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Dawson's Creek - The Complete Fifth Season
Directors: James Whitmore Jr., Bruce Seth Green, Michael Fields, Jay Tobias, Janice Cooke-Leonard
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Retail Price (not our price): $49.95
Release Date: 2005-05-03
Theatrical Release Date: 1998-01-20
Studio: Sony Pictures
Run Time: 986 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Discs: 4


Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):

1) 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

2) 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.

Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

1) EXCELLENT!   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I'VE BOUGHT THE COMPLETE SERIES: 6 SEASONS AND SERIES FINALE, RECOMMENDED 4 DAWNSON'S CREEKS FANS

2) New setting breathes new life into the show!   [Rating: 4 out of 5]
After a average fourth season which quickly became dull after the never ending battles to win Joey's affection (Dawson and Pacey), Season 5 of Dawson's Creek was bound to be a breath of fresh air. The characters left Capeside to go to college in California and Boston, and the Joey-Dawson-Pacey problems were finally resolved. The truth is, after reading one too many reviews on how mediocre this Fifth season was, I was definitely reluctant to but it. What I found after watching the first few episodes, was that the Fifth season turned out to be my favourite season in a very long time. Dawson's Creek definitely dried out in Seasons 3 and 4, with random unnecessary character additions and the same old conflict going on and on, which eventually dragged out over the entire season. Season 5 is refreshing. The characters have definitely matured and became more fun to watch. Every character had a story going on which became interesting to watch as the season progressed. The season finale was definitely one of the highlights as you cannot wait to see what happens in the following final season. Of course with every good season, it has its downers.There are some episodes which have "unbelievable" story lines and ones that you don't care for a whole lot, but the good outweighs the bad in this situation.THE DVD SET:The music used in the original airings of the show have basically all been deleted for new, possibly less exciting music. Some scenes have been deleted too (only for music rights) involving Joey and Audrey singing live on stage. The DVD picture quality is not anything spectacular, as it often appears grainy and blurry at times. But on my version of the season, they spread all 23 episodes out on to 6 discs, instead of the American version with only 4 discs, which has to be a bit better for the quality.There are absolutely NO extras to be found on this set, which is a major disappointment because these have some very important episodes which deserve at least one audio commentary! This season is all about change after all! A little background info would be nice.Overall, despite the disappointing extras snub, the episodes are entertaining and definitely rejuvenate the show, especially after a somewhat boring fourth season. The reason why this season is so appealing to me is because the characters are much more likable, they have a sense of humor this time around and are not afraid to try something new.

3) Not Worth $50   [Rating: 3 out of 5]
I loved Dawson's Creek, but it has had one of the worst if not the worst transitions on to DVD. First of all, the trademark theme song "I Don't Wanna Wait" has been replaced. Second, most of the original music has been taken out and replace with bland songs that don't always fit. Thirdly, episode 17 is actually missing scenes because Katie Holmes sings songs that apparently they couldn't secure the rights to and episode 11 has had the song being sung by the actress switched. Fourthly, all 22 episodes are squished onto 4 disks instead of the standard 6. I wouldn't complain so much, but they were able to let the first season to make it to DVD in almost the same way it air and Buffy the Vampire Slayer managed to keep all of its original music and scenes and is separated out onto 6 disks so there isn't a loss of video quality.

4) This show FELL APART in season 5.   [Rating: 2 out of 5]
The characters were all seperated and it kept the drama and the interesting interaction and dramatic life moments spread out and minimum. The season was less interesting than the previous, with the exception of some very major moments in Dawson's family. The relationships were less interesting. I mean, Charlie & Joey??? Give me a break.But the main thing that bugged me was the grasping for straws storytelling and the technical disasters. The writing? First of all. Charlie asks Joey to front his band. Huh? She jumped up on stage one time in a fit of wild inhibition, and in the following episodes, she doesn't sing once. Then she's asked to front his band... she doesn't practice... she just hops up there and knows the songs and has never once worked with the band who's performing before a packed bar. Ridiculous.Jen (Michelle Williams) bounced around like a jack rabbit for a lot of the season. She is forced to act so corny about Dawson and their relationship it was at times, horribly annoying. This girl must have an identity crisis because she's played so many different personalities in this series, it isn't even funny.Then there's the writing. So, why is it that all of the people that Dawson, Joey, Pacey & Jen meet... talk the same way they do? With the same sarcasm and pop culture humor. These people are completely random encounters who've never talked to them before... but yet, they talk the same way?? Like, the drug dealing mugger from episode "Downtown Crossing". Joey is being held at gunpoint, but she talks to him like he's Pacey annoying her. Meanwhile, the mugger/gunmen is slinging the same, pop culture reference dialogue at her that has been such a fixture with the show. Could the writers not give him another voice? A unique voice? I thought maybe the mugger grew up with them, or was hiding in Dawson's Capeside closet when they were talking.The same goes for Professor David Wilder. Apparently Pop culture conversation and dialogue is a class that everyone can take.I guess the show only had one writer.The ratings plummeted during this season, causing the following season to be the last. I didn't watch the show when it aired, I purchased the DVDs and watched them. There were many times when I felt bad for the actors in the show. Many times they were put in really silly situations and you can obviously see that they had to grin and bare it. All in a days work. Live to act another day.

5) It really bugs me...   [Rating: 3 out of 5]
...that they changed most of the music in these DVD's. I grew up with this show and I was deeply affected by how they would pick out songs with lyrics that matched the scene that was happening. The music was a strong focus of mine for this show and to change over most of the catalog was entirely disappointing. I have also read that they do not intend on ever releasing a collection with all the original music due to legal reasons. So I have no intention of owning this collection again, which is a shame, since I adored this show. You can still catch re-runs on TV, though, and I would recommend, if sampling this show, to catch the high school episodes as opposed to the college episodes. The writing is better in the high school episodes and the characters are more enjoyable, especially Pacey, (my favorite).If you put as much stock in the music of this show as I have, I would not suggest purchasing these DVD sets.