Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Third Season

Review By: Jennifer Krieger
JenniferKrieger@TheCinemaSource.com

Ahh Dawson’s Creek light of my high school years, fire of adolescent loins. Remember how scandalized everyone was when this show first aired on the network known for gooey family-affiars like Seventh Heaven or thinly veiled lesbian fantasies like Zena and Buffy? Dawson’s Creek was a revelation because it featured teenagers talking about sex….using absurdly pretentious words….analyzing through jaded and cynical eyes the trials and tribulations of those tumultuous teenage years. It’s funny that despite all their introspective cynicism and flair for irony the characters never ceased to take themselves less seriously. They were, on paper, no more then stock characters from every teen movie themselves: Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) was the wholesome, virginal, tomboy next-door, trying to sort out her newly hormonally-charged feelings for her best buddy Dawson Leary(James Van Der Beek), the ultimate film geek. Obsessed with Spielberg and all things boyish and charming, the onslaught of teenage hood throws Dawson not into the willing arms of Ms. Potter, but to the new girl, the bad girl, the blonde-with-a-past embodied by New York transplant Jennifer Lindley (Michelle Williams) Throw in bad-boy/class clown-with-the-heart-of-gold Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) and you get the perfect set-up for sending high school hearts a-flutter. I don’t know about you, but Thursday morning, the angst-ridden sagas of Dawson and Co. buzzed through the halls of my high school.

And how long did it take before everyone, including the writers realized that Katie Holmes was just so much hotter then Michelle Williams and that caddish, charming Pacey was a far more title-worthy character then drippy, winsome Dawson? By the second season the show had shifted the focus off the saga of Dawson and Joey and added the characters of strife-ridden siblings Jack and Andy Mcphee into the mix. Producers struggled to come up with a solid persona for Jen to embody after sex-goddess didn’t work out. Poor Michelle Williams had to endure being the slut, the drunk, suicidal and finally the grungy, feminist rebel who takes on the cheerleading squad. In the end, Ms. Williams proved the strongest actor of the bunch if only for her ability to pull off the most groan-worthy lines and ridiculous character arcs.

And the lines got progressively worse as the show progressed. Kevin Williamson, the original writer, was known for his Scream trilogy, witty send-ups of teen-horror-flick clichés and in his hands the Capeside teens managed to transcend their by-the-book character descriptions. He was responsible for all the snap, crackle and pop of the first season; but once he left the show, citing ‘creative differences’ with the producers, things at the creek got sappier, more contrived and more melodramatic. The irreverent wit was decreasing rapidly and the show vacillated wildly between being a stage on which its cast of-next-big-things could showcase their Abercrombie-catalogue good looks and a “moral show” which tackled the big issues like mental illness, homosexuality and God.

Luckily season three (i.e., when ...