5 ways Dawson's Creek makes us feel ancient

As the opening titles of Dawson’s Creek play – evidently filmed with the model of camera people use to capture footage of the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot – it’s like tripping into a time machine. The Capeside gang’s all there – Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek), Joey Potter (an 18-year-old Katie Holmes), Pacey (baby-faced Joshua Jackson) and Jen (Michelle Williams). But we arrive in the past in a world in which we are the dinosaurs. 

Come with us now as we revisit our Creek obsessed teen selves and pick out five things that make us feel like crumblies, and five things that make us feel young again.

Binge Dawson’s Creek Season 1-6 on Showmax now.

Dawson’s creak – ouch, my bones!

1. They’re not online

The Creek gang pre-date the social media revolution. The series finale of Dawson’s Creek aired in 2003, before the birth of grandfather MySpace in 2003, Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005, Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010, or TikTok in 2016. 

But we have heard them talk! So as we’re watching, we’re imagining what it would be like if Pacey and Dawson were podcast bros. Dawson, a certified yapper, would for sure have a YouTube movie review account. Jen would be all over social media with thirst traps, grwm posts, pre-X Twitter feed, or her TikTok drama. And we bet Joey would be all over Jen’s comment section with “concerned” comments. Luckily for them, all their teenaged cringe is our special secret. 

2. The stone age tech

Dawson’s Creek ended in May 2003, four years before the release of the first iPhone. And in Season 1 there’s not a cellphone in sight, just kids living in the moment as nature intended.

By Season 3, people do start mentioning cellphone brands by name as a brag – like Matt Caufield (Michael Hagerty) with his Motorola StarTAC flip phone in episode 15. And when Dawson gets a cellphone, it’s a blast of nostalgic frustration to watch him painstakingly click the 12-key number pad to type out his message, which displays on a teeny tiny LCD screen for us.

If you really want to feel ancient, watch Dawson’s dad rave about computer specs in the Season 4 finale as he drools over a brand-new PC with 128 megabytes of RAM, a 32-gig hard drive, and a 56 K modem. Pause and take in that computer shop with its homemade Apple sign up on the wall. Then check out Season 5, episode 11, when Joey searches for her grades on the college board, and all the lists are on hole-punched computer paper from a dot matrix printer. Our bones are now dust in the wind.

3. The rampant slut shaming

One big oof to the pre-cancel-culture days. In Season 1, episode 1, 16-year-old Jen has only just arrived in Capeside from New York when Joey asks her, right out in public, in front of her guy friends, “So, Jen, you a virgin? Because Dawson is a virgin and two virgins really makes for a clumsy first encounter, don’t you think?” Joey makes the encounter even more cancel-worthy when she jokes that she lost her own virginity years ago to a “trucker named Bubba”. Well, that’s both cruel and rude of Joey, the people’s princess! Especially as we later find out that Jen’s secret past involves an older man getting her dunk and raping her when she was just 12 years old. That’s not a casual outing-at-the-movies kind of conversation. 

When she acted out because of that, Jen’s parents sent her to stay with her strict grandparents in Capeside, despite being part of the problem themselves. In Season 4, Jen tells her therapist that she walked in on her dad cheating on her mom with Jen’s 18-year-old babysitter, who he’d coerced into having sex. Looks like someone had a vested interest in banishing his teenage daughter! And prepare to get the ick when dear old dad creeps around Joey in Season 4, episode 18.

It makes it even more horrific hearing Dawson call Jen “disgusting” (and worse) for how she behaves around boys and men when she’s trying to explore her sexuality on her own terms. And for more attitudes about sexuality that belong in the past, brace yourselves for the Season 2, episode 7 purity quiz scene. 

4. The hair-raising hairstyles

While Joey manages to keep her simple, girl-next-door style (if we don’t mention that two-tone tragedy in Season 6), the rest of the cast reel from one tragic late 90s hair catastrophe to the next. 

Jen’s Season 6 short fringe, long bob haircut, especially, will make you wonder whether she lost a bet to one of the hair and makeup crew. And while her spunky Season 2 short hair could have been adorable, the styling often made her look like a chewed on kids’ baby doll with polyester hanks o’hair … or that moment when you take off the salon highlighting cap. 

