Type of Series: Soap Opera.

    Similar Shows: My So-Called Life; The Wonder Years; Beverly Hills 90210; Buffy, The Vampire Slayer.

    Typical Episode: A typical episode will revolve around sex, romance and/or unrequited love. Dawson will be a bit dim about what's going on around him, Joey will pine for him and say nothing. She'll scowl quite a lot. And display bad posture at every opportunity. Pacey will be funny and charming, yet somehow he won't manage to get the girl. Most weeks, he'll run into his horrible older brother who will say a variety of unjust and decidedly cruel things about his sibling. Jen, meanwhile, will fold her arms a lot and make scrunched up faces. She and her conservative grandmother will have a debate about something, probably religion.

    The Inner Light: Watching episode eight late one night, I was suddenly struck by a startling and disturbing fact. The men on Dawson's Creek are all perfect, sympathetic and badly treated by the women, who are all messed-up, over-sexual and unsympathetic.

    Dawson, his dad and Pacey are three of the most wonderful guys you could ever imagine. Episode twelve had a brief scene of the three of them preparing Pacey for a "beauty contest" and three more loveable guys you could not hope to meet. They are picture perfect.

    Dawson is a virgin. And he's talented. And sensitive.

    His dad was totally dedicated to his wife. The perfect loving husband. He was not only sensitive and caring, but he had a never-tiring libido which made him constantly want to please her in every conceivable way.

    Pacey was a virgin who managed to get the hot new school teacher into bed, but he was incredibly mature about it. He kept her secret. Kept her honour. Lied to protect her, in fact, made himself look like a fool in the process, and all for love.

    Three great guys. (Hey, I have a lump in my throat when I stop to think about them.)

    But the women, oh the women…

    Dawson's girlfriend is a city slut. A bad girl. Who did drugs, slept around, and broke her Daddy's heart. Dawson was utterly wonderful to her. And she repaid him by breaking up, so she could "find herself." Which translated into dating the school hunk in the very next episode.

    Dawon's mother cheated on her husband. Bad girl!!! Slept with a co-worker, she did. And when she was caught out and had to try and explain herself, she gave no proper explanation, except to mumble some crap about being far "too happy" with her previous life. (!!!!!)

    Pacey's hot school teacher, by entertaining his advances, was having sex with a minor. Another bad girl!! When things got tough, she was quite nasty to poor Pacey, using a lawyer to communicate with him. And, when he had fixed everything all right again (thus "saving" her) she rewarded him by breaking up and leaving town to find herself.

    Hmm.

    So the lesson of all this would seem to be: that men are wonderful and pure, while women are immoral and sexual. They are also impossible to understand. Totally illogical, and liable to hurt the man closest to them, the man who treats them best.

    Even Joey is evil. Because she's duplicitous. She's hiding her sexuality. In fact, she seems unable to cope with it. So, in fact, you know darn well it's going to get out of control pretty soon and she's gonna turn into…

    …a bad girl.

    Like her sister. Who just had an illegitimate baby by a black man and, as a consequence, is the talk of the town.

    The show makes great bones about the fact that it is critical of this kind of small-town, small-minded thinking, and the handling of this story point leaves nothing to chance. At the beauty contest, for instance, Joey overheard some really snobby girls being gossipy about her and her sister, which prompted Joey to get up and give a thoughtful speech^TM in front of everybody and put those nasty ol' girls in their place.

    Horaay.

    Yet, this is the same show that paints all it's female characters in such an unflattering light. While the guys are totally and utterly perfect.

    There's no balance, and it's very far removed from the stories of My So-Called Life.

    And this doesn't seem to bother anyone. Dawson's Creek is popular. It's the show people are talking about. At least people I know are talking about it.

    Strengths: Good cast, who are all likeable and talented.

    Weaknesses: When I'm out in the big bad world pitching my own ideas for TV series, a phrase that often crops up is: "Does it have legs?" Can it run and run? Can it sustain itself without re-tooling.

    So, I have to wonder about Dawson's Creek.

    It has set up a very, very precise relationship between the major characters. It has set up some very, very up-front sexual tension. And it has milked that status quo for all it is worked, week after week, without relent.

    Meaning, all this had better go somewhere really quick or it will become apparent that it is going nowhere.

