allysonkrieger
runonsentence.com
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650 703 7109
originally published on WildWeb, 9/9/99
She Said
...
I Want to Get Down With 'Dawson' and 'Buffy'
By
JESS BARRON / I don't like TV shows about people over 30. There, I've
said it. Condemn me to a Britney-Spears-schoolgirl afterworld so I can
pout eternally. Or worse, tell me in sympathetic tones (as many of my
colleagues do) that I'm just afraid of aging. Now that's stating the obvious.
I mean, only the truly oblivious would not fear aging in our youth-obsessed
culture. These deluded dolts actually believe that youth is a state of
mind. Yeah, I'll accept that when I catch them making out with a 50-year-old
woman with saggy breasts or a 50-year-old guy who's losing his hair. Or
even watching a TV show where "older" people get down and dirty.
There is a reason why AltaVista comes up with just under 200,000 listings when you search for "anti-aging treatment." There is a reason why we need age discrimination laws. Does it trouble anyone else that "Felicity" writer Riley Weston was lauded as a wunderkind and even put on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Creative People in Entertainment when she was thought to be 19 years old? When it was later discovered that the petite "youthful" Weston was actually 32 years old, her $500,000 TV writing deal with Touchstone went out the window.
That said, I'm as guilty of promoting youth culture as anyone. (I'm just not afraid to admit it and come to terms with it.) Who wants to watch thirtysomething doctors sharing a first kiss? Who wants to watch thirtysomething lawyers sulking about their love life issues as if they're teenagers? Why accept an imitation of innocence when you can have the real thing? Real teens, that is. (Or Hollywood's nubile early twentysomething approximations.) The only TV series with thirtysomething characters I actually enjoy are "Seinfeld" and "The X-Files," and that's because these shows' ultra-sharp writers have the sense to stick to the ridiculous and the creepy and avoid any silly overdramatic relationship stuff.
Psychoanalyze me if you'd like. Tell me that my distaste for thirtysomethings and their debaucherous dramas stems from watching my divorced parents date indiscriminately. Perhaps it's true. Still, I think there's a reason why Mike and Carol Brady just shared a peck on the cheek before turning out the lights as they slept together fully clothed. It really isn't sexy to watch people your parents age get busy.
The only show I occasionally watch with older characters is "Friends," and while you may not even think "Friends" is an older-folks show, I'm even now losing patience with NBC's graying Thursday-night workhorse. Not only is it less and less funny as it gets on in the years, but as I have grown into a working twentysomething with a pathetic love life and friends with pathetic love lives, I find it less and less amusing to watch these mundane yet "quirky" dramas acted out by ultra-skinny thirtysomethings in chichi apartments that I can't afford. Someday perhaps, when I'm thirtysomething and married with children, I can watch "Friends" in reruns and smirk to myself about how zany and fun life as a slacker twentysomething actually was.
Right now I find it more satisfying to watch TV's teens. And I'm not the only one. At least six of my twentysomething friends religiously watch "Dawson's Creek" and/or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It's not even just my (potentially deviant) friends who are watching and enjoying these shows, either. Apparently, "Dawson" and "Buffy" are doing so well in attracting viewers, that there will be 10 new teen shows debuting this fall season; (NBC's "Freaks and Geeks," WB's "Roswell" and Fox's "Manchester Prep" are a few of the noteworthy incoming freshmen). Just a quick trip to the viewer posted comments for "Dawson's Creek" on the Internet Movie Database and you will find that the show has a legion of outspoken fans.
Why are teen shows such as "Buffy" and "Dawson's" attracting a rabid cult-like following among pop-culturally savvy twentysomethings?
Alas, these shows' appeal is not solely due to the fact that their stars such as Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joshua Jackson and Katie Homes are younger and cuter than the stars of shows like "Homicide," "The Practice" and "ER." (Although the eye-candy byproduct of so many factory-fresh, undecayed young actors crammed into one plotline no doubt enhances many people's viewing pleasure.) From Internet research and interviews with fans of "Dawson's" and/or "Buffy," I have gathered that people most appreciate that these shows are well-written.
J.P. Pfeffer, a 23-year-old "Dawson's" fan, says: "The emotions on 'Dawson's Creek' are incredibly believable. The characters say everything I felt at that time in my life, but couldn't express so well. In fact, I'm still not that eloquent. It's a sweet, tender show that romanticizes innocence."
