With Degrassi: Next Class Season 2 right around the corner, Degrassi created a reunion promo featuring the Degrassi: TNG cast members returning for the 500th episode.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
The Degrassi cast previews Season 2 and why they think the new season is amazing. Season 2 premieres in on Family Channel (Canada) on Tuesday, July 19. Then all 10 episodes will be released Friday, July 22 on the Family Channel App (Canada) and Netflix worldwide.
This morning I woke up to Degrassi trending on Facebook.
You know something in Degrassiland is big when that happens. The last time Degrassi was trending that high on Facebook was when the show was briefly canceled in 2015.
Degrassi: Next Class Season 2 makes its worldwide debut on Netflix this Friday, July 22, and the press blitz has begun! Not only are outlets talking about the show tackling #BlackLivesMatter this season, Degrassi fans old and new are excited about the upcoming #DegrassiReunion, thanks to Degrassi’s teaser:
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
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The video, which now has over 6 million views, reveals the return of a bunch of Degrassi: The Next Generation characters for an alumni event during what will be the Degrassi franchise’s 500th episode (Episode 205, #ThrowbackThursday).
Entertainment Weekly has posted an interview with Jake Epstein (Craig) where he talks about his cameo in the 500th episode and life after Degrassi, plus you can watch an exclusive clip of him in the Degrassi reunion episode here.
Teen Vogue: Degrassi Reunion Show Coming To Netflix
Seventeen: The Original “Degrassi” Cast Is Coming Back For A Reunion Episode
Just Jared Jr: Lauren Collins, Adamo Ruggiero And More Return For Degrassi Reunion
UPI: New Trailer Out For Degrassi Reunion on Netflix
People’s Choice: The Degrassi Reunion Of Your Dreams Is Really Happening
USA Today: Everyone’s Back For The “Degrassi” Reunion Trailer, Except Drake
Bustle: If Drake Isn’t In The Degrassi: The Next Generation Reunion, These 14 Characters Better Show Up Instead
Fuse TV: The Degrassi Reunion Trailer Is Here, But Where’s Drake?
IndieWire: ‘Degrassi’ Reunion Episode Coming to Netflix, but Don’t Count on Drake Showing Up
CBC News: Degrassi: Next Class to feature Black Lives Matter storyline in season 2
E! News:Degrassi: Next Class Season 2 Is Bringing the Black Lives Matter Movement Into the High School Hallways
ET Canada: ‘Degrassi: Next Class’ To Tackle #BlackLivesMatter In Second Season
CTV News: ‘Degrassi: Next Class’ to feature Black Lives Matter storyline
FRANKIE PLOT SUMMARY: Rival volleyball team Northern Tech plays a prank on Degrassi’s squad, stealing their clothes and pulling a fire alarm so the team has to go outside without them. After Frankie winds up accidentally naked in front of a crowd of students, she vows to prank Northern Tech back. Everyone on the team is on board with getting revenge…except Shay. Because Northern Tech’s nickname is ‘The Zoo,’ Frankie and the team draw them as zoo animals on a banner and deliver it to their school. Shay’s livid when she finds out and yells at Frankie. Shay says Frankie’s future is secure because she’s rich, but if the team gets in trouble Shay’s future is in doubt; her family can’t afford training or college tuition, so practices/games are the only way she can stay on track to receive scholarships. The two make up, but the volleyball team finds themselves in trouble…Northern Tech’s captain is offended that she was drawn as a gorilla on the prank banner, and accuses Degrassi’s volleyball team of being racist.
In Degrassi’s 35+ years of existence we’ve had moments within storylines where racism is acknowledged, such as Manny Santos being falsely accused of being racist in Love Is A Battlefield, and Danny Van Zandt being profiled by a store employee in Got My Mind Set On You.
There have been actual storylines tackling it head on: Dallas and Connor were profiled in Army Of Me/Everything Is Everything, and the show’s most-notable storyline involved Degrassi Junior High’s B.L.T. dating Michelle, a white girl whose family was racist. But Degrassi hasn’t necessarily ever taken this subject and fleshed it out beyond after-school-special mode, a space where the show aggressively places the characters AND viewers in a position far more uncomfortable than any accidental nude scene.
Even though this season was written and filmed a year ago, never has a Degrassi storyline felt more relevant to current events than what we’re about to experience with Frankie’s storyline in Season 2.
Next Class doesn’t blatantly place the racism stamp on this storyline until the final scene of the episode, instead choosing to address privilege through a “less offensive” route: Frankie’s social status. Degrassi’s had characters commenting on Frankie’s class privilege since season 14, when part of Zoë’s reasoning for throwing Frankie under the bus for Degrassi Nudes was that she’s rich and her dad would bail her out. “None of us have that luxury,” Zoë told Power Cheer, a sentiment echoed in Next Class Season 1 by Shay. “Not everyone has a trust fund…” she said in #BootyCall, explaining to Frankie why she used cotton padding to stuff her pants instead of buying butt pads. Even Frankie’s boyfriend, Jonah, told Frankie to her face that she was spoiled before they started dating.
I love the honesty of Shay and Frankie’s confrontation. Shay admits she’s jealous of her best friend, but the point she brings up about her limited opportunities as compared to Frankie’s are valid. If the team suffers, Shay’s chances at following her dreams suffer with them. Their conversation, void of anything regarding race, is probably more palatable to society in general. Now imagine if Shay had mentioned something about being black during their fight. Privilege can be applied to everything from class, gender and race, but man can you hear and feel the discomfort in this day and age anytime the latter two are involved in a conversation.
That’s why racial undertones are subtle throughout the beginning of this plot, as players on Degrassi’s volleyball team are unaware of what’s happening in various ways. “Why would I be offended?” Shay asks when Lola says that the Northern Tech girls “look like a bunch of criminals.”
“…That looks just like the captain,” Goldi says, referring to the gorilla on the banner, and the very next thing out of her mouth is “Why IS Northern Tech called ‘The Zoo’?”
Simply put, they’re all clueless.
They’re clueless about the meaning behind Northern Tech’s nickname (a school perceived as a bunch of wild, thuggish minorities), clueless that depicting a black person as a monkey is racist and they’re clueless to their own subtle prejudices toward their rival school.
And that’s the entire point of this storyline, as Degrassi challenges people to venture outside of that mental box where we store all of those convenient, black and white thoughts that train us to believe things are this or that with nothing in between. Thoughts like only internet trolls and vocal hate groups engage in racist behavior or have prejudices toward other people based on looks/class/religion/literally anything and everything. Degrassi is about to go there, and as it should be, the ride will be very uncomfortable.
