Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Dawson's Creek and Cyndi Lauper

I still love this show, I always have. I could try to list all the different stupid ways it could be symbolic for me, maybe I will some Wednesday night as my emotions build towards the end of the series. It is sad, since the point I have begun to change from the crazy-anti-dizneuce I was in high school to the radded-out nermgoise I am now, Dawson, Jen, Joey, and of course Pacey have been there with me. Admittedly, the show has never regained the glory that it had around 98-00. It fell hard when the new group of writers moved in to accompany the transition to college. Jack's homosexuality went from a storyline to a central tenet of the show. For about a year Jack was nothing but a gay person, Jen was nothing but messed up, Pacey was always complaining about not being smart enough. The last year and a half has been good though, oddly enough, Dawson had to leave all his friends to really develop.

I like alot of programs, Buffy might be the greatest show ever made and West Wing is still up there, but I just don't know that there will ever be a program which I will be as excited about as I was about the DC my first year in college. We watched alot of episodes of that show in Wilking and Maroney's apartment, most of that time spent with me telling Wilk-dogg to shut the fuck up so I could hear the wonderful dialogue.

So here is the thing about the conclusion of this epic program. It is obvious that the show can end with one of three possible messages. First, Dawson ends up with Joey. That message is obvious: fate. I think this was how the series was supposed to end, I would imagine they designed it to do so from the beginning. At the point it is at now, however, Katie is absolutely right that alot of fucked up shit would need to go down in the next 7 weeks in order to get Dawson back with the girl it appears is falling back for Pacey. Second, see above, Pacey and Joey. While some seem to think this message is simple, I am not so sure. It definately says somethign else about fate, more about choice however, fixing one's mistakes and discovering something about life and love. The third option is for none of these couples to end up together. That really doesnt make an argument, in fact it just sort of says that everything the show was initially about fell so far out of line that they werent able to recover original storylines. While fundamentally I still believe the show should end with Dawson and Joey (I mean its his fucking creek) I doubt they will. Still, I will probably cry when I hear "I dont wanna wait..." that one last time.

Also, there appears to be a new Dr. Pepper commercial which features Cyndi Lauper. How fucking sweet is that. Leave it to Dr. Pepper to come up with something as sweet as that and bring back such a wonderful blast from the past. Time after time.

Peace,

MB-K

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think that whether or not Dawson and Pacey having or not having Joey constitutes an argument remains to be seen -- this evening's concentration on their friendship certainly seems to say that there is something good to be salvaged from the creek regardless of Joey -- and I think it will be interesting to see how Pacey's fascination with Joey intersects with his resumption of friendship with Dawson.

I obviously don't have the same associations with you historically about dawson's creek -- but i understand your argument about feelings of excitement. I'll probably cry when it ends too, the same way i did with Felicity, and in a lot of ways i think that that is because the writers have made a real effort to go back to vintage DC -- everything is circling back, and reintroducing old characters with the same plot lines advancing the way it would if people actually did just grow up (see Pacey, Doug and his father). Tonights episode made me think of the hurricane one, the one way back in the first season when Pacey was sleeping with the teacher. The thing that I miss about the early years of DC is that it was so frenzied and so fast paced and you had to watch each episode or you would miss something really life altering -- a new relationship or sexual liason, a suicide attempt or coming out -- and now, since they only have 7 weeks left, they're returning to that pacing and the type of dialogue i associate with old school DC. Which is not to say that I think that Dawson and Joey will end up together -- in fact, i think the opposite. I think that tonight's episode proved that while Dawson has to be able to access his memories of high school, the only way to be able to write about them is to be distanced from them enough to make sense of it, which means he can't go back to Joey. Pacey, on the other hand, seems to be circling in the right way -- whereas before, he was with Joey because he didn't think that he could survive on his own, didn't feel smart enough, etc etc, now he can do things on his own but wants to share them with Joey. Joey's comments on his phone message this evening would support that theory, since she wants to remember the past in a nostalgic fashion but think of Pacey as how he could be. I don't think that the show really wants to establish a relationship that lasts two weeks of a 7 week left thing, so i think that thye'll get together and then figure out how that means they're supposed to establish themselves in the old Capeside.

Which is another thing. I like the return to Capeside. I think it's neat that they're bringing back family members and restoring the position of the characters in relation to the place of the creek.

Anyways, i have more thoughts (obviously) but an inaugural response should not be exhaustive. :)

love you,
katie