Degrassi Junior High: Season 3 represents the final year in the life of the 1980s series, popular in Canada and on American cable and public television channels. Not that the Toronto-based ensemble drama or its characters disappeared from the airwaves. After the show's student characters graduated from junior high, the program became
Degrassi High for two years, followed by a made-for-TV movie and, beginning 2001, the follow-up
Degrassi: The Next Generation, featuring some of the original characters grown into teachers and parents.
Before all that, however, season 3 maintains the tradition of traumas and epiphanies that have defined the collective experience of the Degrassi community. The two-part season opener includes a whopper: Derek "Wheels" Wheeler loses his parents in a car accident and finds his world turned upside down and most of his friends uncertain how to reach out to him. One can sense that Wheels is becoming a pariah at school, simply because his loss is unfathomable to old pals such as Archie "Snake" Simpson (Stefan Brogren), his bandmate in the Zit Remedy rock trio. (The Zit Remedy, by the way, are still playing their one and only composition from season 2.) Meanwhile, Christine "Spike" Nelson (Amanda Stepto) has had her baby and is back at school (after being cast out by Degrassi's administration last season for being pregnant). The newborn's father, Shane McKay (Bill Parrott), pleads with Spike to see their child, though later underscores his immaturity by spending the support money he owes Spike on a concert ticket. (He also takes LSD and is badly hurt in an accident.) Other complications arise for Lucy Fernandez (Anais Granofsky) when she begins dating a high-schooler and finds herself pressured to have sex while simultaneously losing ties with classmates. Snake's older brother announces he's gay, leaving Snake confused but also upset when his parents kick the young man out of their home. As usual, the mini-dramas go on and on, yet the sense of reality that permeates Degrassi--the feeling that one is watching real kids instead of gorgeous, pimple-free actors in their mid-20s--keeps this show feeling fresh and relevant. --Tom Keogh
