Dawson's Creek-Season 3 (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Ep.10-First Encounters Of The Close Kind, Ep. 23-True Love
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	957:36
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Lou Antonio Allan Arkush John Behring Sanford Bookstaver
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	James Van Der Beek Katie Holmes Michelle Williams Joshua Jackson Kerr Smith Mary Beth Peil Mary-Margaret Humes Monica Keena Leann Hunley Nina Repeta John Wesley Shipp Meredith Monroe Busy Philipps
Case	?
RPI	$59.95	Music	Jann Arden Travis Barker Paula Cole

    Starting up a few weeks after the end of the last season, Dawson’s Creek: Season 3 starts out reasonably weakly, the writers unsure of their footing. Indeed, much of this season lacks the punch or ingenuity of Season 2.

    For those who are unfamiliar with Dawson’s Creek, the premise of the show is a group of 16-17 year olds growing up in the little coastal town of Capeside. We have aspiring film-maker Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek), his best friend Joey Potter (Katie Holmes), his other best friend Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson), his neighbour and one-time love Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams), Pacey’s slightly insane girlfriend Andie (Meredith Monroe), and Andie’s gay brother Jack (Kerr Smith).

    A summary of each episode is beyond the scope of this review. You can find good summaries for this show at TV.com amongst other places. The following is a breakdown of how each episode is presented in this set:

Disc 1

    1. Like A Virgin (42:01)     2. Homecoming (42:02)     3. None Of The Above (42:21)

Disc 2

    4. Home Movies (40:34)     5. Indian Summer (41:36)     6. Secrets & Lies (42:02)     7. Escape From Witch Island (41:31)

Disc 3

    8. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? (41:33)     9. Four To Tango (42:02)     10. First Encounters Of The Close Kind (42:03)     11. Barefoot At Capefest (41:04)

Disc 4

    12. A Weekend In The Country (42:18)     13. Northern Lights (41:24)     14. The Valentine’s Day Massacre (41:52)     15. Crime And Punishment (40:55)

Disc 5

    16. To Green, With Love (40:25)     17. Cinderella Story (41:27)     18. Neverland (41:16)     19. Stolen Kisses (42:01)

Disc 6

    20. The Longest Day (42:57)     21. Show Me Love (40:36)     22. The Anti-Prom (42:02)     23. True Love (41:34)

    Once more for you fans out there, yes, due to music licensing issues, much of the music from the original TV broadcast version of the show has been replaced. This version is the same as the R1 in that respect.

    As for the show itself, Season 3 is a little muddled, and never really reaches the same kinds of highs and lows that Season 2 did. By destroying the obvious chemistry between Joshua Jackson and Meredith Monroe, this show loses one of its key assets (the chemistry between Katie Holmes’s Joey and van der Beek’s Dawson always being somewhat contrived in my opinion), and the chemistry between Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson is little more than a farce.

    While Dawson’s Creek was challenging and confronting in its day (certainly far better than Beverly Hills: 90210), it’s struggling to make the distance now in terms of teen drama. While all drama is premised on the notion of emotional conflict, the writers of this show began resorting to cliché to manufacture conflict that was not hitherto present. In doing so, the show became predictable and unconvincing, bogged down in repetitive plotlines rather than moving forward into something more convincing and worthwhile. The writers seem to admit as much in that final scene of True Love. Sadly, though, it’s all too little, too late, and the issues of maintaining a relationship once in a well established one are glossed over for the quick fix of the emotional turmoil surrounding quick get-togethers and break-ups. To be coarse, if just one of these characters had a communicable disease at the start of the season, it’s a fair bet that by the end of the third season all of them had it.

    For nostalgia value, this still rates highly. But as dramatic writing, I felt I was let down.

Video

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, this is the original broadcast aspect ratio for this season of the series. It was originally filmed on Super 35 in 1.78:1, and from the fourth season on the show was broadcast in the widescreen ratio.

    Graininess and shadow detail still seem to be the major issues with these transfers, with the shadow detail a minor improvement on previous seasons, but the graininess still definitely an issue. While not as pronounced as previous seasons, it is still there.

    The picture is sharper than previous seasons, and the colour saturation is also improved.

    While the graininess leads to some minor pixelization, for the most part this was devoid of MPEG artefacts and film-to-video transfer artefacts. There is a little bit of background aliasing and moire, but this is hardly as obvious as it was in the second season.

    The missing frames problem of the second season seems to have been repaired here, which is good. I didn’t find myself lurching around various scenes with a headache.

    As for film artefacts, there are a few, but nothing overly distracting. I think this was cleaner than the previous two seasons. I noticed a hair in the opening sequence of True Love down the bottom of the screen and a couple of similar ones here and there. But nothing greatly distracting.

    Subtitles are available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

    This is a mix of single-layered discs and dual-layered discs. On the dual-layered discs, the layer pause falls between the episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Again, we have the same four soundtracks available – the original English track and overdubs in French, Italian and German, all presented in 2.0 Dolby Surround (encoded at 192Kb/s).

    This soundtrack is about on par with the last season. The show is entirely dialogue driven, with some teen soap or alternative music thrown in to highlight dramatic moments from time to time.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand, and there were no noticeable sync issues that weren’t obviously a product of the source material.

    The original score remains, and is nicely balanced. However, I understand that the majority of the aforementioned ‘alternative’ music tracks have again been changed due to music licensing issues. The replacement tracks still suit, but purists may be unhappy, and understandably so.

    There was some minor surround information, although predominantly support came from the left-right front speakers.

    There was no subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, non-16x9 enhanced. The main menu has a lead in with a 2.0 stereo audio track. All other menus are static and silent.

Trailers (Disc 1)

    There are three trailers on Disc 1:

• 50 First Dates (1:36), 16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Surround,
• Dawson’s Creek (1:31), 1.33:1, Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Surround,
• Starsky & Hutch: The Original Series (1.55), 1.33:1, 2.0 Dolby Surround.

Audio Commentary by executive producer Paul Stupin and Kerr Smith (Jack) - First Encounters Of The Close Kind (Disc 3)

    Presented in 2.0 Dolby Surround, this is an interesting track that focuses greatly on changes and directions in Jack’s character.

Audio Commentary by executive producer Paul Stupin and Kerr Smith (Jack) - True Love (Disc 6)

    Presented in 2.0 Dolby Surround, this is also a fairly chatty commentary discussing the state of the show at the end of season 3 (the noted loss in press coverage and ratings) and directions for the fourth season.

    The R1 release also includes an Interactive Tour Of Capeside. Otherwise the features and content are the same. The R4 and R2 releases seem to be identical. I would be interested to know whether there is an improvement in the picture in its original NTSC format without the PAL conversion issues. Sadly, I don’t have a copy to show off. If anybody knows if the R1 copy is a crisper transfer, particularly in terms of graininess, could you let me know.

    Dawson’s Creek: Season 3 is probably the weak point of the series. At this point it really does fall down into being a predictable teen soapie. Still, good nostalgia value.

    Video is still grainy, but we are steadily improving. Hopefully Season 4 will be released in 16x9 enhanced widescreen.

    The sound is about on par with the second season.

    The extras are minimal, but the audio commentaries make for decent listening.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall