YMMV / Degrassi High

• Ass Pull: Spike liking Snake near the end of Season 2. Before this, she was completely indifferent to his existence except as a passerby and there is absolutely no Fridge Brilliance involved. In a way, it's Hilarious in Hindsight what became of them in the newer series.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Liz is a lesbian and in love with Spike. We see throughout the series that she's uncomfortable with men. Some of that can be explained away by the sexual abuse she suffered as a child which could contribute to her being a lesbian. We see her romantically linked to three guys during the series: Joey, Tim and Patrick. Her relationships with Joey and Tim never panned out past one date and nothing indicates she ever kissed either guy. As for Patrick, it could be explained away as showing interest in him because Spike does. Lastly, she often acted possessive of Spike whenever Shane, Spike's ex, would come around. Not only that, but notice how she went straight to wanting to throw a brick through the window of the restaurant that made fun of Spike's hair?
  • Spike was in fact jealous of Liz dating her ex-Patrick, but because Liz was taken away from her.
  • Wheels is another character who frequently gets interpreted as a closet case, thanks to his Celibate Hero tendencies, his frequent obvious discomfort with girls being interested in him, his lukewarm at best response when the salesman who molests him asks if he's interested in girls, his Ho Yay-heavy friendships with Joey and Snake, and his relationship with "Karen" in School's Out, which seems like a textbook example of Girlfriend in Canada.
  • Patrick took up drugs between the end of Season 1 of Degrassi High and Season 2 episode "Body Politics". In Season 1, he is generally seen as a nice, happy-go-lucky guy who looks relatively normal. When he appears in "Body Politics", and it might be the particular lighting, but Patrick's face almost looks a bit sunken, and his attitude has done a complete 180. When he confronts Spike over getting dumped by Liz, he hovers over her repeatedly and follows her around the library and his tone of voice seems rather threatening, like he is going to do something to her if she were to continue this "meddling". It's probably completely ridiculous but still.
• Better on DVD: Mostly...the continuity becomes clearer, but so does every single Retcon.
• Die for Our Ship: The Joey/Caitlin pair was so beloved by many fans that they showed no sympathy to any of the various Romantic False Leads, even when one of them kills himself.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: When L.D. recovers from leukemia, she also disappears from the show as her illness has made her father decide that life is too short not to do what you want; he sells his business and takes L.D. sailing down the "Islands" on a boat. This turns out to be a long-term plan and Lucy keeps in touch with L.D. through exchanging videos. This seems like something that would excite a pensioner more than a teenage girl, who would probably want to spend her high school years around her peer group, socializing and meeting boys, and not on a boat with pretty much only her father to keep her company.^note For what it's worth, there was an instance in Real Life where a teenage girl took her parents to court over a similar plan. In 1972, the juvenile division of the Minnesota courts heard a case where a Lee Anne G., the oldest of three daughters, objected to her family's intention to go sailing out into the Great Lakes and further on a 40-foot boat for at least a year, if not two or three, educating the girls through correspondence courses. Lee Anne particularly objected to this in that she would have to leave her boyfriend, of whom her parents disapproved. On considering the facts of the case, the judge expressed a general support for parents' right to make decisions for their minor children; however, finding that going on such a trip would be distressing (and thus presumably harmful) to Lee Anne, ordered that she could stay behind, but in the care of an aunt in another state, her parents' "second choice" for her. In this way, Lee Anne would have to separate from her boyfriend and current friends, but at least could live a more normal life stateside. Plus, when they eventually get back, L.D. and her father will have to readjust to an "ordinary" life and he will have to get a new job or start a new business.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Episodes dealing with Wheels' drinking problem are much harder to watch nowadays. Neil Hope, the actor who played him, had a drinking problem for years, which may or may not have played a role in his death.
  • Watching Scott (Kathleen's abusive boyfriend) becomes more sickening when you realize that his actor was charged decades later for creating and possessing child pornography with his wife.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Spike breaking her date with her crush Snake because she knows he really wants to go with Michelle is heartbreaking. However it becomes this when you find out that Snake and Spike get married in The Next Generation.
• Heartwarming Moments: Tabi asking Dwayne to dance in the last episode.
• Hollywood Homely: If Alex got rid of the huge glasses, shaved the neck beard, and took some acne meds, he would be decent looking.
• Informed Wrongness: A lot of people criticize Spike for her Insane Troll Logic roundabout on Liz going out with Patrick but she wasn't exactly wrong to criticize her ex-boyfriend dating her best friend. Patrick tells Spike she's "got a lot of growing up to do", but it's pretty clear that his argument with Spike, who didn't even directly order Liz to break it off with him, was just as immature...if not more.
• Jerkass Woobie: Kathleen, Wheels, Dwayne...
• Les Yay: In-universe, Amy and Allison angrily toss back clothes that they borrowed from each other in the girl's bathroom, and Amy's lingerie is on half display by the time two other girls walk in. Amy and Allison nervously laugh.
• Memetic Mutation: From School's Out: ''You were fucking Tessa Campanelli?!"
  • When Nardwuar interviewed Pat Mastroianni (Joey) and Amanda Stepto (Spike), Nardwuar asked Amanda what was the climactic quote of the show, to which Amanda yells it out (1:04:34), F-bomb and all, prompting Nardwuar to shout in excitement that Spike said "fuck" on their radio station and how it could set a precedent.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Shrinking Violet Michelle pouring BLT's milk on him when she learns that he cheated on her for four weeks.
    "You are a pig and a liar!"
  • Joey kicking Dwayne's ass in the season 1 episode "Testing One, Two, Three...".
• Never Live It Down:
  • Michelle is absolutely infamous for crying - which she does about 3 times in the whole series, once at her parents divorcing, and twice at her boyfriend cheating then dumping her. Apart from those, she was actually one of the more proactive characters in the series.
  • Tessa told the other kids the school was burning down. She dated Alex of all people and even Yick. But it always comes back to the fact that Joey Jeremiah fucked her.
  • B.L.T cheating on Michelle, widely considered a massive Took a Level in Jerkass moment.
  • For some, Spike being angry at Liz for dating her ex Patrick.
  • Wheels killing a child while drunk driving.
• No Yay: Michelle's father's actions always came off as a little... unfatherly.
• Tear Jerker:
  • After everyone finds out that school bully Dwayne has HIV he admits "I used to like it when people were afraid of me but this is different."
  • When Erica initially tells Heather that she's getting an abortion, she begs Heather to come with her. Heather panics and refuses, running out of the room. Erica is left sobbing because she's terrified of going alone due to the anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic.
• Values Dissonance: Many of the story arcs, especially Michelle's and Dwayne's, only make sense with early 1990s attitudes toward parenting, AIDS, and so on; also, modern audiences will probably not be amused by the scene where Joey and Wheels dance as caricatured Mexicans.
• Wangst: Claude is king here, but it's left deliberately unclear whether you're supposed to sympathize with him.
• The Woobie: Many.

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