Alongside Dawson's Creek

Rev. 27-Feb-1998
Chaz Boston Baden, hazelweb@boston-baden.com

Warning! Contains spoilers! If you haven't seen every episode aired, this page will give away big chunks of character development. You Have Been Warned.

  1. Introduction
  2. From Here to Maturity
  3. On the Beach
  4. Statutory Whatsits
  5. The Dark Side
  6. Self-Destruction
  7. No Happy Endings
  8. Conquering Virgins
  9. The Talk of the Town
  10. Related Links
  11. Episode Guides

Introduction

Dawson's Creek is a new (January 1998) tv show from Columbia Tri-Star Television, airing domestically on the "WB" tv network. (In L.A./Orange County, that would be channel 5.) It's also available on most cable networks via WGN Chicago's national feed. The show revolves around the lives of four teenagers in "Capeside" Massachussetts, apparently a hop skip and a jump away from New York City. I was inspired to start taking down notes after a conversation with Maria Elizabeth Rodriguez on which of the foursome was the most mature; her vote was for Joey, by the way.

The show offers up some interesting food for thought, which isn't common these days. Babylon 5 is another notable exception, but Maria doesn't watch B-5 anymore now that Ivanova is out. With B-5, the discussions revolve around where the plotline is going. With Dawson's Creek, it's more a matter of personalities.

It's glib to say that Dawson's Creek is a soap opera. The hallmark of soap operas, in my opinion, is where so much of the "action" revolves around talking, in particular talking about who knows what about whom. Dawson's Creek doesn't work like that; it only takes an episode or two for all the principals to be caught up on what each other knows. (An exception to this rule would be the secret about Pacey and Tamara; as we saw in Look Who's Talking, Joey and Jen don't know the truth behind the rumor.)

Anyhow, I was struck by the paralleling arcs in the storyline. Often it's obvious, such as the beach scenes in A Prelude to a Kiss. (I'll be listing episode names in italics. There are several episode guides out there - see my Related Links page for some of them.) Some things are more subtle; a question for you to ponder is, how is Tamara's relationship with Pacey similar to her last relationship in NYC, and how is Pacey similar to his brother?

The point to this page, anyway, is to offer up some discussions about the show, and to demonstrate that the snow is by no means light fluffy fodder to fill airtime. If you have anything to say about the show that goes deeper than "I can't believe actor XYZ is NN years old", by all means write me! All I'll say on that note is that Joey and Jen look a lot younger in the close-up face shots than when the camera pulls back and shows their full figures.

Next: From Here to Maturity