tv

One Tree Hill (2003 – 2012)

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A teenage drama turned nighttime soap opera…was it good for you?

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Yeah ok, you can laugh, point, and crack jokes about a guy watching One Tree Hill, but chances are that if you made it this far, you’re probably interested in the show for one reason or another. Now that you’ve either left or gotten a hold of yourself, I’d like to put pen to paper when it comes to one of the most successful shows to ever survive such a drastic retooling.

How did I get into One Tree Hill?  Well, it started more or less against my will.  But a funny thing happened – I actually found myself thoroughly interested in the show, even if I didn’t completely like it.  The first season gets off to a compelling start.  We get the star-crossed lovers in Lucas and Peyton, the Darth Vader-esque relationship between Lucas (aptly named, I might add) and Dan, the insensitive, hedonistic, almost totally unrealistic behavior of popular kids, and it’s all wrapped up in something kind of simple: basketball.  The premise is rather melodramatic, but it works.  Seeing Lucas and Nathan at odds with each other when it’s really Dan they hate makes for some decent drama, and watching Lucas pursue Peyton while she resists in futility appeals to the romantic in us.

There are a few things I take issue with though, mainly in the show’s set up.  The show takes place in the fictional Tree Hill, located right here in the Old North State, North Carolina.  Supposedly a small town somewhere outside of Wilmington (and indeed filmed in and around Wilmington), you’d think the show would make some attempt at realism, especially for the 10 million of us that live in NC.

First of all, no one speaks with a remotely Southern accent, not the main cast, not the supporting actors, and not even the extras.  There’s little mention of common food here – no collards, no iced tea, no fried chicken.  There aren’t any pick-up trucks, no scary Southern dads or semi-aristocratic families, no dirt roads, no tobacco  – not even so much as an earnest “ya’ll” in 9 damn seasons…and really nothing that says “North Carolina,” or even the Southeastern US in general at all.  But ok, I’ll set all that aside.  But it still bugs me.

The Early Years

Anyway, the first season of One Tree Hill is pretty good television, though as we move into the second season, I think the writers made some bad choices, and several premature ones.  Season 2 kicks off with the Lucas-Peyton-Brooke love triangle, which I think was exploited way too early.  They used up their fuel for this dramatic element before we really had a chance to root for Lucas and Peyton.  I was always pulling for Lucas and Peyton, but the writers cheapened this with Lucas’ insistence on being with Brooke, which he had absolutely NO connection with.  I’m sure this was done to cash in on the real life romance between Murray and Bush, though it’s a shame that they let such things interfere with the show’s integrity.  As if this wasn’t enough, they continue to revisit the issue in the third and fourth seasons, with Lucas constantly whining to Peyton, “I’ma get her [Brooke] back, Peyton!”  Ugh.

Another misstep was the early marriage of Nathan and Haley.  I wasn’t really against their pairing, but it happened way too quickly, especially the marriage.  The writers nullified any chance of exploring romantic drama with either Nathan or Haley ever again, unless they risked alienating the viewer from the characters altogether.  Also, I don’t think the audience was properly vested in Nathan’s sincerity when it all went down, which just made me suspicious of the whole thing and made me think that Haley was plain stupid.

I believe in and respect platonic relationships, but I think that when we’re teenagers, it’s difficult to believe in platonic love without first giving the romance a shot.  With Lucas and Haley being such great friends for so long, it’s difficult for me to believe that neither considered the idea of a relationship.  I’m not saying I necessarily think the two should’ve dated or slept together, it’s just unreasonable for them not to even entertain the idea of romantic feelings for their best friend of the opposite sex.  The writers could have done a lot more during the third and fourth seasons by exploiting some of this material instead of giving us Nathan and Haley over and over and over, Lucas and not Peyton, and Lucas and Brooke…again.

Nathan also become one of the “good guys” way too quickly, though obviously this ties into his marriage to Haley.  The writers couldn’t have made the marriage work with Nathan as an unlikable character for too long, which is yet another reason why the marriage was a premature development.  Nathan and Lucas hate each other, then they spend 4 episodes (or so) at a distance, and then bam Nathan is all of a sudden clear-headed and decent.  I don’t buy it, and I think there were a lot of cool stories left to tell when it came to Nathan and Lucas accepting each other as brothers.

