I remember watching OTH and enjoying a better than average teenage show with my girlfriend for a couple of seasons before this episode aired. After it was over I was blown away by how much emotional weight it carried. I gained a new level of appreciation for how well made this show was after it was over. I won't go into detail as it's been covered here already but this episode really packs a punch and I'll always remember it as the one that solidified One Tree Hill as the quintessential teenage drama.
3 Reviews
One Tree Hill: Some You Give Away
gbchs_eagles19 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
In this episode of One Tree Hill, the Ravens make it to the State Championships. Because of Nathan's recent decision to go to Dante for money, he must lose the State Championship or else Dante threatens to hurt all the people Nathan cares about. Nathan confides in Lucas, who in return tells him to win the State Championships anyway. Nathan refuses which causes Lucas to inform Skills. Lucas and Skills team up which in order to do Lucas doesn't take his heart medication. On the court Skills and Lucas try to keep the ball from Nathan in order to win. Haley and Rachel are forced to study during the game but when Haley is sent to the hospital because of stress, she finds out that she is having a baby boy. When news gets back to Nathan he decides to win the State Championships for Haley and his unborn son. While at the hospital Brooke and Peyton reconnect when Peyton tells Brooke that she told Lucas how she felt but Lucas didn't feel the same way. The Ravens win State and back at the café, Brooke learns that she is the one failing calculus instead of Rachel who only went through tutoring in order to get the key to steal the answers for the test. When Haley and Nathan are leaving the café, Dante's drinking and anger causes him to crash into Haley. Lucas witnesses the incident and while talking to the officers he passes out because he didn't take his pills. Because of Nathan's anger, he resorts to violence and ends up beating Dante to death. Dan stops him and takes the blame mostly because he feels guilty for killing Keith.
Mid mark, as this is either terrible or perfect
Slip_de_Garcon20 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
My partner likes watching this show, and occasionally I pay it attention, and this time I did, and I am left with a perhaps unanswerable question:
A. Is it actually being played in all seriousness, in which case it is laughably bad?
B. Or is it a a straight-faced parody, in perhaps the mould of Police Squad, because if so it is a masterpiece?
I won't delve in to the details, suffice to say the action centres around a clearly very important basketball game. As a product of the English state school system, the level of reverence with which a school sports fixture holds over a small town doesn't really translate across the pond, so I'll have to assume that this being played live on radio and being important enough to be the the subject of big money crooked sports betting is realistic.
Anyway, two plot features of this game stand out most sharply:
1. The Baddies - two gentlemen - somehow involved in loan-sharkery and game fixing (my partner helpfully explains) attend the match in person, and they ironically/unironically (depending on the correct answer to my opening question) look like they were from Miami Vice. One was Generic Ruffian, the other was Generic Pimp. Every time they appeared on screen I got the giggles.
2. The game - obviously - went down to the absolute wire. The last 1.8 seconds - and I kid you not - lasted about 15 seconds. Again, hilarious or terrible, depending on opening remarks.
Extra points if you spot the baffling inclusion of literally a second of obvious stock footage of a crowded stadium. Baffling, in that they weren't so poor that they needed to use loads of stock footage, but they cheapened the whole thing by using one second. Again, incompetence... or art?
Which leads us to the stunning finale...
Happily pregnant cheerleader and alpha male from central casting decide to pontificate on how amazing their lives are going to be, having used time distortion technology to win a basketball match (see above) IN THE MIDDLE OF A ROAD. Generic Pimp - aggrieved because his betting on sports day had gone wrong, decides the only course of action is to stealthily drive at this couple at full speed to knock them over, manages to get cheerleader, but his plan founders on the fact the road is a dead end, so he then crashes hard into some roadworks.
Alpha Male (bear with me, this is epic) goes to his car to wreak revenge, Miami Vice guy basically falls out when he opens the door, Alpha guy punches him three times, then Dad turns up, announces Miami Vice Guy is dead. The implication is clearly that Alpha Male killed him, despite the fact he'd just crashed head on into something at high speed. Dad tells him to run away, then in the space of a few seconds the police arrive, not before dad has managed to bloody his knuckles somehow.
You don't think this episode can get any better/worse?
Then, for want of a better name, Troubled Alpha Male Guy turns up, sees Pregnant Cheerleader lying on the ground... and immediately drops down (we assume) dead.
Camera pans artfully up on crane...
And there you have it. Like the lovechild of William Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino, but filmed by Zucker/Abrahams.
I honestly can't recommend this enough, I haven't laughed so uncontrollably in years.
A. Is it actually being played in all seriousness, in which case it is laughably bad?
B. Or is it a a straight-faced parody, in perhaps the mould of Police Squad, because if so it is a masterpiece?
I won't delve in to the details, suffice to say the action centres around a clearly very important basketball game. As a product of the English state school system, the level of reverence with which a school sports fixture holds over a small town doesn't really translate across the pond, so I'll have to assume that this being played live on radio and being important enough to be the the subject of big money crooked sports betting is realistic.
Anyway, two plot features of this game stand out most sharply:
1. The Baddies - two gentlemen - somehow involved in loan-sharkery and game fixing (my partner helpfully explains) attend the match in person, and they ironically/unironically (depending on the correct answer to my opening question) look like they were from Miami Vice. One was Generic Ruffian, the other was Generic Pimp. Every time they appeared on screen I got the giggles.
2. The game - obviously - went down to the absolute wire. The last 1.8 seconds - and I kid you not - lasted about 15 seconds. Again, hilarious or terrible, depending on opening remarks.
Extra points if you spot the baffling inclusion of literally a second of obvious stock footage of a crowded stadium. Baffling, in that they weren't so poor that they needed to use loads of stock footage, but they cheapened the whole thing by using one second. Again, incompetence... or art?
Which leads us to the stunning finale...
Happily pregnant cheerleader and alpha male from central casting decide to pontificate on how amazing their lives are going to be, having used time distortion technology to win a basketball match (see above) IN THE MIDDLE OF A ROAD. Generic Pimp - aggrieved because his betting on sports day had gone wrong, decides the only course of action is to stealthily drive at this couple at full speed to knock them over, manages to get cheerleader, but his plan founders on the fact the road is a dead end, so he then crashes hard into some roadworks.
Alpha Male (bear with me, this is epic) goes to his car to wreak revenge, Miami Vice guy basically falls out when he opens the door, Alpha guy punches him three times, then Dad turns up, announces Miami Vice Guy is dead. The implication is clearly that Alpha Male killed him, despite the fact he'd just crashed head on into something at high speed. Dad tells him to run away, then in the space of a few seconds the police arrive, not before dad has managed to bloody his knuckles somehow.
You don't think this episode can get any better/worse?
Then, for want of a better name, Troubled Alpha Male Guy turns up, sees Pregnant Cheerleader lying on the ground... and immediately drops down (we assume) dead.
Camera pans artfully up on crane...
And there you have it. Like the lovechild of William Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino, but filmed by Zucker/Abrahams.
I honestly can't recommend this enough, I haven't laughed so uncontrollably in years.
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