The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 134

F1 ct i I if THE DEGRASSI GANG GROWS UP FAST 'School's maps up the ground-breaking series with a two-hour movie that veers in some surprising directions JANICE KENNF. DY he first thing to realize about the Degrassi kids is that they're no longer kids. Their famous television world looks considerably older. This will quickly become evident Sunday, as CBC premieres Degrassi High's sequel. School's Out! A two-hour movie special, it's meant tn tie nr.

the loose ends left dangling mav be the most explicit safe-sex lesson on the air ironic considering CBC's refusal to run ads for prophylactics. School's veers in other new directions. There's a Canadianness often missing from the series, and there's a descent into tragedy that is considerably heavier than fans are used to. But there are also familiar features: the top-Hight acting by Mastroianni. Mistysyn.

Brogren. Hope. Kirsti Boume. Granofsky and the others: the immense likability of the characters: the honesty of plot and dialogue: and. in spite of But look again.

Dangling over the cliff of adulthood, the Degrassi kids are still hanging on, consciously or otherw ise, to some of the threads of immaturity. Despite their brave adult wrappings, they still do irredeemably young things. Beautiful, sensible Caitlin. for instance, makes a potentially disastrous life decision based on the emotion of a moment. Joey.

Snake and Wheels trade stories of personal sexual prowess like kids talking baseball scores, complete with numbers of bases. This confusion of teen and adult worlds is the essence of what veteran Degrassi writer Yan Moore has caught so well so sensitively, so movingly, so. at times, frustratingly. And this is what makes School's Out! worth watching, even if it's like nothing you've seen on the series before. Recause it is a departure.

when the award-w inning series stopped running last spring after 70 outstanding episodes. The show opens with Degrassi High's graduation ceremonies and the start of that magical summer lying just before university or work. It continues with summer jobs, lots of partying and the intricate dynamics of young people caught up in evolving relationships. The old gang is back: Lucy (Anais Granofsky), Caitlin (Stacie Mistysyn), Wheels (Neil Hope), Snake (Stefan Brogren), Spike (Amanda Stepto) and Joey (Pat Mastroianni). School's Out! makes it obvious in several ways that the kids are no longer kids.

The characters talk of the future. They buy and drive cars. They get engaged and married a Degrassi wedding being part of the movie's plot. They're no longer young-looking. They appear to be wise in the ways of the sexual world.

And they drink beer lots of it. They seem to walk through the movie with long-necked brown bottles permanently attached to their hands. It's all a little disconcerting for longtime fans of the series, especially those fans of the parental persuasion who may not like to believe that kids, even on television, grow up. even for a show that broke all kinds of new ground for young people's television. Apart from the ubiquitous beer bottles, the show also features explicit making-out scenes.

In a romantic setting, there's a clear shot of Joey's nude posterior, already familiar from an earlier now-famous cafeteria walkabout. There's the occasional use of DEGRASSI KIDS: ON THE BRINK OF ADULTHOOD every thing that happens, the sense of fun. School's Out! is a fine finale to an outstanding series. language that may nave audiences wondering. Did I just hear what 1 thought I heard on television? And there's a scene featuring Lucy.

Caitlin. a banana and a condom that just.