"Dawson's Creek" (1998-2003) Teen Drama Created by Kevin Williamson

[jasonc]

I wasn't in Dawson's Creek's target age group when in debuted in 1998. I certainly am not in it now.

But, I have distinct memories of catching reruns on TNT when I was home from breaks from college. Pretty much every episode I saw was about attractive young adults finding themselves in highly sexual situations. So, of course, I found them highly enjoyable and sort of wished I could see it from the beginning. This was 14 years ago, and that is indeed a fact that is highly upsetting. Netflix wasn't even a glimmer in Reed Hastings' eye and it wasn't practical to try and catch up.

Browsing through Netflix tonight Dawson's Creek popped up as a recommendation and I decided to jump in. My justification is that it was a highly influential show, inspiring a wave of thematically similar teenage soaps. It also launched a bunch of careers, most notably Michelle Williams who has been nominated for three Oscars. Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes have both endured ups and downs but have built respectable careers.  James Van Der Beek is James Van Der Beek.

I don't know if I can follow through on this like I did Spooks, but we'll see.

Season 1; Episode 1

Director: Steve Miner

Writer: Kevin Williamson

This episode begins with a hefty portion of foreshadowing. Joey (Katie Holmes) and Dawson (James Van Der Beek) are childhood friends, hanging out in Dawson's room anticipating the start of high school. They mention they are 15, but they clearly possess the diction and self-awareness of much older people.

They establish that Dawson is an aspiring filmmaker with an obsession with Steven Spielberg (indeed the show opens on the final scene of Close Encounters). Joey finally raises an issue that has been peculating for quite a while. She says they're 15, there are hormones now, they are starting high school now - she can't sleep over anymore.  She goes to climb out his bedroom window.

Dawson eventually teases her about making mountains out of molehills until she jumps on him for some awkward roughhousing and they curl up and go to sleep. Watching Katie Holmes' lithe tan body squirming around on top of Van Der Beek was...arousing in a conflicting manner. But then again, she was 20 when they filmed this scene.

They agree that nothing is going to change. They couldn't be more wrong.

The first test occurs the next day when Michelle Williams' Jen returns to town to help out her ailing granddad.  Both Dawson and his best friend Pacey (Josh Jackson) take an immediate interest in the well-developed Jen (who looks closer to 25 than 15). I was flummoxed by this as Joey (despite Katie Holmes affecting teenage diffidence whenever possible) is a fucking knockout herself and I can't imagine any teenage boy not noticing this.

This episode sets up several conflicts that will come to a head in future seasons, and generally does so quite well.  Generally, I was impressed with how much of the show held up as reasonably well made television episode. But, of course, a lot of it didn't hold up. The most difficult scene to watch was an encounter at the movies where it is apparently okay to speak, during the movie, at full volume. A close runner-up was any scene with Jen's grandma who absolutely chews scenery.

Really, it's remarkable how much happens in this pilot:

• Jen alludes to a troubled past in New York.
• Jen and her grandma fight over Jen being an Atheist (a bomb she drops over breakfast right before leaving for school).
• Pacey flirts with his teacher.
• Pacey arranges to go to the movies at the same time as his teacher.
• Pacey is punched by a patron at the movie theater.
• Pacey makes out with his teacher (prior to giving her a grand and highly implausible speech about her wanting to feel sexy again by flirting with a virile young man like him).
• Dawson's (married) mother makes out with her co-worker as Joey climbs out Dawson's window and rows down the titular creek (setting up a difficult situation where she has decide whether or not to tell Dawson).
• It is said, a million times, that Dawson has the perfect life.
• Dawson is not allowed to take film class.
• Jen and Dawson nearly kiss.
• It is established that Dawson is making a film for a film-festival.
• Joey's dad is in jail and her sister is taking care of her, dating a black man, and is pregnant.

The most difficult thing for me to deal with is the obvious attractiveness of these actors, in their early 20s, playing 15-year old kids. But that's more of a personal issue.

