90's Television Attempts At "Real Life" Script Writing- Part One: Dawson's Creek

  To begin with, I didn’t get into Dawson’s Creek when it was first shown- 1998 to 2003.
Every once in a while I’d run across it and attempt to follow along, but found it cringy back then. Even Jen Lindley's tragic tale of teen sex and boozy rave parties-- the reasons she got shipped off to Capeside, couldn't hold the smallest flame to my real life script.

  Right off, her storyline wasn't convincing, because as worldly as she supposedly was by sixteen, her choosing to hang out with a bunch of wide-eyed virgins who are terrified to leave Neverland, makes no sense to me. In real life she would have gravitated to a more dysfunctional crew. Though I will add that she'd probably go after Dawson as a conquest. And then... the virginal Dawson would have been deflowered by the third episode, and they'd have to figure out some other way to draw out the whole "who's going to win Joey over the right way" saga.

  I suppose it was wise of them to write Jen as someone trying hard to reform herself, so it would make sense to us that a sixteen year old would actually have the will power to show the level of restraint she does at first. But of course... she begins to wiggle her way back to life on the fringes once she was let down by the non-religious, but extremely moral twosome that is Dawson and Joey,  the way they let everyone down in the six years that follow. By being the insufferable intellectual, monk-sadists that they truly are.

   That's not the reason I couldn't invest myself in Dawson's Creek during its first-run syndication though. Obviously I wouldn't have known the dynamic I just described without investing some time. It was the vocabulary of these so called teens that made me change the channel. It was the oh so clever delivery of their diatribes and wise-beyond-their-years insightfulness. The fact that at an age where you're trapped between adulthood and childhood, and your brain is still underdeveloped enough to border on sociopathy, these kids were so introspective and mindful of the trap they were in.

  It would have been OK if one or two of them had high vocabs and were intensely self-aware. After all, I was one of those intellectuals who deconstructed everything and everyone, at age fifteen. So were a couple of weirdo friends I had. But they made EVERY major character in the show this way! It's like the writer was incapable of  diversifying character outline when it came to dialogue. Even Pacey, who's written as a flunky-- only interested in getting laid by a teacher almost twice his age the first season, couldn't be brought down to a lower level of someone with only a basic understanding of the English language. What a snob!

  I mean... congratulations on trying to write teenagers with brains! But guess what? The average teenager can't articulate themselves like a Dawson's Creek one. You would think they were all going to some prestigious boarding school. And oh lordy are words like: subtext, debauchery, and banter, completely used up in this show! It's a good thing the writer is smart enough to poke fun at the ridiculousness of it all in some of the episodes, or I would have to assume he only uses his writing to show off!  See how upsetting this is for me? I made my point a paragraph or so ago, and kept going even though there's so much more ground to cover!
Moving on...

  I didn't start watching Dawson's Creek until Netflix picked it up ten years after its finale, when I was desperately trying to escape the mess that continued to be my life before I knew I was autistic. It was comfort food, and back then, I wouldn't have been able to explain why that was. After all, it used the same formulation a lot of soap operas use, which bores me to tears. You know the formula I'm talking about, right? In case you don't, I'll try to give you a short break down of it.

 1.) All relationships begin with a push/pull struggle. No one is allowed to admit they like each other from the beginning or start dating right away. And no one is allowed to stay together for more than a few episodes.

2.) It's supposed to be a love triangle but ends up being an orgy instead.
Everyone in the circle ends up sleeping with each other at some point, and most anyone who enters the circle has to be with more than one of its original members before their role is plaid out. But Dawson's Creek doesn't stop at one trial run with each member. Joey and Dawson move on, then get back together at least three times in what spans a decade of their young adult lives. Joey and Pacey also make three attempts. Dawson and Jen get about two tries in there, and oh my goodness... how on earth are we to believe Joey and Jen are able to remain friends after sharing four different guys, including the token gay guy of the show? Can't these people stay mad at each other long enough to realize no one in the circle is loyal in any way, shape, or form?!

3.) Every character who gets assigned "real life" problems can and will be saved before too long. Even if they get killed off while they're still living life badly, they get to be some perverse version of a saint when the eulogy is read. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Everyone is someone's precious son or daughter. Even in real life. Which leads me into my number four...

4.) Every villain eventually gets to be redeemed in some way before they disappear into the setting sun, no matter how narcissistic or corrupt.
Even the dude who robs Joey at gunpoint dies only after it's revealed he was trying to recover the money he stole from his baby momma because it was supposed to pay for her daycare. It's true that in real life, every human, villains included, are complex individuals. It's not fair to paint people in black and white terms where you're either a good guy or a bad guy. But in real life, psychopaths tend to have only one genuine side to them, and it's usually all bad.

5.) The original circle of friends is the sun that everyone else's earth revolves around.
Every new character is just a pawn who barely escapes a one dimensional portrayal, and is only there  as fodder between the brake-ups and make-ups that form team Pacy and team Dawson.

6.) And lastly... yes they put sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll in the mix, but those elements are never allowed to have a soul. No one is allowed to use drugs unless they are self-destructing. Sex is under the scope like a virus that no one with any depth is allowed to be comfortable with. And until the kids go off to college, the soundtrack has no edge to it lest we get tossed too soon into the dark abyss that lies beyond the Capeside bubble. Even as soft-core-evil is allowed to penetrate it from time to time.

  But I digress. There's a very good reason despite all my complaints- that I've been drawn into the Dawson orbit more than once now. It wouldn't really be an adequate escape from real life if it were too much like real life, now would it? And since I've had enough years to reflect on all my wrong turns and come out the other side, I can tell you exactly why it's so soothing to indulge in such a preposterous representation of the human condition. It's the innocence.

  Dawson's Creek allowed their main protagonist to be innocent for longer than most Hollywood writers would dare to. He is someone who more accurately represents a 1950's kind of purity than what you'd likely come across in today's teen world, even amongst those raised in Protestant families. I may have made it to fifteen with my virginity in tact, but my innocence had been stolen long before, and I was already headed down a dangerous path by the time I started my high school years.
And though I didn't know it then, I know now, that I would love to have experienced what it was like to hold on to my innocence so long.

  To have known the value of holding hands and first kisses that lead to nothing more. To have come from a broken home (like Joey's) and still end up the good student, who made all the right choices even if it only came
 from a place of fear. Dawson's window is a safe window to climb into. You can sleep in his bed without him trying to molest you. He's a good guy without being that goobery "nice guy" who's only in love with being in love. And Joey gets to be independent and a feminist without her character turning into some asexual man-hater, or eventually conforming to the usual female template where everything worth while hinges on male acceptance.

  I highly recommend this form of escapism to anyone who hasn't tried it. For all its flaws, it offers a plethora of psychology based gems that set it apart from many of its peers, and there are plenty of richly human moments worth tearing up over; even a few that hit the "real" mark almost effortlessly. I find myself deeply saddened every time a relationship comes to an end, even if it's for the third or fourth time. Which just goes to show you that these exaggerated characters are still well written and hard not to get attached to in the end.

  Thank you, Dawson's Creek... for filling in the gaps of my wretched youth with your bubblegum version of teenage agony, and what it's like to grow up in a safer place.