Degrassi

Admittedly, a Degrassi reunion would not be possible without Drake, and Drake will be difficult to get at this stage in his career.

However, for the purpose of my pitch we have him, and as such, let’s make him the star, yes?

Good.

Now, I’m not kidding myself that we have access to an international hip-hop superstar for any sort of long-term project, so we will have to make this a one off, two hour TV movie rather than any sort of ongoing program. Which is fine, that’s about how long television reunions ought to be anyway, so that’s something we can work with.

Original cast, then, for two hours, once.

Christmas special?

Christmas special.

So Jimmy Brooks, after one personal tragedy or another, is finally pushed past the point that he can bear, and decides to take his own life, only to be interrupted at the last moment by an angel that takes him by the hand and wheels him through a version of Degrassi that would have been had he not been there. Through this narrative device he learns how his presence has changed his classmates, his friends, the lives he’s touched and the impact he’s had upon the lives of others. This leads him to an epiphany that life, all life, is valuable, even if you may in the moment think that it is not.

I’m aware that this is derivative, but I don’t think that it matters. TV reunions aren’t about depth or breadth, they aren’t about new ideas being presented, and they never have been.

They’re the television equivalent of comfort food, and I think that a celebrity we know and like playing the character that we first met him playing, weeping as he realizes that yes, life is out there and worth living, would be very comforting indeed. I think the program could be a huge success…

Even if it is just blatantly thieving from It’s a Wonderful Life.

It would be a heartwarming moment, and heartwarming moments are what Christmas specials are all about. We’d laugh, we’d cry, it would become a part of us, and in the end we’d smile along as church-bells chimed in the background and some plucky orphan quoted Drake the signature line of the piece, as though we’d known from the start that it was coming. Because it was the natural end, the only possible end, that the story could have…

I know when that hotline bling, and angel gets its wings.