I was so ready to post a happy happy article about tonight’s One Tree Hill finale. I was planning a tribute to my favourite cheesy quotes of the episode (“It’s just a hill, we’ll climb it together” and “the best part of the movie is when you get a sense that they’re all going to live happily ever after”). I was going to talk about how the episode made every bit of me happy, from the giggly 14 year old girl who loved season one to my inner pretentious 45-year-old who mined every episode of season seven for the greater meaning that may or may not have been there. I was going to say that the finale did everything I wanted it to, focused on all the right characters, infused the melodrama with plenty of zippy one-liners, was true to its schmultzy music-montagey self and generally made me feel good (a special treat as I make my way through my Sopranos box set and find myself perpetually depressed). I was totally on board, loving the episode and sad that I’d have to wait almost a year to get more One Tree Hill goodness (if I get any at all- but sources say that it looks good for OTH to get a half season pickup when The CW announces their fall season on Thursday). I was reminded just how much I love, and have loved for longer than I’ve loved any other show currently airing, One Tree Hill.

SPOILER LINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and then the crazy chick from Center Stage showed up and shot two of the main characters and we were left on a stupid, overdramatic, unnecessary cliffhanger that came out of nowhere from a storyline that should have been dropped ages ago. I know, I know, that kind of crap is intrinsically a part of the fluffy show I love so much but it would be so much better without it and sometimes I find myself thinking that they’d grown out of it. With highschool over and Dan gone, it seemed like maybe the drama didn’t have to be shootings and car wrecks any more. Maybe it really could be about an insecure kid’s struggle to come out, a new artist finding his legs, and a young couple balancing their life with a kid and another on the way (also a finale revelation). Sure there’d be movie stars, multi-platinum recording artists, NBA pros and fashion icons in the mix but they’d get human stories too. Oh well, I suppose I’ve got to accept the crazy that comes with my love of One Tree Hill because to ask it to change now would be even more absurd than the last couple minutes of that otherwise lovely finale.

*FORMAL SEASON WRAP UP STILL TO COME