What do you get if you mix a skateboarding dog and Dave Navarro — the guitarist from Jane's Addiction — with a wild bachelorette party? Well, if you're watching "One Tree Hill," you inevitably get a lesson about love, family and the importance of friendship. Returning in the middle of its eighth season on The CW, "One Tree Hill" is continuing to do what it does best: combining melodramatic characters with unrealistic plotlines to create an emotionally charged show that's horribly addictive.
"One Tree Hill" follows the evolving relationships of a group of friends living in a small town in North Carolina, detailing their romantic pursuits and personal struggles as young professionals.
The second half of the season kicks off in true "OTH"-style with Brooke's (Sophia Bush) bachelorette party — or more accurately, the day after the party, as Brooke, Alex (Jana Kramer), Quinn (Shantel VanSanten) and Millie (Lisa Goldstein) fight through hangovers to piece together their wild night and find Brooke's lost engagement ring.
While the episode, fittingly titled "The Drinks We Drank Last Night," focused on the show's female cast, Nathan (James Lafferty) and Julian (Austin Nichols) were present in their roles as supportive significant others. Filling the void of departed show veterans Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton, who left after the sixth season, the show has replenished its main cast with several new characters, such as those played by Kramer and VanSanten, who now, a season and a half later, are finally beginning to feel like a real part of the "One Tree Hill" family.
The episode alternates between flashbacks of the women's "Girls Gone Wild"-style shenanigans and the cold water of the next morning, mixing funny moments (impulsive tattoos, mechanical bulls and throwing water-filled condoms at Dave Navarro) with serious ones (confrontations with the mother-in-law, confessions of love and ever-considerate fiances).
Such a combination certainly showcases "One Tree Hill's" unfailing ability to produce episodes that include anything a fan could ever want in a CW dramedy — or a daytime soap opera. Viewers laugh while watching the girls start to remember their dirty deeds, in a way that would have made SOAPnet proud. Nonetheless, the episode was able to offer a heartfelt ending that reinforced the show's lessons of love and friendship.
What sets "One Tree Hill" apart from its CW siblings is its unashamed fearlessness. The show is the consistent underdog of the network, and it is always a gamble as to whether or not the show will be renewed for another season, leading "One Tree Hill's" creator, Mark Schwahn, to treat each season as if it's the last.
Consequently, "One Tree Hill" can sometimes seem like the writers are trying to cross off every item on their bucket list for the show. Throughout the past eight years, fans have accepted kidnapping nannies, murders, shootings, pregnancies, weddings and random celebrity cameos as just part of the show's commitment to being as theatrical as possible.
While other shows might just get old after so many seasons, this tendency to rely on unbelievable plotlines has played to "One Tree Hill's" advantage. Anyone still watching the show after eight years has obviously proved his or her loyalty, and the show's writers seem to count on the fact that fans have grown to expect the unexpected. The possibility that each season might be the last forces the show to stay on its toes, and, after over 150 episodes, the writers resort to ever more unbelievable storylines to maintain the show's energy and momentum.
In all likelihood, "One Tree Hill" is never going to win an Emmy — its writing rarely rises above mediocre, and the acting (excepting the occasional impressive performance by Sophia Bush) is usually melodramatic, like cliches come to life.
So why watch "One Tree Hill"? The main reason is the characters. Throughout the years, fans have watched the group of friends endure just about everything; the protagonists have developed complex backgrounds that render them deeper and more interesting with each passing season. In eight years, Brooke, Nathan, Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) and their friends have become adults, transforming "One Tree Hill" from a teen drama into an engaging show about a group of people that fans have grown to know and love.
"One Tree Hill" has certainly explored its strengths and weaknesses, and this eighth season has so far displayed a show that has finally found its place. Whether or not the show will be renewed for a ninth season is anybody's guess. But if fans have managed to stick with the show this long, they certainly won't be disappointed by this season.