MILES PLOT SUMMARY: As Miles prepares to leave for his new life at boarding school he feels bad for Hunter, who feels like he’s being left behind. Miles shows Hunter brotherly love by teaching him how to drive. Hunter realizes what Miles is doing and promises not to go off the deep end whenever he gets upset. Hunter drives Miles to Degrassi so Miles can get his school file, and while Hunter sees Miles talking to Tristan he gets upset and crashes the car in the parking lot. When Miles learns that Hunter crashed the car on purpose, he finally tells their mom about Hunter creating a kill list and taking a gun to school. Miles isn’t sure what will happen to Hunter now, but he informs Tristan that he’s staying at Degrassi, and the two reconcile their relationship.
It seems like nowadays Miles is always threatening to go to boarding school at the end of every season, so of course there was no reason to believe it would happen this time! It warms my heart to see Miles Hollingsworth in the healthiest state of mind we’ve ever seen him on this show, which is why the situation with Hunter is even more heartbreaking.
The Hollingsworth family continues to be a mess, and now Miles finds himself in a position where he sees that his brother is the one who needs help. Miles knows that if he isn’t there for him, Hunter will go off the deep end as he has no one else in his life for emotional support. Hunter’s role in this story is brilliantly disturbing, as we witness what looks like an actual switch that goes off in his head, releasing a cold anger onto the world.
As useless as the Hollingsworth parents have been, thank God a character on Degrassi told an adult about a serious situation before it reached the point of no return. “This is not your responsibility,” Miles’ mom said, but you’d better believe Miles feels like it is knowing how this family works.
When it comes to Triles, these two characters are in far different mindsets in this episode than what they were during season 14. Real feelings may have developed between them back then, but they were a toxic couple on both ends, practically bleeding their own personal issues all over each other at various points up until the end of #TeamFollowBack. Miles hit rock bottom in Season 1 of Next Class and is now fully aware of destructive his past behavior has been. Tristan even seems to be maturing beyond his I’m-blindly-in-love-with-anyone-who-barely-looks-at-me phase. This shapes up to be the first legitimate chance these two have had at a functional relationship together.
MAYA PLOT SUMMARY: Maya’s applying for a co-op position to work with Peter Stone at a music studio, but she finds herself distracted by her ex Zig. She becomes obsessed with finding out what he’s up to when she spots him hanging out with Esme, and Maya even accidentally likes one of Zig’s pictures of him hanging out with Esme. Peter gives Maya a rough track to complete to show what she’s capable of, but she fails to finish it in time because she misses Zig and is preoccupied with creepin’ on him through social media. While Peter reprimands her, Maya winds up getting the co-op position anyway. She also ends up reconciling with Zig, who tells her there’s no one else for him.
There are good things to have come out of this plot, namely the return of Degrassi alum Peter Stone. With everything that happened with him and Studz while he was originally on the show, it’s great to see that he wound up working in the music business. A subtle arc for Maya’s character in Next Class has been Degrassi showing someone working their way up through an industry, as opposed to up and being discovered like a Craig Manning (music) or Manny Santos (film). As someone who works in the entertainment field (radio), I have a lot of respect for what Degrassi’s doing here. The young people looking to get into radio usually want to be a superstar with their own show. I’m considered an on-air personality, but my technical/production skills are what I’m most passionate about, and they’re what got me this job basically right out of college over a decade ago.
The hyper-focused Maya we saw in Next Class Season 1 falters right out of the gate in #SquadGoals, pining over Zig to the point that it nearly costs her the co-op position. Peter praised her song “Yes,” the final song of several she wrote in Season 1. Those tunes were a clever way for Degrassi to show the evolution of Maya’s romantic feelings toward Zig, with “Yes” confirming her love for him despite his insecurities convincing him otherwise and leading him astray. Combine that with no human being ever wanting to see that their ex is doing just fine without them and that’s a mountain of feels waiting to happen.
While all three plots in #SquadGoals are laying down a foundation for their respective storylines in Season 2, Maya’s is the only one that feels as if drifted off into generic setup mode wrapping up everything conveniently so the can story can move along to more important things. After that speech Peter gave Maya as she gave him an honest, but ridiculous excuses as to why she couldn’t finish the track in time, she just so happens to find out she got the co-op position anyway (while jamming her tongue down Zig’s throat nonetheless). The lack of an actual discussion between Zaya and that weird look on Maya’s face after Zig’s kiss goodbye indicates that even though everything seemed to magically fall into place, we’re probably headed for another round of the always intriguing battle between Maya’s future and Zig’s insecurity.
The Canadian premiere of Degrassi: Next Class Season 2 was on Tuesday, so the cast did their first round of press interviews.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
More interviews are expected as Degrassi also hits Netflix worldwide this Friday (July 22)…they’ll be posted here when they’re available!
It’s one of the most-memorable moments of Degrassi: The Next Generation. In the season 3 episode Pride, Part 1 ended with an emotionally-charged cliffhanger as Marco finally came out to Spinner. That was in 2003.
Skip forward 13 years later. Adamo and Shane have reunited to recreate that moment. Also…remember Degrassi’s “What If…” webisodes? These two have a little fun with that at the end!
Long live “pass-tah” sauce.
Degrassi cast members have always been known for forming close friendships with each other, but how well do they REALLY know each other?
Entertainment site ANDPOP visited the set of Degrassi to test them with a “Who Knows Who Best” tournament!
The pairs
Reiya and Amanda
Ricardo and Richard
Nikki and Ana
Ehren and Sara
Chelsea and Eric
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
My shout out goes to Degrassi Source, who has to jump through all of these hoops to upload Degrassi videos that F2N geoblocks.
Some of the Degrassi cast gave shout out to their fellow cast members for being awesome.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
HUNTER PLOT SUMMARY: Hunter’s excitement about returning to Degrassi turns into horror after realizing his mom and Miles are placing him in a psychiatric hold at a mental health facility. He has several outbursts while there, trying to escape and yelling at his doctor that he isn’t sick or crazy while throwing his chair. Hunter starts to cooperate by filling out a thought journal when his doctor tells him she can help him talk to Yael. Hunter finally has a break through when he admits to the doctor and his family that he feels his life is a hopeless uphill struggle, comparing it to the Myth of Sisyphus. The doctor agrees to let Hunter write a letter to Yael, but Miles does one better by having her show up talk in person. Hunter tells Yael he suffers from depression and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and he also admits that he has violent thoughts when he’s angry. He apologizes to Yael and she says she doesn’t hate him, but that she needs time to think about what’s happened.
