The Basketball Diaries

As far as homoerotic Saturday morning teen dramas go, One Tree Hill seems to have a lot going for it. Not only is there plenty of slow-mo, tense basketball action and post-match, changing room towel slapping, there’s the increasingly dangerous rivalry between long-lost brothers Lucas and Nathan to set it apart from other shows. Naturally, Lucas is poor and thus represents all that is good in the world, while Nathan has been brought up by his pointlessly nefarious dad in a life of luxury and is therefore bordering on evil. Though of course, he’ll slowly mellow to his brother’s charms and risk the wrath of pa (seen recently sticking a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger in Six Feet Under). Which is the only real problem – James Lafferty is just too wet to play evil Nathan with any real menace, even when he’s kidnapping Lucas or picking on his fed-up-with-a-shallow-lifestyle cheerleader girlfriend. In fact, this is what’s great about One Tree Hill – every character is a walking cliché, from the aforementioned tormented socialite and her superbly shallow pal, to the so-obviously-about-to-come-out jock who is Lucas’s only mate on the team. It lacks the intelligence of Dawson’s Creek and the sheer craziness of Popular, but the combination of unashamedly obvious plots and potentially hot boy-on-boy action means One Tree Hill is just what’s needed post OC on a Saturday morning.