Posted by: haro1d

That was severely ridiculous. If you didn’t see last night’s OTH, I’m not sure I can even explain it, except to say that it was another “it was only a dream” episode. (They’ve done this once or twice before, but not for quite a while.) Here’s the rundown:

The episode starts with Lucas watching “Casablanca” and talking to Peyton on the phone about trying to work on the screen adaptation of his book. He fades out and we enter his dream world, complete with an all-Tree Hill cast, as follows:

Lucas: The suave, debonair owner of Karen’s Cafe — essentially Bogey, in white suit and all.
Nathan: The man at the bar whose fortune runs in hearts … and spades.
Haley: The singer, sultry in the spotlight with apple-pie values offstage.
Skills: Lucas’ loyal piano man with the requisite wicked left hand.
Mouth: Tree Hill City’s Walter Winchell.
Brooke: The femme fatale … trouble in a red dress. (But she designed it herself!)
Dan Scott: The dastardly fiend — and his moustache.
Julian: Dan’s right-hand man with a triphammer fist and a perennially dyspeptic disposition.
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Tags: Drama, The CW, Uncategorized by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

I’m starting to get really impressed with OTH’s ability to present week after week of filler episodes. I think what’s going on is that there simply are getting to be too many characters and plotlines, and they’re all having to be serviced, so the overall effect is that it feels like not much happens from episode to episode, even if that might not be the case. If you look through the last few synoptic blog entries I’ve written for OTH, you’ll notice that they’re getting longer and more fragmented as things get increasingly complicated and the volume of characters gets a little overly robust.

Let’s take a look at last night’s mess:

The show starts out with Haley onstage at the USO show, forgetting the words to her song. Of course it’s only a dream, as is half of OTH, but it underscores Haley’s jitters about performing in front of a huge crowd for the first time in a while. (She ends up borderline freaking out until show time.)

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Tags: Drama, The CW by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

Hey, kids — in case you didn’t see the “Next week on One Tree Hill” promo after this week’s episode, next Monday’s episode will be the big USO gig that Peyton and her bro have magically pulled together in two weeks’ time. (Really — you thought it took time and effort to pull off a large-scale outdoor concert? Ha …)

For those of you who can’t wait, here’s a taste of the disaster yet to come:

Tags: Drama, The CW by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

First of all, if you’re reading this blog and you’re old enough to vote, I hope you’ve cast your ballot already. If not, get out there and make a difference! Lucas would expect it of you!

Another slow night on OTH. To recap:

The episode opens with Brooke having it out with Sam over the ruination of last week’s party at Brooke’s store. Brooke is getting a taste of what it’s like to do tough-love parenting. (Pretty weird when you think that Brooke is supposed to be what — 22 or 23? — and Sam is 15. Not a lotta years in between.)

Owen shows up at Brooke’s door, promising her a gift every day until she decides to take him back. After a few days, Owen does the patented OTH “surprise-I’m-nude-in-the-backseat” thing to Brooke. She kicks him out and he ends up getting arrested for indecent exposure. After a few weeks of gifts and attention, Owen stops by at Brooke’s to tell her that he’s done humiliating himself for her. (In the end, she surprises Owen in the backseat of his vehicle — fully clothed — and tries to tell him that Sam is her current priority and that she needs time.
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Tags: Drama, The CW by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

Like last week’s episode, last night’s OTH was essentially a filler, with a little bit of drama in the closing moments. Here’s the play-by-play, for those of you who need it:

Slamball is on, and Nate is barely hanging in. He gets crunched and crushed all over the place, and Haley is getting worried. Jamie is thrilled and nervous, but not too worried that he can’t comment about his future sex life. “Mommy says I’m too young to date, but Daddy says it’s time,” he says. Peyton introduces herself to Sam at the game, and Sam remarks about Nathan, “Wasn’t he, like, just in a wheelchair or something?” provoking thoughtful reaction from Haley. Nathan ends up being rather battered and bruised after the game, which adds to Haley’s worry, but he’s OK … for now.

