DylanLovesKelly

She did give pretty good advice

Slayerette89

*fair warning: long and kinda negative *

I was slightly less bored and annoyed during this season than during season 2, but I still disliked it very much.

Peyton and Haley were my faves when I saw this season for the first time and that hasn’t changed over the years. However, when I eventually caught up with season 1 (the last I saw out of the high school seasons), I realized they have lost some of their early s1 spark. Because making everyone more bland and cutesy is this show’s idea of character development.

I’m kinda meh about the Scott brothers. Lucas is generally my cup of tea moreso than Nathan, but his usual subdued, sensitive-(pseudo)intellectual-guy brand of misogyny gets so overt and disgusting at times. Like during this season when he calls Brooke skanky. Like it’s not bad enough 70% of this show’s “humor” is girls throwing misogynistic slurs at each other, they have to put them in male characters’ mouths too.

Brooke’s proneness to cutesiness (all with the excessive bubbliness, squeaking and squealing) makes 99% of her scenes unwatchable for me. My dislike of her reached new heights in the episodes after the school shooting. Extremely selfish and self-absorbed though I myself am, at least I stop short of making other people’s tragedies, traumas and big life events all about myself. Brooke not so much. She even made Haley’s wedding dress all about herself. (Speaking of which, she’s so that person who constantly gives you unsolicited advice about your appearance and mocks your interests but looses it when you return the favor because she can’t handle what she dishes out. Her Superiority Inferiority Complex stems from parental neglect imo, but her whole character is not written in a way that invokes much sympathy from me.)

Love Chris Keller. And Chris/Nathan interactions are awesome this season. Chris playing on Brooke’s insecurities and sleeping with her (while she was also tipsy) was gross though.

Peyton/Ellie story was compelling enough. I don’t like how Peyton was kinda isolated from the rest of the main characters at times though.

Haley should have never become a cheerleader. There are already enough of jocks and cheerleaders on this show. Ugh.

I love Peyton way more than I love Haley, but I very much dislike the way Peyton treated Haley during the first 10 eps of this season.

Dislike Braley, Breyton and the sidelining of Paley.

The only friendships I like among the core 5 this season are Haley/Lucas and Peyton/Nathan. My overall favorite friendship this season is, however, Karen/Deb (they’re one of my top favorite friendships in the show in general too).

Leyton scenes were the best part of the season for me. I only watch the show for them anyway.

I’m indifferent towards Naley.

Brucas are a notp and there was way too much of them being cutesy in this season. Not to mention, they were also dysfunctional (not even an interesting kind of dysfunctional) and in need of a break-up.

I think the writers were out of their depth with trying to address the school shooting phenomenon. But they did have good intentions, I guess. And the actor playing Jimmy gave a really moving performance.

The sexualization of struggle against breast cancer that the writers managed to include in their attempt to address this issue was also ugh. Again, they probably meant well, but it came off tacky and annoying.

I don’t really have a favorite or least favorite episode this season, they’re all kinda equally meh to me.

BlondieLeigh

As much as I like Brooke, agreed here. And that party after the shooting, and her inability to understand why Lucas may not want to have a party in the place his uncle and friend died just showed how little she knew about him or considered his feelings. That never seemed like taking back the school, to me, it was disrespectful and very inconsiderate.

This season really amplified the reasons I don't really like the Peyton/Brooke HS friendship. There were parts of it that made me question whether Brooke even cared about Peyton at all.

Agree that they're dysfunctional. Their entire relationship always seemed to be used to highlight just how little they knew about each other and just why they shouldn't be together, imo. There was never anything deep or mature there, and this season made that very clear.

Slayerette89

This. I can appreciate her intentions with the reclaiming-the-space idea (thought that's not something I'd do either), but she should have at least accepted that some people would and had the right to see it as disrespectful and inconsiderate, as you described it.

Plus, it's so obvious that's not how Lucas would grieve and her being upset about it is just . She either never got to know him or never let go of her idea of changing him in accordance to her preferences. (That's another problem I have with Brooke in general. She's imo prone to imposing her taste and concepts of fun and everything else onto others.)

She even brings the party up in 3.22. His uncle got shot and you have the nerve to be upset about him not appreciating your efforts to but into his grieving process. It's not about you.

