If you opted to watch the Buckeyes last night, you’re still feeling the disappointment.  But those who jumped on the One Tree Hill rollercoaster were left exhilarated and emotionally spent.  It was arguably the best episode of the season, seamlessly weaving together seven storylines that had viewers choked up one minute and screaming the next.  Peyton kicked things off with her pregnancy news; and Lucas showed a lot of class in his studio dealings with (surprise!) Julian’s father.  Mouth and Millicent?  Well, she made a big mistake with Owen, and Mouth seems unwilling to forgive.  Meanwhile, Owen’s prescription drugs and alcohol relapse prompted the return of buddy Chase (Stephen Colletti), who quickly fell for Mia (Cleveland’s Kate Voegele)—mired in songwriter’s block.  Nate staggered through his first day of D-League basketball, getting schooled by the team’s cocky point guard.  And little Jamie helped Quentin’s brother and mother find some peace at the fallen star’s gravesite.  As powerful as those scenes were, the night belonged to Sophia Bush (Brooke) and Ashley Rickards (Sam).  The foster teen was kidnapped by the thug who killed Q and robbed Brooke earlier this season; and a heart-pounding rescue climaxed with Brooke pointing a gun at the murderer’s head.  In a year full of surprise twists and highpoints, this may be One Tree Hill’s best yet.  Agree? 

Are you addicted to Gossip Girl?  If not, the next two episodes (airing Jan. 2 and 9) are billed as the “best yet,” so it’s time to jump on-board.  You’ve no doubt heard that Blake Lively and Penn Badgley (Serena and Dan) are an item off-camera, as well.  But the most intriguing romance on the show just might be the secret Blair-Nate-Chuck scandal, which was just voted TV’s Top Love Triangle on a popular entertainment website.  If one star is poised for breakout success, it’s Ed Westwick (Chuck), whose character is underhanded, underparented…and now the victim of unrequited love.  Ed is the lead singer for a British band called The Filthy Youth, and two of the indie group’s songs will be featured in this Wednesday’s episode—so cool.  You can watch several of their music videos on YouTube, or listen on their MySpace page.  On to the storylines…  Will Lily accept the marriage proposal from Mr. Bass, or follow her heart back to unwealthy Rufus?  Vanessa is obviously angling to get Dan back, but is she out of her league trying to blackmail Blair?  Didn’t we all know a “third wheel” like Vanessa growing up?  It’s easy to feel V’s pain, but Serena won’t let go without a fight.  How will the kids’ school cover-up pact affect relationships this week?  And does Chuck have what it takes to steal Blair away from Nate?  As you can see, the Upper East Siders will ring in the New Year with a lot of juicy drama.  Just the way we like it.

The Mother of all Beauty Pageants has uncovered some “nightmare” contestants, as Hollis calls them, with the mansion split into two cliques who don’t get along at all.  Last week the daughters were in control of the challenges, and this week the nervous moms took over—choosing evening gown ensembles and calling the shots at the team-photo shoot.  Only about half of the portraits were praised, with the judges singling out Diamond Dolls for having pageant experience and still coming up far short.  In the end, the Tomboy Queens (Pamela and Felicia) were asked to pick up the scissors…and de-sash themselves!  Oh, the tomfoolery.  Angela and her daughter Tenia (Beauty is Skin Deep) nearly started a rumble in the house, attacking the much-loved Gina and Hollis for being “fake and phony.”  The war began with Angela & Co. eavesdropping on the nice clique thru the mansion intercom, then barging right in and starting the face-to-face confrontation.  She’s so over-the-top in her taunts, you wonder if she’s for real.  But there were lots of tears flowing, and the upcoming episodes will only crank up the pressure.  Next week it’s the talent competition—this should be great!

Beauty & The Geek’s pompous Will has to GO, man. Trouble is, he keeps winning immunity challenges and evicting other couples. Last week he caught Jasmine eavesdropping and stomped off, actually scolding her: “Tsk, tsk!!” Tuesday, as if Will’s story hour (lisping thru Poe) wasn’t annoying enough, the house really turned against him when he sent Erin and Ohio-boy Jesse to the Elimination Room, wrongly declaring that Erin wasn’t interacting with others—which reduced her to tears. Their sudden-death survival, coupled with the tension “beauties” Sam and Rebecca have created with their steamy romance, bode well for a dramatic upcoming massage and rocket-science episode.And speaking of drama, the queens cranked it up a notch last night on Top Model. Miss Jay put them all in straight-jackets to open the show—and should’ve left ‘em that way! My early favorite to win, Bianca, showed her true colors as a loudmouth 18-year-old who tanked badly in the photo shoot and was nearly booted off. Her increasing jealousy of polished Saleisha makes Bianca even less attractive. Though, for sheer nerve it’s hard to top mousey Victoria, who twice has gone into “Twiggy attack-mode” at the panel sessions—which both amuse and confuse the icon’s fellow judges. Your thoughts?

