Listening to music is not really my thing, but I am a big podcast girl. My favorite podcast of the last few months has been the One Tree Hill re-watch podcast titled Drama Queens. Hosted by the leading ladies of the classic early 2000s teen drama, Bethany (Joy) Lenz, Hilarie Burton-Morgan and Sophia Bush “dish the dirt” and share exclusive stories from their time on the show (Drama Queens via Apple Podcast, 2021).
If you are not a fan of the show, One Tree Hill can pretty much be summed up as the poster child of small-town-teen-dramas featuring love triangles (or rectangles plus one, if you will), estranged siblings, questionable parenting choices, teen pregnancy (and marriage), and anything else that makes good TV.
One Tree Hill is one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and I did not think I could love it more… until this podcast launched. Very publicly, numerous actors from the show came out and shared their unfortunate experience with mistreatment and harassment on the show’s set, which I feel is important to mention. One of the best things about the podcast is that it gives the women, now successful, confident adult women, a chance to take the show back and remember their experience in a positive way. The women are very open and honest about what happened to them while on the show, but they are also very honest about how much work they did to advocate for themselves and how they have grown from their experiences.
Furthermore, these women have been very close friends for decades, which is very apparent through their interactions on the podcast. They are constantly lifting one another up, encouraging one another, and are wonderful examples of strong, independent women that I strive to be one day.
The structure of the podcast is that of a typical re-watch. The three women re-watch an episode of the show, in chronological order, and discuss said episode in that week’s podcast. They share their favorite and least favorite parts of the episode, anything they remember from filming and any guest stars, special locations, or other information that is relevant to the episode. Another aspect of the podcast that I enjoy is their discussion of the more “real-life” issues that arise in the show. For instance, there are episodes that exhibit sexism, the discussion of virginity, etc. and the women discuss it both how they viewed it at the time of filming, and their enlightened perspectives nearly two decades later. Truly, it feels as if the listener is hanging out with these women while listening, and I often find myself laughing along and even contributing to the conversation.
It is a safe place of discussion, and their theme song rings true, “you can sit with us, girl”.