The part where she said she didn't have the time to visit Peyton in the hospital because Karen and Lucas needed her (24/7?) rubbed me the wrong way enough, but when her first visit to Peyton featured her talking about her BLP insecurities to Peyton I was even more . Not to mention, she has already taken the time to talk about her insecurities to Lucas, who has just lost his uncle and really shouldn't be listening about how much she wishes to be saved at that time. The fact that neither Lucas and Peyton were upset about how selfish she was there and that the writers seemed to have intended these as moments where Brooke is flawed-but-self-aware-and-sympathetic cements my hate for her in that ep.

Whether that was the writers' intention or not, that's definitely how I saw it too.

stlavin95

I agree that Brooke throwing Lucas a party showed how little she actually knew him. But what bothered me the most is that she basically tricked him into going and wondered why he felt ambushed by the whole thing.

That's what annoyed me the most about Brooke in this episode. Like Lucas' father figure got murdered by who thought at the time was one of his childhood friends and Peyton nealry died yet she couldn't stop whining about how Lucas loves Peyton more than her, like how selfish is that? How selfish and self-absorded Brooke could be is swept under the rug by a few people IMO.

BlondieLeigh

Urgh, that was the worst! She never really gave him the option to deal with it how he needed to, it was always about how she thought he should be dealing with it.

Extremely. The people she was supposed to be closest to were suffering, it was not the time for her insecurities.

DylanLovesKelly

Yeah, that never made any sense to me. I thought it was very out of character for Brooke

Slayerette89

I always saw Brooke as self-centered like that. Her behavior around the time Lucas was in the accident in s1 wasn't much better either imo. Keith and Karen both ended up having to console and reassure her. Before she found out about the cheating, she even continued pushing her company onto Karen and Lucas though he broke up with her and both of them had bigger problems. But your view might vary of course.

You're right about the tricking. I forgot she didn't straightforwardly get him there. Again, her intentions were good imo, but she failed to consider how that would feel for Lucas.

Agreed.


Yep. I think Brooke has good intentions most of the times, but major issues with accepting that not everyone is or should be like her. Hence her trying to dress up people as she likes (she did it to both Peyton and Haley) and/or suggesting parties as a way for people to feel better (not just 3.17, but also when she took Peyton to a party in 1.08 to make up for how she behaved in 1.07 though it was what Brooke wanted to do and not what Peyton wanted to do). Then she feels hurt, rejected, and insecure if they don't like it, so she ends up behaving even more selfish and pushy.

DylanLovesKelly

Brooke def changed a lot after the high school episodes. I think she acted the same way a lot of HS girls would during a tragedy.

Alexa

It's honestly too bad how BL were written this season because I really liked them in season 2. I wish they had worked together and they had been a good couple but maybe they both realized they just didnt work in a relationship because why were too different. Even would have loved had Brooke broken up with Lucas without there being any sort of relation to Peyton.

the Party was definitely not brookes finest moment. She should have understood that Lucas just needed some space for sure.

stlavin95

The way BL were written in Season 3 showed me why they didn't work as a couple and why they never would. I don't think it was just because they were different, it was more down to the fact they just didn't know each other well enough.

DylanLovesKelly

BL were great together during the fist part of S3 but after the shooting I think the writing changed

BlondieLeigh

Pretty much this. They never worked. The whole relationship was very juvenile, there was never anything deep/mature about it, which is fine for teenagers but it would never have made sense as a long term thing.

stlavin95

I never felt that way tbh because even before the shooting, there were hints that BL weren't going to last ("He’s with his other girlfriend", their fight in 3x14, Brooke's reaction to finding Peyton in the same bed as Lucas, BL admitting they don't well enough in 3x11 or 3x12, etc..)

Agreed. IMO, Brucas didn't really have much potential to make it past High School. Felt the same with Jeyton as well.

Slayerette89

The non-exclusive thing with BL was grating too for me. They were both so childish and annoying there. I completely understood why Brooke was reluctant to give Lucas another chance, but the way she went about it I just couldn’t empathize with. What is playing mind games (I told you to do x, expecting you to do y) and asking for superficial gestures (bring me flowers and food; fastforward to s6 and she’ll take the same approach with Owen “Gold. Godiva. Gucci. Gerber. My jewelry, chocolate, purse and flower preferences” shut up Brooke, please; it’s not cute or funny at all.) gonna accomplish? Lucas was a jerk too with the Rachel thing and especially the Chris thing. Given their history, he had no right to be mad at all imo.