One Tree Hill

Is anyone else infuriated that Netflix yanked this show off it's roster?

 

I almost forgot about OTH. I never finished the show and it was one I took a while to get into but I do remember things about it and being hooked one season (I think Nanny Carrie??)

Peyton, couldn't stand her, she was too sulky and blah all the time.

Nathan and Brooke both grew on me.

Lucas was nice to look at and had a good friendship with Hayley but he had too many scenes with Peyton lol

The parents. Karen is lovely. Deb isn't so bad. Dan, oh man, I want to say I hate him because he's just so awful to a point but I don't completely hate him.

Other than that I don't remember a whole lot about the show.

 

Finished my first proper watch of all of Season 3 and a little more than halfway through Season 4.

That Big Event really did reshape and reestablish the show. I love how it's still reverberating in many ways, big and small. I watched Season 4 live all those years ago, or at least up until Haley being run over and Lucas having a heart attack. I don't remember anything after, so not sure, but I loved Peyton's stalker story just as much as the first time around, Dan's guilt, Haley's pregnancy, the loan shark story, just great all around.

I've seen episodes from both seasons 5 and 6 but it's mostly going to be new and I'm excited to rediscover it. Can't wait for the time jump, Nathan and Haley's super adorable son, Brooke's mom, Joe Manganiello, and that fabulous psycho (nurse?) that tormented Dan, finally giving him the suffering he needed/deserved!

 

One Tree Hill isn't delineated into heroes and villains. The characters are all somewhere in between those two categories and I like that. The "more thoughtful and decent brother" screwed his own brother's wife. He protected the identity of a woman who attempted murder. That's a felony.

If the show were delineated into heroes and villains though, Dan Scott would have to be the hero. What character made more personal growth in becoming a better person? His turning point in the series comes when he takes accountability for his actions. He feels remorse and wants to take his punishment. Despite there not being evidence that would convict him, he turns himself in to the police and serves his sentence. From then on he always does the righteous thing, continuing to do so no matter how ungrateful his family is for his saving their lives. Dan doesn't receive forgiveness (except from Jamie who is good and decent) and is kept almost entirely out of his son's life. Dan has been made a complete outcast in his town, yet he keeps being kind and good and continues to protect his family again and again. Dan is the only person both willing and competent enough to save their lives over and over again. Nathan should be able to protect his own family and he wants to be that man but he isn't competent enough. So Dan does it for him.

Deb would have to be the villain if the show were structured in that way. Deb never takes accountability for what she did and the devastating consequences of her actions. Deb didn't have the guts to turn herself in to the police and take her punishment. Deb believes she's entitled to break the law in any way she wants without ever needing to pay the price for it. She doesn't even have the decency to thank the man she tried to burn to death for saving her own life later in the show. He saves her life and she keeps treating him like shit. Deb is so delusional she actually thinks she's a good woman.

 

The second half of Season 4 was phenomenal, with standouts like the "pictures" episode and Derek's final attempt at getting to Peyton. The Derek storyline acquires some unfortunate subtext once you know about Mark Schwahn, especially since it ends on a sympathetic note for Derek (!!), but what great, soapy entertainment. And, of course, the truth about Dan killing Keith finally comes out and it's as juicy and exciting as predicted.

Season 5 was predictably an adjustment. Not necessarily because they jumped ahead four years and the show became quite different as a result, but because starting over just comes with growing pains and a loss of the tension/momentum built up until then. Interestingly, the other major soap of the 2000s, Desperate Housewives, jumped ahead in Season 5 as well and its producers said the same thing: It's like doing a new pilot. Only thing is, if those Season 5 episode 1's were the first episodes I'd ever seen of either show, I may not have necessarily continued to watch. Their original pilots stood out much more. In any case, I didn't enjoy Season 5 as much as I remembered the first time around because its general vibe/tone was somewhat subdued/heavy, it came at the heels of excellent Seasons 3 and 4, and there was somewhat of a lack of those OMG! cliffhangers we had come to expect and love (again, due to things needing to rebuild/start over again). I still watched it in less than three days, though!

Nanny Carrie was a great story, looooved touching base with Tim/Bevin/Rachel etc., Skills and Deb getting together, Dan dying, and really enjoyed that Dan was left in prison for more than half of the season. Then again, Dan was in prison for more than half of the season, and considering the driving force for drama he is... Anyway, the whole thing ended in a great double cliffhanger (Dan hit by a car, Lucas making his choice--which is it?).

And, now, the first episode of Season 6 and it feels the show is back on track! The energy is just up. I remember the Carrie story clearer now and it's both fun and terrifying watching Dan get his karmic retribution. Peyton and Lucas finally back together, Mouth's touching goodbye, and that shocking ending of Brooke being attacked.... I've seen about one third of this season before but only remember some of the Carrie stuff, so it'll (hopefully) be a wild ride and I can't wait! After that, it's all new...

 

Quentin's funeral/death and Nanny Carrie running through a corn field and getting a champagne bottle smashed into her face were just as heartbreaking and thrilling, respectively, as I remembered.