School's Out and life sucks

This weekend I had the opportunity to watch a VHS copy of School's Out, the TV movie that concluded the original Degrassi High series. In stark contrast to shows like The OC and Dawson's Creek, which both went out on impossibly happily ever after notes ("Summer and Seth got married!" "Jen's dead!"), School's Out really stayed true to its roots and went out on a huge downer.

Are you a fan of The Next Generation's Manny/Craig/Ashley storyline? Relive it with Tessa/Joey/Caitlin. Betrayal! Abortion! Joey's bare ass! I, for one, no longer care that Caitlin cheated on Joey with Kevin Smith and dumped his bald ass. His high school self owes her a huge karmic debt and that turn events doesn't even begin to cover it.

And only Degrassi would take their blue collar bad boy and in the finale, put him at fault in a case of vehicular manslaughter. The OC ended with Ryan as a benevolent architect. Degrassi ended with Wheels behind bars after driving drunk and killing a toddler. Not even The Next Generation had the stones to kill the dude Sean hit while completely sober.

I bow to the original Degrassi. I'm not worthy of your go-thereness.