Top 10 Times Dawson's Creek Tackled Serious Issues

It’s no secret that the adults on “Dawson’s Creek” don’t always act in the mature way one might expect them to. In fact, they usually kind of suck. So it’s no surprise that so many of the teens in Capeside suffer some pretty harmful emotional abuse at the hands of their parents. In the fifth season, Audrey’s mom visits her at college and belittles her every chance she gets, whether it be for her looks, her smarts, or something else. Pacey also struggles immensely with his family, in particular his father, who is an alcoholic, who mocks Pacey and challenges his intellect at every turn. Don’t even get us started on Jen’s parents – we’ll get to them in another entry.

Abby Morgan was Capeside’s bonafide mean girl – and she had a great time while doing it. She flirted with boys, made nasty side remarks, and stirred up trouble on the reg for our favorite Capesiders. But, underneath that snarky facade was a pretty lonely person. Abby eventually befriends Jen in season two, and the two start engaging in pretty unsavory activities. After a night of heavy drinking, something terrible happens – Abby falls off a pier and tragically drowns. It was a shock to fans, and a shock to the characters as well. Watching everyone deal with the aftermath was quite the mature subject for a teen show to tackle.

“Dawson’s Creek” is all about sex – that’s kind of its thing. Sex should be fun, but the show did have some moments where it dove into the importance of consent. Joey and Pacey have a pretty physical relationship, but when Joey wants to take things slow, Pacey doesn’t pressure her. More explicitly, the show has one scene where Dawson drags a very drunk Jen out of what could have been a really horrible situation. In typical Dawson fashion, he doesn’t handle it very well, but it’s certainly amazing that the show was willing to go that far in the first place and start that discussion.

The teens in Capeside have a fair amount of run-ins with drugs and alcohol – we’ve all seen these kids drunk or high at least once throughout the show’s run – but “Dawson’s Creek” did take care to discuss some of the dark sides of substance use as well. In particular, Audrey deals with a pretty serious alcohol addiction while the gang is in college. Audrey’s problem takes control of her in the worst way, causing her to get drunk before singing with her band, and even crashing a car into a house. Audrey eventually agrees to get help and go to rehab, but exploring that dynamic at all was a pretty serious route for the show to take.

In some of the show’s earliest episodes, racism in Capeside takes a pretty central role. Joey’s sister Bessie is in a long-term relationship with Bodie, a Black man, and the rest of the town seems to take pretty big issue with that – particularly Grams, Jen’s grandmother. Grams doesn’t just take issue with the fact that Bodie is Black, but also that the two are unmarried and about to have a child. When Bessie goes into labor, Grams – a former nurse – is the only one who can help her deliver her child. The two form a connection and reconcile. The show can be heavy handed with this theme, and sometimes delves into weird territory – but we’re glad they decided to tackle it.

Out of everyone, Joey Potter definitely has a bit of a rough go at things on “Dawson’s Creek.” Her mother died when she was young – leaving her older sister to raise her – and at the series’ start, her father is in prison for dealing drugs. Near the close of the first season, he’s released and starts to work through his issues with both of his daughters. But in season two, he starts dealing drugs again. When Dawson finds out, he convinces Joey into wearing a wire to catch her dad in the act. It’s a really heart-wrenching scene, and not something we would expect from a teen show.

Most die-hard “Dawson’s Creek” fans remember the show for being the first primetime television show to portray a passionate kiss between two men. One of those men was fan-favorite Jack McPhee, who had to deal with coming out to his father as well. Jack’s coming story is pretty brutal at points – a teacher basically outs him by making him read a romantic poem out loud to class, and his conversation with his father doesn’t go well at first. But in the end, Jack is able to stand up for himself and make his father accept him for who he is, which would have been an important thing for young kids to see at the time.

Audrey wasn’t the only character on “Dawson’s Creek” who dealt with some drug-related issues. But, Andie’s were a bit different. In the second season, the audience watched as Andie’s mental health issues became so difficult to handle that she began hallucinating, and later had to go to rehab. When she came back, she began taking antidepressants, which seemed to really work for her. She gets back on track and even gets into Harvard. But, while at a party, she takes Ecstacy, which ends up really clashing with her medication. It’s a really scary moment in the show’s run, but honestly Andie’s whole arc with mental health was a deep and intense issue for the series to take on.

From the get-go, inappropriate adult and child relationships are pretty prevalent on “Dawson’s Creek” – Pacey literally kisses his teacher in the first episode, and later has sex with her – but we want to focus on something that happens a little later on here. For the first few seasons, we don’t really know too much about Jen’s parents. But that all changes in season four, when Jen and Joey go visit Jen’s dad in New York. While there, we learn that Jen witnessed her father being intimate with a teenager when Jen was very young, which prompted her to act out. Despite the severity of the issue, it’s refreshing that “Dawson’s Creek” also focused on how much it affected Jen.

Buckle up, everyone – this one’s a doozy. True “Dawson’s Creek” fans know that Jen was one of the best characters on that show, and it’s a shame they couldn’t really figure out what to do with her as it went on. But, they still must have known how good she was, because they knew her demise would hit everyone the hardest in the series’ finale. It’s really difficult to reconcile with the sudden death of a friend, which is exactly what everyone in Capeside had to do. Watching everyone say goodbye to Jen, and then Jen tearfully say goodbye to her daughter, is one of the teen drama’s saddest moments.