TMC
01-15-2016, 11:45 PM
http://www.avclub.com/article/it-goes-there-10-very-special-episodes-degrassi-230584
No teen drama on television is as simultaneously prolific and mocked as Degrassi. As of its August 2015 “finale” on TeenNick, the series had amassed 14 seasons, 385 half-hour episodes, and a handful of non-canonical specials, outpacing Cheers, Law & Order: SVU, and other long-running primetime staples. And that’s just the series that debuted as Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2001; start adding in previous iterations of the franchise and the numbers become overwhelming. To end Degrassi’s run on that note would be impressive as hell, but it turned out that the melodramatic powerhouse has no intentions of stopping. Shortly after the series was dropped by TeenNick, it was announced that Netflix had picked it up. Degrassi: Next Class—sort of a 15th season, sort of a new entity—debuts on January 15; true to its Canadian roots, a handful of the new episodes have already aired in the series’ native country.
But the question has never been “When will Degrassi end?” The question is “How does Degrassi stay watchable year after year?” The answer is simple: It remains the same.
No teen drama on television is as simultaneously prolific and mocked as Degrassi. As of its August 2015 “finale” on TeenNick, the series had amassed 14 seasons, 385 half-hour episodes, and a handful of non-canonical specials, outpacing Cheers, Law & Order: SVU, and other long-running primetime staples. And that’s just the series that debuted as Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2001; start adding in previous iterations of the franchise and the numbers become overwhelming. To end Degrassi’s run on that note would be impressive as hell, but it turned out that the melodramatic powerhouse has no intentions of stopping. Shortly after the series was dropped by TeenNick, it was announced that Netflix had picked it up. Degrassi: Next Class—sort of a 15th season, sort of a new entity—debuts on January 15; true to its Canadian roots, a handful of the new episodes have already aired in the series’ native country.
But the question has never been “When will Degrassi end?” The question is “How does Degrassi stay watchable year after year?” The answer is simple: It remains the same.