In their haste to make everyone lovey dovey, some of the third and nearly all of the fourth season was mostly just a bunch of high school kids engaged in highly accelerated behavior.  I guess it’s fun to watch for a while, but pretty soon it gets old and it becomes so far removed from reality after a point that it can’t sustain my interest.  I mean, Nathan comes clean about his point-shaving (a ridiculous situation for him to be involved in in the first place) and says shit like “steadfast” in his fucking press conference…it’s too much.  And then there’s Lucas’ unemphatic “it’s you” mid-season when he finally (and rather inexplicably) comes to his senses about wanting to be with Peyton.

 

Various other hijinks and events ensue, purely to generate eye rolls.  There’s the adventure in Honey Grove, the Psycho Derek prom night thing, Brooke starting a fashion line, Lucas completing a book, the multitude of no-parent households (Peyton, Brooke) that produced fairly well-adjusted children, the car crash when Nathan and Haley renewed their vows, Haley’s water breaking in the middle of her valedictorian speech…it was really the beginning of the end.  In fact, I think Psycho Derek might’ve been One Tree Hill’s first “jump of the shark.”  (Yes, there’s more than one!)

A Very Special…

I guess I should take a moment to address the biggest event of Seasons 1 through 4 – and arguably the entire series – the school shooting.  Nearly every show that deals with high school tackles a school shooting at some point, and I guess One Tree Hill handled it as well as can be expected.  The chosen perpetrator, Jimmy, struck me as an odd choice.  He was just some background guy at the River Court that wasn’t seen after the pilot.  Supposedly nobody kept up with him once Lucas, Skills, and Mouth got closer to the popular crowd, though I don’t quite buy it.  I mean the reason makes sense in and of itself, it just doesn’t really fit with the events of the show.  Lucas certain ingratiated himself within the popular crowd, but Skills was very much on the outskirts, and although Mouth had several run-ins with the high school elite, he constantly made reference to how despondent he was over not being a part of “the in crowd.”  Fergie and Junk were “left in the dust” just as much as Jimmy, but they didn’t go postal, and had this been a more realistic situation, I think it’s probably that Fergie, Junk, and Jimmy would have hung out just as much as they did before Lucas got popular, along with both Skills and Mouth in all likelihood.

Regardless, the big kicker is that Jimmy, since he never actually killed anyone, was the victim and not a villain.  The fact that Dan murdered Keith was plausible and a dramatic high point of the show.  After all, he thought Keith tried to murder him as revenge for paying Jules, which of course Dan did because he caught Keith and Deb sleeping together.  It made sense, and it was a good way to totally villainize Dan (though I’m not sure I agree with the writers continuing to bring Dan back over and over again).  Essentially the school shooting served as the perfect vehicle for Dan to murder Keith without anyone knowing, and for us to see how the act haunted Dan, but in more ways than one, it ultimately diminishes the fact that a school shooting did in fact occur and the circumstances and ramifications surrounding such an event.

Because Jimmy doesn’t kill anyone except himself, he’s portrayed as a victim (at first to the audience only, and later to everyone as the truth comes out) which is only part of the reality surrounding a school shooting.  One Tree Hill gives us a warped perspective.  I’m not saying Jimmy should’ve killed Keith necessarily, but I do think Keith’s murder and the school shooting may have been better off as separate events.  I do think that Jimmy should’ve killed someone, just so that we (the audience) are able to get the full impact of the reality of a school shooting: yes, these unfortunate and lost teens are victims, but they are also accountable for their own actions.  Not that I have anything against Jimmy or his potential victim(s), but I think that if One Tree Hill wanted to show us a school shooting, they should’ve given us a school shooting, and not this watered down, rose-colored glasses version.

Although I have my issues with the first four years, they were miles beyond what would come later.  Sure, the accelerated behavior was annoying, and the fact that characters like Brooke and Nathan change their “evil ways” almost overnight to become these restrained, introspective, damn near altruistic individuals is too sentimental for its own good, but the stories were there, the writers had something to work with, and the characterization at least gave us some interesting individuals.  So what happens after high school?  Something that almost none of us expected….

