Dawson's Creek

"Dawson's Creek" must be the first show in the history of television that can lay claim to being "the most talked-about new show of the season" before a single episode had aired. And yet, for all the hyperbole in that marketing gimmick, there is a grain of truth. The commercials broadcast for two months before the show hit the airwaves did pique plenty of interest. For weeks before the show premiered, I would check the TV Guide and ask friends, "Is this week it? Are we there yet? Let's talk more about the most talked-about show of the season, even though we haven't seen it yet!"

At last the big night arrived, and viewers across the nation hunkered do wn before the WB for a hefty dose of teen angst, gratuitous flesh, and the cutest woman in the known universe, Katie Holmes. After the hour-long show had ended, my friends and I seemed more preoccupied by Ms. Holmes's ample breasts than by any of the show's merits or faults. But the question still begs to be asked: is "Dawson's Creek" deserving of the hype? Should we be wasting our breath talking about "the most talked-about new show of the season"?

On premise alone, it's easy to laugh away "Dawson's Creek" as a standard Fox drama clone, a hefty dose of early "90210" mixed with a sprinkle of "Party of Five" for good measure (an especially ironic point, considering that the producer of "Dawson's Creek" also produces "90210"). The show deals with the lives of four teenagers just entering high school in a small town in North Carolina. As you might expect, they discover love, both unrequited and otherwise, and they hurt each other without even realizing it. In that sense, it owes more to "My So-Called Life" or "The Wonder Years" than anything Fox has ever aired.

Anyone who would write the show off as derivative is missing out on the heart of what makes "Dawson's Creek" worth watching. The premise is only the tip of the iceberg. What makes this show promising has nothing to do with any one-sentence encapsulation of what it is "about," and everything to do with great characterization and some startling plot twists. The great writing is courtesy of screenwriter Kevin Williamson, responsible for both films in the "Scream" series as well as "I Know What You Did Last Summer." Williamson created the characters for "Dawson's Creek" and scripted at least the first two episodes.

In his writing for this show, Williamson claims to have returned to his own high school years and experiences as a teenager for inspiration. Clearly, the character of Dawson Leary (James Van Der Beek) has some roots in Williamson himself. He's a boy who is obsessed with filmmaking and who considers Steven Spielberg to be his ultimate hero. Over the course of the first two episodes, he's even putting together an amateur horror film for a video competition. Unfortunately, Williamson's dialogue for Dawson has provided the worst moments in the show so far. He talks and behaves in an unrealistic manner, and his devotion to film is a cloying attempt to bring a fully realized character to life through only one defining trait. Perhaps Williamson's skills are impaired by writing a character that falls so close to his own personality.

Other than Dawson, the cast and characterizations are dead-on. Williamson seems to have an odd knack for writing young women, as he's shown in his scripts for the "Scream" films and as he proves once again in "Dawson's Creek." The two female lead characters, Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) and Jennifer Lindley (Michelle Williams), are sharper and smarter than their male counterparts. Williamson is riffing on the commonly-held notion that women mature faster than men, and that teenage girls have far more poise and emotional control than teenage boys. This doesn't mean that teenage boys deserve to be underdeveloped stereotypes instead of characters, but it does mean that he can get away with making Joey and Jennifer into the central figures in the series, and the two who truly drive the central plot along. Though the show is called "Dawson's Creek," his life is governed by the women by whom he's surrounded. Joey loves him desperately, but since they've been pals since childhood, he pays no attention. He's too busy getting on Jennifer, the new cute girl from New York City. And so, a blissfully agonizing love triangle spins between the three. Joey and Jennifer are both fantastic characters, expertly brought to life by Holmes and Williams, though Williams at times suffers from the same overcleverness that plagues Dawson's character.

The quartet of leads is rounded out by Pacey (Joshua Jackson), who is stumbling his way through an affair with his English teacher. No, that's no joke. He's actually on the verge of SCREWING his English teacher, who is very attractive! This is a fantastic example of the unexpected plotting that makes "Dawson's Creek" so fresh and exciting. Most shows would have acknowledged the attraction between the two characters, then depicted them going forward with their lives, because a love affair between a 15-year-old boy and a middle-aged single teacher must be wrong, right? On "Dawson's Creek," it's just an unorthodox vehicle for exploring human relationships. Controversial? Absolutely. But in terms of characterization and performance, realistic? Definitely. It's in this subplot that Williamson has truly shone, his dialogue making such an unlikely romantic pairing believable and intriguing, based on the insecurities of the teacher and the overconfident posturing of Pacey.

Ultimately, the strength of "Dawson's Creek" as a television series will lie in its ability to present such strong writing and acting every week. It's doubtful that Williamson will have the time or the inclination to script every episode, so at some point the well of his scripts will dry up and these fragile characters will be handed to other writers. But as long as there's a great ride in the amusement park we call network TV, everyone should hop on until it loses its thrill. With stellar writing and a strong cast to bring it to life, "Dawson's Creek" is one of those great rides. Thus far, it seems to deserve the hype.