The seeds for this arc were planted as far back as You Drive Me Crazy in early Season 14, when Frankie discovered the violent comic Hunter created about the cheerleaders. Now here we are, two seasons later, watching a character get the help he initially doesn’t think he needs. The opening scene is great; the tone flows from hopeful as Hunter’s set to return to Degrassi to “hopeless” as his family pulls up to a mental institution.
It’s strange to not have very much to say about an episode’s main plot because it was so straightforward. Spencer obviously nails Hunter’s emotions in every scene, from the pain in his voice when talking about Yael not wanting to speak to him to melting down as we’ve seen him do several times before.
Mental illness is one of those things that people dismiss because it’s not a visible illness, so it “doesn’t exist” or “isn’t as serious.” However, Hunter comparing how he feels every single day to the story of Sisyphus, a king doomed to roll a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down for all eternity, paints a crushing picture of what it feels like.
The only weird thing about this plot is the lack of emotional connection I felt toward Hunter and Yael’s conversation. I do feel like this should’ve been a powerful moment, but it simply wasn’t.
A major part of that though is a result of the circumstances around Yael’s character when it comes to Hunter; she was essentially plugged into the role Arlene filled in Season 14. But given how important Yael is to Hunter, as we’ve seen through his actions since #SorryNotSorry, developing their relationship will become crucial as this storyline progresses.
SHAY PLOT SUMMARY: Shay’s talking with Frankie about what they’re going to say to Northern Tech’s Captain, Kara, during their meeting about the banner when Shay learns that Frankie was the one who drew the monkey. Frankie also bails on the meeting because she has to visit Hunter, but Shay promises not to mention Frankie is the one responsible. At the meeting, Kara is instantly annoyed that Shay, the lone black player on Degrassi’s volleyball team, is the only one in attendance. Shay says that the banner was a only joke and was never meant to be racist, but Kara explains that it racist and hurtful regardless of intent. Shay asks her father about the banner and he tells her about the history of why depicting black people as monkeys is racist, but he also tells her it’s more complicated than simply labeling someone as a racist if they engage in racist behavior. Shay finally tells Frankie she isn’t okay with what Frankie did. She doesn’t say she thinks Frankie’s racist, but she believes Frankie needs to own up to what she did. Shay also reveals that other teams are boycotting playing against Degrassi until the person responsible for drawing the monkey quits.
The conversation between Shay and Kara is so wonderfully uncomfortable, and it shows how vastly different people’s experiences can be even when it comes to something like race. “But it still hurt, because we live in a world where lots of people do mean it like that,” Kara said in response to Shay saying that the person who drew the monkey didn’t mean any harm. It’s the most important line of their conversation.
It’s crazy that I even have to explain this, but in any situation just because no harm was intended it doesn’t automatically clear you of responsibility for your actions. Even actress Sara Waisglass has pointed this out in regards to this storyline, as she saw fans still engaging in the but-Frankie-didn’t-mean-to-be-racist-so-everyone’s-overreacting mentality. The premise here is that Shay’s conflicted because she’s learning that what happened was wrong, but she also knows Frankie. Kara knows nothing about Frankie or anyone on the team for that matter, so why on earth would she just take Shay’s word for it and give the culprit the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a behavior that’s considered racist? We surely don’t give strangers on social media that luxury when dragging them for [insert anything racist/sexist/offensive/stupid that they say].
And as for Shay….how could a black person not know that comparing a black person to a monkey is racist? Well it’s a good thing that me, a black person with 30+ years of blackness, is here to explain this phenomenon!
My parents never sat us down and said, “Here’s a list of every behavior that’s considered racist toward black people.” Race only really came up in situations where it was relevant to our specific lives, whether it was a major news event at the time or something my parents were aware of happening to them. My sisters and I were probably sheltered from a lot of the latter, but growing up in an all-white neighborhood my parents repeatedly said that we were being held to a higher behavioral standard than others, whether we knew it or not (we didn’t). As a kid I didn’t understand why I was never allowed to go trick-or-treating, or why my parents didn’t want us going into the houses of our friends in the neighborhood (both because if something troublesome happened, they didn’t want things being blamed on the black kids). All I knew was that other kids got to do cool things and I didn’t.
Younger me knew about racist things like the n-word and comparing a black person to a monkey, but Shay not knowing the latter is the equivalent of me not knowing about blackface growing up. Despite its long, offensive history, blackface wasn’t a prevalent issue that I faced during my childhood, so I didn’t even realize it was happening in the very cartoons I watched religiously.
It’s not surprising that neither Shay nor Frankie went into this episode knowing that depicting Kara as a monkey is racist. The difference is Shay’s made an active attempt to understand the gravity of what’s happened while Frankie hasn’t.
“I mean what’s so bad about monkeys anyway?” we overhear Frankie saying in a conversation with Lola, where the two ultimately dismiss the controversy. So again I say this storyline isn’t about painting Frankie as a racist, it’s about pointing out that she just doesn’t get how what she’s done has affected other people.
ZIG PLOT SUMMARY: While Zig assumes that he and Maya are back together, she’s not so sure and suggests they meet up later that night to talk. Zig decides to treat Maya to a fancy dinner, but she bails on him via text to work on a school project. Later, Tiny and Lola show up at the restaurant to console an angry Zig. Lola agrees with Zig that everything is partly Maya’s fault because she went off to NYC with Jonah, while Tiny believes Zig did this to himself. Zig decides to go Maya’s house that night, barging in the window, blaming her for their breakup and accidentally destroying her project in the process. The next day, Zig shows up to school having tried to recreate Maya’s project for her and apologizing for his outburst the night before. Maya tells him that she doesn’t know how she feels about him anymore, and trying to overcome him cheating on her is too much for her to deal with right now.
Thank goodness my belief in #SquadGoals that Maya wasn’t “all in” on a Zaya reunion was confirmed. It’s crazy how much of a fuckboy this relationship makes Zig, all of his own doing. The restaurant scene is so absurd that it’s hilarious, and it’s honestly one of my favorite scenes in Next Class so far. Zig saying “She basically made me cheat on her,” made me laugh out loud because I imagined every single member of the Degrassi fandom reaching through their screens to break one of those fancy dinner plates over his thick skull. Meanwhile, poor Tiny’s sitting there listening to his girlfriend spout even more nonsense. On one hand, Lola represents a generation that heavily relies on digital communication, but she also veers off into a victim-blaming rant that makes her sound like the female version of Mr. Novak.
