One Tree Hill: Season 7 Observations.

This weekend, I watched a boatload of One Tree Hills. I am now only two episodes behind.

Here are some things that struck me about the season:

1. There are a lot of women with the same hair color. Haley, Millie, Alex, Rachel and Quinn all have the same reddish brown hair. It's getting hard to tell them all apart.

2. Robert Buckley needs to be on every show, if only so we can stare at his beautiful face all the time. He looks like a skinner version of Scott Speedman. Hot diggity dog.

3. What do you mean, "Zero is not a size"?! A few episodes back, Millie appeared in Brooke's fashion show wearing a wife-beater with the words ZERO IS NOT A SIZE scrawled across the front. Sigh. Don't make us skinny girls feel bad about ourselves, One Tree Hill. That just ain't right.

4. Haley and Nathan should have more kids. Is anyone else wondering why they don't? Jamie is like 7 years old. He could use a little brother or sister to be clever around. And it's not like Naley couldn't afford a few more little'uns. They live in a giant mansion with a pool. You know what? I predict that by season's end, Haley is pregnant. With twins.

5. How does this show get to me every time? One Tree Hill is not supposed to make you cry. It's supposed to be this over-the-top, schmaltzy melodrama set to the soundtrack of some very angsty recording artists. You're supposed to roll your eyes at how ridiculous the plots are. And yet, one of the recent episodes managed to pull up a tear in the back of my eye. It was the one with Robert Buckley's ex-wife Sarah appearing as a ghost that Robert Buckley can't let go of. They fell in love jumping off a pier. Yes, that is corny, and yes, I love it. The day she died, they were dancing in their kitchen, and then she went to get some grape Kool-Aid, and then she collapsed on the floor and died.

Fiancé: See? That's why we should never dance.

It's pretty amazing how One Tree Hill has undergone so many changes and taken so many risks and is still going strong. How many shows have gone 7 seasons without jumping the shark? How many shows have overhauled its cast (including writing off two of its leads) and still hold on to its audience? How many shows have done the fast-forward-a-couple-of-years thing and carried it off beautifully? I'll tell you. Not many.

One Tree Hill, may you live long and continue to entertain us for years to come.

One Tree Hill: Out With the Blonds, In With Robert Buckley

I just got caught up with the current season of One Tree Hill, a show I've been watching since its inception. Initially, I thought it was too "Southern" for me. I couldn't relate to it at all. But as shows are wont to do, OTH grew on me, and now I can't imagine a TV season without it.

There were many changes this season, most notably that Peyton and Lucas are gone. I didn't think the producers could pull off a show without them. Almost every storyline revolved around Peyton and Lucas, Lucas and Peyton. But now I know the show can be done sans the blonds. Yes, I will miss Peyton and her big emotional heart. I will even miss Lucas's squinty eyes and his voiceovers. But eh, life moves on.

I'm really liking the two new additions to this revamped OTH: Robert Buckley, and the redhead who plays Haley's sister Quinn. Quinn is like the outspoken version of Haley, with 10x the baggage. Robert Buckley plays Nathan's sports agent, who defies his profession's stereotypes--I thought he'd be a smarmy liar...but instead, I really like him. Mostly because he looks like Scott Speedman, but I like him for being a nice guy too.

The second episode of OTH broke my heart. Fans of Naley (that's Nathan + Haley to non-watchers) have known from practically the first episode that those two belong together, and Nathan will always be faithful to Haley. Because he's just a good, decent person. Well, knock me over with a feather because some trashy girl has come forward and said that Nathan slept with her after winning a big basketball game. And she has the sonogram to prove it. Agggggghhhhh. I really really want to believe that she's lying and it'll turn out the sonogram is fake or it's really someone else's kid. Or some other crazy sh*t because OTH has been know to pull quite a few things out of its you-know-where. But there is that one teeeeeny part of me that is brokenhearted to think that it might be true. That Nathan really did cheat on Haley. In which case, my world has been turned inside-out. Up is down. Down is up. The boogeyman exists. Brothers will not be canceled.

Say it ain't so, Nathan. Don't you break my (and Haley's) heart like that!