Pacey’s buzz cut in Season 4 will have you asking what happened during his Summer of Love on the boat with Joey to make that seem like a good choice. From there, he falls into his mousse abuse and goatee era when he’s cosplaying as an evil finance bro in Season 6. And the only haircut more iconic than Dawson’s blonde, 90s curtain-bangs was “The Rachel”. But by Season 4, while the story is giving teen drama, his hairline is giving 30-year-old granddad every time the wind blows. 

PS: Check out NCIS star Pauley Perrette rocking Meg Ryan’s blonde, flipped and spiked bob as Dawson’s therapist in Season 5, episode 7. 

5. The Katie Holmes Wooden Microphone Award

Have you ever fantasised about being a rock star, recorded yourself singing, pressed play, and tossed that childhood dream in the trash? It’s like instantly developing a mental spouse, house and mortgage. On that (false) note, as much as we admire Kate Holmes’ very real gifts as a performer, singing is not one of those gifts. Rewatching her with our teenage Joey-loving blinkers off is an ear-opener. 

Season 1, episode 12 gives us Joey warbling and wobbling through the flattest, thinnest rendition of On My Own from Les Miserables at the Capeside annual Miss Windjammer beautify pageant – which she wins despite this, by the way. It’s like watching Dawson’s first movie all over again. 

Season 5 adds a whole new level of cringe when Jen’s ex-boyfriend, radio DJ and musician Charlie Todd (a smarmy Chad Michael Murray, at the peak of his puka shell necklace, frosted tips era), sets his sights on Joey. We get that it’s supposed to be a big moment as an increasingly confident Joey belts out I Want You To Want Me on stage with him. But Joey, babe, what are you doing with that bent arm, over your head microphone holding? Why are you taking off your jacket to reveal your black, sleeveless office-wear blouse to the whole bar? 

Based off this dubious performance, cloth-eared Charlie decides Joey should replace the lead singer of his band after she quits. But the crowd turns hostile as Joey absolutely ploughs her first number with Charlie in Season 5, episode 17 – Flock of Seagulls’ I Ran. Even Pacey admits, “It’s kind of like watching figure skaters fall.” Then Joey and Charlie’s duet of I Hate Myself for Loving You is supposed to make us think, “Oh, she can sing for real. Woo!” Sorry to our little teen selves who believed that. But go off, diva!

Dishonourable mention: Season 4 episode 17 has Joey sharing her skinny secret – smelling her food instead of eating it. Another fashionable eating disorder tip brought to you by ye olde magazines with sex quizzes in them. 

Dawson’s delight – a fountain of youth!

1. The verbal smackdowns

While we could legitimately grumble about the script putting mature writers’ words in kids’ mouths (see our notes on Dawson as a filmmaker), we still get in a fan flutter when it’s great! Like when Jen lets rip at Abby Morgan (Monica Keena) in Season 2 with, “I don’t know where you come from or just who has the misfortune of being responsible for your existence, but you are a lying manipulative and cruel person and the fact that you are only 16 years old makes me feel more sorry for you than the any of the people in this room whose lives you are destroying. You’re pathetic.” Wooo! You tell her.

2. Dawson putting the ho ho ho in Hollywood

Dawson’s Hollywood aspirations are still an endless source of amusement. Just watch him rearrange his Steven Spielberg movie posters as if he’s tending to a shrine. Bless. Now go to Season 2, episode 13 – trust us! 

We have She’s All That star and 90s teen romcom queen Rachael Leigh Cook playing actress Devon, who takes on the Joey role in Dawson’s movie, Creek Times, after Dawson “discovers” her posing nude for Joey’s art class (the little perv!). Leaping into her role with both feet, Devon starts following Joey around and mimicking her as part of her process of immersing herself in the character. Meanwhile, the guy playing Dawson (Jason Behr – look out for the Roswell series shout out in Season 3, episode 7) is just scratching his head and wondering what kind of bizarre mating ritual he’s agreed to take part in. 

