One Tree Hill: do we really need yet another sequel?

The long season of sequels to cult films and series of the 2000s seems to never end. After Gilmore Girls, And Just Like That And Freaky Friday (just to mention a few names), the new episodes of. will also be in production soon One Tree Hill, the CW series aired for 9 seasons from 2003 to 2012. This was announced by two of the historic protagonists – Hilarie Burton (Peyton) and Sophia Bush (Brooke) – and, according to the first rumours, the events that will be told will focus mainly on their two characterstheir being mothers of teenage children and their new life in Tree Hill. Nothing different from other similar nostalgia operations that attract the most loyal fans of the first hour, but given the ever-increasing number of series of this type, it’s fair to ask: do we need yet another sequel?

As much as I am inclined to be fascinated by discovering how characters from my childhood and adolescence grew and evolved, in this case, the legitimate doubt arises whether there is still something to tell. One Tree Hill It has 9 seasons of around 20 episodes each under its belt: a duration that belongs to very few series that we currently watch on any of the platforms we use every day. Such a large amount of footage that it forced the screenwriters, over the years, to invent love triangles of all kinds between a good part of the protagonist characters of the series, plots and difficulties that often bordered on the surreal, and a succession of themes and dialogues which, episode after episode, had less and less bite. Many fans of the series (myself included), having reached the last season (which, not surprisingly, is only 13 episodes given the increasingly significant drop in ratings), breathed a sigh of relief, aware of the fact that the winning ideas that gave meaning to the plot had long since ended.

One Tree Hill, in its last episode, had the happy ending that everyone expected: a cross between old and new dedicated above all to those who had had the strength not to give up in those nine long years. What more is there to say? What direction can a series take that, unlike similar examples, has tiredly reached its conclusion, boring even the most avid fans? The task that the screenwriters have set themselves is arduous and it will be difficult not to fall into something already widely seen (such as adult relationships completely in crisis or the generational fracture between parents and teenagers who struggle to communicate).

Burton and Bush, over the years, have often talked about how the series has often been chauvinistic and misogynistic, how they found themselves prematurely sexualized in front of the camera without having any psychological support. The only winning idea, at this point, is that we start again from this, trying to erase the old mistakes of the past and create a product that appeals not only to the over 35s a little nostalgic for times gone by, but also for current teenagers or twenty-year-olds who, until shortly before the announcement, didn’t even know of the existence of the series. One Tree Hill it told the life of provincial teenagers in a not very glossy and not very cosmopolitan context (as it was for The OC And Gossip Girl): if it started from here, it could arouse the same interest as those who, way back in 2003, decided not to miss a single episode.