Dawson's Creek / YMMV

Badass Decay: The Joey of season 1, who beats the living hell out of a jock with a lunch tray when he sexually propositions her in the cafeteria is a far, far cry from the indecisive, insecure Joey of later seasons.
Broken Base: "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 Disappeared Dad, last contemplated in Season 2), continues the show's Character Shilling for Joey, is something different from the show's romantic focus, and had almost no repercussions on the plot^note. That said, a small but vocal minority found it a powerful meditation on The Power of Love, The Power of Legacy, and the complexity of Anti-Hero daddies.
Creator's Pet: Joey, who went from being the Ensemble Dark Horse to a Creator's Pet in some fans' eyes as the show progressed. She lost a lot of the traits that made her popular with fans in the first place, becoming a more standard leading lady as her prominence increased. In spite of that, similar to Dawson's problem, her flaws went unacknowledged and characters continued to go on and on about how amazing she was and that she had "It!" (mentioned on the main page).
Designated Hero: Dawson. Despite being the title character, he frequently acts like a spoiled, self-centered Jerkass, especially in Season 3. He's furious when Joey - who he previously rejected - falls in love with Pacey, and forces her to choose between her new relationship and their friendship. He then alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative and underhand way. Even worse when you remember the situation Joey and Pacey are in. Dawson knows that his parents are a surrogate family to the virtually orphaned Joey. In forcing an ultimatum, he's cutting off the only stable family she's ever known. And he's aware that Pacey suffers emotional abuse from his father and has crippling self-esteem issues. He's desperately searching for love and support, but Dawson does his best to tear him and Joey apart because he can't get over himself.
Die for Our Ship: Jen in Season 1-2, and either Dawson or Pacey (depending on your preferences) from Season 3 onwards.
Dork Age: Since showrunner and creator Kevin Williamson left after Season 2, the start of Season 3 was showrun'd by Tammy Ader and Alex Gansa; the latter admitted to not really getting or liking the show, and apparently wanted to turn it into a more sex-crazed and traditional teen soap. Previously prude characters like Dawson or Joey act definitely more sexual, and a stripper was introduced as a side character (on a teen show!), while the high-school (which previously was more of a backdrop to the characters' character development) was emphasized (Jen and Jack joined the cheerleaders' and the football team, respectively). All characters (but specially Pacey and Andie) started to behave more outrageously, too, and the formerly realistic and slow-paced plot started to become wackier and even parodic (maybe the writers' acknowledgeing the change of tone?). Needless to say, by Episode 3x08, the show had slowly returned to its roots, and Gansa left after episode fourteen of that same season. It could be considered a zigzagged trope, however, since the following plot ( Joey and Pacey falling in love), and episodes are generally considered the ones where the show really Grew its Beard.
Ensemble Dark Horse: 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 make appearances in P/J fanfiction.
Fair for Its Day: Dawson's Creek was ahead of its time in portraying a gay male and having him actually get a happy ending, which was almost unheard of for gay people on TV back then. Not to mention the very first male-on-male kiss on network TV.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Dawson/Joey, to begin with, and later Pacey/Joey.
Growing the Beard: The second half of season 3 became this for the post-Kevin Williamson era of the series. After Williamson left the show, the new showrunners attempted to take the show in a different direction, possibly due to network interference, resulting in a clumsy start for the third season that tried to inject sexier soap opera elements (i.e. a stripper who's also a character's long lost sister). The new direction was not received well by fans or those involved with the show. By the second half of the season, the writers found their footing and set a more successful tone for the rest of the series, primarily with the introduction of the Dawson/Joey/Pacey love triangle.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- This scene in which Charlie Todd is shot down by MTV's Hilarie Burton. Or, if you prefer, 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.
Hilarie Burton: Thank God you told me, right? Like, I probably would have hooked up with him and how embarrassing would that have been?
- Dawson's parents are called Mitch and Gail, just as Baywatch protagonist Mitch Buchannon and his ex-wife, Gail. They even get divorced, too!