This was just a fun episode that held up surprisingly well. The acting is mostly solid. The diction used by the kids is hard to believe, but once one adapts to it, it's not a big deal.

Grade: B

[jasonc]

Season 1; Episode 2

"Dance"

Director: Steve Miner

Writer: Kevin Williamson

Once again, the A plot of this episode is the love triangle involving Dawson, Joey and Jen. And once again the most concerning element is James Van Der Beek's face:

It exists in the uncanny valley of photoshopped features, dilated eyes, and rosy lips where you're not sure if he's a human boy or some alien race's conception of a human boy. Frankly, it's upsetting.

Within this plot he's borderline emotionally abusive to Joey, who clearly harbors a crush on him. Her forces her to accompany him to a school dance where they experience the inevitable moment where a fast song ends (Savage Garden's Truly Madly Deeply) and a slow dance begins. Of course he's watching Jen over Joey's shoulder the entire time.

Dawson, besides being emotionally abusive to Joey, is a classic beta male. He openly shuns sex (purportedly because Spielberg never includes sex scenes in his movies) but is a hopeless romantic and painfully self-aware of this fact, comparing himself to the misunderstood, love-struck monster in his student film.

A fourth party enters the mix as it turns out the high school football star - Cliff Elliot - is also interested in Jen and in fact takes her to the dance. Scott Foley portrays Cliff as naive narcissist, interested in both football and making films.It seems highly unlikely that such a person exists but also it's a perfect foil for Dawson. Cliff also looks like he's about 37 years old.

There's an awkward moment at the dance where Dawson stands up to Cliff, attempting the classic movie "cut-in" with the expected result. The upside is that later on the dock Jen indicates that she is interested Dawson. Unfortunately, he asks her to kiss him (beta), and of course she declines.  How she managed to resist remains a mystery.

The B plot is Pacey's ongoing flirtation (and increasingly improbably run-ins) with his teacher. They eventually share a passionate kiss at the end of the episode. It looks like he's going to get some. It's also worth noting that his black eye and lacerated face completely healed in between this episode and the last.

Finally, the C plot Mrs. Leary's infidelity. She's confronted by Joey who brings up the fact that her own mother is dead. The depth of this conversation is entirely unbelievable and highly uncomfortable.

For those keeping score, the uncomfortable all-stars of this episode: Dawson's face, Dawson's dad makes him make out with a paper mache version of Joe's head, Joey confronts Dawson's mom, Pacey is sexually assaulted by his adult teacher.

Grade: C+

[jasonc]

Doing some research for this project I ran into a quote from the creator:

I look back on my entire career, and I look back at [Dawson's Creek] as just the most special time of my life. I was basically living my childhood all over again. I was in Hollywood making movies. And I had the most amazing fresh cast. They were all excited to be down in little Wilmington, North Carolina, and it just felt special. And then when it turned into something special, it changed my life. I always get choked up a little when I think about it.

I think we all have those times in our lives.

So this is a fun little adventure into the past. It reminds me a lot of how I felt at the time. And the fact that much of the action revolves around Dawson and Pacey working at a VHS rental shop is almost unthinkable these days.

[DonRocks]

Doing some research for this project I ran into a quote from the creator:

I think we all have those times in our lives.

So this is a fun little adventure into the past. It reminds me a lot of how I felt at the time. And the fact that much of the action revolves around Dawson and Pacey working at a VHS rental shop is almost unthinkable these days.

Do a whole-series index like I did with both oldest Star Treks and The Twilight Zone. Do it for MI-5, too!

(I keep hoping someone will jump in and want to discuss, but I keep hoping.)

[jasonc]

Do a whole-series index like I did with both oldest Star Treks and The Twilight Zone. Do it for MI-5, too!

(I keep hoping someone will jump in and want to discuss, but I keep hoping.)

Thanks Don, but I think my style is more aimed at picking apart dated television programs. As always you are welcome to write dueling reviews!

