Everwood Season 1

I’ve watched a lot of new-to-me tv shows for this project in the past few weeks. A lot of them are good, even great. I’ve fallen for The Wire, Girlfriends, American Dreams, Laguna Beach, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

But I fell hardest for Everwood.

This show sneaks up on you. It could be so twee. The cynic in me wanted to dismiss it. The big city doctor is sad that his wife died so he moved to the magic mountain town and healed the rift with his son. Awww. But Everwood is my favorite kind of show. It’s warm hearted and optimistic. But it never lets its characters take the easy way out. By the end of the first season, the great Doctor Andy Brown and his son Ephram are in a good place. But the road there was rough, man, filled with false starts and set-backs. Which is why it’s so impressive that when Ephram goes to the hospital to support his dad, you believe it. And if what I think happened in the finale really did happen, things are about to get tough for them again. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This show also does the meat and potatoes teen drama stuff brilliantly. This past month I’ve watched Jack and Bobby and Joan of Arcadia introduce their One True Pairings and then force them apart with all the grace of a school dance chaperone. Everwood shows how it’s done. Ephram is captivated by the gorgeous and kind Amy, but her boyfriend Colin is in a coma. Now that’s a proper obstacle! This is no old-flame hurriedly introduced out of fear for the Moonlighting curse, this is real television!

The Ephram-Amy-Colin love triangle goes through several permutations. Colin is in a coma, them Colin is awake but Amy isn’t allowed to see him. Then Colin comes back and becomes friends with Ephram,¹ then Ephram dates Colin’s sister, then h