One Tree Hill: 10 Things That Haven’t Aged Well

The WB’s One Tree Hill is one of the most beloved teen dramas of all times, no matter its many faults and flaws. The series follows a group of teenagers and their families in small town North Carolina, and focuses on the trials and tribulations of young adult life as the core group of friends attend high school and move beyond it together.

As the series originally aired on The WB and The CW from 2003 to 2012, quite a lot of time has passed since the world was introduced to the universe of One Tree Hill. And while some characters and plots and quotes from the series have had real staying power, other aspects of the series have definitely not stood the test of time.

10 Lucas’s broody literary references

From the beginning of the series, Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) is depicted as the more artistic member of the Tree Hill gang. But oftentimes, his love of literature comes off as unrealistic, out of place, and even condescending.

It’s hard to believe that someone like Lucas – whose personal life is always out of order, and often verging on hot mess territory – would have the capacity to read to the breadth and depth required to make the many haughty literary observations that he does.

9 Teen marriage and pregnancy

When good girl Haley James (Bethany Joy Lenz) starts dating bad boy Nathan Scott (James Lafferty), it should be a recipe for disaster. After all, the high school junior basketball star is known for sleeping around, and Haley is a proud virgin, saving herself for marriage.

So what does One Tree Hill propose as a solution to this? Haley and Nathan get married at 16, consummating their marriage immediately after. And only a year later (in the series’ timeline), Haley is pregnant – after a near-divorce, and vow renewal, too. It’s one of the series’ most unrealistic storylines by far.

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8 Dan and the dog

Speaking of unrealistic storylines, few things are more ridiculous in all of One Tree Hill than what happens when the loathsome Dan Scott (Paul Johansson) finally learns that he has been chosen for a heart transplant.

Instead of allowing Tree Hill‘s longtime villain to receive the medical care he needs at the time, the show introduces one of the weirdest, completely bizarre deus ex machinas in all of television history, when a stray dog in the hospital intercedes and eats the heart after it has been dropped during delivery.

7 Absentee parenting

One Tree Hill may be a show focused on teenagers and the world of high school relationships, but the adult characters including Dan, Keith, Deb, Karen, Larry, and Victoria still play major roles in the series. Yet all throughout the show, the adults are rarely depicted doing any kind of substantial parenting.

Instead, their storylines tend to focus on their own toxic personal and romantic relationships, and the ways in which they emotionally and mentally abuse their children. Except for Karen, who could virtually do no wrong in the entire series.

6 Underage relationships

It’s hard to find many romantic relationships in the town of Tree Hill that don’t have their toxic or unhealthy moments. But few storylines are more uncomfortable after all these years than the multiple relationships in the series involving underage relationships.

In the third season, new Tree Hill character and high school senior Rachel Gatina gets involved with Lucas and Nathan’s adult uncle, Cooper Scott, and in the fourth season, high school senior Brooke Davis winds up dating her new teacher, Nick Chavez. Both relationships continue even after the underage nature is revealed.

5 Love triangles

Love triangles may be tried and true parts of television shows, movies, and books aimed at the teenage demographic, but that doesn’t make them any more exhausting to endure. In the world of One Tree Hill, it’s even more exhausting, as many of the show’s central triangles involve the same core group of five characters.

Haley, Nathan, and Peyton. Peyton, Lucas, and Brooke. Brooke, Nathan, and Peyton. Lucas, Peyton, and Jake. Lucas, Peyton, and Lindsey. Peyton, Julian, and Brooke. Lucas, Peyton, and Julian. And the truly exhausting list goes on, and on, and on.

4 The main characters’ careers

Television aimed at teenagers often involves aspiring situations in many ways, in order to inspire their younger and impressionable viewers to achieve their fullest potential. But when it comes to One Tree Hill, few things are more unattainable and ridiculous than the careers the series’ main characters wind up with.

Lucas becomes a best-selling novelist who goes on multiple book tours. Peyton works in a popular record label, then launches her own. Haley becomes a chart-topping singer on multiple different occasions throughout the series. Nathan becomes an NBA star. Brooke becomes a global fashion sensation. If that’s not ridiculous and unattainable, then what is?

3 Teen sexuality

It’s refreshing to see characters, both male and female, owning their sexuality in the modern world of television. But when it comes to the way in which teen dramas highlight teen sexuality, it often feels downright gross.

Few shows are guiltier of that than One Tree Hill, whether in its depiction of oftentimes overly graphic sexual scenes or its mocking treatment of teenagers who practiced abstinence. Cast members have even criticized the show for the way it foregrounded sexuality, often at the expense of more substantial storylines.

2 Female friendships

One Tree Hill is a show often driven by its romances more than its friendships, but the core female friendships at the heart of the series between Brooke, Peyton, and Haley have nonetheless remained highly discussed by fans even years after the show ended.

But all these years removed from the series’ airing, it’s clear that none of these girls were actually real friends. In particular, Brooke bullied and humiliated both Haley and Peyton routinely, leveling them with the kinds of insults and accusations that would end any real life friendship in an instant.

1 Lack of diversity

Tree Hill, North Carolina might be a small town, but it’s also apparently a pretty small-minded one, too, when it comes to its glaring lack of diversity in all forms. Though they recur throughout almost the entire series, the characters Skills and Fergie are never given the screentime or story presence of all of the white characters.

Additionally, rising basketball star Quentin is brutally murdered in the sixth season, and closeted bisexual Anna finds herself the subject of a hate crime in season two. Things have changed since One Tree Hill first aired, but these uncomfortable truths in the series can not be overlooked.

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