The New Season Of Degrassi Will Address “Scary Right-Wing Thinking” And The Refugee Crisis
Bring back Rosie Beaton.
Rosie Beaton might not be delivering content warnings anymore, but Degrassi’s latest season promises to be more provocative than ever.
The Canadian teen-drama first aired way back in 1979 and last year it was rebooted by Netflix under the title Degrassi: Next Class. Over the years the show’s storylines have featured important themes including teen pregnancy, mental health issues, abortion and racism.
Oh, and it’s the show that propelled Drake into stardom.
The new season of Degrassi: Next Class premieres this week and the show’s writers are promising that it’s more relevant than ever.
The show will introduce two new characters, Rasha and Saad. Both are refugees from Syria who have settled in Canada.
The Canadian government has settled more than 38,000 Syrian refugees since 2015 so it’s a pretty timely move for the show to explore the experience of young refugees adapting to a new environment.
Rather than just introducing one refugee character and attempting to shoehorn the complexity and diversity of migrant experiences onto them, Degrassi’s writers have chosen to introduce two, from quite separate backgrounds.
According to the show’s executive producer, “Rasha is very cosmopolitan, from the big city, speaks English and is very well-educated. She missed out on high school because of the war and wants to grab high school by the reins.”
On the other hand, Saad is a small Syrian town, doesn’t speak great English and has a tougher time integrating into the school community. It’s a great move from the show to avoid tokenism, and accurately depict the diversity of the refugee community.
The show will also reference the current political debates around abortion, in a clear nod to Donald Trump’s rhetoric, and explore “some of the scary right-wing thinking that’s out there.”
And if, like me, you were wondering whether Archie “Snake” Simpson was still in the show, the answer is yes. He’s still the world’s greatest principal.
Season three of Degrassi: Next Class premieres today on Netflix everywhere in the world except for Australia and Canada. ABC3 has had the rights for previous seasons of Next Class, so it will probably end up there sometime this year.