Maya has been one of my favorite characters for a couple of seasons now. She’s spent a lot of time trying to care for and protect people around her, and in Next Class she’s started focusing more on herself. I love how honest she is about her feelings, that she felt a spark, regretted it, and now feels that trying to work through things after Zig cheated is too hard. Degrassi has elicited complaints for years about randomly making characters superstars virtually overnight and slapping troubled couples back together, but with Maya Matlin’s arc in Next Class they’re basically giving us a 2-for-1 special in terms of showing patience.
A new season of Degrassi: Next Class means the return of The Principal’s Office, the web series where director/producer/actor/king Stefan Brogren gives his take on the latest episodes.
Episode 201 of The Principal’s office is a short one…Stefan and Sara Waisglass talk a little bit about the huge racism storyline in Next Class Season 2.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
A couple of weeks ago Stefan was spotted on set filming The Principal’s Office with writer/Executive Producer Matt Huether. In that video they were talking about a future episode which is good, because it means we’ll get more of these two discussing the episodes. It’s always great to actually receive insight from the writers!
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Degrassi’s digital team got a lot of behind-the-scenes content during the filming of the show’s 500th episode, so I’m sure we’ll see even more stuff in the coming weeks.
Today they ended up posting a handful of videos where cast members from TNG talked with the current Next Class cast.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
FRANKIE PLOT SUMMARY: In order to smooth things over with Northern Tech, Frankie decides to invite them to Degrassi for a diversity mixer. She divides up everyone by blood type in order to point that out despite how different people are, in the end we’re all basically the same. When Frankie says race doesn’t matter and that they should put the banner incident behind them, Kara gets upset. Frankie also admits to the drawing and says that she just made a mistake. However, Kara still says the drawing was racist despite Frankie saying she didn’t mean it like that. Frustrated because she’s tired of being viewed as the villain, Frankie storms off. Later, as Goldi explains white privilege to Frankie, they learn people are using Yael’s “High School Secrets” app to call Frankie a racist. Frankie demands Yael shut down the app, but Yael says it’s not the app’s fault that people are saying those things, and that Frankie should try harder to listen to what other people are saying. That gives Frankie the idea to meet with the girls from Northern Tech at The Dot. She apologizes for offending them and tells them she didn’t realize why their school was called “The Zoo,” conversing with them in a hasty manner and leaving before the Northern Tech girls can speak since Degrassi has a volleyball game. When Frankie arrives to the team bus she learns Kara tweeted that Frankie said “I’m sorry for offending you.” Shay tells her that kind of apology always comes across insincere, and Frankie becomes defensive. Ultimately, Shay starts to believe that Frankie really is racist, and the team leaves for their game without her.
Have you ever watched someone try so hard to avoid something from happening that they unintentionally engage in self-sabotage, and said thing happens anyway? That’s exactly what we’re seeing with Frankie in this storyline. It’s so frustrating watching someone’s perception of a situation cause them to dig themselves into an unnecessary hole, because this entire situation has spiraled out of control and right into Frankie’s worst nightmare: people now think she’s indeed a racist.
This storyline is more complex than the same flimsy, dismissive arguments I keep reading, and ironically they show exactly why this storyline is needed:
*It’s not that big of a deal!
*Frankie apologized!
*They’re being unfair toward her!
*Frankie wasn’t the only one who drew on the banner, what about the rest of the team!
*Frankie’s not racist, but Degrassi’s trying to make it seem like she is!
And my favorite, the logical fallacy that since Northern Tech pranked Degrassi first and they didn’t get in trouble for shaming Frankie and TRESPASSING (as if this is a dick waving contest in which we must prove one act is worse than the other), it’s ridiculous that Frankie’s getting railroaded for what she did!
This is a detailed story with a lot of moving parts that don’t fit into the generic narrative of “Is Frankie racist? YES or NO are the only possible answers to this divisive question!” Ultimately, this plot comes down to Frankie Hollingsworth, her own actions and the fact that she’s unaware of how said actions have affected other people.
“Everybody’s got a different way of seeing things,” Yael says, as Frankie’s upset because she feels no one’s listening to what she’s saying. I’ve been harping on the “There is no reality, only perception” thing since Next Class Season 1, with Zig and Maya’s situation being a shining example of how people’s perception of reality (Zig thought Maya was cheating) can be different from actual reality (she wasn’t cheating…as a matter of fact she was in love with Zig).
Like I said in my review of #TurntUp, I can’t stress enough that despite the fact WE (the viewers) know Frankie and know she didn’t draw the gorilla with racist intent, THEY (Northern Tech) know literally nothing about her as a person. And a lack of malicious intent doesn’t automatically preclude you from consequences for your actions.
“Racism runs deep,” Jonah tells Frankie during a scene in which he explains there is no “easy fix” for situations regarding racism. That makes Frankie’s whitesplaining at the diversity mixer even more ridiculous, as she tries to tell a group of minorities that race doesn’t matter and the whole banner thing is silly because we all evolved from monkeys anyway.
In a perfect world we’d all view each other “as one race,” but that’s not how the real world works. Your race/sex/religion/class/looks do matter. We have biases and make assumptions about people on a daily basis because of them, and we’ve engaged in everything from microaggressions to wars against each other because of them since the beginning of civilization. While Frankie’s using her “race doesn’t matter” speech as a primary argument for why she isn’t a racist, it dismisses the fact that Northern Tech’s students ARE looked down upon directly because of their race and economic status.
I like how Degrassi compounded the situation by having people anonymously drag Frankie through Yael’s app. It’s not right that they’re saying horrible things about her, but it adds a layer of uncomfortable realism to an already uncomfortable situation when you’ve got strangers online aggressively chiming in to trash someone, a regular occurrence in today’s call-out culture. The icing on the cake is Frankie’s rushed apology when addressing Northern Tech’s black players at The Dot. She literally went from acknowledging that she didn’t let them speak the last time they met to once again not letting them get a word in, the second meeting she’d called in this episode to tell the world why she isn’t a racist.
As she watches the bus drive away after Shay kicked her off the volleyball team, Frankie’s downfall isn’t because she’s practically viewed now as the leader of Degrassi’s KKK chapter. It’s because she’s been so hellbent on being defensive that at no point in any of this has she ever tried to understand why what she did was wrong, or actually listened to anything that anyone has tried to tell her.
TRISTAN PLOT SUMMARY: Tristan finds himself hesitant to have “the talk” with Miles about whether or not their relationship is official because he’s afraid of scaring him off. However, Zoë believes Tristan needs to know where Miles stands so that history doesn’t repeat itself Triles is tasked with taking care of a robot baby for a class assignment, and when Miles doesn’t seem to wanna take the baby home for the night, Tristan decides to take care of it since he’s so afraid of pressuring Miles into anything. Winston points out to Tristan that Miles isn’t big on commitment and responsibility, and Tristan gets defensive. However, Tristan ends up confronting Miles about him not helping with their assignment. While Miles thinks the baby is a dumb toy Tristan views it as a symbol of their relationship, and while arguing Tristan drops the baby. He admits he’s afraid Miles will bail on their relationship, and Miles agrees to take care of the baby. Later, Triles gets an “A” on their assignment, both admit they’re worried about messing up their relationship and they confirm that they’re officially together.
