Ack! Somehow this never got posted, I’m planning on posting about tonight’s episode, but why don’t I go ahead and post this and let you ponder it for a day.
ONE TREE HILL: 5.01-5.04
How is it that I’ve not commented on One Tree Hill? I’m already lamenting that I didn’t say anything about the pseudo-series/season finale (WHICH I thought was fantastic as a series finale and am almost disappointed that the series is back).
Anyway, so we jumped four years ahead–a daring move I’d say. I was really curious to see if they would pull it off, and you know what? I think they have.
Looking at the seaon previews, I was disbelieving. “You mean to tell me that Mouth is a big-time news reporter, Lucas has written a bestseller, Brooke has her own successful clothing line, and Peyton has her own recording contract???” Thank God, this wasn’t true! I much preferred that Mouth and Peyton struggled, and while Lucas did have a bestseller, at least he wasn’t living the life of luxury. It made it much more realistic.
They have real jobs. Lives you could possibly imagine seeing–except maybe Brooke at this point and by extension Peyton with Brooke’s funds–and I think the relationships are still there. I’m not going to lie: I got really sick of Nathan really quickly, so I’m glad he’s more toward a normal and tolerable character now. And wow, Jamie’s adorable.
All that aside, I love the Skills has such a large role this season. It really makes me happy and adds a lot more of the clever fun from previous seasons.
And would you look at that? We have a bit of a Beautiful People reunion going on through the characters of Brooke’s mom and Carrie. Scary. But they’re doing a good job, even if the Nanny/Mommy storyline is a big cliche. We’ll forgive you this time, only because you haven’t made this series hideous by forcing us to watch the lives of six people in college that all happen to land around Tree Hill.
I have to give the show one more prop: K-Fed appeared in the show, and I barely even noticed. I don’t know if that means the show was insanely good at not playing that up or because I don’t watch enough of the news about Britney Spears (though once I saw his name at the start of the show, I remembered reading an article about his guest appearances), but he really wasn’t that obnoxious! At least no more than his character was supposed to be. Kudos.
So basically, my final opinion: The show is holding my interest as well as the previous season’s beginning episodes have (take into accound with the last couple seasons, I got bored mid-season and stopped watching). I find it spectacular that they could actually piece the shambles of their partially ended series together four years later (I was truly thinking it would be TERRIBLE). While it might not be the best show on TV–and definitely not as great as its early seasons–it gets its applause, and I’ll keep watching for now.
(Though, to be fair, I would have been more proud if it had ended with that FANTASTIC series/season finale of last spring. THAT was going full circle.)
