Degrassi – TNG

I have been a pretty big fan of Degrassi since it came on the scene, hands up all of you who saw the “Kids of Degrassi Street”. I have also watched the new Degrassi off and on, especially during the summer when my evenings were often filed with too much TV. Anyway I would like to discuss the 2 episode section that dealt with JT’s exit from the show. For those of you who don’t know JT is the class clown and ex-kids show presenter who I liked as a side character but not much of a main guy. Well that was before he got his girlfriend Liberty, class brainiac and president of everything, pregnant. Liberty basically shut JT out during the pregnancy but they ended up together in the end. Well after a disastrous moving out together financed by the fact that JT stole Oxycodone and sold it to the local drug dealer things went pear-shaped. I don’t know all the details of this because I was back in school. Apparently Liberty gave their son up for adoption and life went on as “usual”? Then JT started dating the new girl, Mia, who had a daughter. So Liberty basically lost it.

In these last two episodes you find out that JT likes Mia, but he still loves Liberty. In fact he is discussing this with his friend, Toby, at an out of control party that was originally for Liberty. JT decides to go after Liberty when she leaves the party but finds some guys from another school peeing on his car. There is a brief tousle during which JT gets stabbed, and of course Liberty finds him. We find out at the hospital that JT is dead. This was almost an anticlimactic ending as CTV felt it necessary to keep telling us that “Degrassi” was going to lose one of it’s own”. As everyone tries to figure out how to mourn JT Toby has to decide what to do with the information about JT’s feelings. The new girl is acting like the widow, Liberty doesn’t seem to be sure how to act. Some bad advice from other Degrassi-ites leads Toby to keep JT’s feelings secret. But as always it comes out eventually and then Liberty can mourn.

I found that the best character development in this story arc took place in Liberty. At the end she seemed to be mourning the loss of JT and their son and perhaps things will go better for her from now on. I have always liked the way that Degrassi deals with realistic if not always real life situations. I found that the dynamic of mourning a boyfriend, ex-boyfriend really interesting. It isn’t something that you think of too often. I guess we only assign the role of widow if people have been together for a significant amount of time. I also liked that once JT’s feelings were out in the open Liberty and Mia can come together more, they could almost share JT. Degrassi is for me the epitome of teen programming. It is all about the teens, unlike the OC. It is pretty much the right balance of serious issues and fluff.

Audience: 13+ (although the earlier episodes would be 10+)
Ranking: Quality 4.5/5 Popularity 5/5