Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7255 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-14
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: German, English, French, Dutch, Italian
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 545 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Even viewers who consider themselves beyond their teen-angst years might find Dawson's Creek compelling. In the first series we are introduced to Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes), who for years have watched movies and slept in the same bed; but they find that as they enter high school their relationship will inevitably change. That becomes especially clear when Dawson is immediately attracted to Capeside's sexy new arrival, Jen (Michelle Williams). Meanwhile, their friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson) pursues an unachievable love object.

Creator Kevin Williamson based Dawson's Creek on his own youth, and even though the characters may not really look or sound 15 years old, the Dawson-Joey-Jen interplay--especially embodied by the sad-eyed and cynical (but still adorable) Joey and the smart but emotionally inept Dawson--gives the show its heart. And just like Williamson's fresh take on the teen-horror genre, Scream, Dawson's Creek has a winking self-awareness, for example when Dawson says they're having a "90210 moment" or explains that they use big words because they watch too many movies. Highlights of the first series include Dawson's discovery that his perfect home life may not be so perfect, an unwelcome reminder of Jen's past, the Breakfast Club takeoff "Detention", the Scream takeoff "The Scare", a beauty contest in which two unlikely competitors square off, and the heart-rending finale. --David Horiuchi

DVD Description
Kevin Williamson (the Scream movie series, I Know What You Did Last Summer) created this engaging drama, which chronicles a group of young friends’ passage from adolescence to young adulthood in the small coastal town of Capeside, Massachusetts. Based on Williamson’s own experiences growing up, Dawson’s Creek focuses on fifteen-year-olds Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes), who have been friends since they were five and are trying to cope with the way their friendship is changing now that their hormones are raging. Add to the mix their friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and the new girl in town, Jen (Michelle Williams), and you can count on extra twists to the drama in their already turbulent lives. Filmed on location in Wilmington, Durham and Raleigh, North Carolina, this first season marks the beginning of an unforgettable journey that explores the agony and the ecstasy of teenage life. Can the kids of "Dawson’s Creek" really grow up without growing apart? Watch and find out!

Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
English
Region 2

Customer Reviews

At long-last, the DVD creekers have been waiting for!
At last the UK and Europe gets all of season one on DVD, and for now we can shelve our old home-made video tapes and 'best of' videos. No more struggling to find a certain episode, they are all here in one package. With the series just come to an end in the US, and one season to go here in the UK, its high-time we got to go back to the beginning and remember who these characters once were when the Capeside Story all began.

Dawson, the film-obsessed geek, Joey the feisty girl from down the Creek, Pacey the goofy under-achiever and Jen, wild girl from New York. Ahh, how alot has changed!

I'm sure this will be a great treat for DC fans, and if this version is the same as the US one, there should be a DVD commentary from the show's creator Kevin Williamson. I'd love to hear his original plans for such a sucessful show. This set isn't really bursting with extras, (just a few featurettes and commentaries) but you can't deny the Creek Magic!

Joey likes Dawson, but Dawson likes Jen, and Pacey...
I managed to avoid watching "Dawson's Creek" until the gang graduated from high school; students in my Popular Culture class always wanted to write about the show for their television unit so I finally had to get with the program. That means that when the first season finally became available that I already know that the title character is going to make it through his high school years with his virginity intact. Consequently, watching the first season of the series that was created by Kevin Williamson and which put the WB on the map is not about the big question of whether or not Dawson is going to (and if he does with whom). Basically it is about a group of high school sophomores struggling to maintain their relationships despite their almost constant attempts to destroy those self-same relationships.

The secret to enjoying "Dawson's Creek" is to realize that Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) is the least interesting member of the core group. This is not to say that he is boring, but when the entire series starts with him coaxing Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) into his bed because they always sleep together on movie night while remaining oblivious to the fact that the girl across the Creek is (a) in love with him and (b) a righteous babe, it is clear that this guy does not have a clue. Throughout the first season Dawson pretty much revalidates that idea at each and every opportunity, especially once "new girl" Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) literally moves next door. Meanwhile, loveable loser Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) is putting the moves on Tamara Jacobs (Leann Hunley), the gang's new English teacher. This last aspect becomes the proverbial exception that proves the rule because otherwise this coming of age drama would, rather ironically, be about teenagers NOT having sex. In that regard it almost seems like Williamson was trying to come up with a sexual generation-gap show in the grand tradition of "Family Ties," because in that regard Dawon's parents are embarrassing their son to death. But then it turns out his mother (Mary-Margaret Humes) has been having an affair and once his father (John Wesley Shipp) gets to the last person to know stage the destruction of the young Leery's psyche is just about complete. Besides, in the final insult to injury, he only gets to audit his school's film class.

The first season finds Dawson pursuing Jen, but the heart of that season is Joey's transformation from tomboy to potential Miss Windjammer, which reaches its high point when she sings "On My Own" in Episode 111, "Beauty Contest." The soul of the first season is clearly Pacey, who can never believe that he is as charming as he really happens to be; even at this early stage of the game there is a clear suggestion that he and Joey are kindred spirits. Not surprisingly given who created the show, the best episode in this collection turns out to be "The Scare" (Episode 109), which has Dawson pulling out his bag of tricks to scare the gang on Friday the 13th. The characters are likeable, the scripts are halfway literate, and the fact that Dawson and Joey reminds me of Anne Shirley being oblivious to the fact that she and Gilbert Blythe are going to live happily ever after is not a bad thing for "Dawson's Creek" to have going for it either. The DVD extras are halfway decent as well, with a retrospective featurette and some commentary from Williamson and executive producer Paul Stupin.

the good old days
Finally series 1 is released in full, I remember being completely absorbed in Dawson's creek, what feels like many years ago when I was 17 and watching this DVD box set takes me back to those days.

Season 1 in my opinion is the best season of Dawson's creek (though closely followed my season 2). Dawson's creek became too "bogged down" with heavy storylines and frustrating in season 3 that I stopped watching and haven't watched it since, but after seeing this box set advertised I had to own it just to remind myself on why I originally loved this show so much.

The series centers around Dawson Leary (James Van Der Beek), the Steven Spielberg fan, who looks to movies for answers about life. He becomes interested in new girl Jen (Michelle Williams) who moves to Capeside from New York to stay with her Grandmother. Joshua Jackson plays Dawson's friend Pacey who has troubles of his own when he starts dating his English teacher and not forgetting Katie Holmes who stars as Joey, who has to battle with her feelings for her best friend Dawson.

Dawson's creek is a wonderful series and well worth owning on DVD.