Lockdown Watching 90s Shows: The Reckoning of Dawson's Creek

Like everyone born between the years 1983 and 1989 and a Netflix account, I have been rewatching Dawson's Creek. And I almost didn't make it: after the initial nostalgia subsided, the horrific writing killed the characters! As a kid, I watched the first two seasons and it shaped my life, as it does, chasing the Leary's house on my vision board. Capeside's perfect symmetry where people's biggest problem is a coke-dealing Mr Potter and a drunk driver one fateful night when Mitch went to get milk drew a picture of life that was inpiring. And now, 20 years later, I am finding myself in the often discussed reality of TV giving us wrong expectations about life during a pandemic, fuming at the depictions I so freely believed. It occurred to me that the WB is to blame for a generation's collective search for a Pacey when all we can get is a Charlie. Watching back, I saw just how dangerous these shows were in teaching us nothing about real life - and set us up for disappointment. 

Let's start with the pivotal point of the show: SEX! Season one to three is a race to who loses their virginity when and how nothing else matters. Maybe living in Capeside, where you row a boat to your friend's house, there really isn't much else to keep track of. Having lived more than 15 years now, the first flaw I find is 15-year-olds trying to get into the coitus game, in a rural, predictably conservative place that probably does not have the most advanced sex ed class in the 90s, not producing a little teen pregnancy. But I can look past this. It's a teen drama after all. And all of these characters are very serious about their "rubbers". Great job, kids! But each member of our little clique has slept with everyone by the end of the show. Virgin Joey even dates the gay guy. In the course of the show, Jen hooks up with six boys, four of whom had also slept with her two best girlfriends (the other two being awful, as boys are, sigh... the 90s). Pacey slept with 100% of the female cast. The whole Pacey, Joey and Audrey thing is just so cringeworthy, it wrongly taught me I need to be ok with my friends sleeping with the same guys as me. Let me tell you guys, when this happens in real life, it's not "cool".  I know... 

Speaking of Pacey, he is, of course, a completely unrealistic character but is arguably the reason behind thousands of failed relationships. I know this to be true. One friend of mine responded to a Dawson's Creek tweet of mine with her story about "searching for a Pacey" for all her life. Now, past thirty, we recreated the character as follows: lovely, sincere, good-looking - but dysfunctional. Oh honey, we all know that guy! The intelligent kid that is so misunderstood he is flunking high school until he gets the "break" as both a chef and an investment broker. The guy that loves only one girl. The guy that is from a broken home and just needs a woman who loves him. If you find yourself reading this and finding this character attractive, call a therapist now; you will need one once you met him.

But as unrealistic Pacey is, the real problem is the depiction of Jen Lindley. This is probably its own blog post because watching the show back I realized how much I love Jen Lindley after passing the stage in my life that is not 14-year-old Sina in the early Naughties. Back then, I believed it: Jen is a slut, she is easy, she sleeps with men at 13 and gets drunk, maybe she shouldn't complain about being mistreated when she is so cheap. Yeah, I know. Do you think I like that the show succeeded in making me see her that way? Jen is the only likeable character simply because she isn't perfect and actually works on herself the entire time she is in Capeside. She is the only character who is not excusing her bad behavior with "not knowing any better". She is also the only person who is never purposely a dick. Her end is the biggest cop out in television history and it is not surprising to me that Michelle Williams went on to become the most amazing human being after the show; if they'd ended my story like this I would have made it my mortal desire to prove the writers they were fools, too. FOOLS!

So now, Joey. Joey, Joey, Joey. I would almost rather not talk about her. I hate talking badly about women and I have to remind myself that Joey is the product of a male writer so my disdain for her is entirely not the character's or Katie Holme's fault, although anyone smiling with their tongue pushed against their teeth should... just stop. Joey is a thoroughly incredible character - and I don't mean "incredible" in the way we describe Lady Gaga. Joey's story contradicts itself, like writers couldn't decide on who she was going to be, or trying to make her be everything all at once. First, it takes Joey years to lose her virginity with Pacey but once the cherry is popped, she does what any good Hollywood girl would do: she "lives a little"! What a horrible arc. Her spontaneous outbursts of "being fun" are completely misplaced (and problematic!), never mind the ridiculous storyline of an accomplished Literature professor liking a college freshman and publishing her pathetic short story about "kissing Dawson" in a Journal. It's like they didn't even try. Joey is a black felt tip pen they tried to make a pencil, a fountain pen and a neon pink highlighter in the span of six seasons. 

And then of course, there is the title character, Dawson, or how I like to call him No-Flaw-Son. I feel bad for the wasted potential of James Van Der Beek who clearly has a personality to be hit with a script for a person whose thing is "being into movies". Ouch! Despite giving the show its name, they did not bother giving Dawson a story arc. I just watched six seasons of the show and don't remember when Dawson liked or didn't like Joey. Are they even friends for most of the show? Just like every character on this show, once Dawson loses his virginity, sex just finds him. He shags Jen, an actress and a movie critic, the latter two on the first date. Naturally. It's my least favorite bit of teen drama: they wait seasons for sex, then it's suddenly just happening. And Dawson of course becomes Mr Leary, the feature film director, as a sophomore in college at a no name college in Boston after leaving USC. This is why we all have unrealistic expectations of life... 

I know this has become another rant about a six season run of something nobody made me watch. I chose. However, the real appeal of watching Dawson's Creek in 2021 was the eye-opening of HOW the show was watched then. The intentions of the writers are very clear, they're just old-fashioned and sad! Very sad! Then again, Dawson's Creek is a product of male leadership, the late-90s misogyny is probably a contemporary artefact of artistry at this point. While being enjoyable to watch due to the beautiful and comfortable backdrop of Capeside, especially in a time when "the home" has become the only venue of my life, I see how shows like Dawson's Creek are to be enjoyed with  caution. I believed the writers. I thought a life like the one of those kids was available to me. But that is a lie. And I simply do not believe in writing that lies. There are a plethora of ways to make any story believable, from Harry Potter to Star Wars. But I mean, yeah, Dawson's Creek had a much smaller budget, eh...