Some mental notes I made while watching the Season 7 Premiere of Smallville: Are there any better special effects on TV? The dam burst and aftermath were just awesome…. Tom Welling obviously works out a lot…and can we say enough about this guy’s acting? He was a male model who only crossed over into speaking roles in 2001, the year Smallville debuted, and here he is playing “Good Clark” and “Bizarro Clark” convincingly. Kudos to the production team for that work, as well. Lex nearly drowned again; I get queasy watching that scene. Chloe’s dead, then alive…but what’s up with her refusal to share with Clark? Lana’s in Singapore with a blonde wig—not a great disguise in the Orient! For a billionaire’s mansion, sure seems like a lot of folks are able to just walk in to Lex’s place unannounced. Who dragged Lionel away, and to where? Supergirl arrives—but more importantly: Our Supernatural boys are back next week. Yea!

NOOOO! Not Mila! Last night, the Top Model judges saw the “vacant” look on the tall blonde’s face, and realized she had some serious “room to rent.” Nigel Barker remarked that even as Mila stood before them receiving outfit critiques, “she wasn’t absorbing any of it.” Thus, in a stunning first-week showdown, evil diva Ebony survived, robbing us of the insanely-funny poser. Earlier, a cool photo shoot had each girl glamorously holding a cigarette, with a mirror reflecting their bodies rotting away with cancer. (Mila, claiming she looked like Bozo, rankled Mr. Jay by laughing thru her session.) Tyra later told the contestants that many young girls look up to them as role models, and that this season will be “smoke-free.”

Gossip Girl then cemented Blair’s status as TV’s prettiest two-faced conniving backstabber. Suffice to say, the war is on, after Ms. Waldorf blabbed to Dan about Serena’s hook-up with Nate. And whoa, Serena’s mom sure gets around. Freaked about her daughter dating the blue-collar son of Rufus, she paid a second visit to her (apparent) old flame—before a revealing tête-à-tête with smarmy Chuck’s father! All that…plus an elegant brunch with fisticuffs. Who knew the jet-setters had such daily drama?

This season’s finale was a first for One Tree Hill. Most of the characters we have grown to know and love are all in a good and happy place at the end of this season. Whereas in past seasons we saw major obstacles that got in the way of them and, of course, you always have the drama of the Lucas-Peyton-Brooke love triangle. But this season ended with almost everyone being happy.

I was surprised to see Keith in yet another dreamlike sequence but I found the scene cute. When Karen tells her young daughter that the flower was a Lily and later when Karen comes back to life in the hospital, we found out the baby has been named Lily.

But the biggest shock of the night for me was seeing Dan go and turn himself in for the murder of Keith. He has dealt with the agony of his bad decision all season and this episode finally saw him completely break down. By the end of the episode, we see him committing suicide, but the knot comes undone and he apparently survives. So Dan has survived a large fire in the building he was in, heart problems and now an attempted suicide. We’ll see if the list grows longer next season.

Mouth had some pretty funny scenes in tonight’s episode. First he comes to the party wearing what he called “a blouse” (I prefer to still call him Minkus…what can I say Boy Meets World was an awesome show). Then he is sitting with his friends just playing with a bottle. He spins it and it lands on Brooke so he goes up and kisses Brooke, with his friends cheering loudly on in the background.

I thought Karen’s scene with Dan in prison was pretty gripping. She made it completely clear to Dan that her daughter would know that he killed Keith and took her father away from her. Although you know somehow Dan’s character is not done, next season something has to happen where he still terrorizes the lives of the Scott’s.

The ending with Lucas telling Nathan that he is going to be an assistant coach at college meant the Scott brothers are still going to be together and that Lucas and Haley will still get to see each other as well.

The episode ended with the whole group playing basketball together with everyone laughing and enjoying themselves…truly a first for a One Tree Hill season finale.

Next year we are all in for some big surprises. If you hadn’t already heard, next season the show will return midseason and it will be four years in the future, so the gang should just be graduating from college. Throughout the fall, leading up to next year’s premiere the CW will provide videos that fill in what has happened through those four years. Stay tuned to know when these videos are available.

More questions—lots of questions.  This show really is all about mysteries.  I keep wondering what Greta could have done that would torment her so.  I wouldn’t put anything past Cliff, but I just can’t see Greta doing anything that bad.  I was examining every scene, looking for anything that might give me clue as to what is going on in this town.  The characters are starting to be developed by the writers, which, if not done, can kill a show.  This is a good sign.

