'One Tree Hill': TV's Craziest Show?

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One major decision, though, provoked skepticism at first — last season's four-year jump forward in time, which skipped right over those awkward college years. The ultimate result? A rare season-5 ratings uptick. Granted, the move also made the show into a fantasia of overachievement: Brooke now ran her own fashion conglomerate (and bought Peyton a record company), Lucas had become a best-selling author, and Nathan had missed his NBA dreams only because he'd been paralyzed in a bar fight. (He recovered, of course.)

Ever since, One Tree Hill has embraced its new anything-and-everything-goes image. What would be considered shark-jumping moments on any show occur, oh, about every other episode on OTH: Nathan taking up SlamBall (a flashy, dangerous basketball/football hybrid). Lucas' editor leaving him at the altar. Anything involving Nathan and Haley's adorable son, Jamie (Jackson Brundage). And, of course, Nanny Carrie (Torrey DeVitto), who — yes, this is the actual plotline, albeit boiled down — kept Dan Scott hostage in an exact replica of a hospital room while slowly torturing him, then using him to lure Jamie into her clutches. There was also an ax. Such ridiculous high jinks have even allowed OTH a taste of zeitgeist. ''One Tree Hill hasn't really grabbed our attention since, well, ever,'' The Soup's Joel McHale recently quipped on air. ''However, lately it's reinvented itself as a sort of confusing cross between The Shining, Misery, and The O.C. Except less realistic.''

So what kind of delicious madness is coming up? Nathan will continue pursuing his SlamBall career, which could clash with Haley's renewed passion for music; Peyton will face some seriously mysterious drama she must hide from Lucas; and Lucas will pursue the movie adaptation of his book (which lured Dawson himself, James Van Der Beek, back to his old stage to play a film director). Murray and Galeotti will both be directing episodes, and Schwahn promises a multiple-cliff-hanger midseason finale on Nov. 24. (That long-awaited Lucas-Peyton wedding, perhaps? ''I keep trying to find out,'' Murray insists.) As for the cast, they're embracing the insanity. ''It's not like people are going to stop watching our show just because of that,'' Galeotti says of the no-holds-barred melodrama. ''At this point, I say, Just do it.'' And if by ''it,'' she means Nanny Carrie rising from the dead to challenge Nathan to one-on-one SlamBall on Lucas and Peyton's wedding day, that'll do just fine.