This was the last series of the Degrassi franchise that I watched (including up to season 11.5 of Next Generation) and I just finished the last episode today.
Off to a slow start with pilot "Ida makes a movie". Whilst it contain a lesson about white lies, it was a bit hard to watch as it was aimed at such a young audience. The episode after this "Cookie goes to hospital" was a bit easier to watch, and with each new episode it got easier to watch. By about episode 4 or 5, I was thoroughly enjoying the show!
As a long time Degrassi fan (been watching for 12 years, since I was about 10 when my mum showed me it!), it was also really entertaining to see a lot of Degrassi Junior High actors as youngsters! They play completely different characters, but it was interesting to see anyway! Some of the cast are Stacie Mistysyn (Caitlin Ryan), Neil Hope (Wheels) are the main two that we see, but some of the less main characters actually played a pretty big part in Kids Of such as Sarah Charlesworth (Suzy, Caitlin's friend), Danah-Jean Brown (Trish, on newspaper staff), John Ioannou (Alex, who goes out with Tessa), Christopher Charlesworth (Scooter), Tyson Talbot (Jason, his main appearance is in The Great Race as captain of the swimming team), Arelene Lott (Nancy, editor of newspaper) and Anais Granofsky (Lucy) also makes an appearance towards the end of the show! Funnily enough, Dave James plays Neil Hope (Wheels)'s brother, and then in junior high plays Mike, Wheel's biological father.
Though aimed at younger audiences, the show still held true to the rest of the series. Each episode dealt with an issue, often friendship- related, and had a realistic take on it. It usually did end with a happy ending, unlike Junior High and High; I guess this is because it was aimed at a younger audience. The issues go from little quarrels in friendships, to bigger things like being the only girl in sixth grade with a boyfriend and not letting that get in the way of your friendship, to raising money for school activities and making the right friends. Always a lesson, always entertaining!
Give it a go, just make sure you watch more than the first episode please, because it does get better, I promise!!!
