The original post: /r/television by /u/James-Samuel17 on 2026-05-24 21:43:28+00:00.
The show tells the story of two half brothers : Lucas and Nathan Scott, who shares the same father, Dan Scott but outside of that and their love for basketball, the two have nothing in commun. Lucas is intellectual, the “good” guy, with an earnest persona and morals. He doesn’t play for the high school team and the school students pretend like he doesn’t exist, including Nathan. Nathan, who is the star of the basketball team and the son Dan choose to raise, is arrogant, have a temper, is the “bad” guy and not the best at school. This show when it started had so much heart. The friendships, the relationships, the build up to them was genuienely amazing. Nathan ended up being so layered and Lucas too because, yes, I kinda like Lucas (barring his REALLY shitty relationships decisions). I just rewatched episodes. The 1x06 episode where Nathan and Lucas walk home because Whitey is done with them and where the girls take the road together. I love how relatable it is that Haley is hanging out with them but then the next day is basically just smiling from afar, it’s just hit close to home. The show is also very interested in what made the characters who they are. The convo Lucas and Nathan have about how lucky Lucas is to not have Dan as a father is so well done.
Some of the episodes of the show have really amazing concepts. To this day, Picture Of You is my favorite use of the “breakfast club” type of episodes. It just explores the character in such a unique way. The shooting episode (3x16) is one of TV’s best episodes period and as someone who survived a school shooting, it was quite realistic. Obviously, even in the early years, the show is melodramatic but I don’t mind those type of things all the while it’s earned through well written stories and a lot of heart. Again, there’s the undertone misogyny we can’t deny in the way the female characters can be written and that’s mainly because of Mark’s antics we now know but the later seasons take it to an extreme. I swear the jump from season 3 to 7 is brutal and not Buffy or The Sopranos brutal (in the sense that it changed but in developping the characters and in making sense) but everything, EVERYTHING is soapy, the sexism go up, the characters (especially the new ones introduced) lose in depth or are not explored enough. Season 5 and 6 were still watchable and contains some gems (even tho nothing comparing to the first four) but after that, oh god. Sophia Bush, Paul Johansson, James Lafferty and Bethany Joy Lenz are fantastic actors who kinda makes it worth it but it’s really not.