Okay, so it's many MANY years since lots of us endured the unfortunate downfall of this show and I still feel the need to come here + share my view that season 3 was one of the most
disappointing and fraudulent seasons of television I have ever sat through in my life.
Andie's character assassination had SO much to do with that and I was pretty much emotionally done once that happened. How can you go from Pacey and Andie declaring their undying love for each other in the season 2 penultimate episode after he helped her through the toughest struggle of her life, and then witness them breaking up just a few months later because apparently some stranger at rehab was too hard for her to resist?
I feel that they did tremendous harm to the amazing character development of Andie during season 2 with this turnaround. Meredith Monroe worked her butt off to be taken seriously as a new cast member, specifically playing somebody who had mental issues unlike the other more lucky girls in the show whose biggest problems involved their love lives.
But the fact that the the writers of season 3 - many of whom were completely
in the wake of Kevin Williamson's departure and also with the support of Greg Berlanti who judging by season 4's opener was a huge P/Jer -- the fact that these people (and I don't include Kevin in this, I must stress) felt they had to destroy her love for Pacey and her self-esteem in an off-screen betrayal that was clearly done just to make the transition to Pacey and Joey's relationship easier... Well, it says it all, really.
And the handling of
Dawson and Joey's relationship in this season was equally terrible. NO WAY would Dawson have rejected Joey sexually (does nobody remember him making a move on her in the boat in a late season 2 episode? What kind of bad continuity...
) and NO WAY would he treat her like his property. This is also character assassination and it was clearly done to appease Pacey fans who wanted him to play the romantic hero by the end of the season.
That episode near the end of the season where Dawson and Pacey compete against each other in the boat race is just offensive to Dawson's character on so many levels.
But I've said before and I still believe it:
when they lost Kevin Williamson, they lost the plot entirely.
It became
JOEY'S CREEK. Dawson became the pathetic crying bystander who had to painfully watch the love of his life run towards his best friend. Sorry, but I never signed up for this.
