because the end result actually looked like something that had been filmed by a moderately talented teenager who owned a somewhat beat-up video camera.  And I was glad that the show remembered that Shane existed.  Amanda Stepto did a wonderful job portraying Spike’s reaction to seeing Shane.  This was Degrassi High at its best.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 4.13 “Testing, One, Two Three”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

This week, everyone faces a test.

Episode 4.13 “Testing, One, Two, Three”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on January 30th, 1990)

After being absent for the past few episodes, Joey and Caitlin are finally the center of this week’s story.  Both of them are struggling.  Joey, despite all of his efforts to study and pay attention in class, is still getting bad grades.  The school counselor thinks that Joey has dysgraphia, a learning disability that makes it difficult for him to express his thoughts in an organized fashion.  Caitlin, meanwhile, is going to have to appear in court as a result of getting arrested while vandalizing that nuclear plant.

A few thoughts:

  • Claude — or “Clode” as he wants to be called — once again shows himself to be the worst ever when he says he’s not sure if he can go to court with Caitlin.  Claude is the one who convincing Caitlin to vandalize the plant in the first place and, when the cops showed up, he abandoned her.  Big-time rebel Claude actually asks his parents for permission to skip school to go to Caitlin’s court date.  They say no, just as Claude knew they would.  What a putz!
  • “My parents aren’t liberal like yours!” Claude whines to Caitlin.
  • Maya actually puts off a doctor’s appointment so she can go to Caitlin’s medical appointment!  Good for you, Maya …. except, doctor’s appointments can kind of be important, too.
  • Actually, now that I think about it, why should anyone be going to court with Caitlin?  Caitlin made the decision to spray paint her stupid slogans on her own.  Claude shouldn’t have abandoned her but Caitlin shouldn’t have been there in the first place.  Caitlin acts as if Claude should take her punishment for her but actually, Claude being a coward doesn’t mean that Caitlin is somehow absolved.  She knew she could get in trouble when she climbed over that fence.
  • This episode is a good example of why Caitlin drives a lot of people crazy.  Caitlin has a problem and everyone else is expected to drop everything and spend all of their time worrying about it.
  • Joey, meanwhile, has a real problem to deal with.  He feels stupid.  He’s not dumb, not at all.  But his grades remain stubbornly bad and he’s just been told that he has a scary-sounding “condition” and that he’s going to have to take a special class to learn how to function.  And yes, there’s no shame in having a learning disability.  I have ADHD so when Joey talked about struggling to organize his thoughts, I knew exactly what he was saying.  But, when you’re the one hearing the words “learning disability,” it’s scary!  My heart went out to Joey in this episode.
  • Evil bully Dwayne made an appearance, harassing Joey after he overhears Joey describing him as being a gorilla.  Joey and Dwayne get into yet another fight.  Joey gets detention.  Dwayne gets suspended.
  • Caitlin is also in detention, as a result of slapping Claude.  Caitlin and Joey are still not getting along but we know that’s going to change.
  • Finally, there was one other subplot.  The students in a difficult biology class were excited to learn that Alex (John Ioannou) had an advanced copy of the big test.  Alex’s older brother saved all of his old tests.  Alex gives Tessa a copy of the test but makes her promise not to let anyone know.  Tessa lets everyone know.  Everyone in the class passes!  They don’t get caught.  But the teacher says its obvious that the test was too easy so he decides to toss out the results and give everyone a new test …. WHAT!?  CAN HE DO THAT!?  What the heck, Canada!?
  • Incidentally, I never would have passed Algebra II if my sister hadn’t saved all of her tests.  Thank you, Erin Nicole!

And that’s it for the week.  Remember — in yourself, you must believe!