One Tree Hill - The Complete Second Season - DVD Review

I have read several online reviews of One Tree Hill, and I'd just like to give an opposing position on some of the ideas these reviews are giving out. One calls One Tree Hill a much more realistic and down-to-earth version of The O.C.. Just because The O.C. got ratings that One Tree Hill could never attain, and that it was set in a highly wealthy part of California, as opposed to a small town, doesn't mean that One Tree Hill is more grounded in reality.

People would like to believe that The O.C. and One Tree Hill are now what 90210 and Dawson's Creek were to the 90's, and in some ways that is true - DC and OTH are both filmed in Wilmington, both try to be literate, but only DC succeeds at that. The literary references and quotes we hear so often in OTH would be much more suited to DC where the characters were obviously highly intelligent, introspective, and insanely witty. In OTH, more often than not they sound pretentious, and have an extremely loose and vague connection to the story they are paralleling. Both are affectionate towards music - OTH wins out in this regard, due to their some-would-call-butchering of the musical montage. They make some great music choices too, however the score is pretty bland. Anyway, OTH is just as over-the-top and unrealistic as The O.C. if not much more so. People who believe otherwise must just be looking at the shows on the surface, at face value. Nobody can tell me there was a Dan Scott character in Dawson's Creek, My So-Called Life, or Freaks and Geeks. His evil laughing, whiskey sipping, and mustache twirling tag antics wouldn't be out of place in a daytime soap-opera. For those who are unsure of what a "tag" is, then here it is for you, straight from Wikipedia.

• In US daytime soap operas, when a scene is about to reach a temporary conclusion and the episode is to cross to a new scene or take a commercial break, one character in the currently concluding scene will often be shown in extreme closeup and deliver a jarring announcement. No other character will respond and there will be no dialogue for several seconds while the music builds before cutting to a commercial or a new scene. This kind of segue is referred to in the industry as a "tag."

The 23 episodes are spread over 6 discs:

The Desperate Kingdom of Love
Truth Doesn't Make a Noise
Near Wild Heaven
You Can't Always Get What You Want
I Will Dare
We Might as Well Be Strangers
Let the Reigns Go Loose
Truth, Bitter Truth
The Trick Is to Keep Breathing
Don't Take Me for Granted
The Heart Brings You Back
Between Order and Randomness
The Hero Dies in This One
The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
Unopened Letter to the World
Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking
Something I Can Never Have
The Lonesome Road
I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Lifetime Piling Up
What Could Have Been
The Tide That Left and Never Came Back (1)
The Leavers Dance (2)

One thing that was interesting about the first season was the tension between brothers Lucas and Nathan. This is put to the backseat as they seemed to have worked through most of their troubles - but with everybody happy, where do we go from there, and some new secondary characters are quickly introduced to stir up trouble, as is often done in the second season of a show like this. However, towards the end of the season the brothers are fighting again, renewing interest in a third season, as well as many other plot threads that have began or climaxed at the season cliffhanger. The introduction of Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks) has me very interested in the third season - not to give too much away. Nathan and Hayley's marriage was dealt with for the whole duration of the season, and it looks like that will continue into the third season. This is interesting because we get to see them both at their best, worst, and everything in between, over the course of the season. Latino bad boy, Felix, and his sister Anna, who becomes the star of a homosexual storyline this season. I can't complain with how it was dealt with, but it did feel a little boring at times, however, they didn't do anything too terrible, cliche, or conservative while examining the issue, which could have been an issue on a non-pay cable channel - not that The WB should be discredited for their portrayal of homosexuality on television, as they are statistically the best at it, in regards to the most portrayals, or they were, I can't quite remember.

One thing that comes to mind is some of the great guest stars this season had. There was Huey Lewis (Musician) and Bess Armstrong (My So-Called Life) as Haley's awesome parents. Tyler Hilton as Chris Keller, a musician who tries to get Haley to tour with him. Also Michelle Branch guest stars, which we could have done without. But, the producers redeem themselves by bringing in Jimmy Eat World for a few songs at Peyton's new club 'Tric' in the finale, which was great. Peyton has her fair share of problems this season with drugs, an old friend, and being labelled a 'dyke'.

The parents also have their share of the drama, as was the case last season. A lot of the adult storylines have higher stakes and are more interesting because of it, not that I don't respect the introspective teen troubles, they just aren't pulled off as well, so naturally, we become drawn to the Melrose/Dallas aspect of the show. Anyway, I don't want to give anything away, but I read that the adult stories get even more outlandish next season.

I must give a last kudos to Paul Johansonn for his portrayal of Dan Scott. I remember seeing him as a jock who had little to no acting ability, playing a jock on 90210. He has come so far since then, he really puts everything into playing Dan, and pulls it off - he also directs an episode this season.

Video

This release is widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.77:1 16:9 Enhanced. At the beginning of the season I noticed quite a lot of grain which is unacceptable in 2005 when the season aired. I like to think that after 2004 it was no longer a problem with TV on DVD releases. On many of the sets I have seen, grain is there for 2004, and then suddenly gone, for the most part, on every release after. I think this was the case for The O.C. and Nip/Tuck. Towards the end of the season the grain doesn't seem to be there much, and it ends up looking quite good.

Audio

The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, and the music sounds really great, and the dialogue is just what it needs to be. No problems here.

Extras

Special Features:

• Additional Scenes
• Audio Commentaries
• The Music of One Tree Hill
• Change is Good
• Diaries from the Set

The best feature of the special features would probably be the deleted scenes, which there are an abundance of. The diaries from the set are fun and provide some information about a OTH music tour that ran, paralleling the tour on the show, which adds another layer to the show for fans, and is a fairly unused concept. Everything else is pretty staple - more extras would be great, but on many releases there are no or hardly any extras, so they did a decent job in comparison.

I do Recommend this set, but just realise what you are getting into. The cliffhangers to end the season were interesting so I will most likely be picking up the third. If you are a fan, then go right ahead. If you aren't, but you typically like this sort of stuff, then you won't be disappointed.