Tristan and Miles reuniting also means a heightened sense of paranoia that the past could potentially repeat itself. I enjoyed watching Tristan catch himself possibly falling into the same trap he did the last time they dated when he blindly made excuses for Miles’ negligent behavior.
The robot baby assignment is probably going to be one of my favorite backdrops ever, and I love when Degrassi comes up with creative events that help tell the story. We see Tristan projecting all of his Triles hopes and dreams onto the assignment while Miles views it as just another dumb school project. We’ve watched Miles turn his life around since hitting rock bottom last season, but his IDGAF attitude toward their project shows that even though he’s in a good place mentally, he’s not this perfect character who now magically cares about schoolwork outside of creative writing.
If Tristan had only given Miles the okay to play basketball we might’ve gotten a remake of a classic Degrassi moment, but similar to Jenna years ago Tristan calls out his partner on his sketchy behavior. “You can’t just throw it away when you get bored,” he says about the baby (aka their relationship) to Miles.
Tristan’s always been kind of a pushover when it comes to relationships, allowing himself to become so wrapped up in his feelings that he can’t see what’s happening right in front of him. In Next Class he’s felt like a secondary character more than ever, and he still has dick-ish tendencies, but at the same time we’ve also seen the most personal growth in how his character has gone from placing love on a pedestal to viewing it through a more realistic lens.
YAEL PLOT SUMMARY: As the only girl in their tech class, no one takes Yael’s “High School Secrets” app (an online support group where people can post secrets anonymously) seriously. Baaz and Vijay’s “Brown Cloud” fart app is inferior, so she accepts Bazz’s bet: if their app gets more downloads than hers, she has to go out on a date with him. While Baaz and Vijay’s app is a hit, Yael’s frustrated that hers isnt. Hunter advises Yael that sometimes you have to be ruthless, so she starts posting school rumors and gossip onto her app. Yael’s happy when the app’s download skyrocket, but she starts to feel bad when Frankie asks her to shut down the app because it’s being used to post cruel comments about her. Baaz wins the bet when Yael decides she doesn’t want to compromise her integrity for success and shuts down the app.
This is the second time Degrassi has addressed this theme in Next Class, in which a female character faces an uphill battle in an industry where women are treated as inferior to men. In Season 1’s #NotOkay, Degrassi crafted a great story around Maya’s struggle to be taken seriously as a female artist. While Yael’s looking for the same thing in the tech industry, several things seem to get in the way of making this storyline as compelling as the former.
At this point in Next Class it’s literally a toss up between Yael and Baaz as to which one of them is the least-developed character on the show; it also doesn’t help that our first impression of these two basically revolved them soaking in the “oozing pits of moral iniquity” as conspirators in Maya’s trolling. This plot is an attempt to get Yael’s character back on track, as her initial motivation for the High School Secrets app and her other tech ideas show her heart is in the right place.
But if we’re looking at this plot in reference to the episode’s title, suggesting that the story is centered around Yael fighting against male privilege, that’s where things get confusing thanks to an absolute truth of a line by Hunter Hollingsworth: “Lots of people are into really stupid stuff.”
This plot could be seen as Baaz and Vijay getting rewarded despite barely putting forth any effort into their app, while Yael worked her ass off to creative an innovative UI only for no one to care about hers. However, the entire point of the contest itself is to get the most downloads, not who’s put in the most work or has the best interface. There’s also absolutely no way that creating an app where high school teenagers can post anonymously could possibly be a good idea, regardless of the app’s specs.
Yael is intellectually superior to Baaz and Vijay by a mile, but with High School Secrets it’s just as much about (if not more) her trying to make up for her role in harassing Maya in Season 1 as it is her proving her technological dominance. That’s why she’s quick to pull the app despite its popularity once she turned it into a gossip app; just like in #SorryNotSorry, she once again she’s linked to hateful anonymous behavior and has to come face to face with the person it’s hurting when Frankie confronts her.
We know that Yael’s extremely intelligent, goal driven and ready to use her powers for a greater good. We know this plot presents male privilege, moral conflict and the realization that people will, at times, love the most stupid things over others that are considered helpful or important. “Everybody’s got a different way of seeing things,” she says, but I’m having difficulty trying to see what Degrassi’s attempting to say with all of these points packed into this brief story.
While I’ve been sitting here taking my sweet time on Season 2, most Degrassi fans have finished and are clamoring for Season 3 info thanks to that Season 2 cliffhanger.
As always, any important news about both Seasons 3 and 4 will be posted on the official news page. However, I’m making this very quick Next Class Season 3 FAQ early in the hiatus since a lot of people have been searching for info. If you see fans doing things like asking every cast member when Season 3 will air, make their lives easier by sending them a link to this post (BEWARE: this post does reference major season 2 spoilers below).
As of writing this (8/5/16) there is no official release date. However, if we’re assuming that Netflix will continue its trend of releasing new episodes worldwide every 6 months, the new season will be released in January 2017 (and Season 4 in July 2017). Both seasons will have 10 episodes each.
The same goes for Family Channel in Canada, but who knows how Australia will go about airing the show in 2017 after what happened earlier this year.
Degrassi has already finished filming Season 3 and they’re almost done with Season 4, so auditions are closed for now. Open auditions for a possible Seasons 5 and 6 wouldn’t happen until around Spring 2017. Keep an eye on Casting Director Larissa Mair’s website for future Degrassi audition info.
[NOTE: For all Degrassi auditions, you must be a Canadian citizen and you must be able to work locally in Toronto during the filming period.]
Degrassi has only ever used the death of a primary character under two specific cirumstances: 1) Cam was brought onto the show for the specific purpose of telling a suicide storyline and 2) JT and Adam were killed when the actors playing them had planned to leave the show anyway.
While the end of the Season 2 finale states no fatalities had been reported in the bus crash, a death (or using the accident as a way to write off a character Terri MacGregor style) is very much on the table.
TV Guide wrote an article in which they predicted the odds of the characters on the bus surviving; all but one of the characters on that list have been confirmed to be on set while Degrassi’s been filming Seasons 3 and 4 this summer. If you haven’t been doing so already, you should be reading the “On Set” updates posted on the Season 3 & 4 News page. They contain pictures and video that the cast and crew have been posting while on set since May.
