Rewatching ‘One Tree Hill’ As A Dad or mum Is A Thoughts Journey

I used to be a self-professed, barely obsessed One Tree Hill watcher in the early aughts. I devoured new episodes weekly. I purchased the DVD field units for all 9 seasons. I ‘shipped Leyton and cheered on Naley. However what I didn’t do as a teen was pay any thoughts to the terrible dad and mom of the fictional Tree Hill, North Carolina. Positive, Dan Scott was the worst, however no less than he was entertaining?

Now, as a mother of two energizer bunnies underneath 5, I’ve come to understand that one in all my favourite responsible pleasures featured among the most horrible parental guardians on tv. As of late, I activate One Tree Hill each time I really feel like I’m failing as a mom, and I instantly really feel higher about myself. Irrespective of how overstimulated or rundown I’m, my mother guilt by no means even comes shut to how the dad and mom of this picturesque coastal city should really feel about their private decisions.

As a result of, you see, they’re by no means really bodily there for his or her kids. In truth, do they even exist?!

For many who have by no means watched One Tree Hill, it follows two half-brothers, Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty), who compete for positions on their highschool basketball staff whereas navigating friendships, romances, and, sure, very dysfunctional adults.

Sure. There are some dad and mom who’re residence to take care of and care for his or her hormonal, sexy, mischievous youngsters — specifically, Karen Roe (Moira Kelly), Deb Scott (Barbara Alyn Woods), and the aforementioned atrocious father of their sons, Dan Scott (Paul Johansson). Dan’s highschool sweetheart, Karen, raised Lucas as a single mom after he left her to marry Deb, his school girlfriend. Deb welcomed their son Nathan simply three months after Lucas was born, and the boys grow to be archenemies on and off the basketball court docket.

Over the course of many seasons, nonetheless, Lucas and Nathan bond over frequent objectives and really grow to be brothers — which is why a mean of two.8 million dwell viewers tuned in to The CW cleaning soap every week. (The sequence is now accessible to stream on Hulu.)

Karen, a small enterprise proprietor, is by far essentially the most idolized guardian of the bunch — a gift, loving mom lucky to have Dan’s older brother Keith (Craig Sheffer) take care of Lucas as if he have been his personal son. Keith, a mechanic, is the center of Tree Hill and a standup man who units a robust instance for delicate, clever Lucas. On the opposite finish of the spectrum are Dan and Deb, who, nonetheless a lot they love Nathan, are harmful, to say the least. Smug jock Nathan finally ends up altering his methods after falling in love with Lucas’ bookworm greatest pal Haley and seeks emancipation from Dan and Deb amid a bitter divorce battle. This leads them into additional dysfunction: anger and dependancy.

Earlier than we get into the primary characters’ household backgrounds, I’d be remiss to not point out the stellar Jake Jagielski (Bryan Greenberg), who does a rattling wonderful job elevating his toddler daughter Jenny as a single teen father with assist from his dad and mom. One other strong, devoted guardian on this present!

Then, there’s the blended bag of different parental figures.

Shifting on, Peyton Sawyer’s (Hilarie Burton Morgan) single father Larry (Thomas Ian Griffith in Season 1 and Kevin Kilner in Season 3) is gorgeous however pops out and in of his daughter’s life as he’s the captain of a dredging boat. This leaves budding artist and music aficionado Peyton to dwell on her personal within the household residence as she works by way of the deep trauma of her mom Anna’s deadly automobile accident and the absence of her father. (Her catchphrase is, “Folks all the time depart.”)

To make issues much more difficult, Peyton discovers she was really adopted when her organic mother, Ellie (Sheryl Lee), returns to city to get to know her. Ellie is dying of breast most cancers and solely will get a short while to bond with Peyton earlier than succumbing to the sickness — leaving Peyton heartbroken and alone as soon as once more.

Though we by no means see Larry return after the time leap in Season 5 — a psycho stalker virtually kills her in Season 4 and he doesn’t even come residence! — we do watch Peyton meet her organic father, musician Mick Wolf (John Doe), in Season 6.

One other grownup featured closely within the sequence is Coach Brian “Whitey” Durham (Barry Corbin), who’s there to supply grandfatherly steering to basketball gamers and cheerleaders alike.

On an episode of her One Tree Hill rewatch podcast Drama Queens, Burton Morgan recollects to her co-hosts Lenz and Bush one second that struck her between Peyton and Coach Whitey in Season 1. The 2 are standing within the cemetery, Peyton at her mom’s grave and Whitey at his spouse’s, after they start sharing of their grief.

