Product Description

In the series’ fifth season, the gang makes the transition from adolescence to adulthood as they embark on their first year of college. Joey, Jen and Jack all move to Boston for college and try to adjust to life in the big city while Dawson pursues his dream of attending film school in Los Angeles and Pacey stays behind in Capeside to work. The fifth season also featured regular guest appearances by Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill), Sherilyn Fenn (Darkness Falls) and Busy Phillips (Freaks and Geeks). During its six year run, Dawson’s Creek was honored with the GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Dramatic TV Series," nominated for a TV Guide Award for "Favorite Teen Show" and garnered three wins at the 2001 Teen Choice Awards.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12795 in DVD
• Brand: VAN DER BEEK,JAMES
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .75 pounds
• Running time: 986 minutes

Amazon.com
It's goodbye to Capeside, hello to Boston in Dawson's Creek's fifth season (a.k.a.: Dawson's Creek: The College Years). While the end of the fourth season sent the five friends their separate ways--Dawson (James Van Der Beek) to USC Film School, Joey (Katie Holmes) to Worthington College, Jen (Michelle Williams) and Jack (Kerr Smith) to Boston Bay College; and Pacey (Joshua Jackson) to the high seas--it doesn't take them long to find themselves together again. That's a good thing, especially when tragedy strikes a family member and threatens to tear the survivors apart.

More than anything, the fifth season seems to be about falling into bad relationships. Jen dates a cute but sleazy musician (Chad Michael Murray, One Tree Hill), Pacey gets a job in a restaurant where he pursues a woman (Lourdes Benedicto) already having an affair with a married man, then fends off a vampish new boss (Sherilyn Fenn, Twin Peaks). Joey is drawn to her handsome English professor (Ken Marino). And Jack joins a frat, becomes a jerk, and starts a devoted relationship with his beer bottle. Dawson meets an eccentric young filmmaker (Jordan Bridges) which in turn leads to a meeting with his favorite Boston film critic (Meredith Salenger). And Joey's new roommate, the annoyance-with-a-heart-of-gold Audrey (Busy Phillipps), becomes the newest major addition to the cast. The irritation factor is high this season, a couple of "Joey is threatened" interludes don't have the punch that they could have, and in the season finale, the inevitable resolution of the show's central relationship doesn't really resolve anything at all. But viewers who have followed the Capeside crew for four seasons will still want to see what happens in the fifth.

The fifth season is the first to have no DVD extras at all, and it continues the music-replacement strategy (which, since the second season has replaced much of the music, and since the third season has replaced Paula Cole's theme song, all due to licensing expenses). In addition to the usual background-music switches, some scenes have been edited (for example, the episode "Highway to Hell" has cut two of the performances on-stage at the Drunk & Dead). Also, the opening credits of "The Long Goodbye" and "Downtown Crossing" had originally used instrumental versions of "I Don't Want to Wait," which had underscored the emotion of those episodes. In the DVD set, those have been replaced by the standard version and an instrumental version, respectively, of "Run Like Mad." --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Better than it gets credit for...
Ignore the haters, Season Five is one of the series' best. While nothing will touch the freshman year of Seasons One and Two, Season Five benefits from a welcome change of scenery. Capeside was getting tired by the end of Season Three, and Four seemed like the same old conflicts reiterated again. The series needed to breathe, and it found new wind in sending Dawson off to California and the rest of the clan off to Boston.

Throwing the characters into the new realm of post-secondary adds freshness to the series, as the gang is able to experience new and more age-oriented conflicts, like fraternity angst, career-path uncertainty and the perils of being away from home. The series would even stretch itself creatively with the new location change, with an interesting two-parter with Joey and a life-changing situation.

Not only is the change of scenery rife with interesting new experiences, but the actual subject matter of Season Five has much more dramatic weight than the comparatively lackluster Season Four. Dawson does some real soul searching, Pacey copes with the hardships of being a failure, and there is a death with an emotional impact that makes Abby Morgan's farewell in Season Two seems like small stuff.