The Millie-Vs.-Gigi cauldron is starting to bubble. Mouth has to (legitimately) work late with Gigi on footage of that night’s game, but Millie’s not a happy camper. She kisses Mouth pretty majorly on the mouth, marking her territory and tells him to be home early. Gigi teases Mouth about being on a short leash.

As the game is still going on, Lucas gets a call regarding the sale of options to turn his first book into a movie — followed by Nathan getting crushed into the boards. (Ooh! Foreshadowing! Can you smell a major mistake on the horizon?)

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Tags: Drama, The CW by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

If you’ve been watching this space, you might recall my I mentioning, last week, that I might have a few words with Daphne Zuniga, who plays Victoria Davis — Brooke’s mom — on OTH. Zuniga is set to play another role, that of a con artist in the American frontier West, for Hallmark Channel’s Mail Order Bride (premiering Nov. 8). But as part of our general discussion, we did get a few questions in about Brooke’s mother-and-nemesis, Victoria.

It’s often said that it’s more fun to play the villain than the good guy or gal. Would you say that that’s true of how you experience Victoria Davis?

Daphne Zuniga: For me, part of Victoria Davis was … it was fun. I was like, “I’m grateful that this is my job, to play different kinds of parts.” But you have to live in that skin for a while, and I think it takes its toll, for sure. Depending, [you're on set] 12 hours a day? Ten hours, at least, a day? Even when you’re not filming, you’re trying to make this [character] human. It’s that humanness on film, real and true, and authentic, believable. So the rest of the time — and I’m not saying completely running around in character — you do have to spend time in that mentality. And I don’t enjoy it all that much. However, having said that, it sure is a great outlet for when you have things that you’re angry about in real life — people or situations. It’s a great sort of mask to be able to get inside characters and say that ‘It’s Victoria getting angry.’

Are we ever going to see a more human side to Victoria? She’s so brutal, emotionally, that it makes you wonder if she even has a more human side.

Well, I was told from day one, even before I landed in North Carolina where I was to be filmed, “I don’t want to see any of your good-heartedness, Daphne — really. I want to see villain. You’re the villain.” So that’s what I went for. And there are moments [of sensitivity], I think — few and far between. But the writer, Mark Schwahn, wanted to see a few here and there. But he did use that word, “villain,” so I had to keep thinking dramatic in that way.

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Tags: Drama, Hallmark Channel, One Tree Hill, The CW by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

Sometimes, in a series, a filler episode is necessary. I’m not sure if it was just me, but last night’s filler OTH episode seemed overflowing with relatively inconsequential scenes. After the hyperdramatic first part of the season, with all of the slayings and stalkings, it’s probably good to have a couple of OTH episodes with only minor tragedies.

Really, though — was it just me, or did it seem like the individual scenes were really short last night on OTH? I could barely keep up writing down what was going on, which never happens. But I digress. You just want to know what happened.

Well, we started in a dream sequence once again. As a result of reading an article in Brooke D. magazine, Peyton dreamed that Lucas had set up a cage just for her, with a little hay in the floor for her to curl up in. She spent the rest of the episode trying to prove that the article was correct in its assertion that by moving in together, she and Lucas would find out that they didn’t know each other as well as they thought they did. After asserting herself in their new home, Lucas ended up not being able to “perform” in his mother’s old room and bed. (She laughs at him — a true no-no, but really, do you feel sorry for Lucas?) And of course, in true I Love Lucy fashion, they ended up dividing the house in half with blue tape, daring each other to cross the line. By episode’s end, Lucas had unboxed all of Peyton’s stuff and moved her in. Isn’t that swell?

