Dawson's Creek

[Calena]

I thought there might be a different way to see Dawson's generosity. I haven't watched any further, so theoretically for me this could have been the beginning of a nicer behaviour on Dawson's side, but I take it that this isn't so.


Something that's been bugging me a bit for the last few eps - ever since Jack forgave her the extasy incident - is the Jack-Jen friendship. I like that they are there for each other and everything, but using "we" instead of "I" is kind of strange. Like in "how do we feel about that?".

[meimei42]

OMG I sooo never bought that Joey needed $15,000 for school. Just with my experience with financial aid, I'm not even sure why she had to count Bessie since her father is still alive. I guess if there was some legal guardianship that took place maybe, but even still, I doubt they were rolling in the dough that the college expected THAT much. Colleges expect more than you can really give, but I just didn't buy it. Not that much. I'm making decent money right now and my school (which is $23,000 a year) is only asking that I pay $4000.

The whole move seemed so contrived to make Dawson look awesome.

[adiafaith]

No, Dawson continued his asinine behavior with Joey after giving her the wad of cash so I just saw it as a writer's way of making Dawson look good and Pacey look like he was being a jerk for not wanting Dawson to give her the money. And it just gave D/J-ers a reason to go clamoring around sniveling about how Dawson and Joey are meant to be together because he paid for her school. Riiiiiiiiiiiiighhht.

I didn't understand this: why was there always this talk about how smart Joey was and that she was fourth in her class if Joey didn't end up with a scholarship? I mean, come on, I wasn't at the top of my class in high school and even I got a full scholarship for college (undergrad though...I'd f*****g KILL for a full scholarship for grad school 'cause I don't for the life of me understand why it has to cost so much f*****g money for more education but........I'm totally digressing and venting, sorry). Getting back on track - I was under the impression that Joey was working towards a scholarship...I mean what kinda school doesn't award a student that ends up being the valedictorian a scholarship? So why the hell did she need that money from Dawson in the first place? Can we say it all together now.....contrived.

[meimei42]

I could see her not maybe getting a FULL Scholarship, but usually high schools give some scholarships, even I got a small pne, and usually colleges have some scholarships they give too. And was that the ONLY school she got into? Because they never showed her looking at any other acceptance offers. Its not like it would have been the end of the world for her to go to a school that wasn't Ivy league. YOu always have backup schools and it really seemed like she just didn't, which was kind of stupid of her. So much for being smart Joey. I think her character is really just kind of common sense stupid.

[Calena]

I just finished season 4 and I have to say that was probably the most boring and unnecessary season finale ever. They laid on the cheese big time for 40 minutes, just so they could have Joey and Dawson kiss at the end which isn't very promising for season 5 - well you guys said season 5 is the worst. At least I have the lovely CMM to look forward to!

[adiafaith]

I think they added on the last ep, Coda (or something like that) on to that season because it could've ended with the Graduation episode. Plus PAcey was only in that episode for like a second so it really was unnecessary.

She should've gotten some type of scholarship - I just thought that was unrealistic. And you're right, where were the other schools she applied to? I recognize that she'd probably spent her whole life dreaming of going to this fictional college but still, she needed a second and third and fourth choice school. Even Pacey who they always deemed as "too stupid for college" had a fallback school he applied to. So why didn't Joey? I'm not buying it. Little Miss Self-Reliance herself taking Dawson's 15 grand to pay for school when she would barely let Pacey help her carry her bags off the bus. Yeah okay.

[meimei42]

Oh yeah, I didn't understand why they had an episode after the graduation one expect yeah, they wanted Dawson and Joey to kiss. So it was totally this 'lets push Joey to confess her love to Dawson' thing and just completely uninteresting. They should have left it with the graduation episode.

And for the school stuff. I know Joey said she couldn't afford to apply everywhere (because of the application fees and stuff) but she could have applied to a select few colleges and if this one place wasn't going to let her in she would have had to be practical about things and figure out a way to pay for school without breaking the bank. She made it seem like it was this college or waitressing for the rest of her life and i just don't buy it. Sometimes we have to scrafice things in life--it happens. I don't even know why other schools weren't brought into the picture. And STILL, I don't buy that the school would have wanted her to pay $15,000. That would have been a LOT of money Bessie would have been making. Seriously.

[Calena]

Hey, you girls didn't tell me that CMM was in a band in season 5.

I don't know the first thing about the college system in the US, but I was wondering what sense Joey's comment "I'm not gonna take a student loan, because I don't want to start my adult life with huge debt" made. Because if the choice is waitressing in Capeside for life (and Joey said numerous times how bad she wanted out of there) or getting a great education that would make it very likely to get a great job and enable one to pay back those loans - I know what choice I would have made.

[adiafaith]

Yeah season 4 seemed to bookend where things left off in season 1. It was as if the writers were saying, yeah Joey went off and dated others but it all comes back to her and Dawson, the "soulmates" *vomit*. It's like, why even have all that took place in season 3 and 4 if you're gonna just erase it to quickly return to Joey and Dawson in that God-forsaken room?

With Joey it was like all or nothing and that's just totally unrealistic. Either I go to this prestigious school or I end up a waitress. There was no middle ground whatsoever. What was wrong with going somewhere else for school? What was wrong with going to community college? Why did she always act like she was too good for those things? And wait a sec...she thought being some sleazy singer in Charlie the male slut's band was better than waitressing? Hm...okay.

I got the student loan comment, 'cause hell, I'm FEELING the pain of loans. What she said made sense to me. You really don't want to go into undergrad using a lot of student loans because you'll walk away with more debt than you can imagine. That was actually the only smart comment she made about school. But then again, sometimes you have no choice but to take a loan.

[meimei42]

Yeah they really did try and make the finale exactly like season 2 with the kissing and everything but its like they never REALLY wanted to get them together because they loved the Joey/Dawson angst. I'm so tied of it. It's been years, they need to get over each other or just hook up and stay that way.

And for the student loans, $15,000 is a lot of money for student loans, but that is where you just have to decide that the school isn't doable. That doesn't mean NO school is doable. Or even only BAD schools. She made it sound like every other school just wasn't good enough for her and her dreams. I mean, I get the whole dream college thing, I do. But her family doesn't make a lot of money and so she has to be realistic about things. She could have done community college and transferred (which no one on TV ever does, they always get into their dream college (except one who gets into a good school anyway) and are perfect and happy in their perfect college life). She could have gone to another *good* school. University of Massachusetts is a good school. So are SEVERAL in the Boston area. She was kind of a snob about it which I didn't like.

Not everyone is going to come into magic inhertience money that is just going to make their life better. Some people have to struggle. Some people have to go into debt. Some people have to put off their dreams because for as much as they want them--it's just not possible. Joey has choices but she acted like a snobby baby when it came right down to it and I don't like that about her.