Love Conquers All, But...Come On.

Last night's Degrassi two-parter technically wasn't a season finale, according to IMDb, but since the show's seasons are extraordinarily long and it's going to be gone for a while, I think it's okay to use this first day of its hiatus to assess. And by "assess," I mean "call bullshit."

The last time I addressed Degrassi, I noted that the show sometimes sacrifices credibility when it comes to its portrayal of its teen characters' dating lives, and never has that been more true than in the circuitous route that Adam (Jordan Todosey) and Becky (Sarah Fisher) took to their happy ending last night. That Degrassi has featured a transgender character for the past several seasons is bold enough that the mere fact of Adam's existence almost allows the viewer to forgive any missteps in his plotlines. But generally speaking, the show has done what I imagine is probably a good job of dramatizing the challenges that a real trans kid would face while in high school: his generally accepting parents' backsliding when it comes to contact with older, less open-minded relatives; having a hard time getting male classmates to treat him as a fellow guy; being used as a way point for a gay girl figuring out her own sexual identity. When Becky arrived on the scene and found herself drawn to Adam, it made sense: Becky is a sheltered pastor's daughter and barely had any concept of what "trans" meant, so it was credible that she wouldn't suspect that Adam wasn't like the other boys at Degrassi. And when the truth came out (as it were), it also made sense that her conservative parents wouldn't sanction the relationship -- and, furthermore, that they might put Becky into some misbegotten "therapy" situation that would try to cure her of her feelings. None of that is especially life-affirming, I'll grant you -- particularly for any trans kids who might be in Degrassi's audience -- but it is probably pretty realistic.

So where they lose me is in the resolution of Becky and Adam's storyline. Would a devoutly Christian girl with little experience of the world really react to gay deprogramming by becoming even more resolute in her affection for a trans boy? Would her father react to her declaration of love by (a) silently staring at her and then (b) being sufficiently accepting that he let the two of them go out to an unsupervised party? I'll grant you that even religious Canadians are, on the whole, less reactionary than Americans, but the dad's not at least going to yell? Anyway, even though it was more believable that he'd end up with the cool rock chick in the leopard print dress and Amy Winehouse hair, Adam triumphed over religious intolerance in the end. It's Degrassi, not a Mike Leigh movie.

One last thing: given that the other two girls smiling fondly at Adam and his new girlfriend have also both been involved in ill-starred hookups with Adam, it's probably time for the show to get some new blood.

With regard to the love quadrangle I wrote about in the post linked above: what do you know, that did end pretty believably! Tori (Alex Steele) did find out about Zig (Ricardo Hoyos) and Maya (Olivia Scriven), and didn't react well. Meanwhile, Campbell (Dylan Everett) maybe isn't gay? And it's nice that Maya decided to quit pining after Zig and to stick with Campbell now that he has stopped being so cold to her, for reasons I guess will be explored when the season resumes.

Other important work Degrassi has done in this latest run of episodes: dramatized a boy (Lyle O'Donohue's Tristan) having body image issues, well before all the recent blog posts about this study; showed that you can smoke weed occasionally and the worst that will probably happen is that you'll be embarrassed by the short film you make while high; high school athletes can be a real bunch of dicks.

And...Drew (Luke Bilyk) and Bianca (Alicia Josipovic) can't possibly really be getting married, could they? It's going to be like when Brenda and Stuart went to elope to Vegas on 90210? If Degrassi showed the benefits of dropping out of high school to work at a cell phone store and marry your girlfriend, I'm not sure TeenNick could continue to carry the show.