Retro TV: Dawson"s Creek

I do love my teen programmes; The OC, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and 90210 but no show defined the teen genre more than Dawson's Creek. The show was sort of based on the life of its creator, Kevin Williamson who created the Scream series and The Vampire Diaries. Williamson who was at the time Hollywood's wunderkid was approached to create a teen TV series after studio bosses read his witty script for Scream and Williamson described his efforts as Some Kind of Wonderful meets My So-Called Life meets Pump up the Volume meets James at 15 meets Little House in the Prairie. Dawson's Creek revolves around Dawson Leery played by James Van Der Beek, an aspiring film-maker who more or less had the perfect life; doting parents, great best friends and an idyllic life in a seaside town called Capeside. Dawson is an eternal optimist who firmly believes in that little thing called love and is a passionate Steven Spielberg fan. His close friends consist of gal pal, Joey Potter played by Katie Holmes, who he has spent practically every memorable moment with since his whole life. Their blissful friendship hits a rocky path when they start to drift apart and move into adulthood. Dawson's guy pal is Pacey Witter played by Joshua Jackson who is about as different from Dawson as you can get. Pacey is irresponsible, outspoken, restless, reckless and very funny and he is a chronic underachiever who uses his sarcasm to disguise his unhappy childhood. Then there is also newcomer, Jen Lindley played by Michelle Williams who has moved to the town from New York who strikes up a friendship with Dawson which leads to conflict with Joey. Later on in the series the four friends are joined by brother and sister, Jack and Andie McPhee played by Kerr Smith and Meredith Monroe.

There was no doubt that the relationship between Joey and Dawson was very special; you know the type where she would sneak into his room by climbing up a ladder and they would watch movies all night on his bed? The two of them were soul mates who would go on to become lovers and then greatest friends. Dawson's Creek covered a lot of heavyweight issues such as teenage sex, abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality all mixed up with teen angst.  The show ran for six series during the period of 1998 and 2003 and is credited as defining a generation. What made the show stand out was the impressive dialogue they would use to converse in. It was rather akin to Shakespeare with long prose and expressive verbs. When I first started watching the show it took me a while to get into it but once I did boy was I hooked. Dawson's Creek really had a lovely charm about it especially the childhood friendships, rites of passage and comprehensive dialogue. It may not have been as glamorous as Gossip Girl or as cool as The OC but it held a sense of warmth that the other shows lacked. You really felt that you knew Dawson and co and really lived through their trials and tribulations. Dawson's Creek ended in 2003 with a special length episode and even though a lot of time has passed since then I now watch the lives of the actors from the series with interest and fondness. James Van Der Beek has gone on to act in films and TV shows and he is now a father and on his second marriage, Katie Holmes is now Mrs Tom Cruise and as well as having a very stylish little daughter she has herself a very stellar acting career, Michelle Williams also has a daughter by the late Heath Ledger and is now one of the most respected actresses in Hollywood and Joshua Jackson has done a fair bit of acting himself and is now happily dating Diane Kruger.

The show is now being repeated on Sony TV on Wednesday at 7pm.