What Hell Happened with Wasteland?

Wasteland aired three episodes on ABC before the network cancelled the series. Originally, the ABC executives softened the blow with the promise that Wasteland would return after significant re-tooling. The series never returned, and no one remembers the series except for me and those who worked on the show. When the show premiered in 1999, I was 12 years old. I never actually watched a single episode because I only watched WWF television until 2001 when I began watching one hour scripted dramas on a regular basis. I knew about Wasteland because my parents bought me an unauthorized biography of Kevin Williamson. The book chronicled each project Williamson had been involved in through 2000 (when the book published). Wasteland occupied a small space in the biography. The section had a summary and biographies for the characters, and maybe episode descriptions. Williamson had high hopes the series. He perceived Wasteland as his opportunity to move beyond the stories of teenage adolescence and to grow as a writer. If he succeeded in his transition then why did Wasteland fail? More importantly, is Wasteland any different from Dawson's Creek besides its setting?

Wasteland follows a sextet of 20-somethings who live in Manhattan. The characters are neurotic and lost. Dawnie, the main character of Wasteland, is a 27 year old graduate student who's writing a thesis on the new "lost generation." She theorizes that post-college people experience a second coming-of-age, that their actions stem from a fear-based existence, that the Internet and cell-phones have created a non-communicative generation. Dawnie pitches her thesis to her professor, a quietly intense man who's both bemused and dubious about the thesis subject. And, really, the thesis is weak. The subject doesn't reflect her generation as much as it reflects her individually. Dawnie constructs fantasies when she's too scared to take action. The fantasies involve her having sex with any man she sees on the street. The girl's looking for purpose and direction. Her world's flipped when her ex boyfriend, Ty, re-enters her life. The former couple parted ways because she wouldn't put out and he slept with nearly every girl in college. Dawnie and Ty briefly make up, have sex and then part ways but not before Dawnie and Ty relate about their second coming-of-age.

Besides the bonds of friendship, change unites the six characters in Wasteland. The pretty southern bell, Samantha, wants her former boyfriend, Vandy (or is it Vince? I read a draft before some the network or Williamson changed things) to change, to find direction and purpose beyond his pipe-dream of becoming a professional musician. Her influence in his life motivated him to quit drinking because he wants to change for her. Russ, the successful soap star and closeted homosexual, fears the kind of change that will happen to him when emerges from the closet. The fear cripples him but he opens up about his sexuality and his love for his old roommate, Ty, by the end of the episode. His best friend, Jessie (the Jen to Russ' Jack), is obsessed with the dating scene. The character has no clearly defined personal arc. She's essentially Jen Lindley as a 27 year old but with a healthier sense of self.

Wasteland really was just Dawson's Creek if the Creek characters were in their mid-to-late twenties with careers. Dawnie's what Dawson would've been had he majored in sociology or anthropology (the latter is her program I think). The first two seasons of Dawson's Creek were framed around Dawson's perception and idea of life, people and relationships. In the same way, the stories are filtered through Dawnie's damn thesis. Maybe the series would've lasted longer on US television if Williamson and his writers wrote more interesting, complex stories about 20somethings. These characters define themselves by their romantic relationships and assess their self-worth through them or lack of them. If Williamson wanted to grow as a writer, he should've a created a show with the anti-WB formula.

The descriptions for future episodes never strayed far from the premise or storytelling established in the pilot. Jesse would meet Adam Scott's Coffee Boy character. Ty and Dawnie would examine their relationship and what went wrong in subsequent episodes. There would double-date stories. Sam and Vince spent a night together in her office because the pilot revived a once dead romance. They would move closer together as Ty and Dawnie moved further apart. Jesse and Coffee Boy date, break-up, date, break-up. Russ openly dates other men. Vandy and Dawnie become a couple (and here I thought Vandy and Vince were the same characters). The girls have a wild night out. Russ struggles to tell his parents about his sexuality. Episode after episode recycled plots and never aspired to be anything more than a generic TV show about 20somethings with uninteresting love lives.

Following Wasteland's failure, Williamson focused on projects with teenage characters. He created TheWB's Glory Days, which lasted 10 episodes. A few years later, he created Hidden Palms for The CW but it lasted only a few episodes. He found success with The Vampire Diaires. He developed The Secret Circle so he's the force he was ten years ago before Wasteland failed. He understands the teenage voice and he connects with that audience, which is fine. Vampire Diaires is a fun, exciting show.

Wasteland had one major success. Kevin Williamson hired Damon Lindelof as a staff writer. Near the end of production, every writer had been fired but Lindelof remained so he had a credit on two or three of the final Wasteland episodes. The experience helped him land a job on Chasing Jordan with Carlton Cuse. When he left that show, he developed and co-created LOST with JJ Abrams. As terrible as some TV can be, it can be a launching pad for one of Hollywood's greatest writers.

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