One Tree Hill Version 2.0

Fast forward 4 and 1/2 years!  Indeed, Season 5 picks up over four years later with many of our main characters trickling back into Tree Hill after going their separate ways.  Now for the record, Season 5 sucks.  It’s boring.  It’s like watching a whole new show, or even worse, jumping right into the middle of a show and trying to play catch up.  However, I will sling a little bit of credit towards the writers.  I’m glad that they decided to do something different than follow the kids through college, for a number of reasons.  Most of all, I can’t stand it when high school shows try to maintain their steam during the college years by, through a variety of plot contrivances, have all of their characters end up in exactly the same damn place.  One guy decides not to go to college.  Another girl makes a last minute decision to go to the college right down the road so she can save money and live at home.  Some uber-talented individual gets the opportunity to move straight into their desired line of work right there in their home town!  But there is the one guy that moves away….and then makes a horrible mistake, gets kicked out, decides big schools aren’t for them, and goes to the local tech college.  At least One Tree Hill didn’t do this.

…But that doesn’t mean it worked.  It was really tough to jump back into the show.  Apparently fans responded well because the show lasted 9 seasons, but I wasn’t wild about the change.  I would’ve preferred that One Tree Hill proper ended after Season 4 (it was a great finale for the show), and this “new version” be billed as a spin-off.  Oh well.  Like I said, I didn’t much care for Season 5 for a few reasons.  First, it was totally unbelievable how everyone ended up back in Tree Hill within such a short span.  Even crazier was that the few parents that were around had totally disappeared.  Most parents don’t up and move when the kids fly the nest.  Crazily enough, almost everyone had gained a degree of fame, yet they all came back to the small town.  Brooke had a profitable clothing line, Lucas was a famous author, Haley had some recognition for her music, Nathan played basketball….it’s just too damn ridiculous.

Ridiculous as it was, it was clear that everyone was here to stay, and we spent the season dealing with shit like Nathan getting back on his feet (which happened way too quickly in my opinion) and the Lucas-Peyton-Lindsay problem (which lasted way too long in my opinion).  Lucas once again pined for Lindsay while Peyton was right there in his face, and once again, randomly decided he belonged with Peyton sometime around Season 6.  Season 6 crawls along at a similarly slow pace, though I will admit I was glad to see Lucas and Peyton finally together in a healthy relationship.  Peyton is pregnant, might die, doesn’t die…Brooke fights with her mom….Lucas is going to make a movie out of his book, but he can’t….none of it really registers with me, and a lot of characters start flying into the picture and keeping up with who’s who and who we should give a damn about becomes a little tiresome.

What really irks me about this time period is that everything that goes wrong gets fixed.  Every flawed person that shows up is quickly set straight and assimilated within 2 to 4 episodes.  Sam, for instance, is a really bratty awful child, but a few episodes later she’s all smiles and giggles.  Julian comes to town as an arrogant jerk, but quickly humbles up after all the Peyton drama plays out within an hour.  It almost drives me crazy how neat and tidy some of these personal issues are dealt with.  One Tree Hill brushes all of this aside and paints this portrait of people as these wonderfully awesome creatures that always strive to be the best possible versions of themselves, overcome all hardships within an acceptable period of time, and overcome all of their faults, flaws, and hangups without a single misstep.  This trend will continue throughout the rest of the show, while incidents like Nathan’s “baby momma” scandal, Psycho Sara, and the crazy rainstorm serving as points of drama.  It isn’t all bad, but I do wish people still had flaws and issues and were more human than these grossly sentimental and enlightened cardboard cutouts that the characters have become.

Fuck the Music

Another point of contention is all the freaking musical guest stars.  This started way back when the characters were in high school with Mia (Kate Voegle in real life) but they really start amping it up in the later seasons.  Peyton was really into music, she created a record company, other people managed it, whatever – that’s all fine and well.  The shitty part of it is that all the artists and music featured on One Tree Hill were/are decidedly middle of the road, adult contemporary, painfully inoffensive garbage.  It’s not even the whiny introverted politically correct hipster emo indie garbage that I’d expect – it’s worse because of its blandness, lifeless, generic, mediocre nature.

I guess someone out there ate it up, because it kept making its way to the show in droves, but if you think about who the characters are, it doesn’t really match.  Peyton at one point is listing her favorite albums; her number 2 pick is Nevermind (I assume the Nirvana album) and at number 1 is some record from Elvis Costello.  Also, she discusses The Cure with her birth mother, and there’s a scene somewhere where Lucas is putting away one of her Radiohead records.  During Peyton and Lucas’ first encounter, Lucas quotes NOFX lyrics to her.  Even with just a few references to Peyton’s tastes, there’s no way that Peyton would hear Haley’s blase singing and “Mia’s” watery adult contemporary commercial bullshit and say things like “oh my god that’s awesome, you’re so great!” among other such accolades.  So yeah, fuck the music on One Tree Hill.