[jasonc]

Season 1; Episode 3

"Kiss"

Director: Michael Uno

Writer: Rob Thomas

I expected a lot from this episode given it was written by the great Rob Thomas (not the Matchbox 20 guy, but the creator of the venerable Veronica Mars television show and film). And for the most part, I wasn't let down.

Thomas was given a gift here, as all of the main characters went through significant changes, and not surprisingly through the act of the titular kiss.

Joey and "Anderson Crawford"

Anderson Crawford, as the heavy-handed name suggests, is a rich guy yachting through town who throws some game at Joey. After being systematically ignored by Dawson for the past several weeks, she gobbles this attention up.

The hitch is that she pretends to be a rich girl herself, a boarding school debutante from Manhattan. Rob Thomas would subsequently examine wealthy douchery in Veronica Mars, but here Anderson turns out to be a good guy with genuine affection towards Joey (who could blame him?). And he nearly catches Joey in her lie several times as she really does an awful job of hiding it. There is a genuinely confusing scene in which Anderson comes into the restaurant where Joey works, and she seems to assume that none of her friends will address her by her real name, and shoots meaningful glances their way when they call her Joey. Anderson, somehow, is none the wiser.

This is a relationship that is doomed, but I found their eventual kiss to be the most satisfying. It was good to see Joey getting some action after being treated like shit for so long.

Dawson and Jen

As Dawson beta orbits around Jen the whole episode he finally catches a break when he's able to show up quarterback McGee with his cinematography skills. This gets Jen wet as shit and they eventually make out by the pond. Even this Dawson nearly messes up as Jen gets wise to the fact that Dawson is trying to surreptitiously film the make-out due to his whole thing of not being able to be in the moment.  Thank god they are interrupted and have to scramble under some ferns, finally creating the chance for the titular kiss, and for Dawson, an "unscripted moment."

Pacey and his Teacher

While his friends are fooling around at first base, Pacey is the only one who manages to go all the way. And with a woman at least 15 years his senior no less.  That's right, a sex crime happened in this episode.

Early on, this was the plot with the most legs. Pacey and teach got very close to banging in the classroom until Pacey let it slip that he was a virgin. Shockingly, this didn't do it for the teacher, as the tryst with her virile student suddenly got "real."

We're left to wonder how Pacey eventually sealed the deal, as we simply see them crash Dawson's makeout set-up, bringing the two plots together in a nice, if somewhat convenient way.

And in case you're wondering: yes, Dawson's camera did happen to film Pacey's rape.

Grade B

[jasonc]

Season 1; Episode 4

"Discovery"

Director: Steve Milner

Writer: Jon Harmon Feldman

My reaction to this episode can be summed up by this:

A LOT happened in this episode. And it pretty much all revolved around the male characters coming to grips with female sexuality.

Dawson's arc is bananas. Early in the episode he takes Jen over to his mom's work to use the editing equipment. The editing guy says, "have you seen your mom?" with a smirk. It seems everyone knows she's cheating on Dawson's dad.

Well, a few minutes later Dawson and Jen are leaving and they catch his mom and her co-anchor making out in the hall. At this point, you have to really wonder what his mom's thought process is. She's making out in a public area at work, on a day she knows Dawson is coming in. She deserved to get caught.

Despite his growing closeness with Jen, Dawson runs to Joey to talk this out. Unfortunately, she lets it slip that she knew, so he gets all huffy and decides it's time to get more emotionally intimate with Jen. Now this is where Jen drops her own bombshell, telling Dawson that the real reason she left NYC was that her parents were upset with her drug use and casual sex. This comes as quite a shock to Dawson, partially because he's a prude and partially because Jen had originally said she was a virgin.

Dawson then gives her the cold shoulder and is generally quite rude to her the rest of the episode. This causes Jen to seek refuge with the only man who isn't judging her - her comatose grandfather. She tells him everyone thinks she is a slut.

Now, Dawson's reaction might be justifiable if he was simply upset that Jen lied to him, or if it was just the straw that broke the camel's back after the business with his Mom.  But no, he takes some kind of moral high round tantamount to slut shaming Jen. It's quite concerning.

