One Tree Hill is a teen melodrama about the interactions of a large group of people who are interconnected in their daily lives. At a young age Dan Scott (Paul Johansson) fathered two boys, Nathan (James Lafferty) and Lucas (Chad Michael Murray), with two different mothers, Deb (Barbara Alyn Woods) and Karen (Moira Kelly). The series looks at the oddly connected families, along with Dan's brother Keith (Craig Sheffer), and several love interests for the half brothers, Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush), Haley James (Bethany Joy Lenz), and Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton). In the first season a lot of the stories were about the two half brothers coming to terms with each other. At the beginning of the series there was little love between them. The drama incorporated a lot of twists and turns and did a fine job developing multi-faced characters. Some you loved and others you loved to hate. For more information about this series please refer to my first season review.

When I reviewed the first season of One Tree Hill, the show was completely new to me. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I soon found that I was in love with the show. While full of unrealistic situations and over the top melodrama, the season was nonetheless enticing, entertaining, and gripping. After each episode, I was left wanting more and that is a key component to a good television drama. And this second season does a fine job continuing the exciting by putting in more diabolic and sinister characters, with this perfect looking cast getting into one crazy situation after another. One Tree Hill is without a doubt the show for you viewers looking to see some mind numbing drama. Granted some of you might be left rolling your eyes in disgust (corny and unrealistic), but it's still damn fun.

This season picks up where season one left off. There was a big cliff hanger that left Dan, the character you love to hate, in a comprising situation. He had a heart attack and the stories in the beginning of season two revolve around him making a remarkable change in both his life and personality. After his life threatening experience, he seems to be taking a turn for the good. No longer is he the multi-faced season one villain, but instead a good caring man. The way the early season two episodes handle his character change into the later episodes add even more twists and turns than you could imagine. It's fairly remarkable the direction Dan is taken in this season and it is even more amazing how Paul Johansson handles his role. Johansson gives a stunning performance. It is especially noticeable when you compare his role in Highlander: The Raven (which wasn't great) to his role in this series. As it turns out, Dan's role in this season is the driving force behind this season.

In addition to the big story about Dan, there are many other significant stories to this season. Firstly we deal with Nathan and Haley's relationship. Towards the end of season one, they took a dramatic step as a couple and got hitched. In doing so, they opened a box of problems. Things only seem to get worse for the beautiful couple as Haley begins to find she has a real knack for a music career and starts to leave poor Nathan in the dust. Peyton also runs into some personal troubles as she tries to help run a nightclub and fights off some major cornball problems. Lucas seems to spend a lot of time trying to fix the relationships he messed up in season one. There are also some pretty nitty gritty issues for Karen to workout with Keith and she finds a new love interest. Deb has to face herself and find out exactly how she wants live her life.

This season also features a reprised role from a character who parallels Brooke. Felix (Michael Copon) gets thrown into this season to add more daring drama and push situations to the edge. Alone Brooke's self-centered, egotistical bitchy attitude was quite a lot to handle. Mixed in with the other characters (who are quite tame in comparison) Brooke was tolerable. However add Felix, the male version of her, and it gets hard to deal with them both. The point is when this guy shows up, the over the top meter gets a little too high, and sometimes it can be a daunting task to get through the stories involving him. The some of the big stories involving Felix and the cast of One Tree Hill is his sordid relationship with his counterpart Brooke and Felix's sister spending a little too much quality time with Lucas.

The season has plenty of highly dramatic twists and turns, which leave you aching for more. The stories, while overly melodramatic, are still done well with plenty of opportunities for the dynamic characters to grow as individuals. The bottom line, this was another great season. While I don't think it was as good as season one and despite that I didn't care much for the reprised role of Felix, the season was still gripping and entertaining.

Episode Guide
1. The Desperate Kingdom of Love - 1 deleted scene
2. Truth Doesn't Make a Noise
3. Near Wild Heaven
4. You Can't Always Get What You Want
5. I Will Dare
6. We Might As Well Be Strangers - 3 deleted scenes
7. Let the Reigns Go Loose - 2 deleted scenes
8. Truth, Bitter Truth - 2 deleted scenes
9. The Trick Is to Keep Breathing - 7 deleted scenes
10. Don't Take Me For Granted - 2 deleted scenes
11. The Heart Brings You Back - 5 deleted scenes
12. Between Order and Randomness - 1 deleted scene
13. The Hero Dies in This One - 3 deleted scenes
14. Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows - 2 deleted scenes
15. Unopened Letter to the World
16. Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking
17. Something I Can Never Have - 2 deleted scenes
18. The Lonesome Road - 3 deleted scenes
19. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - 1 deleted scene
20. Lifetime Piling Up - 4 deleted scenes
21. What Could Have Been - 4 deleted scenes
22. The Tide That Left and Never Came Back - 2 deleted scenes
23. The Leavers Dance - 4 deleted scenes

The DVD

Video:
The video in this release is matted widescreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The quality is good and offers a fairly sharp and clean picture. There is a grain and minor compression artifacts. There are also some hints of edge enhancement, but there is nothing that should interfere with your viewing experience.

Audio:
The audio in this release is given in English 2.0 Dolby digital stereo sound. The audio track sounds very good. Dialogue comes off flat and music is rich and vibrant. There is also very little distinction between the left and right channels. The release also has subtitles in English, French, and Spanish, and supports closed captioning.

Extras:
Like the first season DVD release, this box set comes with a bundle of extras. First off there are a lot of deleted scenes (or unaired scenes) included. There are a total of forty-eight deleted scenes. In the "Episode Guide" section of this review the number of deleted scenes for a given episode is listed. There are also three audio commentaries for "Don't Take Me for Granted" with Mark Schwahn, "Unopened Letter to the World" with Mark Schwahn and Bryan Greenberg, and "Something I Can Never Have" with Paul Johansson. All three commentaries are worth sitting through if you are a fan of the show. However, I think it's too bad there wasn't a commentary for the season premiere. The first episode of the season was just so damn intense.

Lastly there are three featurettes. The Music of One Tree Hill is a short eight minute presentation about how the music impacts the series. There are some pretty generic comments made about how the music impacts the series, i.e. during certain key and dramatic moments certain music adds character to it. Diaries from the Set are two behind the scenes recordings. Together they run for almost five minutes. The first is "Charity Football Match", which is footage of, don't look surprised, a charity football game. The second is "Get on the Bus", which is a behind the scenes look at Tyler Hilton's rolling accommodations while he was on tour. Finally Change is Good is a ten minute featurette covering the new supporting characters introduced in season two. Overall this box set comes with a fairly nice set of extras. The featurettes tend to be bland, but the commentaries and deleted scenes are a nice addition.

Final Thoughts:
After I sat through the first season of One Tree Hill, I was on the edge of my sitting wanting to know what was to follow. Season one ended with a great cliffhanger and season two picked up the story well. The twist and turns with the over the top drama fit nicely. I really enjoyed this second season, but not nearly as much as the first season. There were a few things about it I didn't care for like the new reprised role Felix and a few of the situations the cast got into was way too hard to swallow. Overall this season should prove more than entertaining if you enjoyed season one. Of course, if you are new to this series you definitely should check out season one for some intense drama.