5/5 The "switch" season
  by Obladidi (Miami, FL)
I think of season 4 as the one where Dawson's Creek began to transform itself into Joey's Creek.
The very first scene already hints at this switch by showing Joey and Pacey returning from their boat trip after escaping a broken-hearted Dawson and inquiring friends. The trend of having Joey in the opening scenes of new seasons would continue for seasons 5 and 6. Season 6 even more blatantly so by having her do a voice-over. It was not a bad change, but I would have appreciated a memo.

Most of this season focuses on how Dawson, Joey, and Pacey could ever go back to being friends. Dawson must somehow accept that both of his best friends are now an item. Dawson and Pacey are proud, they won't admit they're wrong, and Joey is caught between her boyfriend and her best friend. It's a great conflict that in real life could have destroyed a friendship for good. But there's a reason why the audience roots for Dawson and Pacey to be friends again and that's because we know they have shared too much and still care for each other. We know they are both good boys!

Of course, Joey's relationship with Pacey is serious and commited. She helps him with school, with his family on his birthday, and even later, trying to get him into college. In return, Pacey also makes sure she studies, helps her babysit, makes sure she doesn't get too drunk at parties and, even though he has mixed feelings about it, he does want her to succeed by getting into a good college even if it means he'll have to stay behind. They make one of the best TV couples ever, and you get to wonder if Dawson would have been as good a boyfriend as Pacey was.

But Dawson meanwhile has his own life to worry about, although his life is far less interesting. He falls for an older girl who happens to be Pacey's sister. It's a relationship that, in true Dawson-form, takes forever to develop with unfortunate results. He also gets stuck with Mr. Brooks, the mentor from hell. The old man is annoying but he helps Dawson go back to his dreams of being a filmmaker.

Here's where you know Dawson's life is getting too serious for a kid. In the episode "A Winter's Tale," (one of my personal fav) his entire class is living it up on their senior trip, not to mention Pacey and Joey, and he's stuck in Capeside in a hospital with a bedridden Mr. Brooks. It's like punishing Dawson for being too good. And the worst part is, the audience is far more interested in what's going on in Pacey's and Joey's lodge than seeing Dawson praying along Jen's grandma. Dawson is officially made boring.

Jack and Jen provide with excellent side stories. Andie's early departure was not so welcomed, but at least she made a great after school special about drugs and rave parties before leaving.

I'm being sarcastic but this was a really great, entertaining season. My only beef was the "Promicide" episode because it was atypical for Pacey to act so jealous and cause such a scene. If Joey can forgive that, then we can forgive him too. Overall it's the best season of Dawson's Creek.

4/5 Two guys, a girl, but no pizza place
  by Joshua Spaulding (Ossipee, New Hampshire)
Dawson's Creek was not a show that I watched during it's regular network airing. Friends of mine recommended that I check it out, but it was never something that interested me. Then one evening while watching another show on The WB, I saw a commercial for the reairing of the very first episode of the show, prior to the final episodes as the series wound down. I watched the reairing of the Pilot and from that moment on was hooked on the lives of Dawson, Joey, Pacey and Jen.
The fourth season of Dawson's Creek is mostly about the relationship between Pacey and Joey and the problems and issues it causes among their friends. While Dawson and Joey have long considered themselves soul mates, they spend much of this season questioning that as Joey explores her relationship with Dawson's former best friend Pacey.
This season was also the final season for the group in Capeside, Mass. The kids graduate high school and move on to other things. In some cases, college is the answer, but not for all. The goodbyes to Capeside provided a solid emotional end to the season as the lifelong friends prepared for life beyond their sleepy Cape Cod town.
Katie Holmes, as tomboy turned beauty Joey Potter is perhaps the star of this season. Her relationship with Pacey and her attempts at keeping her friendship with Dawson alive completely turn her in many different directions, often unsure of where she is going or why she is going where she's going.
Joshua Jackson as Pacey gives a great performance, once again, giving good reason for the producers and writers to have him end up with Joey in the series finale. While their relationship ends before the end of the season, you always know how happy she makes him, yet he himself never really feels like he deserves someone liker her. In his mind, she is too good for him and that eventually breaks their relationship apart, in fine fashion at the prom I might add.
Michelle Williams as Jen didn't have as big of a role in this season, simply because she wasn't in the love triangle that blossomed at the end of season three. She did, however, have some great moments of her own, most memorably her trip to New York to see her father. In that episode we find out so much about her character and what has happened to her in her life. It allows the viewers to appreciate just how lucky she is to have Grams. Speaking of Grams, Mary Beth Piel is phenomenal in the role, serving as a role model for Jen, guiding her along life's paths in the best way she possibly can.
Kerr Smith is also solid as Jack, the gay football star, although in this season the football is downplayed thanks to an injury. Jack does get to explore his first real serious gay relationship, with Toby, and also spends a lot of time helping Jen through many of her issues.
James Van Der Beek leads the cast as Dawson, a young man torn between his love for films and his love for Joey, the girl that got away. Everyone knows that he is bound to head to California to pursue his movie career, but at the same time, people are rooting for him to go to Boston to be with Joey. In this season, something important happens to Dawson though, as he falls in love with someone else, a huge step in getting over Joey. His relationship with Gretchen is a nice divergence, yet something viewers know will never work out.
This show thrives on the ability to find different stories for each of the young stars. Sadly in this season we see the departure of Andie, played wonderfully by Meredith Monroe. Her character just wasn't left enough room to develop and midway through the season the decision was made for her to move to Italy. She reappears in the graduation episode and again in the series finale, but it is sad to see her go. She was a good part of the group.
A new baby in the family changes Dawson's life, while college applications weigh heavily on everyone's mind. This is the beginning of the end of Dawson's Creek, as once the group left Capeside it became hard to follow them all in the different directions their lives were going. While the show lasted two more seasons, this was the last Capeside season of Dawson's Creek.
The one drawback to this show, as was the case in the third season, is the replacement of the theme song. While the new song isn't necessarily bad, it isn't the song that belongs there and any fan knows that. Money issues rear their ugly head again.
All in all though, this is a great set of a show that helped to define the genre of teen soaps for many years and is highly recommended, as are the first three seasons.

