Whatever It Takes!

Ahhh, the wonderful Degrassi theme song. "Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through."

And boy, what they have had to make it through in the past years.

It's no secret (though I'd certainly like it to be) that I'm a great fan of Degrassi. You don't know Degrassi? It's the Canadian TV show about kids at a middle school, it used to be 'Degrassi Jr High' (back in the early 90s), then it simply became Degrassi, It became that because, after the final show of the original series, the original Degrassi Jr High burned down. That was supposed to be the end of Degrassi Jr High.

Or not.

Well, with a gap in the middle. And that's OK. In the early days, we had Stephanie and Lucy and the twins, and Kathleen, whose boyfriend abused her, and Joey Jeremiah and Snake and Wheels, who formed a group called the Zit Remedy, who had an almost-hit, "Everybody Wants Something." ("Everybody wants something, they'll never give up, never give up! " It was almost New Wave Gold.)

The old Degrassi also had Spike, an adorable new-wave girl with a mohawk who loved the Pogues and got into some real trouble and had a baby out of wedlock. That was the serious storyline in that day (excepting Claude and Caitlin and the fact that he committed suicide for her and there was a big PSA about it), during the big run of the original Degrassi.

I used to watch the old Degrassi when I was a thirty-something, laying in bed on the weekends, and although I knew I was too old to care about it, I still cared. I couldn't help it. It was a good show, with good characters I wanted to follow. And the old Degrassi ended in that last episode, with their whole school burning down. Wow.

The old Degrassi died.

And then!

Several years ago, Teen Nick started showing a new Degrassi! And the premise was golden!

Spike's out-of-wedlock child from all those years ago was now a student at Degrassi! She was named Emma, and had a whole lot of new classmates to go to school with, and it was all as it was before. Right?

Right!

I loved it. I was even older then, so I should have liked it even less, but that makes no difference, because I'm a fool and I like all that stuff. And you know what? This show was good! And I thought it was cool featuring Emma's new schoolmates.

But! It also featured Snake, who was now a teacher at Degrassi, and Joey Jeremiah, who was now used car salesman who had a kid at the school, and even Caitlin, who was now a famous news reporter. And even Spike, who ended up marrying Snake!

And new students, like Ashley and Craig (the cool guys and musician couple), and Liberty and JT and Toby (nerds), and Spinner (bully) and Paige (cool girl). There was a whole new show for me to love.

I was in heaven.

And so I've followed it ever since. Sincerely.

Wow. What's happened in those new years I've been following? There's no way I can explain it all. But....

Now, I'm telling you, for this time the new version Degrassi has been going on, I've been watching it for all of them.

I've seen, all these years, nerds JT and Liberty have a baby they gave it up for adoption, then JT being murdered in a fight by a rival school. I've seen cool girl Paige flunk out in college (where did she end up? we don't know!), and Craig, the cool musician, having a bit of Canadian fame, only to become a drug addict. I've seen Jimmy, the basketball star, get shot and be confined to a wheelchair. (Odd, that, Jimmy was Aubrey Graham, who later became known to the world as the rapper Drake. And he suddenly forgot his Degrassi roots.)

I've seen kids come and go. (Which is fantastic, that a show lets kids graduate and leave the show.) And right now we have none of the original New Degrassi Kids, but kids like Holly J and Anya and Sev and Fiona the alcoholic and that couple whose name I can't remember who had a baby and now are sparring.

And I just keep watching on.

However.

However - this latest version of Degrassi has been shown on Teen Nick every night of the week this summer, advertised as "Once It's Over - The Season Is Over." Huh? So the show's not over, only the season is. Right? I'll still get to watch later on?

I'm very afraid it doesn't matter.

This latest Degrassi summer blitz has been, well, something approaching abysmal. We've got Luke, who was brought in last season on a whim and is now a major storyline, a jock who got involved with a bad girl and got the crap beat out of him by a gang. Now he's loopy and participates in a Fight Club. We've got the normally fantastically sassy Holly J suddenly finding out she's adopted and needing a kidney and looking for her birth mother. We've got people with strange mental disabilities, gambling addictions, having flings with teachers - well, yeah.

We've gotten everything you see everywhere else anyway. Even on reality TV, where that's supposedly really their lives.

We've even gotten Anya saying, "You know, I was a twin," when it is nowhere in her history that she even has brothers or sisters! Continuity, please?

I'm getting pretty fed up with Degrassi. And I'm getting pretty mad at them.

This was my sweet show about kids in a Canadian town and their sad existences going to school. Now it's so over the top. The end of this season of Degrassi comes at the end of this week, and I don't know where in the hell they can go from here.

All I can hope is some more kids show up and I get interested in them.

Oh, what am I talking about? I'll find a way to get interested in them. Good or bad, I'm a Degrassi addict.

Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through! (Well, they can. I'm not sure I can.)