It's no secret that
"The O.C." (7 p.m., WFLD-Ch. 32) went into one heck of
a sophomore slump about a third of the way through its second season.
The writers for the show were so aware of the audience's dissatisfaction
that, at one point, they gave Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) and Seth
(Adam Brody), the two lead guys in the Fox soap, a long conversation
about how "last year was so much better." They were supposedly
talking about their own lives, but viewers knew better.
The plots on this
self-aware soap have always strongly resembled the designer clothes
worn by rich girl Marissa (Mischa Barton); pull one thread too hard
and the whole thing unravels. Still, fans of the show always understood
that plots on "The O.C." are usually just humdrum backdrops
to the constant flow of pop-culture references and zippy dialogue,
not to mention great music and hipster fashions.
Well, something
happened in the last few episodes -- suddenly plots were everywhere,
and they weren't entirely snooze-inducing. Sure, Kirsten's
drinking problem seems awfully sudden and her chemistry with
flirtatious former co-worker Carter non-existent, but Kirsten
(Kelly Rowan) and Sandy (Peter Gallagher) are truly on the
rocks. Yikes. That's way scarier than Seth and Summer breaking
up for the 50th time.
Not
only that, but Marissa's father, Jimmy (Tate Donovan), returns to
Newport Beach in Thursday's episode, Kirsten has to deal with the
death of her father, Caleb, last week, and Ryan's no doubt going to
find out in the season finale what his no-good brother Trey (Logan
Marshall-Green) has been up to with Marissa -- and it's nothing good.
Not that there's anything wrong with Ryan's non-pugilistic side, but
I predict some punching (or even some gunplay, if Fox's hype-heavy
promos are to be believed) on "The O.C." Thursday.
It may
end up being quite melodramatic, but that's better than the characters
being trapped in a mall all night (which was perhaps the lowest point
of Season 2).
By the
way, NBC? I'm on to your game. You showily announced that the season
finale of "The Apprentice 3" (8 p.m., WMAQ-Ch. 5) was not
going to be a three-hour deal, like last season's bloated, horrendously
boring coronation of "Apprentice 2" winner Kelly Perdew.
Well,
this year's finale is three hours long -- but the network has shown
the execution of the last tasks allotted to finalists Tana and Kendra
over three weekly episodes, including Thursday's one-hour finale.
Well, whatever. As long as Regis Philbin is not involved, it's got
to be an improvement over the last "Apprentice" finale.
Other notable season finales Thursday: on NBC,
Noah Wyle's Dr. John Carter bids farewell to County General Hospital
on "ER" (9 p.m.); on CBS, the fine "Without a Trace"
(9 p.m.) may be saying a permanent goodbye to Vivian Johnson (Marianne
Jean-Baptiste) -- the character has heart surgery in the finale,
and the actress may not return next fall.
