Hollywood comes to 'One Tree Hill'
One Tree Hill celebrated Groundhog Day with an inadvertent homage to the Bill Murray classic, with a good chunk of the hour devoted to reliving events that happened in the past. These past events weren't some sort of time loop but the result of Luke's movie finally being put into production, with characters quoting old dialogue to the letter. While some of the callbacks were amusing (Haley's poncho!) much of it was a bit too literal to be truly funny.
Lucas and Dawson are casting the movie which, to no one's surprise, doesn't go well at all. When they clash over which actress to cast as Peyton (with Dawson wanting the traditional blond bombshell and Lucas wanting the more honest actor) Dawson replies with: "Audiences like boobs, I didn't make that up." Ha! And...true. When Lucas complains to Julian about Dawson's integrity, Julian basically tells him to shut up and work something out, because they have a deadline. People keep coming to Lucas with question after question, wanting him to make decision after decision, until he finally snaps and storms out without answering anyone. See, this is why writers aren't involved in their own projects. Just step back, Luke, and let Julian and Dawson run the show. Haley thinks otherwise, though, and tells him to go with his gut because he knows Tree Hill and these characters better than anyone. Lucas ends up getting his way, and at the table read they call him a producer, which finally makes all the work he's been doing on the project make sense. When did he negotiate that part of his deal? I missed it somehow.
Peyton gets a crib from Karen and Andy and has a hard time putting it together, because putting together furniture is some sort of sadistic torture device designed by evil furniture companies to drive us all crazy. Especially you, IKEA. I still haven't forgiven you for the great dresser incident of '01. (Also, I love Karen and Andy! I hope they come for a visit soon.) Peyton's first attempt actually does look like a torture device, with the sides falling in and random wood slats sticking up from the crib like little baby impalers. That looks safe! Skills comes over later to assess their home for baby preparedness and tells Peyton she has a lot of work to do to be ready for the little one. Skills, where have you been? Off on an island having sex with Deb, I guess. Peyton gets overwhelmed by everything because Lucas is so busy and can't be there to support her or even be there to attend her doctor's appointment, but instead of telling him how stressed she is she hides it in order not to stress him out. That's a slippery slope, Peyton. Be careful. Lucas manages to make it to the appointment after all, and they hear their baby's heartbeat for the first time, together.
Brooke and Julian are basking in the glow of new love -- or at least a lot of new sex. Julian leaves to go attend a casting session and Brooke is close behind to see if she can check out who they cast to play her in the film. She meets "Brooke Davis" (a.k.a. Missy) and gets more than she bargained for, with the overenthusiastic actress focusing too much on sex with the character for Brooke's taste. When Brooke calls her out on her focus on sex (after Missy pulls Brooke's patented "naked in the backseat" move), Missy shows her the character breakdown, which focuses on sex and sex only. Brooke assumes that Julian wrote the breakdown and immediately jumps to the conclusion that Julian wants "high school" Brooke, blowing up at him and giving him back his letterman jacket because she's not that girl any more. I don't know, overreacting, not giving guys a chance to explain and storming off seems a LOT like the high school Brooke I remember. Julian convinces her he doesn't want the high school Brooke because he's not the same person he was in high school either (a.k.a. a dork Mathlete) although the picture of Austin Nichols in high school is kind of cute. The Mathletes in my school didn't look like that!
Jamie has a crush on a girl at school and goes to Dan for advice on how to ask her out, which isn't necessarily the best idea considering Dan's track record with the ladies. Dan just tells him to say something nice to butter her up before asking her out, and to Jamie's surprise this simple tactic works. When the girl of his dreams turns up it's not the six-year-old girl Dan is expecting but Jamie's teacher, Lauren. Jamie doesn't take kindly to Dan chatting up Lauren without him and gets angry at Dan, telling him he's mean and that's why Nathan and Lucas hate him. Ouch. Dan smooths things over, admitting that Nathan and Lucas have good reason to hate him but he doesn't want Jamie to hate him, because Jamie is his best friend. Aw. Jamie's date ends with him deciding he needs to date girls his own age.
Nathan gives his coach the hard sell on starting him as point guard over Devon, citing Devon's decided lack of team-player attitude. The coach agrees and decides to put Nathan in the starting position for the next game. Nathan is basking in the glory until he gets to practice the next day and finds out Devon didn't get demoted, he got cut -- and Devon is a daddy, just like him. Oh, Nathan. You aren't responsible for Devon being a jackass and getting himself cut. Nathan goes to the coach and argues for Devon, but the coach tells him it was a business decision.
Sam wins the school essay contest and gets the chance to have her essay printed in the school paper. Haley, who is in charge of the paper and selected Sam's essay to appear, is stymied in her efforts when the straight-laced principal decides Sam's essay is too full of sex and drugs to appear in Tree Hill High's precious paper. Haley argues that Sam actually witnessed these things in her life and the essay conveys an important message about survival, but the principal tells her to pick another essay or risk losing her job. Sam tells Haley to pick another paper because the fight isn't worth her job, especially since Sam relies on Haley so much for support at school. Haley decides to go with her gut and publish the article, which will obviously have some consequences in the coming weeks.
What did you guys think? Did you like all the reminders of One Tree Hill past? What do you think of the actors they hired for the film, did they get it right?
I thought this episode was going to suck. It really had the potential to suck. But I really liked it. It showed that the writer and actors have a sense of humor about themselves that I really appreciate. Plus you can't go wrong with a room full to shirtless "Nathans"!
I'm not entirely sure why Peyton was going nuts baby-proofing the house and putting the crib together when she's not even showing yet. Clearly she has time over the next seven months to do this stuff, right?
Lucas got producer creds the first time he met Julian...that was one of his conditions to get the movie done.
I agree with Marisa....why bore us with this ridiculous baby proofing..ugh. Peyton's character is just ridiculous lately....still a fan of the show though!