We also get a new regular, Audrey, "Freaks and Geeks" breakout Busy Phillips, and she adds a feistiness to the series that had been lost after Abby's departure in Season Two. While Audrey's character would become a writing snafu in Season Six (constantly reiterating the same old tired drug/alcohol abuse story), her, Joey and Pacey have some really strong moments in this season. Jack's homosexuality is treated much more comfortably here than it was in any other season, and Jen is surprisingly loveable in Season Five, which is nice considering how grating she was becoming with all her angst throughout Seasons Two to Four.

All the characters really do grow in this season, and some of the entire series' best moments can be found within. Joey's sing-song at the bar is a celebration of her newfound individuality apart from Dawson or Pacey, the funeral service for the death victim and a tender moment between Dawson and Jen after nearly breaking up all rank up there in emotional impact with the Season One finale.

Those who badmouth Season Five are mostly, from what I can gather, Joshua Jackson lovers who just can't get past the fact that the series is called "Dawson's Creek" and not "Pacey and Joey's Creek". Pacey and Joey share some wonderful moments in Seasons Three, Four and Six, but it is nice that they get a breather in Five. Those looking for the Pacey-Joey drama of previous seasons will be stubbornly disappointed, but those looking for a fresh return to the essence of the show will no doubt appreciate Season Five. It is easily the most underappreciated season in the series, and hopefully this DVD release will allow fans to revisit and reappraise this great season. Enjoy it while you can, because Season Six is a rough ride...

Fans should know a couple things about this 5th Season DVD release. Firstly, the music is again changed, including the Paula Cole theme song. While this has been common practice for the last couple seasons, this one takes it a step further. In the funeral episode, which in the series' original run was the only episode to have entirely different music and credits, has instead been replaced with the Jann Arden opening. The original opening for this episode had a beautifully somber instrumental version of Paula Cole's theme song (performed by Adam Fields) that was set to images of a cloudy Capeside. It was beautiful, but on this release it is no longer. A real shame.

Secondly, the other big change on this release compared to the previous ones is the total lack of extras. The Paul Stupin commentaries that we have all anticipated and loved each year have now been discontinued. No trivia games, Capeside map, behind-the-scenes interviews, nothing. Considering Season 5 was such a big change for the series, you'd think they would have had Paul come in and dish out on his creation. He even spoke of his excitement to do so on the commentary for Season 4. Alas, we get a couple previews for other shows on disc one, and the rest of the three discs are completely empty. Season 5 is a great enough season to warrent purchase on its own, but the lack of extras is a real slap in the face to fans who have stuck by this series so long on both TV and now DVD. Given that it is Sony I can't say that I am all that surprised, but I hope they rectify their mistakes for the final season. Please, Sony, bring the commentaries back!

I don't want to wait for our lives to be over
One of the biggest reasons I enjoy television so much is because it allows me to escape the incredible boredom that passes for my life, and for a little while anyway, take in somebody else's problems and live in their lives.

This is certainly the case with Dawson's Creek. I never watched the show when it was on the air until the last few episodes, but I have enjoyed the first four DVD sets and was interested to see how the show changed once the kids left Capeside for college.

As season five begins, we find Dawson at film school in California, Joey at Worthington College in Boston and Jack and Jen close by at Boston Bay College. Pacey, fresh off his summer working on a yacht, is living in a boat in Boston Harbor and as the season begins, only Jen knows he is there.

Things change quickly for everyone as the season gets under way. Dawson realizes that he misses being with Joey and decides he wants to move to Boston to be near her. But the sudden death of his father changes everything, pushing him away from Joey and eventually into a relationship with Jen. Jack quickly joins a fraternity and his brothers soon begin to take priority over school and his high school friends. Pacey realizes that he has a talent for cooking when he gets a job in a restaurant and Joey finds herself attracted to her professor.

James Van Der Beek is again solid as Dawson, though you have a hard time, as in years past, believing that he is the age that he is. The dialogue throughout the series has always been over the top, which is really what makes the show what it is. His emotion at the death of his father, and his need to be there for his mother is heart wrenching at times. He finally confronts his feelings by going to a therapist to sort out his feelings. It is these emotions that lead him to his relationship with Jen, one that ends before the season concludes, but brings back memories for viewers from the original season of the show.