ZOE PLOT SUMMARY: The episode opens up with Zoë doing her hair and makeup at Degrassi, then she accidentally burns her wrist with her curling iron. Zoë auditions to host Degrassi’s 60th anniversary show with Winston, but loses the role to Esme because she wasn’t magnetic on stage and couldn’t sell the sexual tension bit in the script. She asks Esme to show her how she auditioned, and as they practice the sexual tension bit Zoë finds herself kissing Esme a little too passionately for her liking. Tristan is convinced Zoë is a lesbian, but she keeps denying it because that’s not who she wants to be. When he tells her she’s better off being honest with herself, she offends him by saying she’d rather “be normal” instead of being out like him. Later, Miles tells Zoë that she shouldn’t care what other people that the only people that matter should be those who like you for who you are. He also tells her that Winston likes her. Despite the fact Zoë has no romantic interest in Winston, she kisses him and the two start dating, allowing her to avoid dealing with the fact she’s struggling with her sexuality.
Zoë Rivas is Degrassi’s poster child for how dynamic a character can be, constantly challenging the predictable mindset that characters (or real-life people for that matter) are either completely good or completely bad. While her bad moments have been extreme levels of vindictive behavior, a constant with Zoë has always been her desire to fit in and be wanted.
“No one likes me for me,” she tells Miles. Zoë is clearly in a closet, closing herself off from even entertaining the idea of exploring her sexuality because of how much it hurt when she allowed herself to be open and vulnerable, only to be rejected by Grace. There’s also the point she made about not imagining her life “like that,” aka being anything on the LGBTQ spectrum.
Both Zoë and Tristan have reputations for not being the most upstanding Degrassi characters, but for me they have the most underrated friendship on Next Class in terms of the humanity we see them bring out of each other at times. Instead of a gushy, “We’re BFFs <3 4ever” type depiction of friendship, Zoë and Tristan love roasting each other, and they give each other the most brutally honest of opinions, right or wrong. Tristan oversteps his bounds though, with his insistence that Zoë is definitely a lesbian. Even dating back to Season 1 of Next Class, he has a consistent history of biphobic comments and assuming other characters’ sexuality based on nothing. Another factor in Tristan’s mindset in this episode is that he’s been out and proud for forever and he assumes that coming out can be an easy transition for other people, just like people think it’s easy for those suffering from anxiety to just “get over it.”
This storyline is heartbreaking because we can see and feel Zoë’s discomfort in regards to the gap between her idealistic view of who she wants to be versus who she really is. “It just seems so hard,” she says about being gay, a decision that leads her to hide from the truth by jumping into a relationship with Winston.
In the Degrassi: TNG episode Take On Me, Sean Cameron directly asked Ellie Nash why she was a cutter. “It was the only pain I could control,” she told him, a line that resonates throughout a Degrassi episode over a decade later as Zoë flicks the burn on her wrist. It’s a haunting reminder of the inner turmoil teens are still facing as they figure out who they are in a world that would rather them be something else.
RANDOM THOUGHTS: These didn’t really fit in the direction I took with the review, but they’re worth mentioning:
*So apparently Winston rejecting girls while in a position of power because he likes them is a thing. It’s pure nonsense on his part, but just like Tristan always commenting on other people’s sexuality, at least he’s consistent?!? #continuity
*Zoë and Esme’s scenes are fantastic in this episode. Together they could form a toxic implosion of nuclear proportions, but on the flip side they have next-level chemistry. Ana Golja has always delivered her lines as Zoë effortlessly, and Chelsea Clark has shown she can do the same thing in her short time as Esme.
GRACE PLOT SUMMARY: While Grace is minding her own business, Baaz walks up to her and insults her appearance, saying that she looks like she’s damaged and actively trying to avoid attracting men. While even Maya and Jonah think Grace’s style means she doesn’t care about trying to dress to attract guys, it causes her to become self conscious that Zig might not like her because of how she looks. She ends up wearing a pink dress to school, and gets upset when Zig and Tiny casually joke about her drastic change in style. Zig apologizes, and Grace reveals she’s afraid her look pushes might scare people from wanting to be close to her. However, Zig tells her he liked the old Grace and that she should only change for herself. Later, while scaring Baaz for his previous comments, Grace and Maya learn he was only saying those things because was reading tips from a dating advice book. Her plot ends with an awkward moment as Zig walks up, Maya avoids looking Zig in the eyes and Grace has to continue hiding her feelings for him.
An initial viewing of this story gives off the “Oh no, are we really having Grace off all people change herself for a boy?!?” vibe, but what I love about this plot is that it’s full of assumptions coming from every angle. I mean that’s what we do as humans, right? We assume pretty much everything until we’re proven wrong. Baaz makes disparaging comments about Grace’s looks because a book told him the way to win a girl’s heart is to treat her like crap (not true). Maya makes a seemingly innocent remark about Grace not caring about looking attractive to guys (not true). And as viewers, we’ve made the assumption that while Grace is a badass, it means by default that she never lacks confidence in herself, never cares about what anyone thinks about her and doesn’t let anything get to her…again, not true. Our perception of reality doesn’t always align with actual reality, and there’s nothing easier for the human mind than for it to talk you into doubting yourself.
“I’ve just worked so hard not to let other people get to me about this stuff,” she tells Zig. As for Mr. Novak, he acts like he’s lost his damn mind when it comes to his relationship with Maya, but that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of being a good, supportive friend outside of that. “If this is the new you that’s cool, but the old you was awesome too,” he says before telling her that she should only change who she is because she wants to do it for herself.
Her lapse in confidence because of her feelings for Zig isn’t that bad by itself. I’m also in the camp that, based on their conversation in this episode alone, believes there’s nothing unrealistic about Grace falling for a guy she’s actually known since before we first saw them co-exist in the rubber room some 60+ episodes ago. However, it becomes scary if you think about it in the context of her being dragged into a what could be a messy Zaya love triangle. As for this episode, I can appreciate the depth they’re continuing to provide to one of my favorite Degrassi characters in Grace Cardinal.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
*If you exclude his behavior, which is 10000000% unacceptable, I love the fact that Baaz has a crush on Grace. I also love that Degrassi foreshadowed his misguided idea of how to pick up women in their Degrassi TV web series.
