Given his penchant for litigation, I wasn’t sure that Tom Cruise would be cool with me re-posting this old DVD review, originally published upon the commercial release of the sixth season of Dawson’s Creek. But no, Cruise was adamant — he wanted to get the word out as widely as possible. To wit, this effusive DVD review, transcribed by me, as told to me by Cruise:
“Being a globe-trotting movie star is great and all, what with the pay, the fame, the free travel, the first-class accommodations and the endless supply of other perks. But there’s another benefit, in that my schedule allows me, Tom Cruise, plenty of time to catch up on the lives of my favorite, smart-talking teens — Dawson Leery (lovably enormous-headed James Van Deer Beek), Jen Lindley (gay cowboy lover Michelle Williams), Pacey Witter (fellow gay cowboy lover Joshua Jackson) and Joey Potter (future Oscar winner Katie Holmes). For a long time I was just TiVoing everything off of TBS like the rest of the world, but recently technological advances have spawned things called DVDs, and now Hollywood studios are releasing films and entire seasons worth of television programs. The best and most recent — Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Sixth Season!
The final year of genius creator Kevin Williamson’s amazing show is chiefly one of roiling discontent, with broken hearts and interrupted dreams causing major friction for the entire extended Bayside gang. (Thankfully, no one seeks solace in the form of mind-altering psychotropic drugs or psychiatric treatment — they instead rightfully indulge in pithy one-liners as a mechanism of self-defense.) Dawson and Joey rekindle their romance, but that flame quickly dies out when he reveals that he had a romance with an actress in Los Angeles — the same actress coming to Boston to star in Todd’s movie. Speaking from experience, as I’ve been in a similar situation, I can safely say that “the Beek” should just move on and let his publicist and lawyers deal with the situation.
At any rate, Audrey (Meredith Monroe) helps Pacey get a job through her father, and makes her singing debut with Emma’s band, but her inner demons and addiction threaten to destroy everything. Hot up-and-coming band No Doubt gets showcased in “Spiderwebs,” and in “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road,” Pacey struggles to tell Dawson about a costly investment debacle, which reminds me of the time I had to tell Nicole about the $5.5 million check I scratched the Church of Scientology for a special endowment. In the compelling “Sex and Violence,” meanwhile, Dawson is tempted with an offer to make a film that he doesn’t really believe in, which is exactly how I felt about Far and Away.
The two-hour series finale flashes forward five years into the future. Dawson is the creator of a successful teen-centered television show (The Creek!) and Joey is a book editor in New York City. Single mother Jen, meanwhile, having failed to commit herself to Scientology, faces the biggest challenge of her life in the form of an incurable congenital heart defect. What an ending!
All 23 episodes of Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Sixth Season are presented here in 1.33:1 widescreen with an English language Dolby digital surround sound track. Optional subtitles are available in only Portuguese and Spanish, so the rest of the world will have to learn one of those three languages to indulge in the brilliance of this four-disc set, presented in gatefold cardboard packaging that showcases pictures of the entire Dawson’s Creek gang and a nice solo shot of a swinging Holmes. There’s also a great little full-color scrapbook that features character biographies, a vast assortment of promotional photographs, trivia (Simon and Schuster published 15 novels based on the series!) and teleplay excerpts. Creator Williamson and Paul Stupin sit for an audio commentary track on the finale. My only complaint here is that there’s not a pop-up collage or punch-out baby mobile of the beautiful Holmes. Otherwise, this is clearly the best show in the history of small, talking picture boxes, docked a half-grade only because Xenu doesn’t make a special guest appearance.” A- (Show) B- (Disc)