Warner Bros | 2009 | 924 mins. | NR
The seventh season is set one year into the future after the sixth season, without former co-stars Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton. The season introduces two new regular characters: Haley’s free spirited sister Quinn; and Nathan’s agent Clayton. Also, Danneel Harris who portrayed Rachel Gatina appears in a ten-episode arc, starting with the second episode. Always a troubling girl, Rachel returns to town as the wife of Dan Scott (Paul Johansson) who is now a wealthy author and motivational speaker. Austin Nichols, who portrays Julian Baker, and Jana Kramer, who portrays Alex Dupree, were promoted to full series regulars.
In the fourteen months we’ve been away, Nathan (James Lafferty) become a star for the Charlotte Bobcats, his wife Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) has been hard at work recording her second album, and Brooke (Sophia Bush) has been pondering starting a menswear line, while falling deeper in love with Julian Baker.
While I’m a big fan of One Tree Hill, I found myself a tad put off by this season. With Murray and Burton gone, series creator Mark Schwahn and his staff obviously felt it necessary to introduce new characters and develop cohesive storylines for them. The introductions of new characters, such as Haley’s big sister Quinn (Shantel VanSanten), is rocky at best. At the same time, they had to come up with storylines for the longtime characters that made sense and enabled them to grow. Needless to say, the first few episodes of the season are a bit hit-and-miss.
Given his consistently loving relationship with Haley, the plotline concerning Nathan potentially fathering a child during an NBA road trip comes across as laughable. I found myself just wanting that one to end. I was thrilled when Dan Scott got the woman to admit on national television that while she was pregnant, Nathan definitely wasn’t the father.
Also laughable, Nathan’s agent Clayton “Clay” Evans (Robert Buckley) having ghostly conversations with his dead wife Sara (Amanda Schull) and Millicent (Lisa Goldstein) transforming from a smart, driven and capable executive into a drug-addled model. There is absolutely no warning regarding Millie’s transformation and makes no sense given everything we knew about her.
Thankfully, around the 7th episode, One Tree Hill seemed to regain its footing again. Yes, the show is as melodramatic and silly as ever, but that’s always been the case with Tree Hill. By now, the new characters had begun to integrate themselves into existing storylines and were worth caring about. I actually started to like Alex and identify with some of her ‘lesser’ quirks. (You gotta love it when the recovering alcoholic hungrily sucks the limes while others do the tequila shots for her), Quinn’s emotional issues (she’s coming to grips with the fact that her marriage is over – and it’s mostly her fault) have resonance and weight, Clay is a much deeper person then he first appears to be and it’s hard not to root for him. A record label executive (sent to keep an eye on Haley and make sure she finishes her album) Miranda Stone (India de Beaufort) is a relatively complex character deserving of more screen time than Schwahn and company give her.
It is also worth noting that Galeotti and VanSanten have some powerful scenes together, especially during a three-episode arc concerning their mother Lydia’s (Bess Armstrong). At the risk of revealing a spoiler, the two sisters are forced to deal with their mother’s death from cancer. Haley experiences a deep depression upon her mother’s death and it’s safe to say that Ms. Galeotti handles some of the most powerful scenes seen on One Tree Hill thus far.
I don’t know where One Tree Hill is going, but the seventh season cliffhanger has made me want to see the eighth season premiere. A word of advice to Mark Schwahn and his staff: don’t go forward in time; that plot trick is played out. Further, try not to introduce too many new characters. Instead, concentrate on the existing ones and their storylines.
One Tree Hill is presented in its original 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. I can’t say Warner has gone all out with this transfer, and a part of me wishes they’d finally make this show available on Blu-ray, but for what it is, this DVD presentation gets the job done.
These Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mixes are similar in quality to those included on earlier season-long box sets. Dialogue sounds fine, but effects, atmospherics, and especially music cues are limp and underdeveloped. Surround channels are sorely underused, and the bottom end comes into play sparingly. I suppose these are indeed steps in the right direction from the show’s earlier mixes (hey, at least they’re 5.1 now), but they lack any real dynamic improvement.
Included are English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles.
The handful of bonus goodies here are slim. We get a fairly regular collection of deleted scenes, as well as two blah screen-specific audio commentaries with show creator Mark Schwahn and various behind-the-camera and on-screen colleagues, and a blooper reel. The featurettes – Return to Camp One Tree Hill, Spring Break With One Tree Hill and The Director’s Debut – are all pretty basic stuff.
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