TV Reviews : ‘Degrassi High’ Teen Copes With AIDS

The PBS series “Degrassi High” has taken its young cast through controversial issues from abortion to racism; now AIDS has caught up with one of its major characters, as the series opens its fourth and final season tonight with the first of a two-part episode (7:30 p.m. on Channel 28; Part Two airs next Monday).

Summer’s over and the Degrassi kids are back in school. There are new romances and first cars to drool over, and school bully Dwayne (Darrin Brown )is more insufferable than usual--he has a summertime fling to brag about. Until the girl tells him she has the AIDS virus.

Dwayne’s inner torment is played out against the school’s attempt to raise student consciousness about the disease. Persons with AIDS are guest speakers in sex education classes and condom machines have been installed in all school bathrooms.

(The emphasis is that condoms offer protection; it would have been more accurate to say that they reduce risks.)

The show’s strength is its authenticity--these seem like real kids, not sitcom clones--and it’s as upfront as ever. Coming episodes will deal with suicide and more mundane issues, such as grade anxiety, car trouble and romantic entanglements.