“It exhibits how unmoored she is,” Burton Morgan says of Peyton. “She doesn’t have a mother, she doesn’t have a dad, she doesn’t have a grandma or a grandpa or anyone. She’s acquired to go to the highschool basketball coach, like this dude she doesn’t even know! It speaks volumes.”

Shifting on to Haley James (Bethany Pleasure Lenz), whose dad and mom, Lydia and Jimmy (Bess Armstrong and Huey Lewis), are fun-loving free birds who enable their 16-year-old daughter to marry fellow teenager Nathan after courting him for just some months. Then, after attending the marriage, they promote their home, hop in an RV, and disappear from their little one’s life. They don’t even return residence after Haley and Nathan reveal their teen being pregnant information — lacking on their highschool commencement and the beginning of their son, James Lucas Scott. A widowed Lydia does return in Season 7 to inform Haley and her sisters that she has pancreatic most cancers and sadly dies shortly after.

Lastly, there’s Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush), who, as a teen, has the “luxurious” of residing alone in her dad and mom’ mansion and utilizing their bank cards to fund her life. That’s till her dad loses his job and he or she’s tossed out of her residence, residing with Karen earlier than getting an condo after which shifting in with fellow abandoned-by-her-parents pal, Rachel Gatina (Danneel Ackles). Viewers lastly meet Brooke’s horrible mother Victoria (Daphne Zuniga) in Season 5, and rapidly notice why she all the time felt like she had one thing to show.

In a touching scene in Season 6, Episode 3, “Get Cape. Put on Cape. Fly” — which occurs after the time leap in Season 5 — Nathan visits Brooke to test in on her following one other argument along with her mother over her clothes line, Garments Over Bros.

“I do know your mother has been pulling some stuff with the corporate, and I suppose having handled guardian madness, I simply needed to test your head and see the way you’re doing,” Nathan tells her. “The factor is, the 2 of us have been down very related roads. We have been in the identical cliques first. We each felt the identical pressures, identical expectations. Our dad and mom have been like kids. And we each grew into type of unhealthy variations of ourselves means too quick. So, I believe you understand, I get it.”

“They by no means actually gave us an opportunity, did they? Our dad and mom?” Brooke responds.

“They didn’t understand how,” Nathan quips.

Bush spoke extra about this scene in a current episode of Drama Queens, saying it was Lafferty’s concept so as to add the trade as he noticed a connection between Nathan and Brooke.

“Brooke has had this horrible relationship along with her dad and mom, they usually haven’t been there for her, and Nathan has had this horrible relationship with Dan, however Deb is lastly displaying up. In a means, now that he has a mother who’s displaying up for him, he’s in a position to present up for Brooke because the dad he’s: as Jamie’s dad,” Bush says. “I felt like he was being my father determine on this scene, and it was so form. Brooke’s by no means had that.”

“The youngsters at the moment are the dad and mom,” she provides.

This scene type of sums all of it up: A lot of the dad and mom of Tree Hill selected themselves over the well-being of their kids, who have been left to fend for themselves, pursue their very own desires, and discover their very own means.

Alas, it is a TV present. I, for instance, would by no means depart my teenage daughters unsupervised throughout their early life to drive throughout nation in an RV or take up a place as an oil rigger simply to get away. I would take into account it, positive. However no means would I really do it.

A silver lining right here is the dearth of parental oversight made the OTH protagonists extra current fixtures in their very own kids’s lives. Nathan and Haley, in addition to all their buddies, give their all to their son Jamie and, finally, daughter Lydia. Lucas and Peyton go on to get married and welcome their very own daughter, Sawyer, and Brooke fosters a toddler earlier than having twins along with her husband, Julian Baker (Austin Nichols).

Even Dan Scott learns from his previous errors and does every thing in his energy to type an in depth relationship together with his grandchildren earlier than he dies. Regardless of all of the unhealthy he is achieved (how may anybody overlook that the man killed his brother?!), Nathan and Haley discover it in them to forgive.

On his deathbed, Haley tells Dan, “When Lydia asks about her Grandpa Dan, we’ll inform her how a lot he beloved his grandchildren.”

Perhaps the kids of Tree Hill have been one way or the other higher off with out their dad and mom. Or no less than that is what the writers need us to consider.