Eventually Joey tries to console Dawson, offering up her own theory that he's scared because Jen is more experienced than him. He rejects this theory.

Pacey's relationship seems to be going better, but he starts off the episode in a bit of a frenzy. You see, Dawson lets Pacey know he has a video of their teacher fucking and unknown dude. Pacey realizes it's him and breaks into Dawson's room to find the video. Josh Jackson makes an interesting acting choice here, rummaging through Dawson's VHS collection like a legitimate heroin addict. It's a strange scene.

Pacey then also gets the impression teach is stepping out on him (despite the fact they only banged once, and you know, he's 15 and she's 35). Turns out the male teacher she's hanging out with is gay (they get a good laugh about this - it was the 90s).

So after all that is cleared up Pacey and teach share a nice post-coital scene in her bedroom in what appears to be a mid-century cape cod. It's quite nice, until you reflect on the notion that it's rape.

Bananas.

Grade: D+

[bookluvingbabe]

All I can say is that season 1 is super clunky and it improved in season 2.  And then became pretty unwatchable during the college years.

#TeamPacey

[jasonc]

Season 1; Episode 5

"Hurricane"

Director: Lou Antonio

Writers: Kevin Williamson & Dana Baratta

Note to reader: I watched this one on New Years Eve night with several glasses of Knob Creek bourbon.

Hurricane is a bottle episode, and in my estimation, a pretty good one. The conceit is that a hurricane is coming and the residents of Capeside have to batten down the hatches and wait it out.

Dawson's family winds up sharing their house with Joey's family and Jenn and her grandma. Pacey and his clearly gay brother Officer Doug end up spending the hurricane with the teacher Pacey is banging (for reasons that elude me).

All of this comes at an advantageous time as there has been a lot unsaid and unknown between the characters and much of it comes to a head during their sequestering. Dawson's mom is more-or-less just flaunting her affair at this point, having a cutesy conversation on the phone with her paramour on the main staircase of her house with her whole family home (not to mention houseguests).  But maybe this is how affairs worked before cell phones. Her behavior is genuinely puzzling.  There's also some pretty awful acting by Officer Doug and a scene where Pacey and the teach pull a full table setting down on themselves while making out, somehow not raising any alarm bells with Doug.

All of that said, there are some genuine moments here. Dawson's dad's reaction to learning about the affair is affecting and indeed somewhat frightening. I also liked how they teased his mom's explanation - by the end I was dying to know why she cheated.  It turns out her life was just too perfect - she had everything she wanted - she just wanted to want again. I'm not sure how common this is but it felt real.

Michelle Williams also teased some acting chops that would get her recognition many years later. She absolutely nails a scene in which she explains her promiscuous past to Dawson. She does all of this while spitting some pretty bad dialogue: "I was sexualized at too young an age."  Ouch.

I'm still trying to figure out how Dawson pulls all this off.  Earlier in the episode he had essentially slut shamed Jenn, comparing her to his cheating mom. And all of this coincides with Joey prancing around in top that barely holds her nubile teenage body. And she's clearly attractive enough to be a model. Yet Dawson, a teenage boy, doesn't notice.

I call BS.

Grade: B (S)

[jasonc]

Season 1; Episode 6

"Baby"

Director: Steve Milner

Writers: Jon Harmon Feldman (teleplay) & Joanne Waters (story)

The two stories in "Baby" are both very important: Joey's sister gives birth (delivered at Dawson's house by Jenn's grandma, because they can't get to a hospital) and the town gets wind that maybe Pacey is nailing his teacher.

The latter is the most clumsy somehow we go from the rumor spreading to an inquisition in front of the school board within the same day (which you only realize when remember that the birth is all in the same day as well). Few characters also seem to realize the stakes here: the teacher being labeled a sex offender and going to prison. It all comes off as much more light-hearted that is true.

I thought the baby story was much better executed. The main issue is that it's not believable that there's no one nearby, including Dawson's parents, that can drive the sister to the hospital. But it was nice to see the grandma being human for a change.

B-

[aaronsinger]

Looking back on it it's perhaps interesting where the careers of the various stars have gone. Who knows where Van Der Beek is, Jackson pops up occasionally in things, Holmes became a tabloid favorite b/c of Tom & Scientology, while Williams became a serious, skilled actress.

[jasonc]

Season 1; Episode 7

"Detention"

Director: Allan Arkush

Writers: Mike White

This episode was mental, but in a good, thoroughly enjoyable way.

It's another bottle episode (what was going on with their budget), but this time a Breakfast Club homage, with the entire crew, for various reasons, being stuck in the library for detention on a beautiful Saturday. I'll also note that that the episode also gets more "meta" than any other episode, with Pacey calling out the Breakfast Club reference, mentioning Emilio Estavez was really good in Mighty Ducks...and then the action pauses for an uncomfortable amount of time (Josh Jackson was famously in Mighty Ducks).

What makes this episode interesting is the introduction of an Agent of Chaos in this little group's world: Abby Morgan. She's stuck in detention with the gang and all she really wants to do is stir up trouble. At first I found her incredibly annoying, but the effects speak for themselves. Within minutes she's got them playing truth or dare, and we've got Jenn making out with Pacey and Joey making out with Dawson. It was incredible.

The running bit/mystery is that we know why everyone got detention except Pacey. He finally reveals it at the end and it's a pretty big letdown. Turns out he got a boner in front of a bunch of cheerleaders. It doesn't make sense because when someone overheard him say he hooked up with a teacher, the gossip spread within seconds, and this boner thing in front of a bunch of cheerleaders remained a tightly guarded secret.

The end was epic with two cringe-worthy, I can barely look at the screen moments (think the Office). First Dawson shows that he is the most beta male that has ever betaed by giving this sob story about Jenn not sleeping him (despite her promiscuous previous life) making him question himself. It's what every girl wants to hear I'm sure. Then Joey has some sort of breakdown about unrequited love that everyone gets but somehow not Dawson.

This is some sort of parody of a TV show and a brilliant one at that.

Note the very talented and successful Mike White wrote this episode. It's interesting that Dawson's Creek produced two highly successful and openly gay writers: Mike White and Ken Williamson.  Not sure what that means.

B+

[bookluvingbabe]

Looking back on it it's perhaps interesting where the careers of the various stars have gone. Who knows where Van Der Beek is, Jackson pops up occasionally in things, Holmes became a tabloid favorite b/c of Tom & Scientology, while Williams became a serious, skilled actress.

Jackson had five seasons starring on Fringe and he's gotten good notices in The Affair.

Van Der Beek is appearing a show that premieres this spring and was so unforgettable that it has already escaped my brain...

[JPW]

Who knows where Van Der Beek is,

Don't forget Varsity Blues. And I love his satirical take on his role in that movie in the car ads that he is appearing in.

[jasonc]

Season 1; Episode 7

"Boyfriend"

Director: Michael Fields

Writers: Jon Harmon Feldman & Dana Baratta (teleplay); Charles & Karen Rosin (story)

I lost touch with this episode about halfway through. I guess it's about relationships. Joey is having trouble dealing with her unrequited love for Dawson and gets shit-faced at party, Dawson takes her home, and she kisses him. Meanwhile, Dawson's world is fucked as Jenn's ex-boyfriend, who indeed was the one who got her shipped off to Capeside, is in town. I guess he's supposed to be 18 but he looks like he's 49. Jenn talks Dawson into letting him crash in his room?!?!?!  Then she traipses around town with this ex as he establishes alpha male status. Dawson appears to be happy to be a high status beta. Jenn eventually tells the ex to hike but also dumps Dawson. He finally grows a pair and tells her off, probably  the first and only time her panties got the slightest bit moist in their relationship.

Also, Dawson's dad seems to be getting used to being cuckolded as he allows his wife to slow dance with him, but won't kiss her. What a coquettish minx he is.

This show bothers me.

C+