History YMMV / DawsonsCreek

* BrokenBase: "Downtown Crossing," or "The One Where Joey Gets Mugged." A fair majority of viewers disliked it: it relied on long-dormant plot threads (Joey's DisappearedDad, last contemplated in Season 2), continues the show's CharacterShilling for Joey, is SomethingCompletelyDifferent from the show's romantic focus, and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment had almost no repercussions]] on the plot[[note]]its only consequence is that Joey's LoveInterest, whom she was on her way to meet, breaks it off in the mistaken assumption that she stood him up. The fact that Joey exhibited NervesOfSteel while held at gunpoint but then suddenly refuses to speak up for herself on the very next episode... did not help matters[[/note]]. That said, a small but vocal minority found it a powerful meditation on ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfLegacy, and the complexity of AntiHero daddies.

** Everything around [[spoiler: Jen's death in the finale, particularly her video to Amy and the moment where Grams realises that Jen has died.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: both Andie [=McPhee=] (GenkiGirl SixthRanger) and Eve Whitman (HotterAndSexier older LoveInterest for Dawson) were considered failures by the writing staff. Both were written out about a third of the way into Seasons 4 and 3, respectively; both were replaced, a season after the original's departure, by Joey's roommate Audrey Liddell and Pacey's older sister Gretchen Witter, who served the same roles but were much more successful in establishing their places in the cast (and the appreciation of the fans). Whether by coincidence or not, both of the replacements also never flirted with unethical behaviors (a FalseRapeAccustion by Andie, general "IHaveBoobsYouMustObey" behavior from Eve).

* AuthorsSavingThrow: both Andie [=McPhee=] (GenkiGirl SixthRanger) and Eve Whitman (HotterAndSexier older LoveInterest for Dawson) were considered failures by the writing staff. Both were written out about a third of the way into Seasons 4 and 3, respectively; both were replaced, a season after the original's departure, by Joey's roommate Audrey Liddell and Pacey's older sister Gretchen Witter, who served the same roles but were much more successful in establishing their places in the cast (and the appreciation of the fans).

** Anytime Joey sang!

** Meredith Monroe also appeared as Hotch's wife Haley on ''Series/CriminalMinds''.

** The expression Dawson made at the end of Season 3, which can be seen at the top of the Narm.LiveActionTV page. Hilariously enough, that's not melodramatic acting there, James van der Beek was [[RealityIsUnrealistic actually crying]].

** Creator/MelissaMcBride of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' fame, appeared as Nina in Season 1 (and then [[YouLookFamiliar as a different character]] in the series finale). Also, Creator/EricBalfour (before ''Series/TwentyFour'' and ''Series/SixFeetUnder'') appeared as a JerkJock who harassed Joey in the same episode.

** Melissa [=McBride=], of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' fame, appeared as Nina in a season 1 episode. Also, Creator/EricBalfour (before ''Series/TwentyFour'' and ''Series/SixFeetUnder'') appeared as a JerkJock who harassed Joey in the same episode.

* BrokenBase: "Downtown Crossing," or "The One Where Joey Gets Mugged." A fair majority of viewers disliked it: it relied on long-dormant plot threads (Joey's DisappearedDad, last contemplated in Season 2), continues the show's CharacterShilling for Joey, is SomethingCompletelyDifferent from the show's romantic focus, and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment had almost no repercussions]] on the plot[[note]]its only consequence is that Joey's LoveInterest, whom she was on her way to meet, breaks it off in the mistaken assumption that she stood him up. The fact that Joey exhibited NervesOfSteel while held at gunpoint but then suddenly refuses to speak up for herself on the very next episode... did not help matters[[/note]]. That said, a small but vocal minority found it a powerful meditation on daddy issues, ThePowerOfLove, and the complexity of {{AntiHero}}es, which both the mugger and Mike Potter qualify as.

** The episode "Downtown Crossing", where Joey is mugged and spends the entire experience exchanging sarcastic banter with her mugger. He's so charmed by her "it" that he follows her down the street and gets hit by a car. She ends up at the same hospital and bonds with him. Aside from being bizarre in tone, it's wildly irresponsible; website/TelevisionWithoutPity peppered their recap of it with warnings that, in real life, fighting back against a mugger and trying to snark at him when he's holding you at gunpoint is more likely to end in him killing you than falling for you.

* BrokenBase: "Downtown Crossing," or "The One Where Joey Gets Mugged." A fair majority of viewers disliked it: it relied on long-dormant plot threads (Joey's DisapparedDad, last contemplated in Season 2), continues the show's CharacterShilling for Joey, is SomethingCompletelyDifferent from the show's romantic focus, and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment had almost no repercussions]] on the plot[[note]]its only consequence is that Joey's LoveInterest, whom she was on her way to meet, breaks it off in the mistaken assumption that she stood him up. The fact that Joey exhibited NervesOfSteel while held at gunpoint but then suddenly refuses to speak up for herself on the very next episode... did not help matters[[/note]]. That said, a small but vocal minority found it a powerful meditation on daddy issues, ThePowerOfLove, and the complexity of {{anti-hero}}es, which both the mugger and Mike Potter qualify as.

** The episode "Downtown Crossing", where Joey is mugged and spends the entire experience exchanging sarcastic banter with her mugger. He's so charmed by her "it" that he follows her down the street and gets hit by a car. She ends up at the same hospital and sings "Close To You" by the Carpenters to him as he flatlines. Aside from being bizarre in tone, it's wildly irresponsible; Television Without Pity peppered their recap of it with warnings that, in real life, fighting back against a mugger and trying to snark at him when he's holding you at gunpoint is more likely to end in him killing you than falling for you.
** While Mitch's death was PlayedForDrama (and effectively so), the death itself is contrived and difficult to take seriously. To get Mitch to take his eyes off the road for a few seconds, they had him... knock the ice cream scoops out of his cone. And then bend over to try and pick them up from the floor of his car, a place where people's shoes go after walking around outdoors and which is probably not cleaned or sanitized on a regular basis. The idea that someone would be willing to put their lives to rescue food from that location, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-second_rule five-second rule]] or not, is simply unbelievable.

