Would you buy a collection of short stories about Worcester?
Sorry for the brief episode this week! Charles is studying for finals, but seeing as how we didn't have, like, half of the main characters in the episode this week... 47 minutes feels like that's what 6x12 deserves, right?
Episode links:
I know you guys feel like you've been hating on this season, but I can't believe how generous you've been toward the first half. I was a huge fan of Dawson's Creek, and have probably watched season 3 a dozen times, but I've only watched the first half of season 6 twice. Once around when it first aired and a second time after you guys started it up on your pod. The first half of the season is just so awful. At least in the manic craziness of season 5, the characters actually interacted. Season 6 has every character in their own separate story line, so half the cast is constantly missing because their C-story didn't make the cut that week (let's not kid ourselves, Joey always gets the A-plot.)
ReplyDeleteCharles is going to be so disappointed by the Pacey stock broker story. The writers definitely set Pacey up to be the fall guy in some scam that would have sent Pacey to federal prison for a few years. I cannot remember exactly when they knew the show was ending. I always thought it was a foregone conclusion because the actors contracts were up after 6 seasons, and none of them seemed interested in resigning. The course correction on Pacey's story line from episode 12 to episode 16 makes me think otherwise though, because it felt like they were setting Pacey up for something else, and then brushed it all under the rug to reignite Triangle-Gate 2003.
Hey at least Triangle-Gate is interesting though. I'd far rather see Pacey involved in storylines with characters I care about than watch him be a tedious goateed stockbro for episodes on end. PLUS - only one more ep of Pacey with a goatee! Hallelujah.
DeleteFor a soapy teen drama that would have been pretty extreme if they had a main character end up becoming involved in a white collar crime like that, would be pretty jarring if that's the direction it went. I agree that there's mixed writing to keep hinting that he's involved in shady stuff/company, but I mean this isn't a law procedural, it's a coming of age drama. No one wants to see Pacey in so deep that he's going to jail!
DeleteI guess it's getting a little ahead of the episodes here, but I think where they steered it was perfect (though I admit it's been a while since I've actually watched the end of S6 and I'm going at the Dawson's Speak pace). But to tie Pacey in the triangle, and also show his inexperience as a stock bro to dump so much money in one play (and worse, mix business and personal life) was a great turn. And it plays into the classic Pacey trope that "try as he may, he'll figure out a way to royally screw things up and do nothing but fail and then have to work twice as hard to salvage things", which not to be mean but is my favorite Pacey. He's not best rich and gliding through life.
We feel like we've been so down on this season, so it's nice to hear that we're not coming off as the biggest "Debbie Downers"! But at least that'll come to an end soon...I hope. Unless Charles for some reason hates 6x15. Then I'll have to fire him :P
DeleteIf Charles hates 6x15 then I will DEFINITELY be sat in my car yelling at him again!
DeleteUghhhh I hate Eddie. I wish Joey had just kicked him to the kerb after that whole "You're too good for me" speech at the start of this episode because honestly, as annoying as Joey is, she deserves better. Eddie tells her that she's too amazing to date a loser like him, but then lays the blame for that at her feet. He's upset that she "thought" he was the guy she met in English class. Firstly, that guy was an asshole, so I don't know why Joey would have liked him in the first place, but secondly, I haven't seen any evidence so far that Joey actually cares that much whether or not he's a student. That's all his insecurity, not hers. Just the same as it was with Pacey back in season 4, when he claimed that he was a constant disappointment to her, but again, that was all HIS insecurities.
ReplyDeleteIt's just SUCH lazy writing. Not only is the reasoning the same, but Tracy's description of Eddie at the end of the A story recap could literally have been talking about Pacey - intelligent but never motivated at school, believes he's not good enough, yada yada. I just find the whole Debbie Downer routine so tiresome and I want Eddie to shut up and go away. (And STAY there.)
I had to double-check what episode I was listening to because this felt like s4!
DeleteI know, right? How hard is it to give Eddie a different perspective and reason for breaking up with Joey? As our friendly podcasters pointed out, poor girl is going to get a complex...
DeleteAlso Tracy if you get sick of the weird IMDb episode summaries, there are some amusing episode summaries over on the now defunct TWOP website (now archived at brilliantbutcancelled.com). Here's how they described 6.12:
ReplyDeleteAll The Right Moves - Audrey's still boozing it up. Briggs takes Pacey to a party at Leland Palmer's house (yes, Leland Palmer of Twin Peaks), where Bobby and Leland make Pacey the patsy for what is obviously some illegal scam they're running. And Joey talks Flip-Flops into getting Oliver into a fancy-schmancy writing program. It appears that Jack, Jen, Blandy, Grams, Dawson, Natasha, and Todd are all dead in a ditch somewhere.
(They refer to some characters by nicknames or the actor's real name, hence Oliver = Eddie, Blandy = CJ, etc.)
The entire recaps are well worth reading, too. http://www.brilliantbutcancelled.com/show/dawsons-creek/all-the-right-moves/
Also notable in that recap is this section: "If this is the final season of Dawson's Creek -- and trust me, I'm doing everything I can to make sure it is, up to and including animal sacrifices -- shouldn't they be trying to wrap things up? Shouldn't we be moving to some kind of resolution? Of course, in this instance, I sympathize with the writers: if the network hasn't given them the official word, it must be tough to write their episodes, because they have to hedge their bets as far as the end of the series goes. In other words: make it official, WB, and let us all get on with our lives!"
These recaps came out a couple of days after the episodes aired, so presumably they had not yet been confirmed that they weren't coming back, although it was common knowledge at the time, from my recollection at least, that both Josh and James wanted to get out and wouldn't renew their contracts. So it was pretty much inevitable. Maybe they would have tried to continue the show with just Katie Holmes if they hadn't named it Dawson's Creek...
From the flimsy and brief research I tried to quickly conduct (and who knows how reputable) it seems that all the principal actors were signed only for the 6th season and most of the cast was pretty clear the feeling was "we're all about ready to move on from this show after this amount of time". The ratings seemed decent, guessing the network probably would have been OK with a 7th season, and maybe the writers were just hedging in case offers for renewing were perhaps too good to turn down...But, yeah, I would agree with your assessment that the producers/writers probably knew (or should have known) long ahead of time that likely S6 would be the final one.
DeleteTWOP!!! I need to do a Dawson's Creek TWOP deep-dive sometime...
DeleteAll DC should be watched with TWOP companionship. The archived website is very slow (at least on my internet) but 100% worth it.
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