Dawson's Creek: The Importance of Not Being Too Earnest (6.3)

As the first 'everyday' episode of Dawson's Creek's final season, this doesn't inspire a huge amount of confidence in the rest of the year. At best, most of the storylines feel like pail imitations of stories in previous seasons. At worst, it's ridiculously boring. The A-plot involves Joey accidentally sending a heartfelt email meant for Dawson to the entire Worthington campus, leaving her broken and humiliated as students and professors lecture her about what she did wrong and how embarrassing it must be. We never get to see the e-mail itself, so it's a story that's mostly surface, and not particularly believable at that.

Joey is also once again clashing with Professor Hetson, who critiques her email and reads it aloud in class for everybody to dissect. Again, this isn't at all believable. But, worst of all, the story positions Joey as the star of the class, the character that everybody's attention is distracted by, and the one who provokes all the discussion. It's a similar thing to my complaints about Pacey and Sherilyn Fenn last season. Sure, it's a class made up of two legit actors and a bunch of extras, but it has this unforeseen consequence of making Joey appear like the center of the universe, and it's annoying enough to throw you entirely off.

Pacey is already boring me to tears with his stockbroker subplot. It goes down its expected tracks, his boss exposed as a crook who takes credit for Pacey's work, while he teaches him all about schmoozing and being a jackass and owning fast cars, etc. I don't really understand what the writers are trying to do with this. The line "greed is good" gets used this week, too, which... no. Even said ironically, it still doesn't make this storyline any less annoying.

There's a general flatness everywhere else, too. Joey and her requisite new love interest are doing that whiny, "God I hate you" thing that will inevitably lead to smooches by the time episode six or whatever of the season rolls around, while Jen continues to be pretty invisible. Jack has a mildly interesting thing with his married professor, Jack hoping to (I guess) turn him or something. It's vague, but the world salad around him and the sexual tension is admittedly fun.

But this is a chore to get through. Dawson appears briefly and has no lines, everybody else is pretty uninteresting. Can it just be a momentary blip? C-

Credits
Guest stars Oliver Hudson (Eddie Doling); Megan Gray (Emma Jones); Roger Howarth (Professor Greg Hetson); Sebastian Spence (Professor Matt Freeman); Dana Ashbrook (Rich Rinaldi)
Writer Anna Fricke Director Joanna Kerns