One Tree Hill Version 2.5

Let’s move along with the last third of the show’s run.  Season 7 takes another leap forward, this time spanning 14 months.  Lucas and Peyton are officially gone, and though I do/did consider them to be at the heart of the show, I was ok with their departure.  Their story had been told, and the birth of their child was a good place to end it.  And although I don’t think they would’ve chosen to just take off after the birth of their child (I mean really, wouldn’t they just settle down in their small hometown with their friends!?), I guess it was probably the best way to write them off.  Unfortunately, I think everyone else’s story had already been told too, but they just kept going and going and going…

This brings me to something else that started to bug me around this time as well, the club/bar/thing “Tric.”  Peyton founded Tric way back in the day (ridiculously implausible as it was), but I guess it was kind of a neat idea.  She had this vision of an all ages club where the teens of Tree Hill could go and enjoy live music and a communal setting…and even though it was a little outlandish for a small town, it did at least provide an environment for things to happen.  All this I could live with.  What was so strange is that by the time all the adults are settling back down, Tric has become a straight up bar where the adults go to get drunk.  I suppose I can forgive the reuse of a locale, except that this time around there aren’t any teenagers.  You can actually spot old guys in business suits sitting around, and not only are the adults getting drunk, they’re getting sloppy, sad, drown-my-sorrows kind of drunk.  How damn hard would it have been for them to just find an existing bar to hang out in?  It sort of ruins the ideal of an all ages club that Peyton had put so much into.  Oh well, what the hell.

With so many new people, we could call it One Tree Hill Version 19.3

Back to the show!  Season 7 had big shoes to fill.  And fill them it did.  All of these tiny characters that had been bouncing around on the periphery started getting bigger story lines.  I mean WOW, we already knew a lot of these people, but suddenly they were rising in prominence: Clay, Quinn, Julian, Millicent, Chase, Mia, Alex, and to a lesser extent people like Jamie, Brooke’s mother, Skills, Ms. Lauren, those 2 other kids…it was a lot to take in.  Most of these characters failed to make an impact with me, mainly because of what I said above about everyone turning into these perfect little always-do-the-right-thing creatures.  Clay was just fucking boring, and a pathetic excuse as a replacement for Lucas as Nathan’s friend.  Julian and Brooke were quickly set up to become the new Lucas and Peyton.  Quinn was boring too; there’s simply no substance to her.  The Psycho Sara story that came to a head in the eighth season attempted to define her better (and I actually kind of enjoyed those scenes where she discusses murder with Dan), but she served absolutely no purpose except to have another female around.  They tried to make these two a little more interesting with the whole quasi-supernatural coma thing, but personally I couldn’t stand those episodes.  I almost completely zoned out at the beginning of Season 8.

To top it off, the writers had no fucking idea what to do with Mouth, Millicent, Skills, Lauren, or any of their story lines.  They’re dropped and picked back up at random, despite containing some of the most human elements still left in the show.  Instead, we get massive amounts of screen time devoted to Alex, an utterly pointless character.  They would’ve done better leaving her as a guest star playing the troublesome whore, but no, they clean her up like everyone else, suddenly she’s perfect, and guess what!?  She’s another mediocre musician!  Her presence means even less in the wake of Mia picking up more screen time, and even less since she and Mia both end up vying for Chase.  And Chase, by the way, has been one of the most consistently boring characters since the fourth freaking season!!!  I don’t understand these choices at all.  Like I said, these people are so perfect and so quickly overcome any and every troublesome issue that all chances of drama are extinguished.

And in the midst of all this shiny white perfection, we’re forced to endure some of the corniest, sappiest stuff ever said out loud.  The stuff these people say to each other is sickening and about the furthest thing I’ve ever heard from normal speech.  The way everyone says “…and I love you for that but…” drives me insane, and so does everyone saying some shit like, “Brooke Davis is awesome,” or, “I love you, Brooke Davis,” or, “Brooke Davis is one in a million,” or, “you are amazing Brooke Davis.”  It makes me want to jam my finger in my eye and twist it around in my brain.  FUCK.  Yes, there is pillow talk and yes people are occasionally honest and sappy with each other, but people don’t go around gushing this shit out like a fountain.

