The Art of the Pilot

Regardless of artistic intent, the most important episode of any TV show is its first.

It is within this episode that a series will look to define itself, its characters and the world in which they live. If the show does not do this successfully, then it is unlikely to find its audience and thus is unlikely to even stay on air for any length of time.

This is no less true of a show like One Tree Hill, which would be considered to have a somewhat less scrutinising and challenging audience, than it is of a prestige HBO series such as The Wire, Deadwood or The Sopranos.

So how successful is the pilot episode of One Tree Hill?

Well, very. The quality isn’t fantastic, and some of the perfomances let it down badly (Chad Michael Murray as defacto lead Lucas Scott overcooks the brooding/deep aspect of his character and looks perpetually confused and/or constipated), but as an exercise in world-building it absolutely hits it mark.

The major goals of the episode are: to explain the nature of the Scott relationships and the contrived history behind them (Dan is father to both Lucas and Nathan, however neither boy despite knowing this has ever had anything to do with each other as Dan has played no part in Lucas’s life); to establish Nathan as the star of the school basketball team; and to find a way to put Lucas onto this team, so as to set-up an antagonistic relationship between the two brothers, supplemented by Lucas’ attraction to his younger half-brother’s girlfriend Peyton.

It’s a complicated remit and a lot of information to pack into 42 minutes but the show does it with aplomb.

This is often despite the fact that the three most important roles in the episode - and the series going forward - are played by Murray, James Lafferty (Nathan) and Paul Johansson (Dan), who are far and away at this point the poorest performers on the show.

Luckily they are supported by stalwarts such as Moira Kelly, Craig Sheffer and Barry Corbin who do their best to do the heavy lifting, despite often having to deal with overly melodramatic and frankly, in places, ridiculous dialogue.

Corbin in particular looks like he is having a ball, fully embracing the cliched role of old-school coach and managing to appear either wordly or homely depending on what the script decides it requires at that precise moment.

But for its flaws, which I expect we will come to in due course, all-in-all the show makes a successful start and leaves its audience with no doubt about the show they are watching – and what more can you ask from a pilot?