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, it’s time for another party!

Episode 1.8 “Little White Lies”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on December 19th, 1989)

There’s yet another party being held and Diana (Chrisa Erodotu) desperately wants to attend!

Who?

Diana has been on the show for a while but this is the first episode to feature her at the center of a story.  She’s a friend of Kathleen’s and she wears glasses and …. well, that’s pretty much all we’ve learned about her in the past.  In this episode, it’s revealed that she’s Greek, her parents are dead, and she lives with her overprotective brother (Nick Stamiris).  Her brother doesn’t want Diana to go to a party.  In fact, when he catches her smoking, he throws a fit and he ground her.  He may seem a bit harsh but I had some sympathy for the character.  He’s barely an adult himself but he has to keep an eye on and take care of Diana.  I think he’s being too overprotective but I get where his mind is at.

Diana, however, decides to sneak out of the house and go the party on her own.  She has a crush on Yick and he might be there!  When she arrives, she has a drink and sits on the couch while holding a bottle of alcohol.  How could this go wrong …. oh wait, who just walked into the party and spotted Diana sitting there with the alcohol?  It’s her brother!  Diana gets dragged home and has a big fight with her brother.

Poor Diana!  That said, this is something that happened to a lot of Degrassi students over the course of the series, most of whom I felt I knew a lot better than Diana.  Diana’s just kind of been a nonentity up until this episode so it’s hard for me to get worked up, one way or another, over her situation.  It doesn’t help that Diana continually compares herself and her friends to The Outsiders and yes, I do mean the book about the juvenile delinquents in Oklahoma.  Degrassi High deserves some credit for giving the less-cool students just as much attention as Joey, Caitlin, and the main stars but the whole Outsiders is just a bridge too far for me.

Speaking of Joey, he, Snake, and Wheels decide to go a strip club!  It doesn’t work out, even with the use of fake IDs.  First off, when they arrive at the club, they discover that two of the fake IDs have Joey’s name on them.  Joey is sure the bouncer won’t notice.  Then, they discover that they’ll only have enough money to pay the cover charge if they pool all their money together.  Unfortunately, since they’ll also have to order drinks inside the club, they still only have enough money for two of them to go in.  Snake and Wheels head in to the club, deserting their friend Joey.  A prostitute approaches Joey and asks if he would like to have a good time but the clueless Joey says that he has to get home.  Meanwhile, Snake and Wheels pay $8 for two Cokes and are then kicked out when they say they can’t afford anything else.  Who would have guessed life in Canada could be so difficult!

This episode felt a bit too familiar for its own good.  Diana’s story is one that we’ve seen dozens of times on Degrassi.  And Snake, Joey, and Wheels are always doing something stupid and getting kicked out of places.  This episode wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly memorable either.