Mindy Lauck, a 25-year-old "Dawson's" fan, concurs. "I like the way the characters have a dialogue that is so adult, so witty, so well-thought-out," she says. "They say all the things you wish you could have said at that time."
"Dawson's" dialogue can be fun in a somewhat pretentious way (especially when it comes out of the mouth of the generally annoying whiny title character, Dawson Leery). One of my favorite Dawson lines is when this star-crossed loser laments, "Like all great romantics, Shakespeare realized love was a lot more likely to end with a bunch of dead Danish people than with a kiss." I also appreciate the quick dead-on, pop-cultural references, demonstrated when Dawson's best friend Pacey comments after a spell of bad karma, "I've got a bad case of the Molly Ringwalds today."
Lauck explains why she prefers "Dawson's" to more "adult" TV shows. "I never got into the other TV dramas like 'Party of Five' and 'ER' because I thought they were too heavy and serious with people having babies and getting cancer," she says. "I like the triviality and fun of 'Dawson's Creek' -- first kisses, fledgling friendships, dabbling in drinking."
Lee Baker, a 26-year-old "Dawson's" viewer says: "It's a silly show; I primarily watch it because it's amusing. 'Dawson's Creek' is all about deconstructing the stuff we went through in high school, and running through the gamut of emotions and playing with that."
There's a lot going on in the smallscreen world of "Buffy" as well.
Ellen Petraglia, a 24-year-old "Buffy" fan, explains: "The show is all about youth empowerment and female empowerment. It's a teenage fantasy world with a dark side."
Why does she prefer this teen show to more adult TV fare? "I watch it because I don't want to watch shows like 'Ally McBeal' where thirtysomething women are lonely and looking for husbands," she says. "Plus, you've gotta appreciate the fact that Buffy kicks ass in some really fabulous fashions."
Though distinctly different from "Dawson's," "Buffy" also has funny and compelling dialogue. Buffy's cute but sort of awkward female friend Willow laments: "When I'm with a boy I like I can't say anything cool, or witty -- or at all. I can usually make a few vowel sounds, and then I have to go away." And, as an ironic comment on their town's weekly evil uprisings, Buffy's friend Xander says, "Not much happens in a one-Starbuck's town like Sunnydale."
There are also lines in "Buffy" that ring eerily true in light of the numerous high-profile shootings committed recently in public high schools nationwide, as well as of the thousands of verbal cruelties and physical assaults that occur without media acknowledgment in high schools everyday. When I think of Principal Snyder's serious decree, "There are things I will not tolerate: students loitering on campus after school, horrible murders with hearts being removed. And also smoking," or Xander's comment, "And they say that young people don't learn anything in high school nowadays, but I've learned to be afraid," I cannot help but reflect on the underlying seriousness of these saucy statements.
Even Joyce Millman, the television editor at somewhat highbrow Salon.com, says that "'Buffy' is the best" (her italics, not mine). As Millman explains to those like my colleague Allyson not yet aware enough to be counted among "Buffy's" fans, creator/writer "Joss Whedon energizes the show's metaphors -- high school as horror show, adolescents as lonely outcasts or predators in packs -- with a storytelling style that is both intensely emotional and devastatingly flip."
A final teen show worth watching is the Fox network's "That '70s Show." Consistently amusing and smart, "That '70s Show" is also refreshingly original with improvisational elements, sharp parodies of classic television clichés, and a talented ensemble cast of teen newcomers.
My colleague Allyson looks at national Neilsen rating numbers to discredit the popularity of "Dawson's" and "Buffy." Alas, the unexpectedly low rankings assigned to these shows are largely due to the fact that not every city in the country has a WB affiliate. Luckily young networks like the WB and Fox are willing to take risks and air edgy, exciting programming that succeeds at speaking to the toughest-sell audience of teen and twentysomething viewers. It is only a matter of time before the stagnant big three networks catch on and copycat their wilder, younger cousins' successful shows. And after hearing about NBC's new show "Freaks and Geeks," it sounds like someone over at the peacocky network realized that "Veronica's Closet" and "Jesse" do not exactly constitute "Must-See TV."
Do you watch
"Dawson's Creek," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "That
'70s Show"? Or do you agree with Allyson
that "Friends," "Sex and the City" and "The Practice"
are the best on TV? Are there better shows that we haven't even mentioned?
Tell us.
WildWeb | September 23, 1999