A Review of the First Season of Degrassi Junior High
A Review by Nick Peron
Degrassi Junior High Episode 03 - The Experiment:
The Characters:
Arthur "Astro Dog" Kobalewscuy: Annoying and easily confused brother of Stephanie Kaye. Studies really good, and therefore is a nerd, according to latest opinion polls. Not very good at basketball even though he tries really hard. Thinks his impressive watch with multiple time zone & calculator functions is impressive. However, unless it gets the ball game he is stuck in geek status since liking sports = not being a geek.
Yick Yu "The Unorganized": Messy, unorganized, bad at school, good at basketball. The yang to Arthur's yin. Believes that there is a conspiracy going on in the marking abilities of teacher Mr. Raddich. Constantly believes that everyone is against him, if this kid was to be in school ten years later he probably would have been a prime candidate for a school shooter. Blames his academic short comings on everything except for himself.
Mr. Raddich AKA "Rockin' Rollickin' Raddich": A very intelligent teacher, who appears to have some hostility issues with his students. Enjoys telling them to stop being kids, and giving them demeaning nicknames (See Yu The Unorganized) Reported to have a flawed marking system. In his defense he states "Literature is not an exact science" and "You can't use a perceived flaw in the system as justification for cheating." Direct translation? I'm the fucking teacher, what I say goes, pussy.
Kathleen Mead: The bitch. That's pretty much the gist of Kathleen. Ignorant, opinionated and can easily manipulate people. However, in this episode she does some uncharacteristic following. Friend of Melanie, she has a role of being the leader of the group of Degrassi grade 7 girls who have no fucking clue about anything.
Melanie Brodie: The gullible one. Melanie is chocked full of outlandish ideas about what Junior High should be all about, thanks in part to her mother who seems to have a total disconnection from reality. Believes that the are supposed to be drugs everywhere in junior high. That's right Melanie, you can't walk around the hallways without stubbing your toes on the damn stuff, that is if you aren't busy getting laid by the boys who only have one thing in mind. Your mom and Vula's dad should hook up or something.
The Plot:
Taking center stage in this wonderful tale of backstabbing and betrayal, is Yick Yu and Arthur. Conspiracy is afoot when Yick believes that Mr. Raddich, the fascist english teacher who hates all things fun (unless your idea of fun is making fun of your students) is unfairly marking him (completely ignoring the fact that he is pretty unorganized, doesn't apply himself or really try at his assignments.) Arthur, the master of operating a digital watch, therefore vastly intelligent than most Degrassi students, sucks at basketball, just ask Shane, apparently someone's athletic skill is measured by your grade and ability to study. Yet, talk about hypocrisy, they welcome Yick with open arms.
Arthur wants help to learn to play basketball, and Yick wants to grab Raddich by the balls and squeeze with a master plan that will rock the marking systems at Degrassi Junior High. Arthur offers to help Yick with this plan, by giving him some of Stephanie Kayes papers from Raddich's english class from the year previous (how nobody seems to put two and two together and figure out that Arthur is Stephanie's brother just goes to show you how bright these Degrassi kids are.)
After the first test of their "experiment" nets Yick with an A- (when Stephanie Kayes original paper got her a B+) the two boys decide that Raddich has gone rogue and is totally making up marks as he goes. With this nugget of information, Yick uses peer pressuring tactics ("I thought you were my friend" and "I helped you learn how to play basketball") gets Arthur to get another paper.
This second time, their cover is blown (Here's an idea Yick, when it's a letter writing assignment, you may want to pick a different cause than the person who's paper your copying, moron.) When questioned where he got Stephanie Kaye's paper, Arthur pipes up and the two go down the path of infamy the cheating and copying someone else's work gets you in junior high. Yeah that's right, the first two kids to get detention in Raddich's english class.
After some brooding Yu the Unorganized writes an essay on why it's wrong to cheat. See my opinion for the grade I give Mr. Yu on his paper.
The Sub-Plot:
This episode also has a sub-plot involving Melanie and Kathleen wanting to try drugs. According to Melanie's mother, drugs are everywhere in junior high. Melanie wants to go to lots of parties, where there are boys and dancing and chips and drugs. Apparently the excitement of potato chips ranks as high as drugs do, but somehow premarital sex and alcohol don't fit into the equation.. I guess that isn't taboo enough when compared to the all mighty power of all dressed chips.
When affirming to Kathleen that she doesn't want to be an addict living in the slums with rats and lice, that she just wants to try drugs only once, she becomes the target of Joey Jeremiah, who offers them a veritable menu of drugs, including Bolivian cocaine, Degrassi Grass (wtf?) and New Zealand Zappers.
