Degrassi Junior High – Season 3
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B-
Degrassi Junior High was always criticized
for being too melodramatic, but it did not start that way when it debuted in
1987. Unfortunately, after two seasons
that defied some of the criticisms of the show, the weekly series grind and
storylines that were going astray of the initial characters started to take its
toll in this Season 3 set. The
sixteen half-hour episodes this time are as follows:
1) Can’t
Live With ’Em (two-episode opener)
2) A Big
Girl Now
3) Season’s
Greetings
4) Loves
Me, Loves Me Not
5) He Ain’t
Heavy
6) The
Whole Truth
7) Star-Crossed
8) Food For
Thought
9) Twenty
Bucks
10) Taking Off (two episode story)
11) Making Whoopee
12) Black & White
13) Pa-arty!
14) Bye-Bye Junior High
The show still retained its moral center, but a certain
kind of self-formula had kicked it. It
is not that the critics could see bad things coming, but that the show just did
not keep pace with any kind of innovation or forward thinking, settling instead
for staying on the straight and narrow.
This kind of thinking helped kill 3-2-1 Contact and began to have
many question PBS itself. At least
these episodes still have moments and deal with real issues.
The 1.33 X 1 full frame image is a bit off versus the first
two sets, maybe in part because later episodes of series sometimes do not look
as good as earlier ones. Either way,
they are softer and less color correct than the earlier shows. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple stereo of
sorts and is passable, but the theme song seems like a new recording that is
not as good. Extras are much less in
this case, including quizzes, wallpaper and PDF teaching material on all discs,
and Degrassi Between Takes on DVD 1.
That is not as much as the previous sets, but rounds out the set as well
as can be expected.
- Nicholas Sheffo
