Television series
Degrassi Junior High
A Canadian ensemble drama that treats junior high as genuinely important. Degrassi Junior High doesn't condescend to teenagers—it lets them be messy, confused, moral, cruel, and brave in ways that feel earned. Each episode tackles one real problem without neat resolutions. It's foundational TV about what it actually feels like to be thirteen.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love ensemble school stories that take small social dramas like rumours and crushes seriously, and you don't mind a 1980s look or an earnest, sincere tone.
Skip it if you want slick, fast plotting or a show that stays light, since this one lingers on awkward feelings and sometimes gets heavy.
What it asks of you: Half-hour episodes, 42 of them across three seasons, unfold slowly, so it wants patience with small scenes and ordinary school days.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
My So-Called Life1994
A spiritual sibling: ensemble cast, real adolescent stakes, that same sense of being taken seriously. Jordan Catalano is a symptom, not the point. The point is Angela's interior life and how it collides with everyone else's.
But It's deliberately slow and repetitive in ways that can feel slight on first watch. Some episodes do circle the same emotional drain without much forward motion.
Freaks and Geeks1999
Paul Feig learned from Degrassi. This is that DNA spliced with 1980s high school specificity and a crack ensemble. It's tender and hilarious and knows that being uncool is often more interesting than being popular.
But Cancelled after one season, so there's no resolution. Watching a show that good get cut short can sting more than watching one that limps to an ending.
Friday Night Lights2006
Another show that treats teenage life with real weight. It's about football but it's really about family, ambition, loyalty, and who you become when the stakes feel enormous. The ensemble work is immaculate.
But Skews older—high school rather than junior high—and the Texas setting is very specific. If you're looking for that exact Degrassi feeling of urban teenage particularity, this isn't quite it.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Degrassi Junior High
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Skins2007
Both build narrative around ensemble casts of teenagers where the group itself is the protagonist. But Skins strips away any educational framework and asks what happens when you let teenagers' actual complexity and darkness show.
British ensemble drama that took Degrassi's premise—group of teenagers, real problems, ensemble focus—and pushed it into genuinely transgressive territory. It's about friendship and loyalty and what you'll do for people you love, but it refuses safety.
But Much more graphic about drugs, sex, and violence. It's beautiful and often devastating, but it's not interested in moral clarity or reassurance. Some episodes are actively hard to watch.
More like this (7)
The Wonder Years1988
Contemporaneous and similarly structured around the small disasters of adolescence. The nostalgic voiceover gives you permission to laugh at yourself while also respecting your past self's feelings. It's wise without being condescending.
But Much more gentle and sentimental than Degrassi. If you're after that show's unflinching edge, this will feel like it's smoothing out the hard corners.
Daria1997
Animated but sharp in ways live-action often isn't. It's about teenage social hierarchies and how to survive them with your sense of self intact. Funny in a way that doesn't require you to stop thinking.
But The distance of animation and the ironic tone mean it doesn't have the emotional directness or social realism that makes Degrassi hit so hard.
Ginny & Georgia2021
A more recent ensemble that's deliberately trying to reckon with contemporary high school while maintaining that soap-opera structure of interconnected storylines. It's messy and sprawling in ways that feel authentic to actual friend groups.
But Newer, glossier production design. Might feel over-produced if you want that grounded, slightly-rough-around-the-edges feel of '80s Canadian TV.
Eighth Grade2018
Bo Burnham's one film captures that specific terror of junior high—the phone anxiety, the yearning, the feeling that everyone else knows something you don't. It's shot through with genuine tenderness and horror.
But It's a feature, not a series, so there's less time to develop ensemble relationships. The intimate, almost claustrophobic focus might feel limiting after Degrassi's sprawl.
Mean Girls2004
High school rather than junior high, but it understands social architecture in ways that feel true. It's funny without being mean-spirited about its characters, and it knows that the "popular girl" is also a person with her own pressures.
But It's a comedy first. If you're after Degrassi's willingness to sit with genuine pain without the safety of a joke, this resolves too neatly.
Apollo 131995
A film about the social vortex of being thirteen—birthday parties, class divisions, sex, belonging. It has that same unflinching quality and ensemble structure, built from improvisation with actual young people.
But British setting, much darker tone, and it's quite sexually explicit. Some of the material is intentionally uncomfortable in ways that go further than Degrassi ever did.
Shoplifters2018
Both are invested in how people construct identity and belonging within systems that don't serve them well. Both see value in the overlooked and the small gestures that hold communities together.
Hirokazu Koreeda's film about a makeshift family held together by small deceptions. It's not about teenagers, but it has Degrassi's belief that the lives of people society doesn't pay attention to are where the real drama happens. Quietly radical.
But Japanese, slow, not a narrative about crisis so much as the texture of ordinary survival. If you're looking for plot momentum, this dissolves it.
