Dawson's Creek: Decisions (1.13)

Watching season one again, it's been pretty noticeable how lame a lot of Dawson's Creek actually is. Characters do things that no sane person would actually do, continuity is abandoned with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and the self-analytical themes are enough to bring on a coronary. But what still pushes Dawson's Creek into the ranks of great television is that the show is quite happy to actually acknowledge how lame and ridiculous everything is. Decisions' entire teaser sequence involves Joey lecturing Dawson on the horror of end-of-season cliffhangers; the annoying insistence that major changes are on their way when everything is quickly undone come the new fall season. It's a breezy confidence that saves the episode from collapsing in upon itself, every corner of the story awash in genre clichés but remaining ridiculously absorbing nonetheless.

Dawson's Creek: Beauty Contest (1.12)

Dawson's double standards are once again explored here, and again you have to question whether its intentional or not. Jen rallies against pageants and their inherent promotion of stereotypical ideals of beauty, something Dawson initially disagrees with. However, it's only after Joey has been plucked and pampered and dolled up in an expensive black dress that Dawson, for seemingly the first time, actually notices how beautiful she is. It's one of the most annoying types of male ignorance, and despite Dawson's belief that it's incredibly romantic, Joey eventually realizes that it's yet another road-block in their schizophrenic relationship.

Dawson's Creek: Double Date (1.11)

Love triangles are a tradition of the teen genre. Hell, they're a tradition of fiction in general. It's a pretty easy method for creating an enraptured fanbase, as well as something that instantly propels a modern television series into pop culture. But after just eleven episodes, it really feels like Dawson's Creek has played out the Dawson/Jen/Joey triangle, especially where Jen is concerned. This is another episode involving Dawson pining after Jen, once again creating some elaborate ruse to get close to her. In the process, the show sifts through themes that are already repetitive, and again Dawson is portrayed as a manipulative asshole.

Dawson's Creek: The Scare (1.10)

With this and Detention, it's now two-for-two for Mike White, here lifting just as much from horror movie convention as he did from '80s teen genre staples three episodes ago. From the opening with Dawson and Joey watching Sarah Michelle Gellar run for her life in I Know What You Did Last Summer, straight through to the class discussion about Halloween, this is very much a dissection of genre traditions, each character getting scared out of their minds by a series of increasingly spooky pranks on Friday the 13th. While there's still a ton of romantic entanglement running alongside all of this, it's the horror comedy that winds up most entertaining.

Dawson's Creek: Roadtrip (1.9)

Roadtrip splits apart the guys and girls in the cast, sending both sets into different adventures as they navigate romance and rumors. Billy, who I'm eager to see depart the show by now, spurs Dawson on a quest to become less of a goody-goody, driving him to a Providence bar that looks a lot like the old Melrose Place hang-out Shooters. Pacey tags along, and the three of them set out to bone as many older women as possible. Naturally, this instantly fails. But in the process Dawson learns about the type of man that he wants to be, and it's all pretty sweet.

Dawson's Creek: Boyfriend (1.8)

This is a weirdly disjointed episode, something that struggles to escape the trappings of contrivance while resurrecting old plot strands that were already laid to rest just last episode. It's a theme most clear in the Joey and Dawson saga, Joey's confession of her feelings for him entirely forgotten about and their lingering sexual tension once again pushed center stage. I don't know if this was intended to air before Detention, but it's an annoying turnaround in events, which stalls a lot of the forward momentum that had been building so successfully this season.

Dawson's Creek: Detention (1.7)

Mike White's writing debut instantly becomes the episode that all other Dawson's Creek hours will aspire to be as strong as. It lifts straight from the Saturday-detention classic The Breakfast Club, and uses a striking new character as the catalyst for major romantic developments. At its heart are the convoluted themes that have been sizzling under the surface for most of the season so far, our protagonists bursting with feelings of jealousy, bitterness and sexual attraction. Detention is the show's first series classic, and one of the most entertaining episodes of the teen television genre.

Dawson's Creek: Baby (1.6)

What we've been seeing over the course of the season is the characters expressing the vulnerability hidden beneath their tough exteriors. It's been most evident in Joey and her interaction with Dawson and Jen -- not only does she feel more relaxed about being open with her feelings for him, but she's also been publicly dismissive of Jen numerous times in the last five episodes, throwing away any kind of filter. Here we begin to see more family-centered vulnerability, especially when she has to check out from Bessie's labor because of flashbacks to her own mother's fatal disease. Then there's her first, non-sniping discussion with Pacey, where she bonds with him over their mutual knowledge of being at the center of school gossip. It's welcome seeing Joey become more human, and it's a theme that resonates through most of the show's ensemble, too.

Dawson's Creek: Hurricane (1.5)

Taking a page from Buffy, this is very much the show using extreme phenomena as a metaphor for teenage hardships. Obviously, being Dawson's Creek, said phenomena is an out-of-control hurricane, but the message is clear. As the wind and rain arrives in Capeside, Gale's affair is finally exposed, tearing apart her family, destroying Mitch and alienating Dawson in the process. It's an interesting approach, especially when parental characters on these kinds of shows usually flail around on the sidelines with nothing to do. Call it 'the 90210 effect'. But here Mitch and Gale have real personalities and emotions, and that creates a welcome distinction.

Dawson's Creek: Discovery (1.4)

Watching Dawson's Creek again, I realize that I'm gonna have to put myself back in my pre-teen shoes to truly enjoy the show. It's a little unfair to criticize the characters and their strange personalities with the knowledge and conscience of somebody in their twenties, since I'm sure I was very similar to these people back in the day. I was initially going to open this review with another Dawson rant, this time about his frazzled opinion of Jen after she reveals her checkered sexual history, but you have to remember that this is a fifteen year-old with absolutely zero experience with women and even less experience with complex human emotions.

Dawson's Creek: Kiss (1.3)

Even without Kevin Williamson on scripting duties, this is still very much about cinema and its negative effects on real people. Dawson spends most of the episode trying to pre-plan the perfect kiss with Jen, treating real life like a movie script. Joey, against her rationality, runs head-first into a movie romance, full of cute deceptions and doomed flirtation; while Pacey loses his virginity in the most ridiculously implausible way possible. It's all about fantasy, characters trying to mirror their own lives with the ones they see in the movies, and failing miserably.

Dawson's Creek: Dance (1.2)

Without trying to tailspin these reviews into one lengthy Dawson Leery hatefest, he continues his asshole behavior here. The driving storyline continues to be Dawson's infatuation with Jen, all the while being stupidly ignorant of Joey's own feelings for him. Here, he once again thrusts his Jen attraction in Joey's face, as well as stringing her along for the second night in a row as an accomplice to some ridiculous romance scheme. Maybe I need to remember that these are a bunch of fifteen year-olds and obviously prone to moronic behavior, but I can't help but see how emotionally manipulative the dude is.

Dawson's Creek: Pilot (1.1)

Every generation seems to have their own ubiquitous teen show, and this was mine. In 1998, the WB launched the low-key antidote to the overblown Hollywood wackiness of Aaron Spelling's FOX serials, a show that quickly became one of the most inexplicably controversial series of its time, made stars of its four leads, and along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer spawned a creative resurgence in teen-oriented programming. It's also one of the few shows that can instantly transport me back to my childhood -- just hearing those shrill wails of Paula Cole gets me a little weepy. It's a show that's achingly sincere and full of characters that repeatedly strain your patience, but it's also crazily endearing and wonderfully acted. Welcome to Dawson's Creek.