It turns out Devon has a point when she expresses doubts about Dawson’s script, calling it “psycho speak”, because instead of movie Joey saying, “It’s just lipstick, Dawson,” our young auteur has her say, “It’s just cosmetic enhancement”. The pure glee at his dreadfulness has us shrieking into our pillows again. But looking closer at what actually happens on his sets, and in his creative process, offers some fun insights into what really happens behind the scenes. 

3. The Just Jack of it all

It’s no Heartstopper, but throughout Jack’s storyline, Dawson’s Creek does largely dodge the stereotypes of the time – to put it in context, the then-revolutionary sitcom Will & Grace came out the same year as Dawson’s Creek. And by Season 3, the show had Dawson’s classmate Jack McPhee (Kerr Smith) being an openly gay football player on the Capeside High team.

In Season 2, episode 15, when Jen’s conservative Christian grandma hears a teenage boy talking smack about Jack for being gay, Grams (Mary Beth Peil) claps back with, “If Jack is gay, he does not need your judgement, young man. The Lord above will judge him, as he will all of us. What he needs from you, from me, from everyone else in this world is love and tolerance. If anything, that boy is feeling scared and alone and he will need the understanding of his fellow man to help him through this. Let’s save judgement for someone much more experienced than you.”

Season 2, episode 14 sympathetically spotlights Jack’s trauma when an evil teacher forces him to read his poem about romancing another dude out loud to the whole class, hoping to humiliate him. Jack runs out of the class crying. But Pacey stands up for him and pushes back against the teacher, even when his “attitude” lands him in trouble with the school administration. And let the spirit move you in Season 3, episode 22 when Dawson organises an anti-prom because the school won’t let Jack have a guy as his prom date. There’s a kind of idealism in all these moments that’s young and uplifting.

4. The movie lore

Before we get into this, just a reminder that Dawson’s Creek is supposedly set in the real world, okay? Great! Now, the mastermind of Dawson’s Creek is Kevin Williamson, the guy who wrote the spec script for what would become the first-ever Scream movie (1996), directed by Wes Craven. 

So in a fun meta moment, we have Season 1, episode 11, titled The Scare. Set on Friday the 13th in Capeside, it has Dawson planning a group séance as a prank (he’s already terrorised Joey while wearing a Jason hockey mask). The gang hear that a serial killer might be headed for Capeside and, cribbing a scene from Scream, Pacey leads a discussion of who’d be the perfect victim for the killer. And Jen gets a letter telling her “You are going to DIE! TONIGHT!!”, followed by a creepy anonymous phone call. Look at her phone, turtleneck and blonde hair and tell us it’s not a Scream/Drew Barrymore reference! There’s even a Ghostface mask. 

Throughout the series we get more movie-inspired plot lines like Season 1, episode 7 (The Breakfast Club) and Season 3, episode 1 (Risky Business).

5. The shipping wars

For fans, this was no mere ship war, it was an Avengers-level battle! The Joey & Pacey vs Joey & Dawson rivalry really caught fire from Joey and Pacey’s first kiss in Season 3.

If you’ve been slogging through Joey and Dawson’s makeups and breakups until this point, prepare to get your heart stolen as Pacey agrees to be Joey’s dance partner in exchange for her being his maths tutor in episode 9. From there, the show takes its time to build up to their first kiss in episode 17. And by then we’ve come a long way from Season 1, episode 1 when Joey was all “ew” about kissing Pacey in his monster outfit while shooting Dawson’s movie – which gets a shout out in Season 4, episode 23. 

By the end of Season 3, as Dawson’s parents prepare to remarry (meme historians, this is the episode that crying Dawson headshot comes from), it feels as if the whole of Creekside is picking sides. And as you watch Joey and Pacey literally sail away into the sunset together (with just one spare pair of panties onboard for Joey), you’ll be young and in love again. Enjoy it while you can, because there are plenty of Dawson rug-pulls to come. 

Now climb in the time machine with us, and binge Dawson’s Creek Season 1-6 on Showmax now.