Dawson's Creek Season 4 (1 Viewer)

[Michael Pakula]

I was just on tvshowsondvd.com and they had an announcement for Dawson's Creek Season 4 which will be released on October 5th. This was a pretty fast release since season 3 just came out last month. The fourth season will again have new music selected by the executive producer. I will be picking this up either way but wish they could have made this a complete set with the original music.

-Mike

 

[Mark_Johnson]

Who cares?

The picture quality will be just as bad as the previous releases. The third season discs are not even broadcast quality.

Add to that, there are no significant extras and no original music (including the theme song).

Everyone should boycott these discs, especially if you have the episodes on tape or tivo'd. The studio's complete lack of effort is inexcusable.

Season 4 wasn't that great anyway, the show went waaay downhill in seasons 4-6.

 

[john_hood]

I know that this is no consolation to fans who have purchased the R1 releases of DC. However, the R2 releases, from S2 onwards, are 6 disc sets!

I haven't viewed DC S2 yet, but can only assume (hope) that the image should be an improvement over the R1 edition - with the increased capacity and higher bit rate.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

If the theme is the correct one for season 3, I'd pick it up from region 2. Unfortunately I've decided to end my collection with season 2.

I'd have at least bought season 3 because I enjoyed the stories a little bit more that season than the following 3 years, but because of the missing theme song, I'm out.

If this truly was their best selling TV on DVD product they should have treated it with a little more respect.

 

[Mark_Johnson]

I thought the same thing. I purchased the R2 set of the first season and the quality is still bad.

Has anyone had the oppertunity to see the quality of the second season for R2 (or any other region)?

 

[Doug^Ch]

After viewing the entire Dawson's Creek S3 set, I not only have no problem with the replaced music, but I find the video quality quite good. If you want to see bad video quality, check out the Hitchhiker. Dawson's Creek is being offered at a bargain basement price and is well worth every penny. The new theme song that was used in the international release of this show works very well. I do not understand people's problems with these releases. Would it really be better to have no DC on DVD at all. I for one don't think so.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

The problem is that clearly they made a profit using the original theme song. This is about being cheap.

They very well COULD have released season 3 with the original theme music (replaced backgrounds aren't as horrible as that) and made a profit. They chose to be cheap and leave it off.

Dawson's Creek was their best selling TV on DVD product, and it's gotten terrible treatment. There's no excuse for that. I have a hard time believing it would have cost them so much to licene "I Don't Wanna Wait" for the 23 episodes... that it wouldn't turn them a profit.

The lack of mary tyler moore season 2 is slightly more understandable. At least we know that series sold poorly.

Dawson's Creek seasons 1, 2 didn't...

This is about cheap, not about getting the series out ANY way possible.

 

[Kevin Royal]

From what I've gathered, the artist involved was well aware of the DVD's success and requested an increase of 400% over royalties from Season I and II (the original agreement), and when the studio wouldn't pay more than a marginal increase, she held firm, wrongly playing the studio for a bluff, and they went ahead without her.

The studios also want to start setting precedents for music rights that are beginning to spiral out of control.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

I'm having a huge dilemma. While I don't want background music changed, I can live with it as I probably wouldn't notice most of it. I just don't know if I would be able to stand having the theme song changed. I really like this series though.....decisions decisions.

 

[Josh_HI]

if I were you I'd buy it this week while Target has it for $29.99. Grrr and I thought $32 was good when it was released.

 

[Daneel]

I have been very disappointed with the DVD releases so far. I emailed the studio after S1 to day that I didn't mind paying $10-15 more for a good release with anamorphic picture and decent extras spread over a more appropriate number of DVDs.

I've watched S4 all the way through and noticed a lot of noise in the picture, very obvious hairs on a couple of scenes and some very bad compression artifacts.

Unfortuantely I love the show too much not to buy it. I guess they did the numbers and decided that this way made them more money. I can see a SE coming for the whole lot in a couple years time just to screw people like me out of more money.

Generally I won't double dip, but this is probably my favourite show of all time.

meh.

[Edit - any news on S5? It's the weakest season I think but I can't not buy it]

 

[Mark_Johnson]

I don't blame the studio for cutting the song. I would have done the same thing just for spite. How dare she ask for such an increase, Dawson's Creek is the only reason that shit song got any play at all.

I agree about the dvd treatment though, its a shame they didnt put any effort into the sets.

I wonder if the R2 and R4 sets are any better. Since they are using six discs instead of four, it is logical to assume that the episodes are better quality. Otherwise, why waste money pressing the extra two discs if the quality is the same as the four disc version. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Christian Preischl]

I kinda made my piece with the music replacements. There are some I'm still not very happy about, mostly when they are part of the story (like Bob Seger's Old Time Rock'n'Roll that should be playing in 3.01 when Dawson watches Risky Business on his portable DVD player, or Jaws all of a sudden becoming a silent movie when the Jaws theme would be heard in episode 4.01). But things are as they are, and I'm glad that the music was replaced by Paul Stupin himself and his team.

However, there's one thing I'd really like to know. What the hell happened with this shot??



This is the end of a 10s long shot @ 14:26 from episode 4.18.
I compared this with the version that aired on TV (also 4:3), and it looks fine there. It seems like they zoomed in and then moved the whole image to the left. You lose no info from the left side of the screen, but from all other 3, and this zoom and pan effectively removes Jen from the shot.
Upon closer inspection of the original version it seems like Jen's lip-synch is completely off in this shot. But what a weird way to fix a goof, if that's what they did.

Chris

 

[rhett]

Thanks for the informative thread. I am just wondering where you guys have been getting your information regarding how well Dawson's Creek has sold and how much Paula Cole was asking for music rights? I am a huge fan of D-Diddy's Creek, and it is nice to know the sets have been selling well. Replaced music really is a bitch though...but I'd rather they replaced the theme song than the rest of the music, since we are all so used to the Paula Cole track already anyway.

I just hope Columbia finishes off the series, I would hate to see 5 and 6 go unreleased. I think 6 is the worst season, but I thought the show had a little renaissance with 5, since the new scenery added a lot more dynamics that were becoming tired in seasons 3 and 4. Some of my favorite episodes and show moments are in season 5, like the funeral episode, Joey's song number and Dawson's "I'm going to the movies" ultimatum to Jen.

As far as supplements go, I've actually liked all the releases. Paul Stupin is a great speaker, and his commentaries have been very rich. He is almost better on his own though, especially evident on season 4, where that writer adds absolutely nothing but "uhhs" and "I forget"'s to all of Stupin's questioning. The deleted scenes as prizes in the cool trivia game were a real plus too. It was fun testing out the ol' Creek knowledge. I just hope this all continues with seasons 5 and 6...provided Columbia releases them.