Much like TiVo, iPods or sugar-free Red Bull,
The O.C. is the sort of cultural necessity that you didn't know
you desperately needed until it arrived. Over the course of 27 first-season
episodes, the brainchild of 28-year-old Josh Schwartz merged the
best elements of prime-time soaps like Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose
Place and Dawson's Creek, while managing to be consistently better,
smarter and funnier than all three.
The heart of the show, which began its second
season Thursday, is Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), a good but
troubled kid from unglamorous Chino who comes to live with the rich,
beautiful Cohen family in Newport Beach, Calif. Ryan befriends Cohen
progeny Seth (Adam Brody), falls madly in love with hot-girl-next-door
Marissa (Mischa Barton) and manages to clash with his new surroundings
to the point that it seems every single episode concludes with a
formal event marred by a fistfight.
Teenagers today are smarter, or at the
very least more worldly, than they were a decade ago, and
The O.C. reflects the shift. Schwartz provides intelligent,
well-developed story arcs for his ever-evolving characters,
and manages to create the rare teen-themed show with grown-up
subplots that seem like more than an afterthought. Peter Gallagher,
the closest thing the show has to an established star, is
a standout as Sandy Cohen, Ryan's de facto savior, as is Melinda
Clarke as Julie, Marissa's young, social-climbing, partially
evil mother.
Schwartz and supervising producer Stephanie Savage
(who wrote the spectacular "Chrismukkah" episode) offer
the seven-disc set's sole commentary, for the pilot episode. It's
notable mainly for the discussion about how they were able to get
the network to go for the show (by positioning it as a new generation
of 90210) while keeping true to their own creative ambitions: a
series with the spirit of My So-Called Life or Freaks and Geeks
(both of which were ratings failures).
The other special features aren't terribly illuminating. A segment
on the music (The O.C. has probably resulted in more record sales
for Death Cab for Cutie than the indie band ever imagined possible)
is adequate, as are the deleted scenes. But a featurette on the
casting is disappointing -- largely because it presents Brody,
who as the dorky, self-effacing Seth became the unlikely heartthrob
of the show, as kind of a jerk.
The O.C. -- The Complete First Season, not rated, 1,186 minutes,
$69.98.
