Geekshow

Welcome to The OC B#@$%! – Season 1 Review

California here we come!

So I decided that this year I wanted to watch thru some of my TV on DVD collection, as I’ve gotten to the stage where I have several but have watched few. Something that’s been on that list for a while has been The OC. While I did watch the show all the way thru of its initial run, I’ve been wanting to return to it for some time, especially since there were a few episodes there in the last season that I missed.

Watching the show now in my mid-twenties as opposed to my late teens, it’s a very different experience. Maybe I’m wrong and it’s simply the fact that I watched all 27 episodes (huge season!) back-to-back so quickly but I couldn’t get over the whopping amount of storylines that were covered, just in the first season alone. My blurry teenage memory of it all recalls such storylines as the Seth/Summer/Anna triangle and the Oliver debacle as such epic sagas, when in reality they only lasted a handful of episodes.

Another thing that I remembered every little smile and gesture the characters made, especially the teenagers, as being so significant and meaningful to both them and to me as I watched. On second viewing, I found I glossed over a lot of these subtleties at least towards the start of the season anyway.

This leaves me to wonder is it just a teenage thing and my own perception of stuff where every little detail can have such a huge impact on events, or a case of the writing not being as thought out to start with since it was a new show and finding its stride? I guess maybe a mixture of both.

But despite these minor foibles, I greatly enjoyed re-exploring this TV gem. How could I not love all these delightfully complex characters, each of which are far from perfect but lovable in their own ways.

First we have Ryan Atwood, the wife-beater wearing tough guy from the wrong side of the tracks. Facing a long stint in juvie after he and his brother stole a car, it’s up to Ryan’s legal aid attorney to get him off. Enter the compassionate Sandy Cohen, who of course, does just that.

After some hiccoughs from Ryan’s mother kicking him out and then abandoning him, he goes to stay with Sandy and his family until a better solution can arise. But all is not cocktails and bagels in Newport Beach. Ryan is far from Chino, Dorothy, and he’s gotta learn to adapt fast.

Kirsten Cohen, Sandy’s beautiful and powerful wife, is hesitant of Ryan. While not without sympathy for his circumstances, she is fearful of the impact he could have on her family. Son, Seth Cohen, the geeky loner trapped in the socialite community he hates, is however, delighted to finally have someone to talk to who doesn’t judge him and upon whom he can unleash all his comical idiosyncrasies and neuroses.

Ryan tries his best to fit in with the new order of things but it’s hard. He befriends the girl next door only to piss off her boyfriend who is captain of the water polo team; gets into fist fights (dragging Seth in too); burns down a model home and lands himself back in juvie, all in the first few episodes.

Rushing to his defence again, Sandy does everything he can to help the troubled teen, but it is Kirsten who unexpectedly opens her heart and her home to give Ryan the second chance he so desperately needs to start again. This of course after witnessing just how terrible his current life course is and the depths that it would inevitably take him to.

Over the course of the season the characters go a long way, as I said before. Perhaps none of them go as thru quite as much as popular girl turned social outcast, Marissa Cooper. In season one alone she has to go thru her parents’ divorce; moves houses; loses her virginity; gets cheated on by her boyfriend; overdoses on painkillers; gets sent to therapy; faces rejection; is the object of infatuation of a mentally unstable teen; gets threatened with a gun; has to deal with her parents moving on and dating again; her ex-boyfriend has a series of romantic trysts with her mother; she runs away from home; her mother remarries; she gets rejected again and finally turns to alcoholism to numb her pain. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten other things that happened to her in there as well. But seriously, yikes! How much can one girl take? While enjoyable I found some of this stuff annoying to a degree for the lack of realism. Any one of those events would impact a teen majorly but to have them all happen like they did, well, alcohol ain’t gonna do much for you honey, except cause more problems. But of course that’s the idea.

Aside from Marissa and Ryan and all there dramas, what I really loved watching were the storylines involving Seth, Summer and Anna. Oh I love Anna! The down point of the season for me was definitely when her character left; even though I knew it was necessary.

The chemistry between all three of those actors was incredible, no matter how you paired them, even the two girls when they were having their brief truce. Ultimately though, you can’t beat the delight of the Seth/Summer relationship unfolding IMO. My favourite parts include the trip to Tijuana, Summer kissing Seth and realising “I like Seth Cohen”, the Wonder Woman moment, the coffee cart declaration and all the Captain Oats/Princess Sparkles bits.

Finally I want to make mention of the relationships between the adults. Like their teenage children, the adults of The OC are just as likely to land themselves in all sorts of trouble, but of course the scale is much bigger. Lovers’ quarrels, secret trysts, embezzlement, blackmail (emotional and otherwise), lawsuits, business ventures, affairs, weddings and divorces are but a few of their exploits.

Thru all of that though I think the adults are in better shape by the end of the season than the kids. I really like the dynamic between Sandy and Kirsten. Often playful and sometimes explosive and tense, in the end they love each other very much and are very passionate towards one another. Indeed, their relationship is a fairly solid anchor for the rest of the characters around them, particularly Julie and Jimmy.

There are so many other things I could mention about The OC because it is just so epic. I still can’t get over that it was able to run a whopping 27 episodes in its first season. This is phenomenal. I love the music and the humorous moments as well as the costuming. Again, Anna is my favourite for best dressed character.

If you never saw this show during its television run and you love drama then The OC has it in spades and I highly recommend it. Think Dawson’s Creek meets Gossip Girl and that’s kind of the feel that this show has.

So what are you waiting for? Put The OC season one down on your Chrismukkah wish list right now, pour your glass of wine, don your wife-beater and spread the cream cheese on your bagel!