- Michelle Williams got her start on this show, whose main character is obsessed with the work of Steven Spielberg. Over twenty years later, Williams would have a major role in a film of Spielberg's, The Fabelmans
Memetic Mutation: Dawson crying has been used as an image macro showcasing First-World Problems that happened in the 1990s such as rental tapes not being rewinded or not using the (dial-up) internet because someone was using the phone.
Narm:
- An attempt at The Cast Show Off in the first season has Joey singing "On My Own" from Les Misérables. It goes poorly; Katie Holmes, at the time, lacked the experience, vocal range and lung capacity to really sell the song. In later seasons Joey joins a rock band and pulls it off a lot better, if for no other reason than that the repertoire ("I Want You To Want Me", "I Hate Myself For Loving You") actually suits Holmes' voice.
- The expression Dawson made at the end of Season 3. Hilariously enough, that's not melodramatic acting there, James van der Beek was actually crying.
- 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; 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 the aftermath of Mitch's death in a car accident was Played for Drama (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 onto the floor. And then bend over to try and pick them up. The idea that someone would be willing to risk their life to pick up ice cream from a dirty floor, bare-handed, is simply unbelievable.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Hotch's wife Haley on Criminal Minds shows up in a pre-fame role as Andie McPhee.
- A pre-The Walking Dead Melissa McBride appeared as Nina in Season 1 (and then as a different character in the series finale). Also, Eric Balfour (before 24 and Six Feet Under) appeared as a Jerk Jock who harassed Joey in the same episode.
- Ali Larter, of Final Destination and Heroes fame, appears as senior Kirsty Livingstone in two season 2 episodes.
- Adam Kaufman before Taken.
- Brittany Daniel of The Game (2006) portrayed Eve Whitman in season 3.
- Jane Lynch appeared as Pacey's mom in season 4.
- Chad Michael Murray (before One Tree Hill) portrayed Jen's boyfriend in season 5.
- Jason Behr, aka Max Evans in Roswell, appeared as Chris Wolfe in season 2.
- Jensen Ackles portrayed another one of Jen's boyfriends in season 6, a couple years before Smallville and Supernatural.
- Jennifer Morrison appears in two episodes. Morrison would later become better known for House and Once Upon a Time.
The Scrappy: Main characters aside, a big example was Eve Whitman, a stripper who weeded herself into Dawson's life in Season 3. She's 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 Ugly Guy, Hot Wife pairing. Despite major potential storylines she brought to the show (like 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 of those plot points were retconned.
Ship Mates: Dawson/Jen were a decent ship mate to Pacey/Joey but the finale killed that (and her). Gretchen is the next best choice for Dawson, especially since that's who he was dating when Pacey and Joey were together in Season 4, but after the finale the main Beta Couple to Pacey/Joey seems to be Jack/Doug...
- Pacey/Andie is a ship mate to Dawson/Joey (they were even the Official Couples in Season 2).
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Put some Dawson/Joey and Pacey/Joey fans in a room together and retire to a safe distance.
Tear Jerker: After an episode of emotional abuse, Pacey breaks down in tears wondering why his dad doesn't love him.
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!
- Made worse because his dad is lying right there but unconscious.
- One of the earliest scenes where the show starts revealing 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.
- Despicable though she was, Abby's death is quite sad - both the immediate scene where it's revealed that she didn't survive her fall from the pier (the previous scene is the rest of the cast having fun at a wedding; it then cuts to Jen wrapped in a police blanket, watching in tears as they zip up the body bag) and her funeral scene, where her mother realizes that absolutely no one has anything nice to say about Abby.
- 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.
- While the death itself was absurd, the episode surrounding Mitch's funeral and the fallout from his unexpected passing hits really hard and really well.
- Everything around Jen's death in the finale, particularly her video to Amy and the moment where Grams realizes that Jen has died.
Unpopular Popular Character: Pacey.
Wangst: Oh God. Basically every main character except (maybe) Pacey.
- Even Pacey has his moments: His break-up rant to Joey in the prom episode seems to have earned its place in the show's Hall of Infamy.
The Woobie: Pacey. Horribly played straight especially in the season 4 episode "The Te of Pacey".

YMMV / Dawson's Creek

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