After last year’s Writers Guild of America strike, many television seasons were cut short, leading to some shows jamming too much into the few episodes that aired and, by extension, left over quite a few disgruntled TV fans.
Some shows pulled off the shortened season with spectacular finales, like NBC’s “The Office,” which lost 11 episodes. The Thursday-night comedy hardly skipped a beat from the pre-strike episode, “The Deposition,” to the finale. The show introduced Holly, a potential love interest for Michael, sent Ryan to jail for corporate fraud via a YouTube video entitled “Whoa !! Check it out !!!” and kept viewers hooked when Jim almost proposed to Pam.
Other series, like ABC’s critically acclaimed Sunday drama “Brothers & Sisters,” had a little more trouble recovering. Cramming 11 episodes of tangled family drama into four left some of the season finale’s developments feeling a little forced to some viewers, but was nevertheless fabulous, in classic Walker-family style.
I, for one, loved the realization that the supposedly illegitimate Walker family member, Rebecca, is not actually a Walker, paving the way for the budding romance between her and Justin. Many fans were dead-set against this pairing, but if the writers had the missing episodes to build up to the revelation a bit more gradually, the reaction to this chemistry-filled couple may not have been so mixed.
One of the developments I’m not completely sold on, however, was the introduction of another Walker. Only the third season, which returned Sept. 28, will reveal if they made the right decision on these and other plot twists.
The CW’s returning teen favorite “One Tree Hill” is a prime example of the latter, picking up with Lucas’ mystery phone proposal in the premiere, which aired Sept. 1 on its new Monday night timeslot. Lucas picked Peyton (surprise, surprise), but the couple decided not to get married in Vegas (again, shocker). Instead, they returned to Tree Hill in almost-married bliss. But, as fans of this teen soap opera are perfectly aware, bliss doesn’t last very long in Tree Hill.
Brooke’s character was finally given a great storyline — an attack in her clothing store — giving the talented Sophia Bush the opportunity to show off her wide range of acting ability. And believe me, she does not disappoint. It’s a darker Brooke then viewers are used to, but she still nails her patented quips.
With these and other only-in-Tree-Hill plot lines, this sixth season may prove to be “One Tree Hill’s” best yet, even taking into consideration the overdone return of the ever-creepy Psycho Slut Nanny Carrie.
In addition to the new series premiering this season, like “90210” and “Fringe,” the old teen network, The WB, just launched its new Web site, TheWB.com. On this site, you can watch full episodes of your favorite older shows, like “Veronica Mars,” “Friends” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” as well as a few new, online-only series such as “Sorority Forever,” “Rich Girl, Poor Girl” and “High Drama: Against All Oz.”