* TheScrappy: Main characters aside, a big example was Eve Whitman, a stripper who weeded herself into Dawson's life in Season 3. She's [[MyGirlIsASlut sexually adventurous]] and clearly into Dawson -- things our cerebral, underconfident main character is not prepared for -- but she clearly has no thought for consequences and acts as though he should be grateful to have a shot at the UglyGuyHotWife pairing. Despite major potential storylines she brought to the show [[spoiler: (being Jen's half-sister and giving Dawson his first blowjob)]], her character was written out abruptly in the second half of the season and all the above-mentioned plot points were [[RetCon retconned]].

* FairForItsDay: {{exaggerated}}. ''Dawson's Creek'' was ahead of its time. In the WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation review of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Yahtzee complains about the tokenism of GayOption Steve Cortez: "What if we're both gay, but Steve is [[YoureNotMyType not my type]]? What then?" This is exactly the same defense Jack uses when turning down the advances of Season 4 Gay Option Tobey. This is somewhat defanged when Jack admits he's been lying about thinking Tobey is unattractive; but the fact remains: ''Dawson's Creek'', in the year 2000, was doing something that Creator/BioWare's writing mastery was still unable to accomplish over a decade later.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Will Krudski. His character was brought onto the show for three episodes to generate interest in the show's spinoff, Young Americans. While that show only lasted 8 episodes and has mostly faded into obscurity, Will himself is beloved by fans, primarily Pacey/Joey shippers. He's often considered a better potential friend for Pacey than Dawson and will frequently makes appearances in P/J fanfiction.

** Melissa [=McBride=], of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' fame, appeared as Nina in a season 1 episode. Also, Eric Balfour (before ''Series/TwentyFour'' and ''Series/SixFeetUnder'') appeared as a JerkJock who harassed Joey in the same episode.

** Chad Michael Murray (before ''Series/OneTreeHill'') portrayed Jen's boyfriend in season 5.
** Jason Behr, aka Max Evans in ''Series/{{Roswell}}'', appeared as Chris Wolfe in season 2.
** Jensen Ackles portrayed another one of Jen's boyfriends in season 6, a couple years before ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' and ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.

* TheScrappy: Main characters aside, a big example was Eve Whitman, a stripper who weeded herself into Dawson's life in Season 3. She was so widely despised that despite major potential storylines she brought to the show [[spoiler: (being Jen's half-sister and giving Dawson his first blowjob)]], her character was written out abruptly in the second half of the season and all the above-mentioned plot points were [[RetCon retconned]].

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvpZs5skJPM This scene]] in which Charlie Todd is shot down by Creator/{{MTV}}'s Hilarie Burton. Or, if you prefer, [[Series/OneTreeHill Lucas Scott is shot down by Peyton Sawyer]]. Even funnier when you consider that Lucas and Peyton end the show married with a daughter, and Hilarie's dialogue in the scene.

---> Pacey: "When did you give up on me? When I was 5? 10? 12? I'm 16 years old, Dad! ''(Starting to cry)'' And I'm here and I'm not provin' that but I'm trying so hard for you. It's your job. It's your job to love me no matter who I am or what I become because you're my father!"

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Pacey originally was just supposed to be Dawson's goofy sidekick, but his role grew more prominent in the second season and beyond. An even better example is Joey--Katie Holmes went from last billing to second billing between the first and second seasons, she was the center of the show's most well-known love triangle, and is the only character to appear in all episodes.

* TheScrappy: Main characters aside, a big example was Eve Whitman, a stripper who weeded herself into Dawson's life in Season 3. She was so widely despised that despite major potential storylines she brought to the show [[spoiler: (being Jen's half-sister and giving Dawson his first blowjob)]], her character was written out abruptly in the second half of the season and all the above mentioned plot points were [[RetCon retconned]].

** The final scene of season 2, when Jen comes back to live with Grams and brings Jack with her. "There's someone else who doesn't want to be alone any more either", and Grams' calm acceptance of him, is a massive tear jerker.

** One of the earliest scenes where the show starts reveal that Jack is gay. Long story short, a classroom incident sees that one teacher forces Jack to read in front of the whole class a poem he wrote. It's about how he's struggling with feelings for other men, and he gets so upset that he starts crying and walks out.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvpZs5skJPM This scene]] in which Charlie Todd is shot down by Creator/{{MTV}}'s Hilarie Burton. Or, if you prefer, [[Series/OneTreeHill Lucas Scott is shot down by Peyton Sawyer]]. Even funnier when you consider that Lucas & Peyton end the show married with a daughter, and Hilarie's dialogue in the scene.

** One of the earliest scenes where the show starts to turn Jack gay. Long story short, a classroom incident sees that one teacher forces Jack to read in front of the whole class a poem he wrote. It's about how he's struggling with feelings for other men, and he gets so upset that he starts crying and walks out.

* EarWorm: I DON'T WANT TO WAIT. FOR OUR LIIIIIIVES TO BE OOOOVVVEEEEEERRRRRRR!

** The expression Dawson made at the end of Season 3, which can be seen at the top of the Narm.LiveActionTV page.

** Jason Behr, aka Max Evans in ''Series/{{Roswell}}'', appeared as Chris Wolfe in a season 2 episode.