Don’t even get me started on the shit that the kid says.  Jamie’s wedding speech for Julian and Brooke – as Julian’s best man no less – I mean really, in what fucking universe does this shit happen?

Admittedly it’s nice to think of a world where people can suppress and rise above their issues enough to love themselves.  It’s nice to believe in honesty, and responsibility, and redemption, and true love….but when is enough enough?  When do we see the darker side of life?  Or rather, when do we see the darker side for more than half a second?  Where are the moments that show us that shit doesn’t always work out how you want it to?  Where are the episodes that show us that life goes on, after the good and the bad?  When do we learn that just because you want somebody/something bad enough it doesn’t mean you’ll get it?  When do we learn to pick up the pieces and move on?  Dreams die.  Friends let you down.  Love isn’t enough.  One Tree Hill gives us a glimpse of these things, but they never stick.  There’s always a “happily ever after” on the other side.  I guess I just wish that it didn’t always feel like a live action Care Bears show.

And Then…And Then…Came…Season 9

Believe it or not, I’ve been trying to spare One Tree Hill’s dignity as much as possible….but there’s no avoiding it.  After all the turbid romances, the lies, the scandals, and a disproportionate occurrence of extraordinary events, then…there’s….Season 9.  It was only 13 episodes long, but boy does it spend those 13 episodes flying straight off into left field.  Seriously, if One Tree Hill had returned for a 10th season, we would’ve had vampires, time travel, robots, trolls, an archangel, Spanish pirates, Hannibal Lecter, a colony on Mars, World War VII, the Praetorian Guard, Wolverine, talking lobsters, the northern ice giants, Bob Saget, Princess Peach, Joe Dirt, an Arquillian Battlecruiser, a Jigsaw trap, anthropomorphic prepositions, and a simultaneous crossover with Lost, The Walking Dead, and Gossip Girl…and one of our main characters would’ve been reduced to a brain in a jar.

Notice that it still wouldn’t have included a decent musical act.  Or Lucas and Peyton.

After a very strange Season 8 finale that plays out like something between a clip show and a 44 minute montage, it (yet again) seemed like there was no where left for the show to go.  Oh boy.  Season 9 opens with a flurry of violent shots taken completely out of context, but never fear, we’re spoonfed the events pretty soon.  These 13 episodes unfold like a Lifetime mini-series.  In a nutshell: Nathan gets kidnapped by some people wanting money, Dan mounts a rescue mission complete with beatings, torture, bodies in trunks, and a sawed-off shotgun and takes Julian and Chris Keller along for the ride, Brooke confronts her attacker from way the hell back, Mouth gets fat (which is handled really poorly in regards to body image and self-esteem), Lucas appears in a pointless scene, and Clay and Quinn, ever the misfits, deal with Clay’s “fugue states” and the son he forgot he had for 6 years.

It’s crazy as shit.

What’s more is that the characters seem to have little regard for the craziness in each other’s life – especially when it comes to Clay and Quinn, who both ignore and are ignored by virtually every other character.  The writers never knew what to do with these two, and instead of working them into either the A plot (Nathan/Dan) or the B plot (Brooke), they invent a tertiary plot line that sees Clay wandering around in a fugue state.  In true Memento style (except crappier) Clay can’t remember shit and we’ve discovered that he’s been treated for not remembering shit but can’t remember it!  Apparently he was so sad about his wife dying that he completely forgot he had a fucking child.  He finally admits it to the child, and it’s as unintentionally funny as it sounds, “son, I forgot all about you when mom died.”  Sucks for him….mom’s dead and dad forgets about you….

The kid is creepy as shit; despite this, we’re fed a bunch of sappy scenes where he calls Clay “dad” and Quinn “mom,” and in the space of 3 episodes the kid is terrified of water, becomes unterrified, has an idealic living room campout with “mom” and “dad,” and lives happily ever after, even after being ripped from his grandpa’s home.  Clay and Quinn are planning a wedding, but then they scrap it when the adoption papers are going to have to wait an hour, and instead get married at the courthouse.  And then adopt the kid.  And Bevin’s there.

The whole thing with Brooke and her stalker is dumb as hell too.  Instead of getting a guy who served his time and paid his debt to society who’s now trying to make an honest living, it turns out he’s still a totally psycho issue-ridden wannabe rapist.  But it’s all resolved without any carnal conflict.