The trouble with Sam escalated to new heights this week. She’s already testing limits with ersatz parent Brooke, sneaking out her window, stealing Brooke’s ID and not-so-wisely trying to use it to get booze at Tric, from Owen the bartender who, of course, happens to know the “world-famous” B. Davis. (OK, I have to say it — every time they mention “B. Davis,” I automatically think of ANN B. Davis. If you don’t know who that is, you haven’t watched your share of episodes of The Brady [Read more →]

Tags: Drama, One Tree Hill, The CW by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

Despite all of the drama in their lives, the good fortune just never ends for those kids in Tree Hill.

Word is that James Van Der Beek of Dawson’s Creek fame will be swinging through Tree Hill to offer Lucas a movie deal for one of his books.

But the real news here at The Slippery Slope NEVER ENDS (I suppose I should introduce my web-requisite acronym: OTH: TSSNE) is that rather than talk to any of the nicety-nice-nice characters from OTH, look here soon for our conversation with Daphne Zuniga, who plays downright cold Victoria Davis on the series. We think she’ll be nicer than her TV persona, but we’re not sure.

Looking forward to it? I know I am …

Tags: Drama, One Tree Hill, The CW by haro1d
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Posted by: haro1d

Last night’s OTH wasn’t the most explosively hilarious, but at least some stuff happened.

We found out that Peyton’s dad is indeed the not-so-sober Mick (John Doe — still can’t believe he’s on that show). She’s not exactly as thrilled as she might have been, but she always has such dramatic expectations anyway, doesn’t she? In the end, they parted mutually agreeably at the paths their lives had taken. Mick was proud of his daughter, and she ultimately was appreciative for his having allowed her to have a different life than the one he would have given her as a punk rock, drunk rock dad.

In other news, Lucas is off on his book tour — but finds that Lindsey is not accompanying him. Instead, a really less-than-helpful guy who hasn’t even read Lucas’ book and thought it was a sci-fi title is promoting and managing the tour. At the first stop in Omaha, where Mouth is the only one to show up (other than the little girl who wanted Lucas to sign a Gossip Girl book — still more OTH cross-promotion!), the remainder of the tour is canceled. (Which, for you aspiring authors, would almost never happen. More than likely, you’d simply have no one show up at ALL of your dates.)
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Tags: Drama, One Tree Hill, The CW by haro1d
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What is it about corn fields that’s so darned creepy? It goes back further than Stephen King’s Children of the Corn — at least to that Twilight Zone episode with Billy Mumy wishing everyone into the corn field.

No matter how you feel about gun control, it’s starting to get to the point at which anyone might wish they’d start exercising a bit of it in the script writing at OTH. Last night was the night the Nanny Carrie plot finally boiled over. More on that in a minute. First, the rundown:

The focus of last night’s episode, for several of the characters, was what it means when you have to give up something that’s incredibly important to you — for which you’ve worked hard, or dreamed of all your life. Brooke gave up her multimillion-dollar company and is working through her feelings about it in therapy. Does she regret it? (I shook the Magic 8-Ball — “Signs point to yes” … but Brooke probably isn’t going to go as gently into that good night as her mum thinks she is.)

Peyton grilled Mick (still so weird to see John Doe on OTH) about her parents, fishing around for him to admit that he’s her father. They even have the same favorite album, for crying out loud. But when she cornered him and asked him to come to dinner to talk about it all, it drove him to start drinking … after a year of sobriety.

Nathan received a call from the NBA to discuss a position with a D-league team — a dream come true after working so hard for a comeback opportunity — only to be told that it’s a coaching job he’s being offered, and that his playing days are behind him.

Lucas and Peyton have scheduled their wedding date, and at the same time, Lucas has to go on a book tour for his latest novel. As such, he has to travel to New York to consult with his publisher … and Lindsey, whom he has to tell about his impending nuptials. (He does, she says she’s not surprised, but is obviously affected by it, and they part rather awkwardly and with an air of finality — but nothing is ever final in OTH, is it?) [Read more →]

Tags: Drama, One Tree Hill, The CW by haro1d
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