LOLA PLOT SUMMARY: When Tiny finds out Lola uses the “Teendr” dating app to flirt with other guys solely for pizza, he demands that she stop. Goldi and Shay agree that a girl should never delete an app because her boyfriend wants her to, until Lola says it’s Teendr. Those two as well as Frankie say that you shouldn’t need a dating app when you’re in a relationship, and Lola admits she keeps it because she’s afraid Tiny will eventually break up with her. With Tiny still mad and Lola afraid to become too attached to anyone, she decides to break up with Tiny. After browsing Teendr and meeting a Tiny lookalike named Anton who’s crude, she immediately regrets her decision. She tells Tiny she’s been afraid to form close relationships with people ever since her mom abandoned her, but that she doesn’t want to miss out on something great with him. The two get back together, but Anton shows up at the school with a pizza. Anton sucker punches Tiny, and because of Degrassi’s zero-tolerance policy Tiny gets suspended for fighting. As Tiny’s escorted off of school property, Lola vows to fight his unfair suspension.
Remember when Clare Edwards lost her mind in Season 11? She went on an angry, self-centered tear for a while there, acting out because her parents’ divorce devastated her emotionally. She was annoying as hell during that period while watching the actual episodes, but it wasn’t until looking back at the big picture after the fact that I was able to have an appreciation for what Degrassi was doing.
While Lola’s “voice” remains consistent from season to season, her usage has been kind of confusing in Next Class Season 2 leading into this episode. She’s basically a background character with one-liners in Frankie’s racism plot, but her commentary on Zig’s relationship in #TurntUp is as alarming as her relationship behavior throughout #BuyMePizza.
When it comes to relationships on Degrassi, the most popular fan trend over the years has been to choose a side, dig in and form arguments that are strongly motivated toward “sticking it” to fans of the other side, instead of analyzing the underlying mechanics of the couple in question, both good and problematic. In reality, the dynamic of a character allowing past negative experiences to dictate how they treat people currently is probably one of the most widely relatable concepts this show’s dealt with since Mirror In The Bathroom.
Amidst the entertainment of mic drops and having “another dude’s pizza in your mouth,” Lola’s abandonment issues present an opportunity for introspection when it comes to one’s own behavior. It’s overwhelming to genuinely think about how your behavior has affected the people you’ve met in your life, for better or for worse. And as we’ve seen in all of the plots in #BuyMePizza, people can be far more motivated by fear when it comes to romance, often leading to self-sabotage and self-fulfilling prophecies of failure. We want love and acceptance, but so many of us aren’t willing to risk fully putting ourselves out there to get it.
Lola’s personality type paints her as more immature than her peers, but it’s a step in the right direction to see her become aware enough to realize why she’s so hesitant to form a connection.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
*Tiny has become my favorite male character on Degrassi.
*Lola’s been problematic in Season 2, but man has her comedic timing been sharp. Amanda Arcuri’s delivery is consistently on point.
*This isn’t true, but I choose to believe that #BuyMePizza is actually the unreleased Degrassi episode “Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell” from years ago.
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Degrassi: Next Class starts digging deeper into Zoë struggling with her sexuality in the episode #BuyMePizza. Ana Golja joins Stefan in The Principal’s Office to talk about her character’s journey.
In what’s been an ongoing subplot in the world of Degrassian Chelsea Clark, she’s made it quite known that she’s the clumsiest person in existence. If we see Esme in a full body cast in future episodes, you’ll know why:
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Chelsea, Richard and Amanda talk bloopers and funny moments that happen on the set of Degrassi. Looking for more of what’s happening on set? Check out the Degrassi: On Set recaps for Next Class and seasons 3 and 4 here.
LOLA PLOT SUMMARY: Upset because no one will listen to her pleas that Tiny was unfairly suspended, Lola decides to start a protest. She gets people on board except for Tiny, who doesn’t want his suspension to blow up into a media circus. When Lola gives up, Grace tells her that racism at Degrassi is a bigger issue than just Tiny, and that he’s treated differently than someone like Frankie. Lola also learns from alums Marco Del Rossi and Paige Michalchuk that zero-tolerance policies can be flawed and have a heavier impact on minorities, so Lola decides to rejoin the protest and convinces Tiny to join as well. When the police show up they tell the protestors to move to the grass and quiet down. Things get intense as Lola and Shay refuse to move, but they eventually comply with the cop’s orders. They find a way to get their message to the alumni event by using spotlights to shine messages into the gym. Eventually, Lola is allowed to finally address the group about her concerns regarding Tiny’s suspension. Afterward, Simpson still believes Tiny’s suspension was justified, but Lola’s put in charge of a student committee to review the school’s zero-tolerance policy.
This is one of those storylines where there’s a lot of noise; not only is there the Degrassi alumni event, but the show wrote in a protest that will surely trigger feelings about the current racial climate here in the United States. It’d be easy to get bogged down by the fact there’s a protest, look at it from the usual dismissive attitude people have about those things and then go about our way. But looking at a protest led by Lola in the confines of Degrassi reminds me to think about the most important question to ask when watching this show: why are the characters doing what they do?
In Lola’s case, she starts a protest because no one would listen to her when she questioned the fairness of Tiny’s suspension. This isn’t Lola going about the Emma-Nelson-from-early-TNG way of beating people over the head with her opinion; Principal Simpson can’t even be bothered to explain why his hands are tied because of a policy out of his control. Lola’s a character who’s never really been taken seriously, neither by other characters nor viewers. She often comes across as aloof and immature, but her ability to stand up and use her own unique voice for a greater cause demonstrates that she can be more than just a bubbly girl with pink hair.
Through Marco’s commentary Degrassi blatantly addresses the fact that minorities are far more likely to be suspended because of zero-tolerance policies. Adding to the protest, the characters make it known they feel Tiny’s punishment is unfair compared to the lack of similar repercussions for Frankie’s racist drawing, and if we’re looking at Degrassi’s code of conduct…
While minorities might be more impacted by the sheer absurdity of zero-tolerance policies in schools, Degrassi also makes it a point to show that in Tiny’s specific situation his race wasn’t necessarily a factor in his suspension. “I don’t know…I mean I’ve wondered, but you never really know,” he says when Lola asks him if he thinks Simpson suspended him because he’s black.
One of my favorite scenes in Next Class is when Degrassi shows Tiny not wanting Lola to protest on his behalf. He just wants to put his head down and get from point A to B with as little noise as possible. He’s a good kid and he’s smart enough to know that a potential media-driven narrative would paint him and the situation to be far worse than it is (i.e. His family members are drug addicts and criminals, so clearly that means he’s a thug). Having your name and face put out there in this day and age is scary when the typical reaction is usually bash first, ask questions never.
But while we tend to view the world based on our own experiences (because our experiences are all that we know), it’s easy to forget that sometimes it’s more to the world than just your own individual experience. With Lola and Tiny, we see two people navigating through a situation where Tiny’s suspension plays a small part of a much larger issue.
