One Tree Hill isn't a show that was given much air time here in Australia and I wound up watching it on the net over the final three seasons. If the many TV channels here can't find a spot for it I was always going to watch it however I could.
Now the show could have wrapped up happily after the sixth season when Lucas and Peyton, OTH's two central characters by this stage, drove off into the sunset.
But it pressed on and evolved and managed to remain fresh. Though it took a little while.
I was pleased when they finished up season 8 and announced it would return for a final season - not a lot of shows are given the chance to finish on their own terms.
We saw a few characters return during the course of season 9 - Chris Keller, who I always hated because he spoke in the third person far too much, Dan Scott had a much larger role, Deb also bobbed up and even Lucas made what I viewed as a wasted cameo for an episode.
The central plot of Nathan's kidnapping was far fetched but, then again, it is a soap and if I had a problem with that then why didn't I give up around the time of Peyton's crazy stalker who pretended to be her brother?
In a way I think the final time jump was unnecessary - I didn't need to know that Jamie would become a champion basketballer (he certainly grew a couple of feet as a teenager!) but going back to the start (with basketball the central focus) worked well all season so why not finish off the same way.
Music has always been central to the show and it was a nice touch that Gavin Degraw came back to sing I Don't Want To Be (the show's theme) in the final episode - repeating his appearance in the very first where he also performed the song.
Few shows can last nine seasons, especially the teen-type series. Look at similar shows - The OC (4 seasons), Dawson's Creek (6 seasons) - they haven't made it nearly as far and that is a credit to Mark Schwahn and how he has continually reinvented it. Sure, it did miss Lucas and Peyton in the last couple of seasons and I would have liked to have seen Rachel return one more time but I'm very glad I came across One Tree Hill.
It was time well spent.
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