SPOILERS WITHIN

So I was finally able to watch this TV show as it has been put on the  British Netflix. I was really excited to watch it actually as I never got to as a kid and I remember seeing it come on TV back in the day. Plus the whole Joey and Dawson vs Joey and Pacey thing was so famous everyone knew about it even without seeing the show.

Plus I wanted to see where the crying face meme originated from (it’s from season three and it’s very quick).

So what do I think about the show now that I’ve watched it? I don’t like it much.

I mean let’s start with Dawson.

He is the most annoying character. He starts off interesting, flawed but interesting. He’s into directing and Steven Spielberg and horror movies. He makes home movies, hasn’t really experienced life yet and is kind of innocent.

He’s very perceptive and a good friend to Pacey and Joey. Ah the good old days when they were actually friends.

However then he starts going through puberty and liking Joey but is in denial about it so that creates the whole will they/won’t they thing that drags for two seasons. But before that or during that he starts dating Jen who’s just moved back from New York and is supposed to be this bad girl, mind you she’s fifteen and still a kid.

However she’s had sex and done drugs and so she’s this foreign exotic creature.

The way he treated Jen is where his character starts to go downhill for me. His reaction to the fact that she’s had sex before was so disappointing but realistic. He felt insecure and so slut shamed her, multiple times! And then had the audacity to be shocked when she dumped him.

So to skip ahead Dawson’s character gets a little better and learns from his mistakes and even apologises to Jen and that’s all the good I can say about him.

The Joey-Dawson-Pacey love triangle was so forced it ruined his character! Every time he’s starting to move on and maybe fall in love with someone else or you know, have a life, the writers force the love triangle again because he and Joey are *cue eye roll* soul mates.

If I had watched this show as a kid it would have made me hate the whole notion of soul mates.

Then there’s the fact that his character can’t take criticism. He always thinks he’s right and when people don’t immediately fall in love with his work or give him genuine constructive criticism he loses his way.

Again, sure that does happen in life but dude… he never gets over it.

I was actually quite sad that his creative side was so neglected and he kept making the same movie about his love story with Joey. I hate horror movies but I would have liked if he’d gone back to his passion.

Or made a movie with any other story line!

Honestly by season six I couldn’t stand him. And yes that’s his whole character from season three onwards: in love with Joey and makes a movie about Joey. He does date others for a while including Jen again which was short lived and a waste of time.

Him and Jen could have worked if the writers were willing to give Jen a break.

Anyway moving on…

There’s Joey and people love to act like she’s the embodiment of sunshine or that she’s perfect and Dawson is the only flawed character to which I say nay!

She’s so moody it’s annoying. She has a sharp tongue and she uses it as a weapon. The reason why this annoyed me was because Jen tried so many times to be her friend and to not let boys come between them but Joey always rejected her.

I couldn’t stand that the writers felt the need to make the female characters enemies. I hated that they punished Jen’s character because she was a “whore” whilst Joey the “angel” got rewarded. What kind of message were they sending?

I mean Jen went out with Charlie, man cheated on her and treated her horribly. The same guy dates with Joey and Joey does this knowing how he hurt Jen and is like, “Well he’s not going to do it to me so piss off” and guess what, he doesn’t because Joey is a stand up gal.

UGH!

She was also a really annoying character. I think it annoys me she’s annoying because everyone acts like she’s perfect and it’s like, no let a character be flawed, it’s ok!

However, she has her nice moments. I’m sad they ditched her whole artist storyline. They do this a lot in Dawson’s Creek. They introduce a story line only for it to go nowhere, I mean Eve. What was the point of her? I honestly thought Dawson was hallucinating her until she started to interact with other characters.

Then there’s Pacey.

I’m not even going to front, I loved Pacey. He definitely had flaws but he actually has character development and learns from his mistakes. I don’t like that his grades started to fail as soon as Andy left. I felt that was unrealistic, at least the way they presented it on the show was.

He was a guy who stood up for his principals, went out on a limb for his friends and was a great boyfriend.

Sure he did make mistakes but like I said he learns from them.

His worst relationship was with Aubrey, mostly because I didn’t like her and I felt they weren’t good for each other.

Actually no, his worst relationship was with the teacher in season one. That was paedophilia and they romanticised it and that made me sick. Just because Pacey is a guy does not make it ok for a thirty to forty (I can’t remember) year old teacher to date him! He was fifteen!!!

And they were acting like he gave her the best sex of her life, he was fifteen and a virgin! He knew nothing!

They should have treated her like the predator she was.

Moving on to one of his best relationships, Andy!

I loved him with Andy and you know what, I loved Andy! I’m so sad she got cut from the show because she wasn’t popular. She added something different to the cast and was a female character that actually united Jen and Joey.

Plus, they got to explore story lines about mental health with Andy and I thought they were important.

He was also a great boyfriend to Joey. I mean, he was insecure and hurt during the prom scene and he said some awful things to Joey and so that was his lowest point oh and the time he was trying to play mind games with her because he wanted to go to the next level (sex). However, that was realistic for a teenage boy.

I was team Joey and Pacey the whole way. Their relationship made sense and they actually went out. Joey and Dawson got together and broke up so quickly I wondered what exactly the writers were holding on to.

Another character that I liked was Jack. He was interesting… at first. He was artistic and a general nice guy. He was also gay but that wasn’t his defining character trait. He wasn’t a stereotype.

However when they went to college he was such a douche and they made him a frat boy. I hated that. I needed Andy to come back and knock some sense into him.

Also even though it was revolutionary that they had a gay character back when the show aired I don’t think they were actually ready for a gay character. They rarely have him kiss anyone and when he does date they don’t really show it. All of his relationships end before they can begin.

We don’t get any moments or we don’t get to just see Jack happy in a relationship. When he was hooking up that was the first time he was happy being himself and dating and that was in the latter half of the show.

Then in season six, in the final two episodes (or was it just the final episode?) he’s with Dougie! Pacey’s brother who was closeted for years!

Why did they wait till the last moment to put them together? That would have been such an interesting story line that we were robbed of seeing… robbed!

Also there’s Dawson’s parents. The most childish parents… oh how I wanted to throw them off of something. The time they wasted with their pointless story lines we could have been exploring anything else. Like the stupid love triangle they dragged out their separation story line and then they got back together but not really then they separated for real and were going to divorce but psych! No they’re getting married… the f*ck that took three seasons!

Why?!

Anyway onto the most played character and my home girl, Jen.

She was not perfect. I liked her but like Pacey and Andy she still had her bad moments. I didn’t like how she always tried to shock people. Sometimes I was like, girl, chill. Was there a need?

Sometimes all she needed to do was have a conversation.

Anyway apart from that she was a cool character. She was kind, she was loving and she tried her best. She had a traumatic childhood and was trying to make a life out of that mess.

She built a relationship with her grandmother of dramatically opposing beliefs and made a best friend in Jack. Her relationship with her grandmother honestly warmed my heart the most.

I was so sad that they never gave her lasting happiness. Every relationship she ended up in ended with heartbreak. They couldn’t even make her happily single, she was always yearning for romantic love.

They shamed her for liking sex and when her character was actually getting therapy they have her leave and not get the help she needs.

I am most mad at the writers for the way they treated Jen. What makes me madder is the fact that they killed her! She doesn’t even get to live! My girl just dies for no f*cking reason in the last f*cking episode!!

*tries to take calming breaths* I was so disappointed.

So all in all Dawson’s Creek starts well and finishes badly. They lost the plot after season three.

Yes, this has been a rant.