Dawson's Creek-Season 6 (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Final Episode
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	1049:13
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then 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	$49.95	Music	Jann Arden Travis Barker Paula Cole

    The final series of Dawson’s Creek was released in December 2006 on DVD in Australia and, as life would have it, it is only now that I finally get to see the conclusion to a drama series I picked up on a whim way back in July 2003 because our review list was so bare back in those days, and then steadily got addicted to. I must say that, as a reviewer who generally prefers the brutal cold humanity of shows like The Shield, The Sopranos and Deadwood, it came as quite a surprise that I would engage with this series at all. But there is something about it that is undeniably engaging, particularly for those who are older – put this in front of today’s generation of teenagers and they would probably turn their noses up.

    Part of it is that the writers of this show are around my age, and so even though the characters they are writing about are many years younger, the writers can’t help but infuse them with the wit and cynicism that is so much a part of being older. Indeed, Dawson’s Creek is not so much a show for teenagers about teenagers, but rather a show for adults trying to remember what it was like to be a teenager and then thinking about how that would play out in the modern day – in some respects, the series seems to be based on the posited notion of “What would I be like as a teenager with the knowledge and experience I have today?” No teenager I know talks with the confidence and, at times, elegance of these teenagers, and despite some definite juvenile reactions to situations, they handle most situations with more maturity than a lot of adults I know, with a wisdom exceeding their years. But that, in some respects, also made it more engaging to the Gen Y audience that was the core of this show’s fanbase – the generation that wanted it all, to be older and more experienced than they actually were, to have all of the opportunities that life afforded them. So much for us Gen Xers with our retrospective cynicism.

    Anyway, as to the plot of this show, by Season 6 the characters had matured into young adults finding their way through the middle years of university (or college as they call it in the US), or in the case of Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Pacey (Joshua Jackson) at least, struggling to find their way through their careers – for Dawson that means the cut-throat world of Hollywood; for Pacey that means learning the soulless and backstabbing world of corporate day-trading. The season kicks of with Dawson and Joey (Katie Holmes) finally doing what they’ve both been dancing around for six years, only for them both to have it blow up in their faces. At the same time, Jack (Kerr Smith) is looking for his freedom to fully explore his homosexuality, and Jen (Michelle Williams) is coming to terms with the dissolution of her parents’ marriage by trying not to do things the wrong way, again.

    I’m not going to waste your time with a complete summary of each episode. You can find good summaries for this season at TV.com amongst other places. And, again, due to music licensing issues, much of the music from the original TV broadcast version of the show has been replaced, including the title track. The following is a breakdown of how each episode is set out in this set:

Disc 1

• 1.The Kids Are Alright (Part 1) (43:55)
• 2.The Song Remains The Same (Part 2) (43:42)
• 3.Importance Of Being Too Earnest (41:12)
• 4.Instant Karma! (43:33)

Disc 2

• 5.The Impostors (42:34)
• 6.Living Dead Girl (44:04)
• 7.Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (43:46)
• 8.Spiderwebs (43:42)

Disc 3

• 9. Everything Put Together Falls Apart (43:33)
• 10. Merry Mayhem (43:15)
• 11. Day Out of Days (43:43)
• 12. All the Right Moves (42:46)

Disc 4

• 13. Rock Bottom (43:28)
• 14. Clean and Sober (43:03)
• 15. Castaways (43:53)
• 16. That Was Then (40:48)

Disc 5

• 17. Sex And Violence (43:43)
• 18. Love Bites (41:08)
• 19. Lovelines (41:15)
• 20. Catch-22 (43:48)

Disc 6

• 21. Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road (43:31)
• 22. Joey Potter and Capeside Redemption (43:29)
• 23. All Good Things... Come to an End (101:22)

    Having never, prior to picking up the first season DVD to review, sat through an entire episode of this show, I am surprised to find that I was somewhat emotional in the final double-episode. It is a surprisingly well written and well put-together piece of television that (thanks to the fact we were provided with the extended version, not the originally aired finale) ties up just about every loose end you want resolved, and does so in a way that is a credit to the creators.

