The Reasons Why Nos4a2 Dislikes Dawson's Creek

Since I'm the site maintainer and founder of the DCBB, I guess I should explain why I don't like Dawson's Creek. Here goes.

The Relationships On The Show Don't Make Any Sense.

Dawson Leary is a great guy. He's funny, intellegent, and considerate. Everything anyone would want in a friend. So why is he stuck with Pacey? I mean, c'mon, Pacey is cruel and childish. He opperates on an intellect level much lower than Dawson's, he has no respect for his friendship w/Dawson, and they don't even seem to like each other. Say what you will about opposites attracting, Pacey and Dawson just wouldn't be best friends.

Point in case: the 'Breakfast Club' episode. I know the tension between the two guys was meant to be a 'raw-emotion, one time only' thing, but if any 'friend' of mine had treated me the way Pacey treated Dawson on that bball court, well, I'd have serious doubts about the relationship. Next scene, everything's fine between the two 'cause (and get this) they spent the day in detention together. Not only that, but Pacey totally made out with Jen, Dawson's girlfriend. What was that about?

Another example of a weird relationship is that between Dawson's mother and father. Okay, the mom has an affair, the father reacts badly. I get that. But he says he wants the marriage to end, and next episode, they're back together! Did I miss something here?

Sure, there are remaining tensions between the two, but the father never formally took back his decision to get a divorce, as far as I know. I guess the writers couldn't handle the creative strain necessary to transform Dawson from happy-go-lucky teen to bitter go-between divorce child.

Okay, and now the relationship that even you DC fans must admitt was a little screwy. The Pacey/Tamara romance. Lots of DC fans have written to me, citing that this is a realistic aspect of the show.

A sexual relationship between students and teachers happens often, according to said fans, and everyone must have heard about that case of the Seattle schoolteacher who became twice impregnated with her twelve-year-old student's children. (I think the boy's nearer 14 now.) Anyway, I'm just using this case as an example, as this is the one that I know the most about.

The way Pacey and Tamara's relationship ended was unrealistic. Tamara was called before the schoolboard to face allegations of child molestation. Pacey had told some people that he and Tamara had had sex, and these rumors had spread quickly throughout the school. Pacey, in noble fashion, defended her against the schoolboard by saying he had just made the stories up.

Now, this is totally unrealistic, and shame upon Kevin Williamson for projecting this could ever happen. In the real-life story, the teacher was called before the schoolboard, and her student-lover defended her by saying these were just rumors he'd spread. The schoolboard, following national policiy, DIDN'T BELIEVE HIM. Now, if Capeside were a real place, the school board would never have taken Pacey's word that the affair didn't happen. It just doesn't work that way in cases of child molestation. Even I know that, and I'm only fifteen.

It's a Cheap Ratings-Grab

Think of all the important relationships/personality traits of the characters. Take, for example, the Pacey/Tamara relationship. Now, IMHO, I saw the relationship as an attempt to grab ratings. As soon as a sufficent controversy (and therefore, ratings) brewed up over the issue, Kevin Williamson deleted the romance from the script. This seemed to me like he was taking the back way out on this issue. I don't mean that Pacey and Tamara should have gotten married or something like that, but the relationship could have been delt with a little more carefully then it was.

Lots of character foibles on the show are just an obvious attempt to grab ratings by 'shocking' viewers (ie, Jen's atheism, Joey's white sister living with her African American boyfriend, ect.) When the shock generated by these aspects of the show wears off, I'm sure Kevin Williamson will just erase them from the series too. He's apparantely, did that to Jen's atheism. I myself am an atheist, and I actually liked that on Dawson's Creek.

On the same network that carries Seventh Heaven I was pleased to see, finally, a person with a non-Christian outlook on life. Don't get me wrong. I like Christians, and many of my friends are very religious. But some of my friens aren't. They consider themselves athiests or agnostics, and it was nice to see a character on a teen drama that embraced the way many teenagers feel about God and religion. But, I suppose Jen's atheism served its purpose, garnered high ratings for the show, and in the season finale, it seemed she at least believed in God, and perhaps may become a full-fleged Christian. The one interesting, unique aspect of the show was removed. That makes me really mad, and I dislike the show more strongly that I have before. So, I wonder, how long until Williamson introduces a homosexual character because he thinks it will be a nice ratings boost? And then drop the character a few episodes later when he can't think of any place to go with it? People and realitionships in real life just don't work like that.

Dawson's Creek is a Carbon-Copy

The Breakfast Club. Scream. I Know What You Did Last Summer. What do you think of when you hear these movie titles? I think, good movie, Kevin Williamson, Kevin Williamson. Then, I think Dawson's Creek and then, 'Rip-off'. Those movies, as well as a few others, has been used as the basis or basic elements for a plot of a DC episode. You know it's true. The sleepy North Carolina town Capeside was previously seen in IKWYDLS, and Dawson's character quirk of being a movie addict is an re-incarnation of Randy, the loveable movie-buff from the megahits Scream and Scream II. Randy, no less, was a Kevin Williamson creation. Can't he come up with new character triats?

Kevin Williamson, being the original, creative thinker he is, had to rip-off The Breakfast Club because he couldn't come up with any ideas for a DC episode on his own. He did the same with 'The Scare', the obvious rip-off of Williamson's own megahit Scream. So, now you're thinking, Nos, get to the point. Okay, here's the point. Dawson's Creek uses elements from a ton of great movies and other TV shows so they can claim to be 'origanal'. There isn't much on that TV show that I haven't seen before, and the stuff I haven't seen before on network television is gone before I know it's really there.

Williamson truly makes me angry. I admitt, Dawson's Creek would make a terrific movie. It just doesn't have anywhere to go as a series. Everything is too weighed-down with network policiy and the corners Williamson writes himself into. I hope all you DC fans will relize that this show is not here to stay, and in ten years, no one will remember it. It will fade to grey while other, sharper series, such as My So-Called Life and the widly origanal Buffy the Vampire Slayer will remain with us for a while. Dawson's Creek just isn't unique. Everything on it we've seen a million times before, and the stuff that is a little new and fresh disapears too quickly. Dawson's Creek just isn't special enough to stay with us long.

Well, that's all I have time to put down here...for now. Stay tuned for more Nosbashings.

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