Degrassi is a guilty pleasure show that rises above the criteria of that category. Plus, I love watching it.
The tagline of Degrassi is “it goes there,” and the show definitely lives up to it. The 30+ year franchise has covered heavy topics like addiction, teen pregnancy, sexual assault, and mental illness. And for the most part, they do it well.
My first encounter with the show was with its Teen Nick promos, especially the “Shark in the Water” teaser. I was a bit too young to tune in at that point, but I started watching from the beginning when I reached high school through the episodes online.
There are multiple eras of the show to dive into. The 1987 Degrassi Junior High kicked off the franchise and led into Degrassi High. Degrassi: The Next Generation which started in 2001 features the original kids as parents to new characters. Season 10 offered a rebrand to Degrassi in 2010 with more episodes per season. The final leg of the show carried onto Netflix with Degrassi: Next Class, which ended in 2017.
What’s made Degrassi so watchable for years is that it doesn’t sugarcoat. It depicts characters’ raw feelings, whether they’re going through a hard time, or just navigating high school. Of course, there is some obligatory TV drama emotional exaggeration in certain situations, but it’s in the hard-hitting scenes where the authenticity counts. One of the most moving episodes is in season 12 after a student’s death. The whole school takes a pause to reflect, and each student takes on a different way of grieving, which is heartbreakingly real.
For me, the theme of acceptance for both the viewer and the character hits home. A lapse of judgement or just flat out bad decision is an inevitable arc in each student’s storyline. You can root for a Degrassi student and believe they can do no wrong, but they definitely will. That doesn’t always make them a bad person, but rather, it makes them human. As a viewer, I started to realize that and transfer it to my own life.
My favorite aspect of the show is when the students are in their senior year and they reflect on how far they’ve come. The valedictorian is typically the student who has evolved the most, and they give a speech about their struggles. The students put their differences or past feuds aside and see each other as people who are coming into their own.
Degrassi is real, raw, and it goes there. That’s why it’s so important. Where TV is typically surface-level or idealistic (which I’m not saying is bad — I’m always down for a sitcom or escapist drama), Degrassi provides a dose of reality and relatability that young people search for.
Set aside half an hour for an episode of Degrassi and be surprised. Whether that surprise be from some questionable fashion, or the refreshing authenticity, that’s up to you.