Michelle Williams as Jen really sees a variety of different roles throughout the season. You see her as the girlfriend to Dawson, but as the relationship slowly begins to fade, you see her trying not to hurt his feelings, yet still keep herself somewhat sane. Her friendship with Jack goes from hot to cold to back to hot again and at the end of the season, she is off to spend the summer with her parents.

As Jack, Kerr Smith is again a strong member of the cast. He confronts a lot of emotions when he joins a fraternity and finds out that he is simply being used to fill a quota. Eventually the fact that he is gay leads him to leave the fraternity. While he is there however, he takes to drinking way too much, and falls behind in his schoolwork and also becomes estranged from Jen for a period of time, a relationship that heals by the season's end.

Joshua Jackson's Pacey is the one character of the group that is not in college, but he is living nearby in a friend's boat as the season begins. Eventually he takes a job at a restaurant and finds out that he has a real talent for it and is put in charge of the kitchen when his boss leaves. He also begins a relationship with Audrey (Busy Phillips), Joey's college roomate, a relationship that reminds one of the relationship he had with Joey, something that really makes him happy.

Of course Katie Holmes as Joey Potter was one of the most beautiful women on television at the time and in this season, you get to see her as a college freshman. Her almost affair with a professor and her attraction to a guy who cheated on Jen show a different side to Joey Potter than most people are used to after four years of getting to know her. Perhaps her best episode of the series was the one where she was mugged and helped the mugger after he was hit by a car. This episode featured just this story line and was very powerful.

Busy Phillips, as Audrey, guest starred in almost every episode and was added as a series regular in t he final season. Mary Beth Piel's Grams is still a cast regular, as she moves to Boston and houses Jen, Jack and eventually Dawson. She really is a fantastic character, one that provides that motherly advice that young people always need. Mary Margaret Humes, a cast regular for the first four years, appears sporadically as Dawson's mom Gail. John Wesley Shipp also appears in a few episodes as Mitch Leery, before he dies in a car crash. The third former cast regular Nina Repeta, appears in a few episodes as Joey's sister Bessie.

Of course there is the guest star appearances of a couple of people from other shows. Chad Michael Murray is now the star of One Tree Hill. Sherrilyn Fenn was on a number of shows, including Twin Peaks. Phillips was on Freaks and Geeks.

This set could have easily been rated five stars from this reviewer, but there were no extras at all. Each of the other four sets has at least a commentary track or two for the fans, but this set featured nothing, which was disappointing. Also, the theme song is again replaced, which is what viewers have come to expect over the last few seasons. It would be nice if they brought back Paula Cole for season six, but I kind of doubt it will happen.

~*~* The Scoop on the Music in Season Five ~*
~* Ok Fans Listen Up ~*

I did some researching on the music manipulation in Season Five. My findings might be really interesting for the True Fans :)

Personally, I don't like change ~ i would have preferred all the original songs intact ... alas ... due to Liscensing $$$ issues this is not possible and i suspect Season Six will fall victim to the same Musical Problems.

The list is actually quite long .. i didn't even realize how much was really altered!

(...)

"Dawson's Creek: The Complete Fifth Season

As has been the case with releases of earlier seasons, the Season 5 DVD set contains replacement songs from what was heard during the actual broadcast airings.


Two of the scenes with Katie Holmes singing with the band in episode #517 ("Jessie's Girl" and "I Ran") have been deleted from the episode. This was due to licensing issues.


In episode #511, Busy Phillips' rendition of "Son Of A Preacher Man" is replaced with an audio track of her song "Bad Times" which was seen/heard in the Season 6 episode #612.


The original theme song "I Don't Want To Wait" (Paula Cole) will be replaced with "Run Like Mad" by Jann Arden. "Run Like Mad" was the song heard during the opening credits of the original Season 1 international airings.


The special opening credits music created by DC composer Adam Fields heard in episode #504 (Mitch's death) was replaced with the DVD release theme song.


The special theme song created by DC music composer Adam Fields for episode #515 will remain as originally aired.

Dawson's Creek executive producer Paul Stupin, with collaboration from co-producer Drew Matich, and music supervisor John McCullough, selected the replacement songs"

This is an exact list of all the musical changes that you will find on this DVD set !!! So you can decide for yourself if it's a big deal or not !! I will try to review all the other seasons if you are interested in other set changes !