October Road: The Complete First Season

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

In recent years, nothing seems to be more prevalent on ABC than series that focus on reunions, mending with the past, and close-knit relationships. It has been seen in various degrees on several ABC dramas of this type, including What About Brian?, Brothers and Sisters, and Men In Trees.

In March of this past year, ABC put out its latest TV drama in this vein. The end result is October Road, of which the complete first season is now available on DVD.

Nick Garrett (Bryan Greenberg) is an author and screenwriter with his debut novel, Turtle On A Snare Drum, a critical favorite and best-seller. However, on his road to prominence in the literary world, he is now beset with problems.

First, Nick has trouble coming up with an idea for a follow-up story. Second, his novel was based on all his experiences growing up in his hometown of Knights Ridge in Massachusetts, with characters not too subtly based on people he actually knows portrayed in an unflattering light. When he is invited to speak at a writing seminar at a college located near his hometown, Nick has the prospect of having to finally face all the people that he left behind after high school and wrote about in his book.

One person he has to face is his high school sweetheart Hannah Daniels (Laura Prepon). After having left her behind in particular to go backpacking in Europe to only never hear from him again, she now has a ten year-old son named Sam (Slade Pearce), who Nick believes could be his son, and is dating his old high school rival Ray “Big Cat” Cataldo (Warren Christie).

He soon decides to stay in Knights Ridge, moving back home with his father Bob “The Commander” (Tom Beringer) and getting a job at the college he spoke at as a creative writing professor. However, Nick quickly discovers how much everyone in his town has changed since he left.

As predicted, his old friends, including Owen Rowan (William Henke), Ikey (Evan Jones), and Physical Phil (Jay Paulson), are not too entirely happy with him regarding their blunt portrayal in his book. Particularly upset with Nick is his former best friend Eddie Latekka (Geoff Stults), who’s mad at him for not only how he’s portrayed in the book, but for breaking his word on starting a business with him after high school.

Nick ends up dating a student of his named Aubrey (Odette Yustman), a relationship that soon ends up getting him in trouble with his job. However, his biggest problem comes when he discovers that he and Hannah still have feelings for each other.

Premiering mid-season, October Road had no less than six episodes to set up its story and characters and score with viewers. As a result, the series deserves some credit for managing to get the basic plot set up fairly quickly without feeling rushed.

Fairly quickly, the series, which sets itself up a bit awkwardly as ...