5/5 The Reason I Ended Up Here...
  by Shea (Chicago, IL, US)
I have to say that this season is the best out of the whole series. Katie Holmes and Josh Jackson captured an on-screen emotion that seemed so much more like love than anything I've seen on TV or in a movie before. In fact, I have to say that their relationship is the reason I'm a hopeless romantic. I know that the end of the season isn't the way that I would want it to be...but we know how the series turns out, so I'm not too sad. Plus, once this DVD is released there's only 2 more until we have the complete series on DVD. That'll be the longest marathon ever...

5/5 The end of something simple.
  by T. Stewart (Santa Cruz)
Season 4 was a major year for Dawson's Creek. Not only was the show the WB's #1 powerhouse show, but it was also the most story driven season of the series.

The season picks up 3 months after the end of season 3, and finds the gang starting to get ready for their final year of highschool. The gang is broken up with Joey and Pacey's summer of fun, and with Dawson-Jen-Jack-Andie outcast bonding. But this gang can never stay apart from each other for too long.

During this season friends leave (Andie leaves to attend school in france, after the producers felt that her character has fun its coure) and new faces surraface (Such as the return of Pacey's older sister, an old grumpy film producer that Dawson befriends, and Jacks first boyfriend).

This is the finale season of High School, but that doesn't mean that it was the final year of the show that most believe.

5/5 Season 4
  by Boston Guy (Boston, MA)
For those of you who were raving like lunatics over the music changes in season 3. Get a Grip!!! This is not the place to be venting. Like I said email the people at sony, and they will direct you to the right people. The New Theme song does, however, not fit with the credit, and I to would like the original put back in. But the changes in season 3, music wise, were microscopic compared to the butchery of season 2. But I digress, this is a whole new ballgame, Season 4.

This is the Season the the torrid love affair between Pacey and Joey goes full boar, and I love it. There is so much passion and very little analyzing of their relationship, that it is a much better storyline than the Dawson and Joey story line. The best episodes are the ones that deal with the steaming couple, and lead Dawson into a different relationship with Gretchen, Pacey's older sister. The only music request that I have is that they please keep the song entitled "This Year's Love" by David Gray in the very first episode of the season. It is without a doubt the best placed song in the entire 6 season run of the show. The growing plot between Jen and Drew is another pleasant surprise as it brings back Jen's insecurities, and finally opens the door into the complex motivation in sending Jen to live with Gram's.

The marquis moment for me in season 4, is when Pacey and Joey, go on the Senior trip, and in a very unique and passionate moment they give themselves to each other sexually. You get to see once again how Pacey, is insecure about himself and his relationship throughout the season, but it is a truely gripping and ripping moment when that insecurity blows out and is released onto Joey.

On the other side you get to see how Pacey's family life has shaped the man. The producers give us a look at the life of Pacey Witter. How his parents under value him, how his brother Doug, secretly admires him, and how in return Pacey admires Doug. But you also see how he is the quint esential brother that will always look out for his sisters.

Some enjoyable sidenotes of season 4 are when Grams starts going out with Mr. Brooks, and the Leery clan making room for another member of the family.

The 4th season of Dawson's Creek, is a must have.