The third season of “One Tree Hill” continued to provide surprises for fans of the series. The third season opener “Like You Like an Arsonist” deals with the aftermath of the fire and Dan’s fate. Haley returns to Tree hill forcing Nathan to rethink their future and their relationship. Peyton digs into the background of the strange woman who pretends to be her mother. While many fans voiced disappointed in the quality of the writing of the third season the best episodes stayed achieved parity with the dramatic high points of seasons one and two. The third season of any series is always a challenge—there’s the chance a show will fall into a dramatic slump repeating previous story motifs or treading water. That certainly was the case with season three of this popular series but the show is far from over and still has plenty of potential with the characters and situations that occur during season three. I would recommend that if you haven’t seen the first two seasons of this show that you pick up the pieces with the very first episode of the show as there’s a lot of character background that will be missed otherwise. ***

The set includes all the third season episodes including two that were comparable to the best of the first and second season: Like You Like an Arsonist

From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea

First Day on a Brand New Planet

An Attempt to Tip The Scales

A Mulititude of Casualties

Locked Hearts and Hand Grenades

Champagne For My Real Friends,

Real Pain For My Sham Friends

The Worst Day Since Yesterday

How a Resurrection Really Feels

Brave New World

Return of the Future

I've Got Dreams To Remember

The Wind That Blew My Heart Away

All Tomorrow's Parties

Just Watch The Fireworks With Tired Eyes,

Tired Minds, Tired Souls,

We Slept (With Commentary) Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?

When It Isn't Like It Should Be

I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me

Everyday is a Sunday Evening

Over the Hills and Far Away

The Show Must Go On (With Commentary) ---

Image & Sound: Warner has done a very good job with “Hill” the images are crisp with nice color reproduction. There are occasional digital artifacts such as edge enhancement that pop up now and again but it shouldn’t interfere with the viewing experience. The audio is solid as well although directional effects could be better presented during the show. ---

The most important special feature here for fans of the show will be the 30 minutes of deleted scenes. Most of the episodes have one or two deleted scenes that develop the plot further. It's clear that most of these scenes were cut more for time issues (and the fact that information included in them showed up further along in the episodes). Many of these scenes give additional character background or provide tidbits about the plot of various episodes. Watching the deleted scenes are worthwhile but I would caution you to watch the episodes first as there are some spoilers that appear in a couple of the deleted scenes that might spoil your enjoyable of the respective episodes. Most of the extras are located on the last disc of the set. ***

We also get a very funny gag reel. Not enough studios provide the gag reels for TV shows (or films for that matter) and it’s a fun way to make fans like they are truly involved in the show beyond just watching it. ***

Unlike the second season set which featured a number of featurettes we only get one with this set but it’s quite good; “Anatomy of an Episode” features cast interviews and gives the fan a glimpse behind-the-scenes into all the work done to produce a single episode of a show. The episode focused on is “With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept”. ***

The two audio commentaries are for “With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept” and “The Show Must Go On”. Series creator/producer Mark Schwahn, executive producer Joe Davola and various cast members participate in the two commentary tracks both of which provide fascinating trivia about the production of the episodes as well as changes that occurred from script to screen. ---

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