Anthony Browne | Through the Shattered Lens

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: The Next Generation, which aired from 2001 to 2015! The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, everyone’s thinking about sex!

Episode 1.6 “The Mating Game”

(Dir by Anthony Browne, originally aired on April 22nd, 2002)

Sex therpaist Dr. Sally (Sue Johanson, recreating her role from Degrassi Junior High) is coming to Degrassi and it’s not a minute to soon because everyone is thinking about sex. Ashley and Jimmy’s 8-month reunion is approaching and, when Paige is cast as Juliet opposite Jimmy’s Romeo in a class assignment, Ashley starts to worry that Jimmy might not be happy with their sex-free relationship. Of course, Jimmy is more than happy with his relationship with Ashley. If anything, Spinner seems to be the one who is obsessed with when Ashley and Jimmy are going to “do it.”

Meanwhile, Toby has a crush on Emma but Emma has a crush on Sean. Toby invites Emma to join him in watching a DVD about an endangered turtle. Emma agrees because Emma is all about endangered animal documentaries. But then she stands him up so that she can help Sean out with his school project. Sean tells Emma about how he had to give up his pet dog when he moved in with his brother, Emma says. “Awwww!,” and Toby ends up heart-broken. Emma, for her part, is shocked when Manny later tells her that Toby has a “huge crush” on her.

(Though I’m a huge Degrassi fan, I have to admit that I always forget how much time the first season of Degrassi: The Next Generation spent on storylines that were, more or less, abandoned in future seasons. Toby’s crush on Emma is a good example.)

As for Ashley and Jimmy, they both do the right thing and buy condoms. (Jimmy goes to a drugstore. Ashley orders online.) However, they don’t have sex and instead just blow the condoms up and write cutesy little messages on them.

Finally, this episode features Terri once again getting offended when Ashley comments on her having never had a boyfriend. For those of us who know our Degrassi history, it’s hard not to cringe at Ashley’s comment because we know what’s going to happen to Terri (and eventually Jimmy) once Terri finally does start dating someone.

This episode was okay. These first season episodes are not always easy to watch because the show itself got a lot more interesting after the second season. It’s hard not watch the episodes from the first two seasons and spend most of the time thinking about what the future holds for the characters. In this episode, Jimmy is gawky and Ashley is confident that she and Jimmy will know when the time is right. In the future, Ashley is going to lose all of her friends after taking ecstasy and Jimmy is going to end up paralyzed from the waist down. In this episode, Toby and JT are bummed that only the eighth graders get to see Dr. Sally. In the future, JT’s going to get stabbed to death and Toby’s going to end up dating Spinner’s adopted sister. Meanwhile, Sean’s going to end joining the Army and Emma’s going to end up married to Spinner and Terri’s going to leave school after her boyfriend shoves her and she hits her head on a rock. When you know all that is going to happen, it’s hard to get caught up in Terri’s hurt feelings or Ashley’s awkwardness when she has to pay for her condom delivery. Seriously, they should be enjoying their lives while they can because the future is going to be dark!

It’s the first day of school!

Episode 1.3 “Family Politics”

(Dir by Anthony Browne, originally aired on April 1st , 2002)

It’s the first day of school at Degrassi Community School and — hey! There’s all the folks we know.

Spinner (Shane Kippel) and Jimmy (Drake, then known as Aubrey Graham) make their first Degrassi appearance, demanding that Emma and Manny show them their hall passes and then laughing about how “Grade Sevens are such geeks.” Emma and Manny are soon referring to Spinner as being “the jerk,” little aware that — in the far future — Emma will end up marrying Spinner. As for Jimmy, he’s walking. That’ll change in another few seasons.

There’s Liberty Van Zandt (Sarah Barrable-Tishauer), already showing herself to be one of the most annoying characters in Degrassi history by zealously running for student council secretary.

There’s Ms. Kwan (LinLyn Lue), the first of many English teachers who are destined to torment Spinner.

There’s Mr. Raditch (Dan Woods), promoted to principal!

There’s Paige (Lauren Collins), bragging about her clothes and her plans to start a school spirit squad. Eventually, Spirit Squad drama will become one of the most enduring parts of Degrassi: The Next Generation. In this episode, Paige is presented as being fashionable and shallow and nothing like the complex character she would become in later seasons.

Finally, we meet Toby’s stepsister, Ashley Kerwin (Melissa McIntyre) and Ashley’s loyal friend, the insecure Terri (Christina Schmidt). Ashley is running for class president and struggling to get along with her new stepbrother. I don’t have any brothers to compare him to but I still imagine that I would struggle to get along with Toby too. At the start of the episode, Toby spots Ashley’s bra hanging in the bathroom and proceeds to put it on and run around the house. “MOM!” Ashley yells as the episode segues into “Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through…..”

Annoyed with the fact that no one is running against Ashley for school president, Toby convinces JT to run a joke campaign. “I’ll do what real politicians do,” JT says, “nothing!” The students love him! A poll comes out that shows JT beating Ashley. Who conducted the poll? Seriously, who polls a student election? Degrassi never tells us and that’s the kind of thing that’s going to keep me up at night.

Ashley finally bribes JT to drop out of the election. When Toby hears about the bribe, he threatens to expose Ashley to the school but, in the end, he doesn’t. Ashley wins the election and she and Toby agree to try to get along.

Watching this episode, I was struck by two things. First off, it was a less trampy remake of the first episode of Degrassi Junior High, with Ashley and Toby stepping into the roles previously filled by Stephanie Kaye and Arthur. Secondly, it’s easy to forget how much the first season revolved around Ashley and Toby. Much as happened with Stephanie and Arthur on Degrassi Junior High, both Ashley and Toby would become significantly less important after the first season as Degrassi shifted its attention to characters like Paige and Spinner. This episode, however, is all Toby and Ashley.

Seen today, this episode is a good example of an episode that does what it needed to. It introduced us to the main characters. It had a few moments of humor that indicated Degrassi was going to be slightly more clever than the average teen show. It established the hierarchy of the school. That’s really all the episode had to do. The entire student election subplot was pretty silly, as most student council storylines tend to be, regardless of which show might feature them. On television, student councils are always absurdly powerful. In real life, they’re just busy work.

Next week: It’s time for the first school dance!