If one thinks of the WB network as a high school, then the shows airing during the 1998 season were each like a different type of student you’d find wandering the halls (all of them attractive, of course – this is the WB after all).
Buffy, which had premiered a year before, was the effortlessly cool girl who wore black nail polish and Doc Martens. Felicity, meanwhile, was the attractive but slightly nerdy overachiever headed off to a top-tier university in the fall. And that leaves us with Dawson’s Creek, that cute but sort of annoying sophomore with the J. Crew wardrobe who scribbled her boyfriend’s initials in hearts on her notebook and wrote with one of those fuzzy pink pens.
Annoying factor aside, the initial season of Dawson’s Creek was probably the strongest; while later seasons got bogged down by increasingly ridiculous characters (Audrey, anyone?) this season primarily focuses on the main four. There’s Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek), a Steven Spielberg obsessed aspiring filmmaker and 10th grade student at Capeside High School in the tiny, idyllic costal community of Capeside, Massachusetts. Dawson’s best friend, Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) lives down the creek and is the town pariah - not only is her father in jail, but she lives with her unmarried, pregnant sister Bessie (Nina Repeta) and the father of the baby, Bodie (apparently the only black person in Capeside). Joey’s feelings for Dawson are veering away from friendship into the romantic but are quickly stifled when Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) moves next door to Dawson from New York, supposedly to help her Bible-thumping Grams (Mary Beth Peil) with her sick grandfather. Rounding out the group is Dawson’s best (male) friend, the charming Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson), who is Capeside’s resident screw up.
DISC ONE: “Pilot”, “Dance”, “Kiss”, “Discovery”
In the first episode, we learn that, much to Dawson’s chagrin, sex is beginning to creep in on the PG-rated movie world that he has been living in. His parents Mitch (John Wesley Shipp) and Gail (Mary-Margaret Humes) have an extreme sex life, despite Dawson’s nagging suspicion his mom is sleeping with her co-worker. Not only that, but suddenly, sleeping in the same bed with Joey seems inappropriate now that hormones have entered the picture. Complicating matters is the arrival of Jen, who, with her blonde hair, squinty eyes and revealing-yet-innocent-sundress, immediately piques the interest of Dawson’s aforementioned hormones.
Jen’s arrival, aside from shaking both Dawson and Joey’s overly articulated worlds, also unsettles Grams, who is upset to learn that her grand-daughter is an atheist who scorns religion and refuses to accompany her to church. Pacey, meanwhile, meets and falls for an older woman while working at the video store (she asks for “The Graduate” in one of the series ...