TRISTAN PLOT SUMMARY: Tristan’s plan to make the 60th Anniversary Gala great come to a halt when Lola reveals she’s protesting Tiny’s suspension. While Tristan is concerned Lola’s behavior will reflect poorly on the school, Degrassi alum Liberty Van Zandt says Lola has a right to protest and joins her cause. On top of not wanting the protest to ruin the alumni event, Tristan tries to censor Mo Mashkour’s comedy routine, which mentions Lola’s protest. The two clash and Mo quits, as we also learn Tristan bumped Manny Santos and Terri MacGregor’s performances because he said they were “too negative.” When Lola’s protest shines messages into the gala and Frankie’s laughed off the stage, Tristan yells at the crowd for making people feel unwelcome on the stage. Mo calls Tristan out for having done the same thing to him, so Tristan ends up realizing he was wrong and allows Lola to speak her message directly to the crowd.
“Lola’s protest…it makes our school look like we have problems,” Tristan says. If only he knew the history of all that’s happened in these hallways since before he was even born.
This “Next Class” in Degrassi’s existence has evolved not just in addressing this generation’s heavy use of technology, but also in addressing the major social issues affecting today’s society. And when it comes to defending one’s position these days, the trend is now to be so offended by things, no matter how insignificant, that we instantly demand they get shut down.
While Tristan’s role as school president has given him something to do besides being Zoë’s bff and being connected to Miles in various ways, his presidential platform has always been to “make Degrassi a place for everyone.” I get that he’s worked hard on making a the 60th Anniversary Gala an event to remember, but at what point do you abandon what you stand for in order to accomplish things? Trying to shut down every opposing viewpoint simply because you don’t like it isn’t really good enough of an excuse, and in the case of someone in power in a political structure it’s unacceptable.
Tristan wanted to shut down the protest, Mo’s comedy routine and Manny’s song because they didn’t fit the idealistic view of Degrassi he wanted to present to the alumi. The irony is that these Degrassi almuni could tell Tristan from firsthand experience that their school is far from perfect.
FRANKIE PLOT SUMMARY: As Frankie has hope for moving past the gorilla banner incident, she’s presented with an opportunity to show people that she’s more than just her mistake. When Maya loses her voice, Frankie’s asked to fill in and perform the school song at the 60th Anniversary Gala with Peter and Sav. However, when she tells them about what she’s done they back out because they don’t want to look like they support her behavior. After seeing her face on signs of people protesting racism at the school, Frankie’s encouraged by Paige and Spinner’s advice that making mistakes is okay as long as you learn from them, and that Degrassi does give second chances to good people eventually. During Frankie’s song, the protest outside uses spotlights to project messages like “Racism lives here” into the gym during the gala. Embarrassed, Frankie runs off stage as people laugh, and she vows to never return to Degrassi.
This episode is setting up the climax for Frankie’s storyline in a future episode, but I love how this plot uses the alumni to present some really important ideas. We get a sense of how far Frankie’s actions have reached when Sav and Peter, complete strangers to her, decide not to perform with her. How people behave has an impact on how those around them are also perceived (hence things like “Birds of a feather flock together,” and “You are the company you keep“). Talking about race typically makes people uncomfortable to begin with, so racism is a controversy people definitely want to avoid being linked to under any circumstance.
Paige and Spinner’s cameos in Frankie’s plot are amazing. They don’t judge her like her peers have, instead choosing to impart the wisdom they’ve gained through the mistakes they made at Frankie’s age (the most notable being Spinner getting ostracized by the entire school in TNG Season 4 and throughout Season 5).
“If you’re gonna make mistakes this is the place to do it as long as you learn from them,” Paige says. But by the end of this episode Frankie shows that she still has a lot of learning to do since she’s still doing the one thing she’s been guilty of all along: actively avoiding responsibility and running away from her problems.
*The obvious: having former Degrassi characters return is amazing.
*Shay confronting the cop is easily one of the most intense moments I’ve watched on Degrassi in a long time. I don’t even know how Degrassi would go about handling a story if things at the protest had gotten out of control.
*I’ve hated Spemma as the next Degrassian, but I’m glad they’re still married. Having Spinner and Emma get married was a widely hated move…even Executive Producer Stephen Stohn has said it was a mistake. However, Degrassi fans have forever loved to complain about the show’s “fanservice,” and I’m telling you breaking up Spemma would’ve been a fanservice move ten times bigger than the cameos in this episode or any couple the show has put together over the past decade and a half.
*”Degrassi’s pretty cool, but even great places can be better, right?” I’m not sure if this was intentional, but that line in the midst of a story about racism fits awfully nice into the idea that Degrassi’s aware of how it’s been perceived when it comes to how it handles race and incorporates people of color into the show. When we get into Next Class Season 3, more than half of the cast will be POC.
*”That lady actually listened to me!” Lola saying that about Emma makes me feel so old.
*I like how Holly J clearly disagrees with how Tristan is censoring things throughout this episode, but she doesn’t get involved despite having been a former student council president herself.
*Yesss Liberty and Mo calling out Tristan’s nonsense. Watching Mo makes me wish Jake had also appeared…they’re my favorite Degrassi brOTP.
*The only disappointing thing about the alumni event was that I kept scanning the crowd for Degrassi Junior High characters, and none were to be found. It was funny that Stephen Stohn was actually written into the episode as an alumnus, though.
*At one point Paige says, “If you’re a good person, Degrassi always seems to give you a second chance.” That along with her comment about this being a place to mistakes as long as you learn from them applies not just to the show, but to real life as well.
In Part 1 of Degrassi Next Class’ bloopers and funny stories Amanda, Richard and Chelsea shared their silly stories about their time on set.
Now Jamie, Nikki, Amir, Dante and Reiya talk about the funniest moments they experienced while filming season 2 of Next Class.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Reiya talks about bees invading the scene where Shay confronts Frankie before a volleyball game…you can see one of them flying around Lola’s head in the scene!
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Adamo went behind the scenes of the readthrough for the Next Class season 2 finale, #OMFG. Remember the days when Stephen Stohn would tweet about the readthroughs, even posting shots of the scripts to reveal the episode titles? Fun times.
It feels like forever since we’ve gotten to see what happens in there, but the cast, writers and producers all gather to read through the scripts together before production on the episode begins. Degrassi usually gives us behind-the-scenes videos of readthroughs for big moments like Clare’s pregnancy cliffhanger and Bittersweet Symphony, so #OMFG definitely fits into that category.
