Season 1 - 13 episodes (1998)
Season 2 - 22 episodes (1998-99)
Season 3 - 23 episodes (1999-2000)
Season 4 - 23 episodes (2000-01)
Season 5 - 23 episodes (2001-02)
Season 6 - 24 episodes (2002-03)
Created by: Kevin Williamson
Starring: James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, Kerr Smith, Meredith Monroe, Busy Philipps, Michael Pitt
Rated: TV-14
Watch the trailer
Plot
Two childhood best friends, Dawson and Joey, attempt to ignore their growing attraction to each other, but the dynamic shifts with the arrival of Jen.
Verdict
This show was incredibly popular when it aired. While it's aimed at and did well in the teen demographic, this show never feels realistic from how teenagers talk to how they self analyze to an extreme degree. My primary complaint is how every plot point feels so scripted. It's easy to predict how new characters will affect the plot, and several characters react just to affect the plot instead of logically. Some of that could be forgiven if this didn't strive for such a serious tone. This show has a self importance that's unappealing. Even in the final episodes, it can't just provide a happy ending, it needs to deliver a dramatic extreme that isn't all that welcome. Despite its flaws, it did keep me just interested enough to watch the whole thing, but just barely. It's greatest accolade now is that it's an amazing time capsule of the late 90s. If your primary interest is to explore the culture and fashion of the 90s, this will be intriguing. If you seek a gripping story, this has nothing past a love triangle. The show goes back to that plot point over and over and over.
Skip it.
Review
This is a show I heard a lot about as it aired but never bothered to watch it. I knew the basic premise. It always seemed like a teenage soap opera which didn't interest me. It is exactly that. From the start, this feels like a combination of an auto-biography and the fantasy of how we often wish events happened. These shows are always written by adults, and this clearly seems like what adults wish high school were like. These teens talk more intelligently that adults. They are self aware and articulate. The dialog is over the top with how smart it sounds. It's a lot of teen drama, and this show was lauded for covering a broad range of serious topics. The talk of sex seems amplified to an almost comedic level, but for teens that's a prevalent thought. As a younger teen this would feel like a preview of the future.
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| Kate Holmes, James Van Der Beek play Joey Potter, Dawson Leery |
The core of this show is the unrequited love between Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes). Eventually that becomes a triangle as Joey can't decide between Dawson and his best friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson). The show wrestles with that for the duration. This is hyper dramatic, which when you're a teen, everything feels like the end of the world. In the first season Dawson deals with his parents' rocky relationship and feelings for new girl in town, Jen (Michelle Williams). This upsets Joey who likes Dawson and creates tension between her and Jen. There's never a lack for drama, nor SAT word level vocabulary. If you want a soap opera, this is it. This covers the teenage struggles of love, romance, sex, and relationships against a classic 90s soundtrack.
Throughout season one Dawson is attracted to Jen, completely unaware and unable to voice his feelings for his lifelong friend Joey. As verbose and self aware as Dawson is, and often told as much, he can't voice his feelings for Joey. At the end of the season, he finally manages to convey his feelings. That's the thing with most of these characters, they'd rather brood than communicate.
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| Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes play Pacey Witter, Joey Potter |
This season covers numerous social issues like sexual orientation, death, divorce, parents, and mental illness, but it often feels like a self congratulations for the attempt. Almost everything that happens often feels forced. This season even lampshades how the characters talk when the same criticism is leveled at Dawson's student film.
The entire season is the Joey Dawson saga. They get together and then split. Just when they get back together towards the end, the final episode blows that up.
If you were wondering what kind of plot lines were in store for season three, the answer is drama. Pacey falls for Joey, Dawson gives up on movie making, Jack tries out for football, and Jen falls for freshman Henry (Michael Pitt). As usual there's lots of melodrama and shipping various characters. Jen seems like a side character for most of the season. Dawson still pines for Joey, but Joey and Pacey feel guilt about liking each other and hiding it from Dawson. There's still Andie who pines for Pacey.
I was surprised Dawson gave up film making, but it's an attempt at character development. It's clear the writers like movies with frequent references and even send ups. I like that this show has a Halloween themed episode every season. With modern shows having fewer episodes, they don't use one to have fun anymore.
Of course Dawson finds out about Joey and Pacey. He's upset, they're upset he's upset, and Andie's upset. Joey must choose between Dawson and Pacey at the end of the season.
With season four Dawson is a photographer while Joey and Pacey spent three months on a boat. There's still the love triangle. Dawson wants Joey back and everything back to normal. He's hurt she chose Pacey, but sees nothing wrong when he chose Jen over Joey back in season one. Because of the rejection he won't even be in the same room as Joey. Dawson can be an annoying character.