The shit with Nathan is just mindblowing.  Stereotypical Eastern Europeans (I think?) kidnap him.  The reason is convoluted and has to do with some plot point we never knew about until now that had to do with Dan and his fraudulent image during his talk show days.  Dan goes 100% Rambo, and drags the two most effete males on One Tree Hill with him: Chris Keller and Julian.  Gunfight ensues, Nathan is rescued and then the waterworks start.  Dan is shot and in the hospital with not long left to live.  Everyone gets a good cry over it – Nathan, Deb, Jamie, Haley – and then who should greet him in death but Keith himself.  The acting is stilted and the dialog is crap, but it’s actually a nice little resolution to the whole “I murdered my brother” thing.  Keith forgives him and acknowledges Dan’s attempts to redeem himself, and they walk off to heaven together.  The problem?  This shit happened about 4 seasons too late.  Yes, the Keith thing always ran through the show, but it most directly tied to Lucas and Karen.  Lucas and Karen were gone, so all of a sudden it was Nathan who couldn’t bear living without Keith, and Jamie, a damn 7 year old, was all broken up about it too.  My point is that Dan didn’t really serve much of a purpose those last few years except to redeem himself.  Problem is, Keith and Keith’s murder got further and further removed from the show’s events.  I liked that it finally came to a close, but it didn’t feel right without Lucas and Karen, or at least Lucas.

The show should’ve ended then and there, but no, it drags out for 3 more painful episodes.  One thing that bothers me is that the ideal life is held to be a marriage and children.  All throughout the show, this is portrayed as the ultimate happiness.  Karen has a child and then marries Andy.  Lucas and Peyton have a whole season devoted to getting back together and the another focusing on pregnancy.  And instead of even considering ending the pregnancy because of the risk it posed to Peyton, they went ahead anyway and happened to get lucky.  Brooke and Julian get married in Season 8, lose out on the adoption, and then spontaneously have twins.  (Despite repeated mentions of Brooke’s infertility.  I know I know, “IT’S A GODDAMN MIRACLE!”) Within 2 (or less) episodes Clay and Quinn get engaged, married, and adopt Clay’s forgotten son.  I almost forgot that Nathan and Haley had another kid.  At the end of the finale, Mouth and Millie are married and Millicent is pregnant.  Skills and Bevin are also implied to be back together (random) and even though nothing is mentioned, we do know that Bevin already has a child.  Even Lauren (Skills’ and Mouth’s previous love interest) is pregnant with David’s child (David being Quinn’s ex-husband).

I’ve probably missed someone, but it doesn’t matter.  Characters that don’t “fit” (Fergie, Junk, Chase, Alex, Chris) are pretty much discarded and even if they weren’t, I’m sure they’re whining about wanting a wife/husband and 2.3 kids.  I get that this is the norm, but aren’t there other ways of finding happiness?  What about with one’s career?  Oh that’s right, they tied up all those loose ends nicely too.  Mouth gets his dream sports announcer job, Millie and Skills host a morning show, Brooke gets another damn fashion line off the ground (and makes up with her parents who also make up with each other (aww how sweet!)), Julian finally finds success by turning Lucas’ book into a TV show…and so it goes.

Not that I want to see unhappy characters at the end, but it would be nice to see some realism, and to know that these characters still had bigger and better things to do and places to go.  But no, everyone’s life ends up quite literally perfect.  With a spouse.  And a kid.  Or two.

There is only one One Tree Hill…

Well, that’s it for me and One Tree Hill.  Lots of times people like to ask, “well if you hated it so much, why did you keep watching it!?”  I don’t know if I have a good answer for that.  I suppose my best retort would be that I didn’t hate it that bad.  And besides, when you’ve been watching something for a wile, I think it’s only natural to want to follow it to the end, even if the ride isn’t as fun as we’d like it to be.

The truth is that those first four years were pretty good.  No, it’s not something I’m generally into, and no, I probably wouldn’t have watched it on my own, and no, I don’t plan on chasing down similar shows like The O.C. or Dawson’s Creek.  But for what it was – melodrama and escapism – it did its job pretty well.  I’ll never understood what viewers saw in the later seasons, but it must’ve been something good, because that same audience kept the show on more than twice as long.

Written by The Cubist

So how much One Tree Hill have you watched?  Agree with me?  Disagree?  Care to explain what made the post-high school seasons worth watching?  Let me know in the comments below!