If the lyrics ‘I don’t want to be anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately’ mean nothing to you than it’s imperative you keep on reading. Now I know what you’re thinking, American high-school dramas are as common as a plate of curry chips on a Friday night but One Tree Hill was a little different. First off, no other show had as many ‘OMG’ moments as OTH, fact. It was basically part-soap opera, part-sitcom, part-drama so anything (and we mean anything) could happen. At it's peak in 2005, the show pulled in 4.3 million American viewers each week alone and when the cast reunited in Paris for an official OTH convention (yes, really) last week, the Instagram snaps went viral and almost broke the internet.
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The series is set in a sleepy town in North Carolina which is already grounds for brilliance because when a film/TV show is set in the Carolinas, you just know it’s going to be epic. Case in point: The Notebook, Pitch Perfect, Dawson’s Creek and the upcoming Magic Mike XXL film. And, the starting premise of the show was only a precursor of the drama that was to come. The two male leads, Nathan (James Lafferty, fit) and Lucas (Chad Michael Murray, very fit) are half-brothers who hate each other but both love basketball. Their scheming, rich dad, Dan, married Nathan’s mum and left Lucas’ mum high-and-dry so living in the same town was slightly awkward turtle, as you’d imagine.
As if that love triangle wasn’t enough, enter the lead girls, Peyton (Hilarie Burton) and Brooke (Sophia Bush) who both have a thing for Lucas, and Lucas’ best friend Hayley (Bethany Joy Lenz) who’s crushing on his seemingly evil half-bro, Nathan and it all gets very messy.
Here’s why you should get into One Tree Hill…
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The ‘WTF. Did that just happen!?’ moments
This really isn’t a show for those after something that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because shit gets real. Within the main friendship group alone, teenagers get roofied, pregnant at school, run over, shot, kidnapped, run over (again), trapped in a thunderstorm and taken hostage. But perhaps the most bonkers bit of all? When the writers decided to bypass the university years and jump four years ahead so that the actors would actually play on screen how old they were IRL. Hey, we never complained about Benjamin McKenzie being a 29 year old Ryan Atwood at the end of The OC did we?
Peyton’s unreal hair
In the first two series, Peyton’s curly hair was out-of-this-world-cool and it was the topic of many a teenage girl’s conversation. If only the Peyton perm really existed.
The quotes
The script either read like the writing on an emo teenager’s T-shirt or like the inside of a motivational Clinton’s card. Here’s a little taste:
'Damn it, I hate Mondays'
'Until you let someone in, you’ll always be alone'
'We’re all crazy; some just hide it better than others'
'Life is too short to play games. If you love somebody and you want to be with them, and then go get them'
'I’m so sleepy and you’re so talky'
The so Noughties cameos
James Van Der Beek from Dawson’s Creek played a sleazy director, Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz played himself but ended up having a little fling with one of the lead girls, Kevin Federline played a version of himself and Nick Lachey (remember Newlyweds!?) even swans in at one point. It’s like all our teenage years rolled into one. Oh, and then there’s the episode where the girls dance to the Spice Girls’ Wannabe which is all kinds of amazing.
Time to get on side, guys.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.