Picture it…teenage Sarah’s bedroom, any Tuesday night at 8:00 from 1998-2000. High school Sarah is sitting on her bed clutching a pillow as she watches Dawson’s Creek. Her heart flutters and soars as she watches. She gasps at the end and waits impatiently through the commercials until the preview for next week’s episode comes on. Rinse and repeat week after week until the fall of 2000 when she leaves for college. Not another episode to be seen after that.
Fast forward 28 years to yesterday when the news broke that James Van Der Beek died. In the days when Dawson’s Creek episodes were brand new, I was always Team Pacey. I had a crush on him more so than Dawson. But I think given the news of James Van Der Beek’s death, all of us millennial girls (and boys) are Team Dawson.
When I say that Dawson’s Creek had a chokehold on me, all you have to do is read my journals from that time period and you’ll see how true that is. I swear, every other entry was me referencing a scene from the latest episode and describing how it made me feel. I always found a way to relate it to something that was happening in my life at the time.
I regret that I stopped watching when I left for college. All I know about how it ended is that Joey ended up with Pacey. I posted about this on Threads yesterday, about us all being Team Dawson now. And in conversing with other fans, I was compelled to go back and rewatch the series. I wanted to see what I missed.
I left work super early today. Only about an hour and a half in actually. A bad headache and the thought of having two meetings throughout the day compelled me to just go home. I laid on the couch with Ethan and Millie and watched the first episode of the show. It’s streaming on Hulu.
I originally intended to watch the whole series. Obviously not all in one day, but after watching the first episode, I just can’t do it.
This is absolutely not a criticism of the show, but it clearly was made for teenagers. Even though I was obsessed with this show with my whole heart when I was 16 and 17, my 43 year old heart just can’t get through it. Granted, watching that first episode, I totally see why I was madly in love with it. So much angst in just that one episode. So much! No wonder I related to it as much as I did. My journals are full of angst from around then.
But here’s the thing. Back when this show first came out, there were a lot of people who heavily criticized the script. They said that teenagers don’t really talk the way they are on the show. I remember seeing/hearing that criticism, and while I could even agree with it, I didn’t care. In fact, hearing the way the characters talked made me want to talk like that. They sounded so intelligent and cool in their conversations.
Watching it now as an adult makes me agree with those critics in a much more strong way than I did when I was a teenager. There may be exceptions, but I swear teenagers are not that emotionally intelligent and speak with that kind of vocabulary on a regular basis. For example, Pacey and Dawson have a conversation about girls. Pacey tells Dawson that because he reads Cosmo and because of his three sisters, he is “menstrually aware”. I’m sorry but no teenage boy is going to use that phrase. He may have a conversation with his best friend about how he knows about periods because of his sisters, and he may even admit to reading Cosmo, but he’s not going to use that phrase. And I hate to say it, but the dialogue really grated on my nerves by the end of that episode. I just can’t watch another one.
Great show all around (except for the plot line of Pacey and his teacher—not cool). But I am clearly out of the age range it was intended for, no matter how much I loved it when I was young.
So let me conclude with this message to teenage Sarah:
Hey girl… I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you. I know how much you love Dawson’s Creek. But James Van Der Beek just died. He grew up to be a loving father to 6 kids. We all miss him and are sad about it. But you don’t need to be sad. Keep watching the show and feel all the feelings about it. One day soon you’re going to meet your very own Dawson, or Pacey. I know how much you love Pacey. Your own Pacey even has brown hair too. He’ll make your heart feel all the same things you feel now when you watch the show. Just you wait. Love, your best friend.
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