One Tree Hill follows the story of two estranged half-brothers living in a small North Carolina town, who carry on very different lives. Basketball prodigy Nathan Scott (James Lafferty, Once & Again) has inherited the throne of high school popularity once held by his father, Dan (Paul Johansson, Beverly Hills 90210), while Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray, Dawson's Creek, Gilmore Girls), also a talented player stays an outsider. Spending nights shooting hoops on a riverfront court, Lucas remains the son Dan never acknowledged.

Now Lucas' and Nathan's paths intersect for the first time, and in the middle of the crossroads stands Payton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton, Dawson's Creek), Nathan's beautiful girlfriend who just may have more in common with Lucas. Throw in the quiet animosity between Dan and his brother Keith (Craig Shaffer, A River Runs Through It), along with Lucas' mother, Karen (Moira Kelly, The West Wing) - all of whom must cope with the aftermath of their choices - and something has to give.

CRITIQUE

I was hooked on One Tree Hill last year. I knew it was nothing special, not a gem by any regards, but the great performances by fine actors and actresses, and the dramatic storylines that keeps one glued to the television screen week by week, made it quite an addictive series. Now looking back at it with a critical eye, the first season seems even weaker than my first viewing.

Ever so often I hear people refer to the show as The WB’s version of The OC, but I disagree. Summerland is more like The OC with similar scenarios and settings, while One Tree Hill is more suited as a Dawson’s Creek knock off. In fact, story lines, characters, and even the themes are so similar that one would think One Tree Hill is like Dawson’s Creek: The Next Generation. 

One theme that really sticks out in this show that is unique to the rest of the shows is the theme of passion within each character. Each main character has a goal, passion, or desire that keeps them going, and more importantly keeps the storylines flowing. That’s a main point with Dawson’s Creek as well. And it should be noted Dawson’s Creek started out with four main characters intertwining each other. One Tree Hill does this, too, but also takes it a step further.

Another comparison, a theme that’s also used as a plot device in Smallville, is the scenario of two similar characters, only different for how they are raised. The point, “If I was raised like him, I would I be like him” is a philosophical idea that is explored on greatly in the season. It’s also an interesting and deep subject matter, probably one of the more mature ideas The WB uses occasionally.

What I like about The WB in general is its way of intersecting the pin-up teen stars and the veterans of acting together. Everwood appeals to me not for the teen aspect but how it’s truly Treat Williams and Tom Amandes’ show. The same goes for 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, and Smallville. 

With One Tree Hill, you have veteran actors Barry Corbin, Moira Kelly and Craig Sheffer. And what’s even more interesting with Sheffer, there is a 1987 film called Some Kind of Wonderful where Sheffer plays a teen who bullies a character named Keith who works at an auto shop. Less than twenty years later, Sheffer plays a guy named Keith who owns an auto shop. I bet not too many people who watch the show know about that little piece of trivia.

THE VIDEO

Warner Brothers presents One Tree Hill in 1.33:1 fullscreen format. Like most of WB’s TV show sets, it’s expanded to six discs for better video quality, and once again WB does it with excellence. But why are the “last time on ONE TREE HILL” teasers included with the episodes? It makes sense showing this for the TV broadcast it’s unneeded for the DVD.

THE AUDIO

Warner Brothers presents One Tree Hill in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. As most TV show sets, it’s better than TV quality. Dialogue, music and sound effects sound clear and are easily understandable.

THE EXTRAS

The extras are average. Not great but not awful either.

The commentary tracks come in two sets.  You have two commentary tracks by producers and creators of the show Mark Schwahn and Joe Davola on "The Pilot" and "To Wish Impossible Things".  It's what to be expected, informational but sometimes also boring.

And two commentary tracks by the cast on the season finale "The Games That Play Us".  One commentary track is by Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz, and Sophia Bush.  This one isn't as boring but not as informational.  The second one is by Moira Kelly, Craig Sheffer, Paul Johansson, and Barbara Alyn Woods.  As the first one by the young cast, comical but not informational at all.  The contrast between the young cast and the older cast is quite interesting, but I find what they did with the commentaries on this DVD not so great.

In my opinion, when a TV show wants to do a proper commentary track, they should check out the ones from the Everwood First Season set.  Both equal to producers and the stars of the show, both informational and comical, and it isn't as repetitious as each one has a handful of the same people but one or two different stars, which was neat.  This set, didn't follow that formula at all.  But at least there is something to show for it.

The two featurettes isn't that exciting as well.  We have "Building a Winning Team: The Making of One Tree Hill", which was an interesting "making of", as they spill the beans right off the bat on how One Tree Hill was thought of as a movie project a while ago.  But like most featurettes, it tends to drag with the cliché "...and I got the script" from the stars.

The other featurette is called "Diaries from the Set", which is strictly behind-the-scenes footage within the shows cast, and basically shows you how the young cast of the show are just normal young people having fun.

There are twenty additional scenes that equal about forty-five minutes all together, which is a little more than the time of one single episode.  I got some beef with these "deleted scenes."  I've been noticing with the "Gilmore Girls", "Everwood", and "Smallville" DVDs that they include the unaired deleted stuff that got deleted strictly on time constraints.

I am glad that they include the scenes onto the DVD, but feel they are sloppy on that since they could very well just simply add the scenes into the episodes itself.  It's understandable why things get deleted, just the same with theatrical stuff.  But I can NEVER understand why if deleted scenes are included on the DVD, why stop there and just add them in the pesky film.

DVDs are a great market, with no time constraints and gives you some freedom to do whatever you want.  In fact, it's a shame I am not in charge of these releases, I would take out all those pesky "last time on [insert show]", do the commentary tracks CORRECTLY, do the making-of CORRECTLY (I mean, the good questions aren't even being asked, what compelled the creator of the show to come up with the idea of it?), and insert the deleted scenes back into the episodes in which they were deleted.  But what do I know?!?!  I am just a pesky little reviewer!

There is also a music video for "Oh, Chariot" by Gavin DeGraw and "Christmas Elf Gag", which is supposed to be a funny scene with Paul Johansson and Barbara Alyn Woods, but I found it to be a mediocre filler.

FINAL THOUGHTS

One Tree Hill wasn’t a favorite of mine and now viewing it again it turns out somewhat below average. There are decent, repetitious storylines present in between the fine direction and great acting, yet this doesn’t quite make it a great show. This DVD is worth a rental but not worth purchasing, except for big fans of the show who should find this release a treat.