Through the course of the episode, Joey suckers Kathleen, Melanie and their friends (nondescript pudgy boy and nameless wheelchair girl) out of money selling them nothing more than vitamin tablets so he can buy new clothes. When he discloses this information to Stephanie Kaye who (in one of those rare moments) expresses concern over anybody that he is selling stupid kids nothing more than vitamin pills, the jig is up because Melanie & Kathleen over hear his confession.
The girls and their posse manage to get their revenge on Joey. Somehow, two scrawny girls, a pudgy kid, and a girl in a wheelchair manage to strip Joey and lock him in the broom closet, and justice is served.
My Opinion:
Before I get onto grading Yick Yu's paper, I will take a moment to talk about the issue of drugs in this episode. One of the first lessons that is learned from this episode is that you should never buy drugs from someone you don't know. I obviously didn't learn that rather valuable lesson when I was 19 and went on a drug binge, but instead of the pot, shrooms & E that I was hoping to get I got a bag of arregano, some store bought mushrooms, and an aspirin.
Of course you don't want to look like total idiot buying "drugs" that don't work, so you pretend to be stoned. Man I bet those cops were pretty let down when they made me do that blood test, too bad I didn't buy fake beer at the time I would have aced the breathalyzer too, but you can't win them all, and let's face it they don't sell fake beer in dark alleys or the stairwell at the junior high, don't be stupid.
I'm a little appalled that they did not address the dangers of the brown acid, but I suppose there is a good reason for that, I mean it's not like you can time travel back to the first Woodstock, so this isn't an issue for you kids to worry about (To learn more about Woodstock, hippies, & the free love movement, visit your local library, or ask that burned out hippie that lives in your apartment complex. Then don't believe a word that they say, because if they remember what happened, then weren't there maaaaaaaaaan!)
Now let's cut the bullshit and take a look at Yick Yu's essay assignment on stereotyping:
Now Mr. Raddich said that this essay is A material, it's THAT good, but I'm afraid Mr. Yu that I'm not inclined to agree with your teacher. Already through the course of this episode, his teaching ability has already been thrown into question, and I believe that perhaps he's letting this go, and is going to stop calling you Yick the Unorganized, is possibly that you might clue in that he's harassing you, and there is no place for that in a school environment (at least that's what it says in our agenda.)
I'm afraid that in regards to your essay, it lacks any sort of credibility. It's impossible for the reader to believe that they would not stereotype someone as a nerd because they study and cannot play basketball. You fail to provide any supporting evidence other than you've "Seen him" play basketball. To the average reader they require more substantial evidence to prove your outlying message that the subject in question is not as athletically impaired as he is made out to be.
As far as your theory that when one especially wants to accomplish something is indeed not stupid, I suggest that you be a little more clear on what exactly the message you are trying to convey. Accomplish what Mr. Yu? Would not one consider the person who wants to accomplish "something" as opposed to a specific accomplishment seem to have no direction in life?
It seems to me Mr. Yu, that this essay seems to be a forum for you to once more blame the world for what you deem a hard life, and to attack your bitter opponents, mainly Mr. Raddich and his Grade 7 English class. I sense a great deal of hostility from your writing, the fact that you are so discouraged by simple name calling is a sure fire sign that you are an emotionally unstable pussy who can't take a little criticism.
To be a successful writer you must have a little more motivation and be able to write above a third grade level. How dare you even assume these pathetic few sentences even come anywhere near what is called an essay. English majors scoff at this pathetic and sad example of the english language in this "essay."
However, Mr. Yu, I have no place in judging your ability to write, I do operate this website of course, and I maintain that I am not in a position to judge so harshly. Plus whoever believes literature has to follow a set of rules in order to be readable has their head too far up their ass, and spends far too much time looking for spelling errors and lack of clarification than enjoy the finer points of a language that is a bastardization of various other European dialects being used in a chaotic and completely unstructured format.
I am totally talking out my ass right now. I give you a T+, mostly because this is not an official grading, and really why would A be the best mark? I mean there are so many cooler letters in the alphabet that come down later in the series. Personally I'm fond of the letter Z, it's one of the most unused, Q used to be my favorite, but I quickly changed my mind when I realized that the letter Q is an insecure fucker who can't be anywhere without it's precious letter U.
Nancy Alert:
Shockingly enough, Nancy only makes three appearances in this episode. Most of which are at the diner that every kid who goes to Degrassi goes and hangs out at after school. I would assume her absence from the rest of the episode had something to do with the fact that they filmed scenes in said diner. Nancy please control yourself, people are just going to make fun of you even more now. Like I just did, fat ass.
