'Dawson's Creek' sparks huge Princeton following

The title of the Dubba-Dubba WB's newest primetime hit program, Dawson's Creek, lends itself nicely to cute, clever little headlines. "Dawson's Creek is Rising" quips one magazine. "Dawson's Peak" proclaims TV Guide.

The subject material of the show also permits one to wax eloquent. "Television's highly anticipated hour-long drama series tells the poignant stories of four teenagers facing the difficulties of passing from childhood to adulthood" summarizes one critic. "Dawson's Creek chronicles one boy's coming of age journey" declares another. TV Guide offers "WB's drama about four hot-talking teens navigating the wonder years lives up to its hype." Living up to that "hype," however, may become increasingly difficult. Dawson's Creek mania has, quite simply, gone out of control.

Consider, for example, the TV Guide with four different covers, each featuring a different star from the show. "Collect all four Dawson's Creek Covers!" the magazine urges perkily. Never mind the fact that all four issues consist of exactly the same content inside.

Over a hundred websites are devoted entirely to the show. On the internet, you can purchase Dawson's Creek merchandise such as a T-shirt bearing an image entitled "Dawson sitting." Or you could enter a Dawson's Creek chat room. Or listen to the ubiquitous soundtrack. Or enter creative suggestions for future episodes. (Some of these "creative" suggestions have run a little wild, to the point that many have been relegated to the category "fantasy stories.")

But anyone who has seen even five minutes of the show can testify to the fact that realism clearly is not the objective in sight here. As Kevin Williamson, creator of the show as well as the Scream franchise and I Know What You Did Last Summer, explains, "I think it is not so much how teenagers are but how they would like to be seen." From the plot-lines down to the way the characters speak, Dawson's can't really boast that it "tells it like it is."

How many 15-year-olds express themselves as articulately and eloquently as Joey (Katie Holmes) does when she reprimands Dawson's mom for committing adultery: "While you might not realize it now, your actions do have consequences. They affect the people around you. You might want to consider the everlasting damage you're creating through the choices you're making." The saving grace that redeems the show is the fact that the show never pretends not to be over the top. Far over the top.

Though the story of the ongoings of a couple of kids in an idyllic small town setting may appear to be a huge leap to make, the style of Dawson's Creek is actually similar to that of Williamson's full-length horror films – the show operates on a considerably large shock value. "33-year-old teacher has sex outdoors with 15-year-old student." "12-year-old girl caught having sex in parents' bed."

But just as Scream met with roaring success at the box-office due to its successful blend of comedy and horror, Dawson's combines this shock factor with a comic streak that clearly reveals the formula behind the show's climb to the top.

One of the reasons why the show is so amusing is its self-conscious, overdone campiness. If one were ever to claim that a show "knows" its own campiness, it would certainly be this one.

But a more interesting issue is the question of why this teenage show has gained such a devoted following among the college students on this campus. The main characters have hardly–in some cases not at all–hit puberty, and it seems safe to say that Williamson didn't have the college age bracket in mind. The fact that 20-somethings are so easily drawn into the doings of a quartet of 15-year-olds seems vaguely absurd, if not downright disturbing. After all, grade-school kids don't usually religiously follow Sesame Street episodes.

Or do they? Is Dawson's Creek mania just another manifestation of the condition that results in high school kids toting superhero lunch boxes? Or the impending club kid fascination with the Teletubbies? How about the Princeton contingent of girls ostentatiously sporting Hello Kitty plastic barettes and pigtails? For some undefinable reason, it has always been "cool" to partake in the habits defining a younger generation – a bizarre retro-chic. Perhaps this obsession with Dawson's Creek is some sort of escapist mentality wherein individuals on the brink of facing the pressures of adulthood and independence reveal a distinct desire to return to the safety of childhood.

It seems slightly more realistic (and perhaps less worrisome) to suppose that this phenomenon is merely a sort of anti-intellectual backlash. Perhaps the fascination with Dawson's Creek falls into the category of the campus-wide obsession with Austin Powers and Billy Madison.

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Princeton kids are undoubtedly well aware of the fact that the show does not exactly offer a plethora of intellectual stimulants. The fact that intellectual appeal is not particularly high on Williamson's agenda seems self-evident.

But then again, the degree to which one finds the show thought-provoking might depend on exactly what one deems "stimulating." The show clearly reflects Williamson's own pop-culture savvy, and every episode provides a running commentary on the state of entertainment in our nation, making particular reference, of course, to movies and TV.

The pilot episode of the show had 46 references to movies, 16 of which refer to Spielberg films. Some of these are more subtle than others – the true Dawson's fan will realize the comic irony of Pasey's (Joshua Jackson) declaration that "Mighty Ducks was a great flick." He will chortle secretly to himself, realizing, of course, that Jackson made his debut in that hockey drama.

Other allusions, however, are more accessible to the general public. Dawson (James Van der Beek) and Pasey share a rapid interchange as follows: (Dawson)–"It's like Janet Leigh in Psycho." (Pasey)–"Drew Barrymore in Scream." (Dawson)–"A ripoff of a ripoff." Williamson's big break was, of course, Scream.

Yet another theory proposes that the Princeton obsession with the show arises from the fact that Princeton kids are experiencing a delayed version of what Dawson and Co. are going through. This theory would claim that Princeton kids were too busy with SATs, student government and GPAs to worry about such superfluous things as puberty.

While this hypothesis may be as distasteful to our egos as the others, there may nonetheless be a grain of truth in it. Though there are no official stats on the topic, the vast majority of Princeton guys probably did not lose their virginity to their English teacher (though one never knows of course). And there are definitely more than a couple Princeton kids who do not exactly represent the average American, in more ways than one.

An alternative theory proposes that though the show's characters may only be 15, the subject matter of the episodes as well as the manner in which the character speak and act actually parallel our age group more than that of teenagers. As TV Guide helpfully explains, "(the show) bounces between youthful kidding and adult conversation . . . a show in which kids talk like adults, act like adults, even sleep with adults. Which may be why the Matchbox 20 crowd is watching."

The package in which the show is wrapped also appeals to us in particular. Although Vanity Fair mistakenly identified us as a Talbot's kinda school, the rapidity with which J. Crew catalogues are snatched up in the mailrooms provides clear testimony to the fact that our school is populated with avid J. Crew devotees. And who would be the newest models of that ubiquitous J. Crew catalogue, but the fresh-faced cast of Dawson's. What about the soundtrack? Plenty of individuals on campus know the words to that Paula Cole song, and probably even more actually own the CD.

What exactly is going on here? The packaging of the show labels it a perfect fit for Princeton. A little psychological exploration offers a multitude of reasons, even justifications, for why Dawson's holds that special, illicit kind of fascination for students here. Dawson's Creek and Princeton University are made for each other, however incongruous the match may initially appear.

So when next Tuesday roles around, don't be afraid to flick the channel on over to Dawson's Creek. You won't be alone.