Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Emma Nelson, the inspiration for Degrassi: TNG
Degrassi: The Next Generation (deprived from The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High) is a popular, well-liked television show based in Toronto, ON Canada. The show follows a select cluster of students who go through things that people in life typically go through. Even if it doesn't happen to you, it's happening to somebody somewhere. In one episode, somebody gets shot. In another episode, a girl gets abused in a relationship with her boyfriend. There's drama like that throughout all 8 seasons in Degrassi: The Next Generation. A new season of the beloved show is coming up July 3rd, with new characters and old ones too. According to Wikipedia, Degrassi is the highest rated television show aired on The N, a popular television channel in the United States.
The first ever Degrassi show was created in 1979, which would be The Kids Of Degrassi Street. Degrassi Junior High followed after in 1987 and that was followed up with Degrassi High. There's a character in the shows named Emma Nelson, a nature enthusiast and all around typical troubled teenager. She reportedly inspired the writers of The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and Degrassi High to continue on the show with the current running Degrassi: The Next Generation.
There are a variety of characters in Degrassi: The Next Generation. There's Liberty, a goody-two shoes who excels in school subjects and all around fails at street smarts. She seems like a boring character, but a lot happens with her. Speaking of Liberty trouble, there's J.T. Yorke (The J.T. standing for James Tiberius). He's seen as the funny kid in the school. Always pulling pranks and doing things to annoy people, or make them smile. There's a point in one of the seasons where J.T and Liberty hook up which results in a little J.T. spawn. After James Tiberius, you have his loyal friend Toby.
Toby is a cliché geek. Glasses and nerdy attire. There's really no other way to branch off to the other characters from Toby because Liberty, J.T., and Toby may interact with the others but they aren't close friends with each other. So from here I'll just go on to Sean, the bad boy. He moves to Degrassi from Wasaga Beach where he lives with his older brother. He's always getting in trouble in every episode if not every other. After Sean you have Emma, who I've already explained. But the two tie into each other because they date in a couple different seasons but it always seems to end sour between the two. Then you have Manny (Manuela), Emma's best friend since... Forever.
She's a tough girl, but a fragile one at most. She's fiesty, and she tends to make all the wrong decisions but she gets herself figured out in time and matures. Craig, who at two different times dated Manny, is a musician. He's got various issues from Bi-polar to an addiction to coke. His parents are both dead so he lives with his step dad, Joey. After Craig you've got Ellie, a typical 'emo' girl. She wears black, red, and sometimes gray. She's deep, and she attempts to drum for Craig's band Downtown Sasquatch at some point. Craig and Ellie have known each other their whole lives and despite Craig not feeling for her like she feels for him, Ellie finds herself in love with him.
But much like every relationship in Degrassi, it turns sour when Craig tells her that he loves her just so she'll give him his coke back. That's the end of that. Then you have Marco, Ellie's beloved and loyal best friend. In the earlier seasons of Degrassi, Marco realizes he's gay. His friends and peers at school don't seem to have a problem with it, but when he tells his father there is complete denial and his father says, and I quote, "I don't want to know this part of you." It leaves Marco heartbroken in the least. You can't have Marco without Paige though, the sister of one of Marco's boyfriends.
Paige is head cheerleader, and a straight up snob. She'll do anything to get what she wants, and she wants a lot of things. Marco and Paige become best friends when Marco goes out with her brother, Dylan. But Paige's life doesn't consist of just gay best friends and gay brothers. There's also Spinner, the boy she dates various times through the seasons, if I'm not mistaken. Spinner is a bully, but he's also a good guy. He knows who to take care of, and he knows his boundaries... Sometimes. But the times he doesn't know what he's doing, there's Jimmy there to help him.
Jimmy, the star athlete rich boy. Of course, Jimmy and Spinner had a falling out when after countless bullying, Spinner and his friend Jay made a kid shoot Jimmy, thus paralyzing Jimmy for life. It takes two whole years for Jimmy to forgive Spinner, but finally he does and things go virtually back to normal. When you think of Jimmy, you can't help but think of Ashley. Ashley is a musician like Craig and like Manny, she dated Craig too. But then she ends up dating Jimmy and despite Jimmy's multiple emotional issues, their relationship seems to be the only solid one out of all the seasons so far.
I'd say that I covered the basic original characters of Degrassi: The Next Generation. It's an all round good show and if I had to give it a rating it'd definitely be a 10 / 10. It's got drama, suspense, action, romance, tragedy. Everything you need to make a good television show. The new season starts Friday July 3rd at 8:00pm in the United States. If you haven't watched it, there's a chance you can get pretty much caught up if you watch the re-runs going on during this last week and weekend of June.