The group applies for college, and I appreciate the show lets them grow up instead of trying to keep them in tenth grade forever. Andie attempts to bring this fractured friend group together. This is the season the drama began to wear thin. It's the same plot lines every season, and we also get a new high school villain every season.
Dawson does find an acclaimed director in Capeside, a grumpy elderly man. We also get our first glimpse at Pacey's family life. They seem to hate him, but that's also an introduction to a season long plot line of whether Pacey can graduate. Pacey's previously unknown sister pops up just to provide Dawson a new love interest.
After a lot of will they or won't they, Joey and Pacey stay together which just causes more drama. At one point Joey has a pregnancy scare which made me think it must have been sweeps week. This might be the most dramatic season. We have the foundation of previous seasons with the potential of what's after high school. This season feels like a conclusion to the series, and it would be a great way to conclude the series. It encapsulates what this show is.
I was curious how season five would handle the characters in different locations. This has always been an ensemble show about friends. It splits them, which makes their stories disjointed. It's a different dynamic from the previous seasons. I like that this show grows up with the characters, but it does feel like it should have ended at season four with the group graduating.
While you'd think we'd run out of Joey Dawson drama at this point, there's still more. With Pacey out of the picture, it opens an avenue for Joey and Dawson. Dawson wonders about abandoning film school in California to stay in Boston with Joey. It's a dumb idea, throwing away everything for which he's worked. It does put the group in one location, but it's a decision that seems made for the sake of the show. Episode three might be the episode complained about the most and with good reason. It's a cliff hanger that's made worse when you find out what happens. While it does provide a setup for a very sweet episode, how we get to that point is silly. Episode three earns all the criticism.
Joey and Pacey were just together last season and this season seems to forget that, nearly erasing it. I suppose Joey will always have a flame for Dawson, but it seems like we're just reusing old ideas. This show could do so much more, but it clings to the peak years of the love triangle. Five seasons in and the patterns are apparent. Dawson, and other characters too, state something matter of fact that upsets someone else. Then the character doubles down, feelings are hurt, and someone walks out. If that doesn't work, pair Pacey with an older woman that has an overwhelming attraction to him.
This season feels like this show is more 'Joey's Creek' than Dawson's. She's the center of many episodes and even manages to give her a couple chances to sing. The final episode of this season also feels like a good place to end the show. Maybe it's just because I was ready for this show to end after season four.
Season six starts with a voice over from Joey to fill in the gaps. The addition of bleeped cursing is an interesting choice that doesn't last. Every season seems to begin by trying to rekindle the Joey Dawson romance. Despite the characters growing up, the show keeps coming back to that.
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| Kate Holmes, James Van Der Beek play Joey Potter, Dawson Leery |
The final two seasons change from a group of friends braving high school to each character and their disparate story. It's not bad, but it does make it feel like this show is forcing it. For a show with a lot of manufactured drama, this season really piles it on. Joey falls for a bar tender while warring with her vindictive professor. This professor is purely a plot device to create drama for Joey. Pacey becomes some kind of stock broker, finally defying predictions that he'd never amount to anything. I really thought the place would be shut down for breaking the law. Dawson is working on a film with a temperamental director. It's fun to see season one Dawson finally realizing his dream.
The relationships are more of the same, and it's just not that interesting. The show relies on love triangles way too much. This season really stretches credibility. Joey befriends her mean professor's daughter who is only in high school. Joey goes back to Pacey only to bail immediately. It's ridiculous. It was fun to see the group visit Capeside, returning older and wiser.
The season's ups and downs are silly. Pacey loses all of his money and then his job for beating up his boss. You can see the show is using that to gear up for the end. Dawson's friends band together to help him make a movie version of his life which is this very show. Unfortunately that's not the end. This jumps forward five years for the final two episodes where Dawson runs a television show, "The Creek." This is a nice way to close out the series and could have provided a nice ending, but this show thrives on drama. We get a tragedy down the middle of this nice ending. Why the show can't just provide a happy ending? I do appreciate the show acknowledges that the characters in "The Creek" use every four syllable word in the dictionary. It's a valid criticism that this show decides to lampoon often instead of consider.
Taking this show for what it is, a teen soap opera with little direction. My favorite season order would be 4, 2, 1, 3, 5, 6. Season four has the widest range of plot lines from death and life to high school graduation and Pacey's season long 'won't amount to anything' struggle. That's in addition to the Pacey and Joey fallout. The season builds on everything from the previous seasons while looking forward to the future. It would be a great final season in context. Season two built upon season one, adding to the cast and toying with the character dynamics. Season three doesn't have much direction, and the show's dynamic changed for the final two seasons. Season five begins the deterioration with season six forcing another season. A great ending could have helped season six, but the writers just couldn't help but force tragedy into an otherwise happy ending.
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