ABC's October Road: A Flop or a Hit?

This spring ABC released a new mini series called October Road. This show aired at 10pm on Wednesday nights after Grey's Anatomy. This series was originally slated for 4 trial episodes to see if this would become a regular show.

During the first 4 episodes viewers got to meet the characters and see what some of the stories were behind the characters themselves.

The main character, Nick, has not been back to his hometown for 10 years. He left for a summer trip that was supposed to last for 6 weeks, and never found his way back. He left his dad and brother, friends, and his beloved girlfriend Hannah behind when he left. Nick then became an accomplished writer, and the book that made him famous was based on his hometown and all his old friends, including Hannah.

After writing his book and getting it published, he was contacted by a local college dean to come speak at the school about the book. The book was actually based on his hometown of Knights Ridge and all of his friends and girlfriend that he left behind. He planned on never returning to his hometown because of the book. He bashed many of his friends, and assumed that they would never forgive him. He did decide to go to the college and speak with the students about the book but when he got there, he got chocked up and ran off the stage.

After leaving the college, Nick decided to go visit his brother and father and stay a few days. After lurking around town, he ran into a few old "friends", many of which held grudges about him and what he wrote in the book. After seeing what many of his old friends had been doing for the past 10 years, and what their lives had turned out like, he met a little neighborhood boy named Sam. Sam became a friend of Nicks in a short time. However, Nick had no idea until he ran into Sam a few blocks away from his home, that Sam was actually his ex-girlfriend Hannah son.

Nick thought it was odd that Hannah's son was 10 years old, and had a peanut butter allergy that every man in his family had. Nick decided to stay in Knights Ridge for a little bit to see what he could find out.

While staying in Knights Ridge, Nick took on a job as a professor at the local college. He met a student named Audrey and started to get romantically involved with her, even though he still had very strong feelings for Hannah.

During this time, Nick was wondering what the reason he came back to Knights Ridge was. Was it just to speak at the college or to mend the issues that he arose with his book. After spending some more time in Knights Ridge, Nick comes to find out that he was invited by the college dean to speak because she had an alternative motive. She wanted Nick to come to town and see his family. The Dean had been dating Nick's dad for some time now. Nick's little brother was shocked to find out that his dad was dating again, but also happy at the same time, since his dad had never seemed so happy since before their mother died over 10 years ago.

While Hannah and her boyfriend's relationship deteriorated, Nick and Aubrey's relationship started taking off. Nick was told some awful secrets by one of his friends that involved him and Nick's best friend's wife love affair.

Near the end of the series, Sam was sent over to a birthday party to spy on Eddie and was shocked to see Nick and Aubrey making out on the back porch. Sam still distraught, went inside to take part in a little fun of the party and was given by accident a small amount of peanut butter that was in a cake that was made for the party. Sam was allergic to peanuts. Sam left the party on his bike after starting to not feel too well and was hit by a car in front of Nick's dad's house. He did end up being alright after hours of surgery, and Nick and Hannah had lots of time to talk to each other while waiting.

On the final episode of the season, Aubrey gave Nick the ultimate choice: her or Hannah. Nick could not commit to Aubrey fully so Aubrey decided to leave. Aubrey was still hoping that Nick would come after her; instead Nick went to Hannah and professed his love for her. Hannah at that time was preoccupied with the man that she said was Sam's father.

That was the basis of the season in a nut shell. This was a very good series so far. This was a test run to see if this is going to be a normal show that will be added to the line up, however rumor has it that they actually hired on 2 of the actors as full time cast members, giving lovers of this show hope that it will be back in the fall. Rumor also has it that a top ABC executive stated that this show should be on the fall line up.