In ‘Drama Queens’ Podcast, ‘One Tree Hill’ Stars Rehash the Making of the Show — the Good, Bad, and Toxic
It’s an incredible example of careful processing of a dearly loved but also toxic former workplace
I’m of an age that for me, first-run WB shows — One Tree Hill, Gilmore Girls — felt like guilty pleasures, not only for their soapy drama, but that as a college, and later, grad student, I should have, by then, outgrown high school storylines. But I’m also a sucker for a youthful character arc. There is so much possibility in a person (or character’s) teen years; an abundance of potential to make enormous mistakes or learn and grow from them. The disasters can be devastating; the chance to rebound, a bit more likely in youth.
As a twentysomething, I felt as though the decisions I was making then were more serious, of greater consequence, and would lock me into my future. Watching other twentysomethings play teenagers on One Tree Hill, the frivolous tensions of a sexed-up, yet humble basketball town was merely a distraction. When the supposed teens’ sexual aggression surpassed any norms I’d known in my youth, I forgave it as a trope of the genre.
Having cheerleader Brooke surprise a star player by stripping in his backseat was surely some viewer’s fantasy…