    Either way, you have to wonder what the hell happens next?

    Dawson cannot dither for three/seven seasons. He also can't date one then date the other, repeatedly. Once he picks one, or doesn't pick one, or whatever, the show has to move on. Or I will.

    And once all these tensions have been resolved, what's left?

    What else is the show about, really?

    Impressive Characters: Pacey. My favourite arc, so far, was the one where he got romantic with the sexy teacher. It was a cool story, and Pacey was the perfect gentleman throughout. I must admit that I was totally taken in. I loved it, and was dreadfully sorry when it came to an end.

    After Pacey, my next favourite character has to be Dawson's Dad (John Wesley Shipp from The Flash). I love the way he handled his anger over his wife's infidelity. With silence. He got cold and distant. And hurtful. He really hurt her. And I could identify with his tactics and his methods. It was believable. And it was great to see her being punished. Since, the way this show is being written, she is a total bad-guy. It's impossible to sympathise with her. She's evil. And inscrutable.

    Which I don't like.

    Shouldn't the writers be giving us her side of things?

    Impressive Actors: All four of them. But Joshua Jackson is a stand-out. He would have been right at home on My So-Called Life.

    Impressive Episodes: All the first season episodes I've seen (I missed number eleven) have been of equal high quality. I have a particular soft-spot for the pilot and the ninth episode.

    The pilot is a bit of a masterpiece really. Very genuine. Very moving. The closing moments, with it's effective use of The Pretenders on soundtrack, had me in tears.

    The 9^th episode "In The Company Of Men" had Pacey and Dawson joining Jen's ex-boyfriend on a road-trip to a night-club in Providence. Where Pacey (inexplicably) struck out with the woman of his choice, and Dawson had a genuinely charming encounter with another film buff.

    Actually, I'm gonna add Episode Number Six to the list as well. "Breakfast Club" has the four regulars in detention together (with another character that I'd like to see more of) during one long Saturday. I love episodes of any show that create a strong sense of time and place, and this one is a prime example of doing it well.

    Impressive Writers: This is Kevin Williamson's baby all the way.

    Less-Than-Impressive Characters: Right now, end of season one, there's really none of them that deserves to go in here. But I'm about to lose patience with Dawson and Joey and Jen. They are seriously in danger of getting so wrapped up in each other that they cease to have any credibility as believable characters. Jen is the least in the danger of this, because we see another interesting side to her, in all those moments of conflict with her grandmother, particularly when they differ over religion.

    But Dawson and Joey have none of that. We know that Dawson has dreams of being a big-time director, but we need to have some episodes - some stories - built around that aspect of him. Enough of the Joey/ Jen stuff already!!! Couldn't some of this be relegated back to sub-plot status???

    The same goes for Joey. Just like Dawson she was following the same dance steps week after week!! If she says "I'm not pretty" one more time, I will, um, scream.

    These three really suffer, though, when compared to Pacey. This is a very impressive character. He has conflicts facing him when it comes to romance, school and family life. With the amount of material established in Season One, you could now ditch the other three and do 22 episodes about Pacey alone. And 22 very diverse and interesting episodes you would have.

    Less-Than-Impressive Actors:

    Less-Than-Impressive Episodes:

    Less-Than-Impressive Writers: This is Kevin Williamson's baby all the way. But watching it, you gotta wonder if this is autobiographical, or the stuff of long-past teen fantasies. In the centre of the show you have this sensitive, nerdy, film-buff guy, who has two potential love-interests hot for him at the exact same time. Hmm. As a teen I was a sensitive, nerdy, film-buff type-of-guy and I don't seem to recall any love-interests queuing up to fight it out for me.

    Continuity: Strong.

    Episode Guide: The Episode Guide Pages is a great place to go for Episode Guides.

    Reviews: Diary Of A Tuber has a great review of the show.

    Other Info:

    Miscellaneous Comments:    Thursday, 11 February 1999

    It's hard to get too excited about Dawson's Creek when you've seen My So-Called Life. Dawson's Creek covers ground that a lot of shows have covered before. And it's not as innovative as My So-Called Life.

    But it's still enjoyable on many levels. At least so far. And it's definitely worth a B+ for being "Above Average."

GRADE: B+

Review by Michael Leddy

Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com

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