Degrassi’s new season looks at the fallout from terrorism
Students confronted with racism, xenophobia in the latest instalment of the popular teen drama
The students at Degrassi Community School are about to get shaken up with news that probably sounds familiar.
In the newest season of Degrassi: Next Class — debuting Monday at 10 p.m. on Family Channel — Belgium is rocked by a terror attack. Within days, student Goldi Nahir has her hijab ripped from her head while walking home.
Meanwhile, T-shirts in solidarity with Belgium pop up around the school. Saad, a Syrian refugee who also tends to be socially introverted, tries to explain why he doesn’t feel comfortable putting one on.
“When I read the script, a lot of these things were just right on the news,” says Soma Bhatia, 19, who plays Goldi. “I’d wake up in the morning before I’d go to set and I would see it there.”
Bhatia says it can be helpful to show audiences what it looks like for people to cope with difficult situations instead of turning away from them.
“A lot of times people want to watch TV as an escape from reality,” Bhatia says.
“But what I really love about Degrassi is that it almost documents what we go through in real life and how people deal with it.”
Series co-creator Linda Schuyler believes that if her audience is talking about a news story, the show should embrace that.
“Our job is to bring that big headline down and distil that story so that it becomes about a real character we can relate to,” said Schuyler, who is also the show’s executive producer.
The events students are reacting to in Season 4 of Degrassi: Next Class seem ripped from the headlines given recent terrorist attacks in Europe.
Schuyler hopes that the reactions of the show’s characters cultivate understanding and empathy in viewers.
When two Syrian refugee characters were introduced to the show in previous seasons, the creators made sure they were presented as individuals with different family backgrounds and stories.
“You can’t just say ‘Syrian refugee’ and think you know who that person is,” Schuyler said.
Rasha (Dalia Yegavian) came to Degrassi from a big city in Syria, while Saad (Parham Rownaghi) came from amore rural part of the country and a more conservative upbringing.
“I think the role that Degrassi is having is to tell the other side of the story,” said Rownaghi, 20.
In the new season, his character grapples with how to explain to his peers why he doesn’t feel good about the T-shirts everyone else is wearing in support of Belgium.
“(Saad) doesn’t believe people that are in Belgium, in America, and a lot of first world countries should be getting more attention than people in Syria or Afghanistan,” said Rownaghi, explaining his character’s point of view. “If you are going to be supporting you should be doing it all over the world, not just in specific countries.”
This isn’t the first time Degrassi has weighed in on controversial topics. Over the different iterations of the show, several characters have had abortions, for example.
“Particularly at a time in the world where there is a whole line of thinking that is becoming very xenophobic, very inward thinking, I think it is really important that we continue to tell stories that talk about inclusion and celebrating diversity,” Schuyler said.
“Because that is the future for our young audiences.” Episodes of Season 4 of Degrassi: Next Class will air nightly on Family Channel for two weeks beginning July 3. All 10 episodes are already available on the channel’s app. The show launches on Netflix worldwide on July 7.