I occasionally watch the show when I can't find anything else on. A few observations:
The fact that the characters actually speak English is an advantage. It makes the show a bit more watchable. It also shows how America's youth might be if it weren't for the public education system, and if there were schools which actually taught something. (The analogy breaks down with everything on the show but English, though.)
Unfortunately, the characters are social idiots.
The plots are predictable. We all know how things are going to turn out. The audience is left with the frail hope that perhaps the journey to that ending will be entertaining.
The characters, like most Americans, draw these phantom distinctions between various states of friendship, as it were. I won't go into that here.
You know that when one situation is resolved, something else must naturally be screwed up in order to keep the show going. This is a basic failure of soap operas.
There's nothing new on this show. It's all been done before. Lots of the time, it was done better the previous times.
The only real assets the show has are Katie Holmes, and perhaps the other actresses (Meredith Monroe and Michelle Williams) depending on your point of view. James van der Peek sucks like a Hoover. Joshua Jackson has his moments, but if he's actually a good actor nobody can tell through the lame character he plays. I figure that the entire regular cast could do much better without Kevin Williamson doing the writing.