| Product: |
One Tree Hill |
| Date: |
23/07/08 (106 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great actors, music and storylines.
Disadvantages: Too many beautiful people and it's quite a depressing show.
One Tree Hill
At the time that One Tree Hill came out, one of its biggest rivals was fellow teen show The OC and I have to admit I was a bigger fan of The OC than One Tree Hill, but the ratings for One Tree Hill must have been a lot better, as The OC was cancelled and One Tree Hill is currently in it's fifth season and lately I have been watching re-runs and the current series and really enjoying it. Here is why.
The Plot
When the show first started it follows the basketball team of the Tree Hill Ravens in their school life and their home life. The show started off based around two main charecters, Lucas Scott who is the only child of Karen and distant father's other son from another relationship. Dan Scott is the two boys father and disowned Lucas and Karen when he was young and favours his other son Nathan and his wife Deb.
Like most shows, Lucas starts off pretty unpopular along with his best mate Hayley. Nathan is the popular one, he is captain of the basketball team, and is dating the popular girl in school Peyton. Lucas's basketball talent is found out and he joins the Ravens, to the distaste of Nathan.
The show continues through the years and Lucas and Hayley become popular, Hayley actually begins to date and finally marries Nathan. The 'pretty' girls start to see what a catch Lucas is and he has a girl called Brooke and Nathan's ex Peyton after him.
The Main Characters
Lucas Scott- Chad Michael Murray: Lucas was abandoned by his father and was brought up by his Uncle Keith and his mother. He joined the Ravens in high school and then went on to write his first book and then coach the Ravens. His main love interests are Peyton & Brooke. He and his half brother Nathan start of as rivals but become great friends.
Nathan Scott- James Lafferty: He is the favourite son of Dan Scott, but behind closed doors not everything is cheery. Dan's pressuring Nathan to be the best of the best. In the first series he breaks up with Peyton and then goes on to marry Lucas's long term friend Hayley. He and his half brother Lucas start off as rivals, become great friends.
Peyton Sawyer- Hilarie Burton: Her real mother put her up for adoption so Peyton was adopted by Larry and Anna Sawyer. Her adoptive mother died and Larry works on a dredging boat so she was alone for a lot of her teenage years. She's a fantastic artist and loves music, opening her own record label in season 5.
Hayley James Scott: Bethany Joy Galeotti: She's been best friends with Lucas for years and marries his half brother Nathan when they are still in high school. When she meets a musician called Chris, she realises she has a talent for music and begins to tour the country but stops when she realises Nathan's more important. In the fourth season she becomes pregnant and gives birth to Jamie at the end of the fourth season.
Brooke Davies- Sophia Bush: She is Peyton's best friend and captain of the cheerleading squad. She is very into clothes and produces a line for Victoria's Secret and later sets up her own company. She and Lucas had an on/off relationship over the years, but she backed off when she realised he was meant to be with Peyton.
The One's That Have Come and Gone
Paul Johansson plays Dan Scott, Lucas & Nathan's father. He has always favoured Nathan over Lucas, but Nathan does however pay for this. He later nearly dies and blames his brother Keith, so much so he kills his own brother. He ends up in prison because of this.
Barbara Alyn Woods plays Deb, the neurotic wife and mother of Dan & Nathan. She divorces Dan in season 3, and attempts to kill him in season 3, Keith is then blamed for this plot. She battles a pill addition, alienating her from her family and friends.
Rachel Gatina- Danneel Harris: Had a lot of plastic surgery before she was 18 and moved to Tree Hill in her senior year. Rachel was expelled.
Whitey- Barry Corbin: He plays the Raven's coach, he has never gotten along with Dan. He becomes a great mentor for both Lucas & Nathan.
Craif Sheffer played Keith Scott, Dan's older brother and father figure to Lucas. He's been in love with Lucas's mom since high school, but they fell in love before he was shot by Dan.
