Season One Vs Season Two

SEASON ONE

Season One, for me, serves as the touchstone of excellence not only for Dawson’s Creek itself, but for many other television shows in general. Kevin Williamson’s first foray into television proved his true genius at tapping into the heart of the teen market, and created a show that would not only appeal to teenagers, but to older fans as well. What got me interested in "checking out" the show was a review I read in my local TV guide which said that "The one thing that the show does well is really make you care about the characters." That turned out to be an incredibly prophetic statement, and 10,000 plus message posts on the Fan Forum Message Board alone attest to the validity of that statement. And what "characters" they gave us!

Dawson – The romantic, starry eyed idealist, happy in his secure world, who dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol, Steven Spielberg. Dawson is extremely intelligent and articulate in expressing himself, but also totally sheltered, unworldly, and not quite ready to fathom the world that is soon to come crashing into his room, in which he has created a wonderful "alternate universe" for himself and his best friend . . . .

Joey – The self described "too tall girl from the wrong side of the tracks" who has had to deal with incredible pain and suffering in her life, i.e. the loss of her mother, the infidelity and eventual imprisonment of her father, and the disgrace of having her unwed sister pregnant and living in sin with someone of another race, which, in a small provincial town like Capeside Massachusetts, makes her and her family the town pariahs. Underneath her outward toughness due to these events is an incredibly endearing vulnerability that instantly makes her an audience favorite. Still though, she has found security and affection in her lifelong friendship with Dawson, who she often sleeps with platonically, and she supports his passion for movies by watching and debating the movies that they choose to watch, and their verbal sparring sparkles with wit and intelligence, and clearly illustrates the affection and respect they have for one another, so she too is also sheltered, and unworldly, and content in the world that she and Dawson have created in his room until . . . .

Jen – Pulls up in a cab one day, and unwittingly sets in motion the series of events that will cause Dawson and Joey’s blissful world to be changed forever. Jen, from the moment she steps out of that cab, immediately emerges as "The Other Woman" that will put a wedge in, and forever change, the friendship of Joey and Dawson, because Dawson IMMEDIATELY "falls" for Jen, and begins to aggressively pursue her, much to the dismay of Joey, who we find out is SECRETLY IN LOVE WITH DAWSON, and as such, she takes an IMMEDIATE dislike to Jen, a dislike that is shared by much of the audience, because almost everyone watching the show "fell in love" with the Joey character, and openly root for her and Dawson to get together as a romantic couple. Jen is the most worldly, and cynical, character on the show, a self-described "bad girl" exposed too early to sex, drugs, and alcohol, and banished to Capeside by her parents for "fornicating in her parent’s bed" , and sent to live with her grandmother in the hopes that she can mend her errant ways in a more idyllic environment. The fourth main character in the show is . . . .

Pacey - Dawson’s best male friend, who poses as the clown of the group, and whose witty remarks full of double entendre innuendoes mask an insecurity about his own worth and place in the world, and also mask a kind and loving nature that only a few people get to see. He soon embarks on a journey that will lead to somewhat disastrous results, as he engages in an affair with his English teacher, who, while attractive, is old enough to be his mother.

The first season introduced us to these wonderful characters and the other people in their lives with wonderful and well written stories that seemed to propel the characters forward, (with a few missteps along the way) as Dawson wooed, won, and then lost Jen, as Pacey wooed, won, and lost his English teacher (thankfully) and Dawson eventually realized his feelings for his "best friend" Joey, and the season ended with a long anticipated kiss that made all of us practically jump with joy and wait in breathless anticipation for:

SEASON TWO

Season Two, in my opinion, has been a MAJOR disappointment to myself and many other fans, for many reasons:

1. The episodes, which seemed to be so well written in the first season, especially in the consistent and positive way they presented the characters to the audience, seemed to lose focus, by first introducing new characters into the show that altered or destroyed completely the relationship dynamic of the four main characters, namely in the persons of Andie and Jack McPhee, two characters with an incredible amount of emotional baggage that included a death in the family, a mentally ill mother, a cruel and absentee father, and heavy duty struggles on the part of each character, Andie with her own mental illness, and Jack with his struggles with his sexual identity. Andie became the love interest of Pacey, and their relationship was a joy to behold at first, as their verbal sparring masked the deep affection that they had for one another. But soon, as her problems with mental illness increased, Pacey and Andie became a rather depressing couple to watch, and Pacey lost much of the wit and charisma that made his character so endearing in the first season. Jack, on the other hand, served as the unwitting catalyst to break up the newfound romance of Joey and Dawson, and then for a time became Joey’s boyfriend, a move that so infuriated many of the loyal fans of the show, and of Joey Potter, that many of the fan’s view of her character changed completely, and her actions have become the source of often heated debate on the FanForum message board. The main thing that these two characters accomplished was to draw the four main characters of the show AWAY from each other, and much of the chemistry of the first season was lost because of that, and the show, I feel, suffered for it.
   
   
2. The characters on the show, who had been so well presented and consistently presented in the first season, seemed to lose focus as well, especially the female characters, who are presented in incredibly contradictory and inconsistent ways. One example of this would be the way that Jen has been presented this season: In one show, she’s a manipulative temptress trying to use her feminine wiles to win back Dawson’s heart, in another show, she is presented as little more than a caricature of a drunken "bad girl", in another show, she is a concerned friend to Dawson, and helps him through a rough period in his life, and in yet another show, she exhibits courage and compassion by standing up to the evil and manipulative "villain" of the show, Abby Morgan. Another example would be the Joey character, who seems to constantly say one thing and do another, especially in regards to her reasons for breaking up with Dawson. The male characters on the show also seemed to lose focus, and although they weren’t presented as inconsistently as the female characters, were still presented in ways that made them less fun to watch, Dawson spent many shows wallowing in self pity over losing Joey, and Pacey became a somewhat boring "Caped Crusader", who, in bending over backwards to please Andie and be what she wants him to be, has somewhat lost himself in the process.
   
   
3. The breakup of the romantic relationship, AND the friendship, of the two main characters of the show was done VERY POORLY, and happened too quickly, and left a LOT of fans of the show extremely disappointed. I won’t debate or take sides with either character concerning who was right and wrong in the breakup, as we have the various Dawson’s Creek related message boards to do that, but the fact remains that the WAY the writers had the two characters break up left a lot of fans of the show very dissatisfied, and I feel that the show STILL hasn’t recovered from that debacle.
   

Overall, what the show has NOT lost is its ability to make you care about the characters, which is why so many of us still tune in faithfully every week in the hope that the "Will they won’t they couple of the century" get back together, but I still feel that the first season of the show was clearly superior to the second season, so I hope that I have been able to present my view of the differences between the two seasons of our favorite show in an enjoyable way.

E-mail Jerry

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