Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.12 “Three’s a Crowd”

Posted on July 27, 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 High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991! The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

This week, the formal is approaching, Spike needs a date and so does Snake.

Episode 2.12 “Three’s A Crowd”

(Dir by Philip Earnshaw, originally aired on February 4th, 1991)

The graduation formal is approaching! Spike has got a crush on Snake (who has finally returned to school after finding Claude’s body). When Spike asks Snake out, he says yes. Yay! But then Spike overhears Michelle asking out Snake and Snake explaining that he would love to go with her but he already said yes to Spike (who he considers to be just a friend). Spike makes up a lie about having “a family thing” the same night as the dance so that Snake can go with Michelle.

How sad!

This is a minor episode of Degrassi High but it’s significant to those of us who discovered Degrassi by watching The Next Generation. We know that Spike and Snake are eventually going to get married and Snake is going to become Emma’s stepfather. (Three year-old Emma makes an appearance in this episode, encouraging her mom to not be depressed.) As sad as it is to see Spike overhear Snake talking about how much he likes Michelle, we know that Spike and Snake are eventually going to end up together as adults. Of course, by that point, Spike will be known as Christine and Snake will be known as Archie.

While Snake and Spike were dealing with the realities of high school attraction, Tessa was falling for Yick Yu despite the fact that she was already dating Alex. Dorothy (Annabelle Waugh) told Tessa that she had to tell Alex the truth. Tessa couldn’t bring herself to do it but Yick, thinking that Tessa and Alex were broken up, told Alex that he didn’t mean to make Tessa dump him. Alex confronts Tessa. Tessa says, “I hope we can still be friends.” “I don’t see how,” Alex replies. OUCH!

And again, this is a storyline that means a lot more if you know what’s going to happen in the future. Tessa may like Alex now but, in just a year, she’s going to get impregnated by Joey Jeremiah and then run away from Toronto, never to be seen again.

Degrassi’s about to get dark!

Next week, Degrassi High comes to an end. Don’t worry, though. Degrassi will go on forever.

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

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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”

Posted on May 4, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 1.3 “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”

Posted on November 24, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s time for another Degrassi divorce!

Episode 1.3 “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on November 13th, 1989)

I’m running a bit late tonight so here is a very quick rundown of this week’s episode of Degrassi High.

Joey is so consumed with his band (which has now been renamed The Zits) that he doesn’t seem to notice that his girlfriend, Caitlin, is more interested in political activism than forgettable pop music. Caitlin is offended when Joey tries to convince he to wear a bikini for a Zits music video. Soon, she is having lunch with douchey environmentalist Claude Tanner (David Armin-Parcells).
Joey does convince Allison (Sara Holmes) and Amy (Jacy Hunter) to appear in his music video while wearing bikinis, albeit in return for him paying them forty dollars that he got from Snake and Wheels. Snake and Wheels are offended at the idea of their money being spent to hire girls to wear bikinis. Lucy is offended that Joey wants to borrow her video camera to shoot “a sexist video.” Long story short: Joey does not shoot his music video but Snake and Wheels start to take more interest in his plans for the band.
Lucy admits to LD that she has a crush on Wheels. This would usually be a minor point but it’s actually really heart-breaking for those of us who know that Wheels is destined to nearly kill Lucy while driving drunk.
Erica doesn’t want everyone to know that she had an abortion but rumors are spreading through the school. Nancy (Arlene Lott), who has been on the show since Junior High, finally gets some dialogue when she awkwardly asks Heather if the rumors about Erica are true. This scene not only reveals that people know about Erica’s abortion but it also answers the question of why Nancy usually wasn’t given any dialogue.
Erica is upset when someone paints “Baby Killer” on her locker. Well, who wouldn’t be?
The episode’s main storyline features Michelle’s parents breaking up. BLT is hopeful that this means Michelle will decide to move in with her mother and say goodbye to her father, who doesn’t want Michelle dating BLT because BLT is black. But, when Michelle sees how helpless her father is (he can’t cook and doesn’t separate colors while doing the laundry), she decides that she has to stay with him and BLT will just have to keep seeing her in secret.
Yes, this is another divorce episode. Degrassi usually did a pretty good job with divorce episodes and that’s a good thing because it’s never easy for someone to watch their parents split up. I know that from personal experience. This episode handled things well, though I have to admit that Michelle is one of those characters who I always tend to forget about. (Either that or I mix her up with LD.) If this episode was made today, Michelle probably would have dramatically denounced her father and then moved out of the house. I appreciated that Degrassi High took a more realistic approach to the story.

Next week …. more drama!