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Every teen drama in this day and age feels compelled to give the adult characters their own ongoing storylines. While Jim and Cindy Walsh on the original
Beverly Hills 90210 were completely boring and useless, the parental units of the Wilson family on the new
90210 are bound to have all sorts of personal drama and tons of screen time. Gone are the days when adults were pushed to the background of teen soaps while the beautiful youngsters stole all the interesting storylines.
While the elders on
The O.C. and
Gossip Girl have struggled with moral and romantic dilemmas, none have fallen into plots that are anywhere near as crazy as what Dan Scott gets involved with on
One Tree Hill every week. It seems that Mark Schwahn has created a series that has a split personality, and I can't quite decide if it makes the show brilliant or acts as a complete distraction.
I had a friend over last night who hasn't seen much of
One Tree Hill, and after watching a few minutes of Dan's
Misery-esque plot line he mentioned that it seemed to be part of a completely different show. I agree. The rest of the gang is on
One Tree Hill, while Dan's antics often recall the over the top shenanigans of trashy soaps like
Nip/Tuck,
Dynasty and
Melrose Place. The shift in tone from scene to scene can be a bit distracting, especially when you go from a tender moment between Brooke and Mouth to the cartoonishly evil machinations of Nanny Carrie.
Dan has been almost unbelievably evil from episode one, but he's not the only psycho that's stirred up trouble on
One Tree Hill. Derek and Carrie are the most memorable nutjobs, but even less psychotic characters like Victoria and Mouth's old boss are bitchy beyond belief. These over the top characters cause great drama, but they don't exactly fit in with the down to earth nature of the rest of the show. It's like they all escaped from the set of
Days of Our Lives and decided to go to
One Tree Hill to mess with the minds of some earnest teenagers.
These freaky psychos and super-bitches may be completely out of place among the Tree Hill gang, but I can't complain about them. I love trashy soaps more than life itself, so if Mark Schwahn wants to have Dan reenact plots from
Passions for a few minutes every week, I'm all for it. However, I'm not sure all
OTH fans feel the same way. I'm betting some love the over the top plot lines and others wish Schwahn would stick to the down to earth teenage angst tales.
One Tree Hill may not do a great job of mixing the two different types of storylines, but it's definitely the only teen drama on television giving it a try. I find the unique mixture to be daring, commendable, and a heck of a lot of fun.
- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)