Dawson's Creek: The Kiss

Dawson's Creek: The Kiss
The WB
October 7, 1998
Drama
DVD
C+

Regular cast:

• Katie Holmes as Joey Potter
• Mary-Margaret Humes as Gail Leery
• Joshua Jackson as Pacey Witter
• Meredith Monroe as Andi (sometimes Andie) McPhee
• Mary Beth Peil as Evelyn "Grams" Ryan
• Nina Repeta as Bessie Potter
• John Wesley Shipp as Mitch Leery
• James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery
• Michelle Williams as Jen Lindley

Also, Ali Larter would return once as Kristy Livingstone.

So this is obviously a show I'd heard of but it was "after my time," seeing as I was in my early 30s when it was on and the focus here is very much on the teens.  Watching this episode, I was sure that the couple with the marital problems would turn out to be somebody's parents but I didn't know who since I didn't see them with their kid this episode, and then it turned out to be the sort of title character.  And, no, I don't know why the creek is named after Dawson, although he does own a boat.  Instead of a car, I think.  I spent most of the 40-something minutes just getting my bearings, because this is the second-season opener and it's quite the soap opera.  You probably know this better than I do, but apparently Dawson dated Jen (whose grandfather just died), but now he's in love with his long-time friend Joey (a girl), which causes him to be teased by his other best friend Pacey (a boy).  And meanwhile the local movie theater is closing down so they're ironically (because it's the '90s and irony is big) showing The Last Picture Show.  Oh, and meanwhile there's a new girl that is out for vengeance because Pacey somehow tricked her into thinking he's a cop.  (Yes, he was driving his sheriff father's car, but he does not look old enough to be a policeman.)

The writing and acting aren't particularly sharp, but they're not too wincey, although I did mark this down from a B- because of a gratuitous lesbian prison rape joke.  I also considered marking it down for the lyrics "I say a little prayer for I," but I figure I'm going to be wincing at that in all the other episodes I end up watching.  At least one more, maybe a couple seasons, we'll see.

Jon Harmon Feldman wrote five earlier DC episodes and would write one more, while this is David Semel's third of nine episodes he directed.