    Other than the finale, I would have to say my favourite episode is Castaways, where Joey and Pacey get locked in a supermarket. Great writing, and a cute take on a clichéd concept – I couldn’t help but enjoy it, and it really reminded me of Dawson’s Creek of old. It was sort of a shame that the series as a whole did not have more of these episodes where everything just gelled together perfectly.

    Of course, much of this show was Kevin Williamson indulging himself – the references to horror films and dramatic realism, the journey that Dawson himself takes, all seem to be drawn or re-imagined from Williamson’s own life. These issues are discussed in the commentary to the pilot in Season 1 and also the commentary on the series finale. That said, it never dulls down into plain self-referential garbage, nor does it cease being creative in its approach to the key characters.

    If you’re a fan, you would have picked this up back in December 2006 and watched the lot by now. If not, and you have an interest in teen drama, you should really start from the start to get the most out of this series. Having, once upon a time, dismissed this as more of the usual teen drivel, I now find myself, unexpectedly, recommending it as definitely worth a look...

Video

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, this season was actually broadcast in 1.78:1, which is its actual original aspect ratio.

    Shot on Super 35 then transferred to video for post-production and broadcast, the film grain is still slightly noticeable, but the image has been softened up a lot by the video transfer. It is a little disappointing that they did not go back to the film masters as they did with Seinfeld to get the best picture quality possible, but then these sets would be considerably more expensive than they are.

    Despite the inherent softness precipitated by the production process, the image from this season is again much sharper and more detailed than earlier seasons, with very good colour that comes up nicely on a 42-inch rear projection system. I’m not sure I would be watching this on a much bigger system, say via front projection at 100-inches, partially because the transfer faults would be more evident, but also because projectors that are not native 1.33:1 are always trying to compensate for the increased black bars down the sides.

    The worst I have to say about this show is that, given its 1.78:1 origins, the pan and scan has had a deleterious affect in some areas, with the image appearing slightly compressed at times, and also slightly digitised in places. There is also some noticeable aliasing. But otherwise, nothing horrendous in the way of MPEG artefacts or film-to-video artefacts.

    There is still dirt floating around, but not much, and this is the cleanest season in terms of film artefact.

    Subtitles are available in English, French, German and Dutch.

    These appear to all be dual-layered discs, but the pauses fall between the episodes and are invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Audio is available in the original English and overdub in French, and German, all presented in 2.0 Dolby Surround (encoded at 192Kb/s).

    Unlike previous seasons, this audio track actually seems to have a little depth to it. The dialogue somehow feels “fuller” than earlier seasons. I noticed no sync issues, and the dialogue has some real range – though Joey still sounds like a brattish fifteen year old, not a maturing 19 year old.

    The surround sound is fairly minimal, and you won’t get much from the rears, even when the music kicks in. The left-and-right directional cues are pretty good, but most of this comes straight from the centre channel.

    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 2.0 stereo audio track. All other menus are static and silent.

Audio Commentary: Final Episode

    The final double episode All Good Things... Come To An End, has a commentary by series creator Kevin Williamson and executive producer Paul Stupin presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo. Definitely worth a listen, particularly after you’ve seen the show, but I recommend not listening to it unless you’ve seen the whole series in order to take the most away from it. Obviously a sentimental moment for both.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    The R1 release appears identical except for the region coding and the NTSC video format, although in R4, the episodes are spread across 6 discs instead of 4, and we have a few more subtitle options.

    Dawson’s Creek: Season 6 is a worthy finale to a milestone of a series – it jumped on the back of Party Of Five to pave the way for shows like The O.C. and One Tree Hill, and will be permanently burnt into the psyche of many young Gen-Y women who are undoubtedly starting to learn the lessons that Dawson and his alias Williamson learnt before them. And on top of all that, the final double episode is worth the price of entry alone...

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall