October Road is the story of a small town and the people in it. Local boy Nick Garrett (Bryan Greenberg, One Tree Hill) leaves town right after his high school graduation to go backpacking in Europe. He was supposed to return home in a matter of weeks. Instead, he stays gone for ten years. In that time, he writes a groundbreaking novel that is so well received that it is even made into a movie. The problem is that he based the book on his hometown and his friends there, which wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't made them look like simpleton buffoons.
Ten years after his departure, he's stuck. His publisher is waiting on a new novel and he has complete writer's block. When an invitation to speak at the college in his hometown comes, he decides maybe going home will help his block. As you can imagine, his return is received well by some, like his friends Phil (Jay Paulson), Ikey (Evan Jones), and Owen (Brad Henke), who have waited years knowing that eventually he would be back. Others though, like his ex best friend Eddie (Geoff Stults), would prefer that he had just stayed gone forever. Then, there's his high school girlfriend Hannah (Laura Prepon, That 70's Show). Hannah isn't really sure what to think. Since he disappeared on her, she's had a lot of changes in her life, like a 10 year old son, Sam. Sam (Slade Pearce) is a very interesting kid, very precocious. But don't tell him that, he hates to be called precocious.
The DVD set for October Road has several features in addition to all six Season One episodes. There's "October Road: The Journey Begins" which is a ten minute segment that takes us behind the scenes. Interviews with the cast and crew discuss how the show got started and the friendships that have formed from it. There are several deleted scenes. In one of them, you'll see a very different path that they might have taken Nick on in relation to his new job and his new boss. Personally, I like the way they ended up going in the show better than the one depicted in the deleted scene. The encounters between Nick and his new boss, Dean Etwood (Penny Johnson Jerald) are very amusing. There are hilarious Bloopers from the filming. There is also a preview of Season Two in which we get to learn a little bit about where the show is going from here. I'm really happy that both Pizza Girl (Lindy Booth) and Janet (Rebecca Field), who are my two favorite characters, are going to be in the main cast in Season Two instead of just being guest stars.
My one complaint is that watching it on DVD, it is very obvious where the commercial breaks were. I would have preferred it flow a little better across them, but given that other than that, the show is very well filmed, I'll overlook it. We really enjoy October Road because the characters are so normal. None of them are perfect, they all have their own flaws, but they're very much like people you know. They're not these over-the-top Hollywood made-up people. The characters in October Road are just real people with the real life dramas you would expect to see in a small town.
October Road is set to air again in January on Mondays at 10/9c. I would highly recommend that you get Season One and catch up before then. It is only six episodes so it won't take long, and then you'll be ready and waiting for Season Two.
