Degrassi Junior High

"Dinner and a Show" is a great Degrassi Junior High episode. I love how Spike rejects Shane's offer to meet his parents. I love how Spike's mom gets invited to dinner by Shane's parents and they tell her that they've been trying to have her and Spike over for dinner and Spike's mom blames Shane for not being a very good messenger. Anyways, I love how Spike and her mom controlled the situation. I love how they weren't going to let Shane's parents boss them around at dinner. Melanie's plot was so good. I love how she made a date with both Yick and Snake. I love how she gets caught. I give this episode a 9/10.

Shane tells Spike that his parents want to meet her and her mother to discuss the baby. When the five meet, Shane's Dad announces that his son will attend a private school. Shane tells his father that he isnt going away, and wants to be around when the baby is born. Melanie breaks a date with Yick by saying her mom wont let her go. Yick later discovers that Melanie lied, when he runs into her and Snake, on a date, at the movies. This is easily one of the all time great degrassi episodes. It has a great storyline. A lesser show would have put everything on the girl and let the guy off the hook. not on degrassi. shane proves himself to be one of the best actors on the show. it also had a very enjoyable subplot with snake and melanie. it also had the best ending line ever when shane says to spike "you know its not always as easy being the guy as people think."

Let's focus on the b-story. Yick, who in love with Melanie, asks her to a movie. She accepts, but as she explains to Kathleen, she only sees them as friends-she isn't looking at their "date" as a REAL date. Lo and behold, Snake also invites her to a movie on the same night. Sha accepts his invitation and makes up a lie in order to ditch Yick. Her lie is found out when Yick sees her at the movies with Snake. She broke his heart. As an outsider looking in, I don't see why Melanie could have told Snake that they could go to the movies earlier in the day, or maybe made the date for Friday or Sunday afternoon...but then again, if that would have happened, there'd be no episode! On the A-side, the McKays meet the Nelsons, and things take a turn for the worse when Daddy McKay suggests that Christine go to home for pregnany girls. I give props to Ms. Nelson, who stands up for her daughter! I also give props to Shane for standing up for himself, saying he didn't want to go to private school, and that he wanted to be responsible, doing the "right thing".

I see a lot of good stuff here; it's good that both parents of the pregnant teen get to meet and discuss stuff. Even though Shane's parents get pushy. I guess it's partially understandable since he's a minister and others would look down on him if they found out. That's why they wanted to help pay for Spike to go to some unwed moms' home. Spike's mom, on the other hand, was in this exact position herself.(kinda funny thinking about it; just before DTNG started I imagined Emma would add to the cycle and also be a pregnant teen; I guess she broke the cycle) So she understands, and wants people to treat Spike as she would've wanted to be treated. Premarital sex may be a sin, but it's not a crime, and they both are paying the consequences through the pregnancy. Also it's good to see Shane openly saying how he feels, and also trying to be involved in the pregnancy. After all, he seems to have taken almost as much flack as Spike; Kathleen saying "hi daddy". And in Eggbert, saying "I wonder how many other girls he got pregnant on the holidays" as if he makes it a sport. And neither of them do. Melanie's lie to Yick, it's typical. And it often happens. Joey I think is more desperate than Snake, and his mocking him is his way of hiding it. But it seems he learns from it later when Craig first goes out with Manny; then he says "age is just a number". But Yick and Melanie were good friends, and now it seems Melanie realized how she lost that in order to get a "man".