Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi: The Next Generation 1.8 “Secrets & Lies”

Posted on October 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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, Ashley learns her father’s secret.

Episode 1.8 “Secrets & Lies”

(Dir by Bruce McDonald, originally aired on May 6th, 2002)

This is a landmark episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation for two reasons.

First off, it’s the first episode to establish that Liberty has a crush on J.T. Liberty’s unrequited crush was one of the show’s early storyline and, to be honest, it was frequently one of the more annoying storylines. Liberty was always a rather flat character and she and J.T. never really made much sense as a couple. (Yes, they did eventually become a couple.) Of course, watching this episode today, all I can think about is the fact that, in the far future, J.T. is going to die in Liberty’s arms after being stabbed in the back by a student from a rival high school. Much as with Degrassi High, knowing what the future holds adds a layer of poignance to these early episodes that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

As for this episode, J.T. tries to get Liberty to leave him alone by pretending to be gay. He gets this idea after Toby informs him that Ashley’s father, the dashing Robert Kerwin (Andrew Gillies), has come out of the closet.

The majority of this episode deals with Ashley struggling to accept that her father is gay. Again, this is another storyline that becomes far more poignant if you already know that Robert is eventually going to marry his partner Christopher and Ashley’s boyfriend is going to have a mental breakdown at the wedding.

This episode actually did a very good job of realistically portraying Ashley’s initial reaction to learning that her father’s gay. Ashley is confused and, as she was still hoping that her parents would eventually get back together, she feels betrayed. It’s an honest reaction and probably not the sort of thing you would ever see on television today, where our idealized protagonists almost always have the right response from the start. The fact that the show deals honestly with Ashley’s emotions makes her eventual acceptance of her father’s sexuality all the more poignant.

This episode deals very sensitively deals with Robert’s coming out and Andrew Gillies and Melissa McIntyre both deserve a lot of credit for their performances. (Remember, this episode aired in 2002, at a time when gay characters were almost always portrayed as either being comedy relief or helpless victims.) I do have to admit that there is one rather clunky line in this episode. It comes when Ashley asks Robert if he has a boyfriend and Robert tells her about his partner, Christopher. Ashley’s next line (and Melissa McIntyre’s overdramatic delivery of it) always makes me laugh despite myself:

Aside from that line and all of the cringey stuff involving J.T. and Liberty (and, admittedly, that is a lot to overlook), this was a sensitive and well-handled episode.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi: The Next Generation 1.2 “Mother and Child Reunion: Part 2”

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Snake shows that whatever it takes, he’s going to make it through.

Episode 1.2 “Mother and Child Reunion: Part 2”

(Dir by Bruce McDonald, originally aired on July 1st, 2002)

Snake threatens to kill a guy in this episode!

Now, to be clear, the guy in question definitely had it coming. While Spike enjoyed her class reunion, Emma snuck out of the house, went down to a hotel, and waited for Jordan. Sitting in the lobby, she was approached by Mr. Nystrom (Jeff Gruich), who claimed to be Jordan’s teacher. Mr. Nystrom, who was carrying a pizza box, invited Emma upstairs to meet with Jordan. Emma followed him but, once she stepped into his hotel room and discovered that there weren’t any environmentally-minded teens around, Emma realized that there was no Jordan and “Mr. Nystrom” was actually the person who had been e-mailing her.

Fortunately, Manny, Toby, and JT figured out that Emma had gone out to meet Jordan so they hacked her e-mail (Emma’s password was “Pogues,” after Spike’s favorite band) and found out what hotel “Jordan” was staying at. They then ran to the Degrassi Community School and found Spike and Snake dancing at their reunion. They told Spike and Snake where Emma was. Spike and Snake then went to the hotel and Snake banged on the door until Mr. Nystrom answered.

(Oddly, neither one of them appeared to have called the cops on the way over to the hotel.)

While Spike ran into the room to get her daughter, Snake grabbed Mr. Nystrom, pinned him against the wall, and threatened to “snap (his) neck.” And I have to say that, as dorky as Archie “Snake” Simpson may usually be, that was pretty freaking hot.

Meanwhile, at the reunion, Joey heard Keith talking to Allison Hunter about how he wasn’t sure he actually wanted to marry Caitlin. That led to Joey getting into a brawl with Keith while Caitlin was giving her “most distinguished alumni” speech. Caitlin broke up with Keith and she and Joey reconciled. It wasn’t the first time that they reconciled and it won’t be the last.

At the house, Emma apologized for panicking Spike and then added, “Like you’ve never made a mistake? Like having me!” Wow, that’s …. kind of sad. Spike assures Emma that becoming a mom at the age of 14 was not a mistake. However, sneaking out to meet a guy you’ve never met is definitely a mistake! What Spike doesn’t mention is that this could have all been avoided if Emma wasn’t so obsessed with protecting the environment.

Next week: the school year begins! Hopefully, Emma will have learned her lesson about getting involved in the environmental movement.

(Spoiler: She won’t.)

Creeped Out, S1E1, Marti, Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 9, 2018 by casewright

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Creeped Out is a Netflix release that really isn’t. I have noticed that Netflix will call something an original series even though they just bought the rights. This show was originally produced by CBBC, explaining why the second episode has very hard to understand British accents. I checked Bruce McDonald’s IMDB and yes…he’s english and wrote for the Eastenders. Eastenders or EastEnders (sp?) is show that I believe is about poor people in London or something…I’m not investigating anymore than that.

I watched the first episode Marti with my girls (7,9). They were quite scared by the opening and one other scene that I will get to later. The show is a lot like the 90s show The Outer Limits. It has a lot of spooky and technology themes that teach a morality or cautionary tale. I was primed to like this show because I loved the Outer Limits and one of the writers is really nice: Melinda Snodgrass (follow her on twitter).

The story opens with Kim. Kim is a pretty girl in high school who none of the boys pay attention to because that actually happens in real life. She has nerdy friend that also is a pariah for no particular reason. Kim is forced to hang out with her loser friend and pine for a boy who looks like Justin Bieber. She gets a new phone and pays for it somehow. This phone is indestructible and self-aware.

The phone’s AI calls himself Marti. Marti is really really creepy. He works autonomously to make Kim popular and succeeds. Kim gets the attention of the cool kids, including Bieber. Just when Bieber is about to go out with her, in true Lifetime MOW fashion, Marti reveals himself to be a jealous psycho boyfriend. He threatens to destroy Kim’s new found popularity unless she agrees to be only his. YIKES. When Kim gets fed up, she tries to destroy the phone, it doesn’t work. Kim tries to call customer service and a woman answer who slowly takes Marti’s side. Then, the voice switched to Marti’s voice and my daughters both screamed. They didn’t understand why fully it was so scary, but I finished the show alone.

Marti blackmails Kim to take him to the prom and she agrees. It’s really creepy. She eventually defeats Marti, but he destroys her popularity. She entombs Marti in cement, but then considers releasing him six months later because she really liked being popular.

The show had a real Outer Limits vibe and played upon human weakness and need to be loved. There’s always been the morality tale of giving up your soul for fame, but this is more basic. Kim wants to be loved and our technology has never made us more isolated from real love. Marti’s popularity is twitter popularity: fake. Marti gave her multiple friendships that were ended as quickly as they began like muting or blocking someone. On the other hand, Kim’s nerdy friend took the good with the bad and continued to love Kim. It spoke to dependence and isolation because of technology and our total dependence upon instant love.