One Tree Hill

The show feels lived-in, making it all the more inviting to dwell there ourselves. [23 Sept 2003, p.B23]

A very likable and melancholy drama about high school basketball and patrimony.

This compelling storyline could make the tale of battling basketball brothers a keeper for the WB. [23 Sept 2003, p.E11]

A little overheated, too obvious and too cliche-ridden. But it's still an entertaining yarn. [23 Sept 2003, p.B-1]

A mildly gripping pilot involving half-brothers raised on different sides of the tracks in the same small town. I'm not remotely the target demo here - even the parents in this show, who include Moira Kelly, are younger than I - but I kind of liked it. Especially when it made fun of "Dawson's Creek." [23 Sept 2003, p.38]

Weep no more for Dawson's Creek, Felicity or Beverly Hills, 90210. That achy yearning in your soul for a mawkish, trashy, over-the-top, slightly dumb but kinda fun teen soap is about to be filled with One Tree Hill. [23 Sept 2003, p.4E]

There's nothing inherently bad about contrived plots and interchangeable kissing partners ... The problem is 'One Tree Hill' doesn't always find the line between silly fun and total inanity.

As trite as it sounds, the series plays it all earnestly enough for its target audience, and the show is beautifully shot in North Carolina, the basketball mecca where the fictional town is set. Even the sports scenes are well staged (in the pilot, anyway) and less schlocky than "The White Shadow" norm, with Lafferty, at least, looking like he's actually got game. [23 Sept 2003, p.13]

The opening hour is too loaded down with cliched angst to stimulate much more than the libido of its target teen audience. [22 Sept 2003]

The most dominating cast member of this attractive show is Corbin -- the delightfully rigid Maurice Minnifield on "Northern Exposure." But coming down court fast for a slam-dunk is Sheffer, who makes an outstanding impression as the only male role model who gives Lucas the love and support he needs in the tough game of life. Daddy Dan is an expletive deleted. [23 Sept 2003, p.E-6]

Quick - which is the one to root for, the one you want to make the basketball team and get the girl? If you don't know, One Tree Hill holds all kinds of possibilities for you. Me, I run from jerks. [23 Sept 2003, p.1]

It's not quite up to the level of "The OC." Not yet anyway. [23 Sept 2003, p.41]

Hill is terribly hokey. Half-brother basketball wizards compete for hoops and girls, as their alienated parents battle. The West Wing's Moira Kelly, as mom to the poor boy, is the only actor who shows any scope on the show. [22 Sept 2003, p.C09]

The connection results in many brooding stares, nasty arguments and expert shots. The WB's scheduling the show after Gilmore Girls suggests that programmers believe that girls just want to have fun while boys want a good cry. They won't get it from One Tree Hill. [23 Sept 2003, p.E1]

Impressive photography and a good-looking cast add up to a drama that is at least pretty to look at. But it doesn't have quite the sizzle of Fox's new teen drama "The O.C.", the new series young viewers seem to be in love with this fall...Maybe, if you're 14, this is epic enough. [23 Sept 2003, p.1E]

Murray is more interesting here than in last season's laughable The Lone Ranger, but the writing... is junior-varsity stuff.

One Tree Hill isn't the worst show you'll see this season, but it may be the most depressingly superfluous. As too often happens with WB shows, Hill reminds you of every other WB show you've ever seen. It's as if the network has done away with original programming and gone straight to scheduling reruns. [23 Sept 2003, p.4D]

The young audience for which One Tree Hill is aimed may swallow all this unflinchingly. Yet if they learned anything from "Dawson's Creek," a much better and smarter show, they're more likely to gag. [23 Sept 2003, p.83]

One Tree Hill needs a lot of work. The characters are painfully one-dimensional, as they fall on either the good or the bad side of the fence. Their actions are predictable based on whether they've been designated as angels or devils. The writers need to humanize them - especially the brothers - by giving them mixed feelings and unexpected lines. Also, some humor please. [23 Sept 2003, p.D14]

The title of this attempt at teen high drama is one of only several unintentionally comical elements in a series that gets some of the big notes right, but squawks out all of the little ones.[23 Sept 2003, p.C7]

One Tree Hill is more like "One Ill-Conceived Idea" or "One Note Hill." It just sits there, like desperate mush, a recipe for success that is bland and unsatisfying. It's like they came up with the concoction -- teen angst and pouting and brooding and raw emotions and shirtlessness -- then mixed it all together with lumpen writing and overarching themes.

In some way or another, this show is trying to be "Everwood," "Dawson's Creek," "Eight Mile" and "Hoosiers" all rolled into one. It would be a whole lot more accessible if it would just try to be One Tree Hill, whatever that is. [23 Sept 2003, p.79]

A standard-issue WB teen soap opera about love and basketball that promises to get better because it can't really get much worse...It has no distinguishable stars and worse, for all its dramatic story lines, no real passion. [23 Sept 2003, p.E1]

The show is pure hooey. [21 Sept 2003, p.N01]

This behavior might make for a juicy melodrama if the rest of the characters weren't so predictably earnest. In the pilot, the stakes in a one-on-one showdown turn out to be meaningless, making any emotional investment in the outcome worthless. [23 Sept 2003, p.10E]