Johnny gets his share of warnings in this episode.  Just about everyone warned him of something.  And, just about everyone revealed some secret or something about themselves.  The kicker was that he learns Eddie committed suicide in HIS room.  If you were in his shoes, how would that make you feel?  He shared some intimate time with Greta when they went for a drive into the surrounding hills and had a sweet heart-to-heart talk with the sun setting in the background.  Johnny reveals he was in rehab and we learn Greta’s mother died when she was ten and her dad travels, so she’s pretty much on her own.  Seems like an ideal situation to be in, rich and no parents around.  But, I think Greta’s already paying the price for all that freedom.  She’s such a tortured soul.

Nikki, an old girlfriend who spent time in rehab with Johnny, shows up in town.  She’s not doing quite as well as Johnny, since her continued drinking and a “fire” incident landed her in a halfway house.  Johnny and Greta rescue her after a drunken scene at the town’s benefit event.  I understood Johnny’s concern for her, but Greta’s show of compassion for Nikki was nice.  And then there was Johnny and Greta’s first kiss.  Hot!

So who do you think 08Nova is?  My first guess was Liza, thinking that “nova” was being used in the context of science and Liza is the only geek we’ve been introduced to so far in the show.  But, how would she have gotten hold of the video that 08Nova sent at the end of the show?  Got any thoughts on this?  That mask was pretty freaky, but I thought the fact that the video was shot right there in Johnny’s room was even freakier.  I’m beginning to be a little afraid for Johnny

Not too many shows make my jaw drop.  It happened twice in the pilot of Hidden Palms.  The opening scene in which Johnny’s dad shoots himself was the first jaw-dropper.  I wonder if his dad was always so philosophical when he got drunk (“Life shouldn’t be so expected.”).  If not, that should have been a clue to Johnny that something really bad was going to happen.

Fast forward one year. Johnny is fresh out of rehab and the new kid in town.  His new addiction is a camera, which I see being of some major importance in his future and he’s taking his father’s last words seriously.  It was good advice.  If you don’t know who Pablo Neruda is, check him out on Wikipedia.  Deep.

The pilot introduces us to the main characters and I’ve already picked out my favorites.  There’s Johnny, still hurting, still dealing with the fallout of his dad’s suicide.  He’s smart (you’ll see him reading a lot of books), but is he smart enough to not end up like Eddie?  Cliff lives next door and while he appears clean-cut, there’s a verrrry dark side to him, perhaps fuelled by the odd relationship with his mother.  It’s like he’s taking care of her, not her taking care of her son.  And, Cliff provided the second jaw-dropper of the show, kicking the neighbor’s dog.  But he just doesn’t kick the dog out of anger, which is bad enough; he sweetly entices the dog to come to him and then BAM—attacks him.  Hopefully the writers will explore this relationship; I think it will explain a lot as the mysteries unfold, or deepen.  Greta is the pretty girl every guy wants.  She’s a major drama queen, which, of course, hides all her pain.  Where does all that pain come from?  Then there’s the nerdy Liza, who is smitten with her new neighbor, Johnny.  She has very understanding parents.  Their comments were, after she blows up the garage during one of her chemistry experiments, “. . . let’s try to find some quieter chemicals to play with?”  These kids all have issues, but once you meet the parents, you know where it all comes from.

The pilot ended with a lot of questions.  Why did Eddie kill himself?  What’s the “deal” Cliff and Greta have?  When Cliff met Johnny for the first time, he said, “…this town is in desperate need of fresh blood.”  Do you think he meant that literally?

I hear the second episode will have you hooked.  Stay tuned . . .

If you missed last night’s season finale of Smallville, you missed the most captivating hour of any show I’ve seen in a long time. Get this, it had Lana finally leaving Lex, Martian Manhunter flying around with his glowing red eyes, the temporary death of Lois, Chloe’s power is finally revealed and the birth of Bizarro! It was more like a two hour movie crammed into a one hour episode. It left me wanting more. Was I the only one saying, “I hate finales like this.” They leave me in limbo all summer. Who will live? Who will die? I mean, come on, are they trying to torment us? I can really have fun imagining what everyone’s fate will be. Of course, I don’t think I’m alone in thinking Lana surely couldn’t be dead. She might have had time to jump into the truck that so convieniently drove by seconds before the explosion. We can only hope. And what about Lionel! We finally find out that he doesn’t have a secret evil plan after all, but he’s an emissary for Jorel. Deep down I wanted to believe he had changed. Now that Clark knows the truth about him, he just can’t die. And what about Chloe’s new power!! Very cool!! I’m guessing she takes on the illness, or whatever, of the person she’s healing and then she can regenerate. There is no way that they can kill off Chloe. In my opinion, it will just ruin the show. We all love her character. I’ve had such sympathy for Lex in the past because he’s never had real love in his life, but after seeing his dark side last night, I’m just not feeling sorry for him anymore. How will Clark defeat Bizarro (the phantom who stole some of Clark’s DNA and said he was like Clark, only a little bizarre)? Will Martian Manhunter get there in time to help Clark defeat Bizarro? How will Lex get out of this one? So many questions…so little time. Hope you enjoyed the episode as much as I did.