One Tree Hill is a guilty pleasure

The WB's teen drama One Tree Hill is a guilty pleasure - you enjoy it immensely but don't want anyone else to know you like it. With its outrageous plot and trashy themes, the show is more of a teen soap opera than an actual drama. Though the character situations in One Tree Hill are fake beyond belief, the drama has many redeeming qualities. The main actors, Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty, are attractive and the complicated yet intriguing plot keeps viewers coming back for more.

The characters on One Tree Hill are all related to each other - or at least have had some relationships with each other. The cast is led by gorgeous bad boy Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) and his half brother Nathan Scott (pretty-boy James Lafferty) who used to be his enemy. Nathan and Lucas' father, Dan, is in the middle of a messy divorce with Nathan's mom, Deb. The divorce gets messier when Dan walks in on a steamy scene between his brother, Keith, and Deb. Keith, who's both Lucas and Nathan's uncle, was dating Karen, Lucas's mother.

Relations are even more complicated between the teen characters on the show. Haley, who is best friends with Lucas, was dating Nathan. As of last season's finale, the two teen lovebirds were no longer dating – and had gotten married instead. Lucas, who was cheating on Brooke with her best friend Peyton, causes the girls friendship to fall apart. As of the season's premiere, the two girls are becoming friends again when they decide to move on in a life free from boyfriends. Lucas, after causing problems between Brooke and Peyton, and getting in a fight with Haley, decides to start his life over somewhere new. So Keith, who has been shunned by both Dan and Karen, and Lucas decide to move far away from the town of Tree Hill, North Carolina.

Tuesday's premiere picked up right where last season left off. Brooke and Peyton's new friendship is tested when Lucas leaves a goodbye letter for the two of them taped on Peyton's porch, but she doesn't share it with Brooke. Although Dan's recovery from his heart attack last season is going slowly, he has the support of the entire town to help him through his crisis. Lucas and Keith decide to come back to Tree Hill to see Dan, because, after all he is family. Newlyweds Nathan and Haley experience some problems when Nathan's mom doesn't approve of their high school wedding. Overall, the premiere was good, but nothing shocking or unexpected was revealed.

The characters of One Tree Hill have believable personalities; however, the situations in which they find themselves are far from realistic. High school seniors don't usually get married on a spur-of-the-moment decision and most men don't go after their brother's wife. One Tree Hill is known for making these uncommon situations common in the lives of its characters. The acting is believable, as many of the cast have had previous experience. Hilarie Burton (Peyton) was a VJ on MTV's Total Request Live; Chad Michael Murray started his career on the WB show Gilmore Girls and recently starred in the summer film Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff.

Some parallels can be made between One Tree Hill and Fox's teen soap opera The O.C.. Both shows have attractive actors playing spoiled teenagers in high school who can't control all the drama in their lives. The amount and extremity of the drama going on in these characters' lives is fake and not representative of real life.

One Tree Hill is entertaining for many teens, partly because seeing the characters' problems make viewers realize how much better off they are. Though the friendships and family relationships are dysfunctional and tend to be unrealistic, the actors and the chemistry between them is what keeps viewers coming back. The unpredictably of One Tree Hill is addicting - one always wants to watch the next episode just to see what outrageous thing is going to happen next.

One Tree Hill airs at 9 pm on the WB. To visit One Tree Hill's official website click here.