Degrassi: The Next Generation is back, and apparently the writers and producers mean to bring it back fresh. The Canadian-based teen drama set largely in the fictional Degrassi Community School has been largely chasing its own shadow in the last couple of seasons with cast members getting old and characters getting stale. “Uptown Girl”, the one-hour eighth season opener, shows that the series can revitalize itself while still keeping the traditional issue-of-the-week format.
We open with Danny Van Zandt (Dalmar Abuzeid) and Derek Haig (Marc Donato) both doing football practice and seemingly impressing the hell out of “The Shep” (Kevin Jubinville), who serves as the new football coach and principal of Degrassi. Resident mother/student Mia Jones (Nina Dobrev) meanwhile ends up coming late for the new Power Squad cheerleading team which no doubt gives her arch-enemy Holly J. Sinclair (Charlotte Arnold) a reason to complain about Mia’s inability to get it together. As the opening theme cues up, we are left with Mia pondering how right Holly J could be.
After the “tour guide” opening theme we are re-introduced to former Degrassi students Liberty (Sarah Barrable-Tishauer), Manny (Cassie Steele), and Emma (Miriam MacDonald), who arrive at Smithsdale University under the pretense that they will be roommates. But in typical Degrassi fashion, there’s always a snag. While they all have rooms, they won’t have rooms together.
Emma, while rather depressed about this, is seemingly unaware of the fact that Liberty and Manny aren’t unhappy about getting away from her. To make things better for her (and worse for them) she changes the rooms and places Manny and Liberty in a new room so that they can all be close. The problem is the room comes with a male roommate named Kelly Ashoona (Evan Williams) who is coincidentally hot enough that a complicated love triangle could be on the horizon this season.
New blood enters the Degrassi universe at this point on Registration Day in the form of three ninth-graders named Connor (AJ Saudin), Alli (Melinda Shankar), and Clarie (Aislinn Paul). Clarie is the sister of Darcy (Shenae Grimes) who, much like her sister when she came to Degrassi, is something of a moralist. Alli is the sister of Sav (Raymond Ablack) and is the opposite of Clarie in that she is not only willing to break all the rules, but puts in danger while doing so. Connor is the obsessive, intense one who in the premiere fixates on having the same seat everywhere he goes; even though he is supposed to be part of the group, he’s background filler for this episode.
A fashion show takes place at Degrassi as well during Registration Day to show off the school’s hottest girls next to the school’s hottest football team members. Danny and Mia, who surprisingly are attracted to each other, get their pose on and become the main attractions of the show. Afterwards Mia is approached by a modeling agency and is asked to go out and audition for jobs.
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