Moira Kelly plays Lucas's mother. She used to own a small café. She was abandoned by Dan, and raised Lucas with the help of Keith. After Keith's death, she finds out she's pregnant and goes on tour with her daughter and boyfriend.
The Sidekicks
Lee Norris plays Marvin McFadden or Mouth. He is one of Lucas' oldest friends from the River Court, and commentated on the basketball games in high school. He dreams of becoming a sports commentator and became very close friends with popular girl Brooke over the years.
Antwon Tanner plays Skills, another one of Lucas' friends. When Lucas becomes unable to play in season 4, he takes his place. Skills now lives with Mouth, Fergie & Junk and gets along well with Jamie Scott.
Jamie Scott played by Jackson Brundage is Nathan & Hayley's son. He is very smart and considers the whole gang his aunt and uncles. He's the most adorable thing in the world as well, season 5 is sure to make you go aww at one point because of this little guy.
The Seasons
The first four seasons follow the characters as they deal with high school and everything that could happen including fights, new loves, break ups etc. In my opinion, it was all done before, there was nothing really new here, and nothing that made the show unique, until it got to season 5.
At the end of season 4, the characters are all going off to different colleges. The start of season 5 however, fast forwards 5 years, so that the charecters are now all done with college, they all are trying to hold a steady job down. They are still all trying to find themselves, but in my opinion I found this quite unique.
In shows like The OC, the show wasn't really gonna go anywhere after the last season, the finale was perfect, but they couldn't have really have made another season. This idea was perfect, it let them all come back to their home and do the stuff they love.
The storyline's in season 5, are a bit annoying however, as they have been done before, either in the previous seasons or just other teen shows. However I am still enjoying season 5 even though I'm only half way through.
The Music
In the first four seasons, the show opened with a great number by a pretty unknown artist then called Gavin DeGraw. His song I Don't Wanna Be became the show's 'song' and since then he has shot to success. The show doesn't use a theme song anymore, it prefers just a black screen with One Tree Hill on it, and however the use of music is very prominent throughout the show. As well as guest appearances from Gavin DeGraw, Peyton has also meant some great artists including Fall Out Boy, even dating Pete Wentz in the show.
When Chris Keller came into the show, the music got even better. One of the favourite cast members in the show Hayley, found her voice and preformed around the country. Chris Keller played by Tyler Hilton was pretty good too.
The show despite the fact it's a teen drama show, is very reliant on it's music. When the nightclub Tric was opened it featured a lot of Peyton's favourite stars, including in season 5 he protégé Mia.
The Good
Lucas & Nathan and even some of the other little characters in the show are very very nice looking. I know everyone pretty much goes for Chad Michael Murray who plays Lucas, but in my opinion his character is just a bit too wimpish. However, you cannot deny that these 'brother's have been hit by the pretty stick as have the rest of the cast.
The storylines are pretty good, I wouldn't go as far as to say they are realistic due to the fact that one small town, wouldn't have that many beautiful people in it, but some of the storylines do really touch home and do actually happen in real life.
The Bad
The storylines do tend to get on my nerves, how many times can you get people cheating on their boyfriend/girlfriend? Can't anyone stay faithful? Sometimes it does become like an episode of East Enders, where no one seems to be able to be happy.
The show can get quite depressing as well, this is one of the bad points against a lot of the show likes this one, it doesn't really go along with the comedy side of things. The OC could make me chuckle but this show has never really made me laugh, just made me cry sometimes.
The other bad point is it's classed as a teen soap kinda thing, an American one at that. So it doesn't really get a lot of good ratings here in the UK.
My Opinion
I would recommend watching it. If you just went straight into the fifth season on Mondays at 9pm on E4 then you would find yourself a little lost, as a lot of the storylines focus on quite a few of the back story's. I even find myself having to ask what happened.
However if you do like the sound of it, and get a chance to watch it from the start or even mid way in, you should. It's a great show, it could do with more humour but minus that it's well worth watching.
Hoped this helped. Kirsty ©
Summary: If you love teen drama shows this one's for you.
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