James Van Der Beek's Best Role Was On This Underrated ABC Sitcom

News broke on February 11, 2026 that James Van Der Beek, best known for "Dawson's Creek" and "Varsity Blues," tragically passed away at the too-young age of 48 due to complications from colorectal cancer. With the utmost due respect to Van Der Beek's wide body of work, I am not here to celebrate either of the projects I just mentioned. No — I am here to celebrate Van Der Beek's incisive, hysterical role as himself on the short-lived, underrated ABC comedy "Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23."

Created by future "Fresh Off the Boat" showrunner Nahnatchka Khan, "Don't Trust the B****" — often stylized as "Don't Trust the B" — only ran for two short seasons from 2012 to 2014 but boasted an all-star cast that included Krysten Ritter, Dreama Walker, Liza Lapira, Eric André (yes, that Eric André, playing a relatively toned-down guy for once), and, of course, Van Der Beek. The show ostensibly focused on June Colburn (Walker), a naïve Indiana native who agrees to share an apartment with the erratic Chloe (Ritter), the inhabitant of the titular Apartment 23. Before long, June learns that Chloe is an unhinged maniac who collects hefty rent deposits from women like June and then makes their lives so difficult that they move out of the apartment, leaving her financially comfortable until she finds her next victim. June, however, stands her ground — and she and Chloe become friends.

Van Der Beek, though, is an important part of the narrative ... because, again, he plays himself, and really commits to the proverbial bit. As Chloe's self-obsessed best friend who both loves and hates his connections to "Dawson's Creek," here's what you need to know about the role that just might be Van Der Beek's very best.

Let me be clear when I say that "Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23" is a show mostly full of odious but extremely funny characters (there's one episode where Chloe joins Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, only to make a kid be her personal assistant), and James Van Der Beek's turn as a super-heightened version of himself is no exception. The very first time we see "James" on the series is after he seduces a woman — a woman, I should note, that we're meant to understand is one of many — using his "Dawson's Creek" flannel and the show's unforgettable theme song "I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole. But he also bristles when people bring the show up too much — like in one episode in which he teaches an acting class and gets mad when the kids keep bringing up the weepy WB series.

Probably the best thing about Van Der Beek's turn as "himself," though, is that the fake version of him is sort of a jerk who will do just about anything to cling to relevance. (In one notable scene, he goes to a soup kitchen for a photo-op and abruptly stops feeding crowds once cameras are down.) He's also just ... weird. He's scared of Halloween, has all sorts of strange preferences and predilections (all of which are fulfilled thanks to his devoted assistant Luther, played by Ray Ford), and runs a denim line with the tagline "Put your cheeks in a Beek." It's great. Plus, Van Der Beek matches Krysten Ritter's manic energy beautifully; you genuinely believe these two unhinged chaos monsters are best friends throughout the show's too-short run.

Playing yourself on screen is tricky, and as a result, not that many actors are bold enough to do it. A notable example apart from James Van Der Beek is Neil Patrick Harris, another actor who got his start relatively young and who lampooned his image in a much more drastic way in the "Harold and Kumar" films.

In "Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23," there's no question Van Der Beek is portraying a version of himself that doesn't actually exist; he just had a good enough sense of humor to take on a role where he plays an attention-starved weirdo desperate to cling to his past by any means necessary. (In an episode where James is obsessed with being named People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive despite not really being relevant anymore, Chloe infiltrates the magazine, pretends to be its new editor, and installs him on the cover.) It requires serious self-awareness and, frankly, talent to laugh at your own image, and Van Der Beek did it perfectly on a show that not enough people watched and was canceled before its time.

The world clearly lost Van Der Beek too soon; considering his sense of humor, he probably had a lot of excellent comedic performances left in him had he not been diagnosed with cancer. If you want to revisit Van Der Beek's best and funniest performance — or watch it for the first time — you can buy episodes and seasons on Amazon now.