Which came first: The OC or my love of Death Cab? Though I genuinely can’t recall, the answer is probably the most embarrassing. For the last four years, The OC was a weekly guilty pleasure and an even guiltier source of new music. Most talk of the show focused on the soundtrack and the cultural references – the storylines were irrelevant. So I was kind of surprised when news of The OC’s cancellation hurt much more than it should have – and would have, had it ended after its second or third season. Like two delicious Oreo wafers filled with bird poop instead of frosting, the first and final seasons of The OC were truly great, but the middle was shit. This season’s remarkable comeback made it that much harder to say goodbye.
Following the earthquake that shook (ha!) the last two episodes, only to have no real ramifications other than the destruction of the Cohen house, last night’s finale picked up six months later. Ryan and Taylor are no longer together; Sandi and Kirsten are expecting the birth of their child at any moment; Julie is pregnant with Kevin Sorbo’s baby but once more engaged to “The Bullet;” Seth and Summer are getting ready to move to Rhode Island together but television and their respective lacks of motivation have them in a rut; Mischa Barton is still dead and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Over the course of the hour, everyone makes life-altering decisions. Couples reunite, babies are had, people previously defined by coupledom choose independence and most everyone leaves Newport. Though the commercials seemed like they’d given everything away, there were still a lot of pleasant surprises, and their penchant for self-deprication was hilarious right up until the bitter end. Funny was always what The OC did best. Their attempts at sincerity and soap-scale drama always fell flat. The lighthearted and sappily romantic episodes were their bread and butter.
Good high school shows are hard to come by. As entertaining as The OC was, it never took anything too seriously, least of all itself. There haven’t been many earnest portrayals of high school since the late nineties triumvirate of My So Called Life, Freaks & Geeks and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Veronica Mars did a good job before she went off to college and kind of lost her direction, but as much as I enjoy it, it has never approached the relevance and honesty of Friday Night Lights – easily one of the most underappreciated shows on TV.
The OC did have one particularly surprising accomplishment during its run; it made me pull an unthinkable 180 on the lead character. For the bulk of the series, Ryan Atwood was painfully boring, and his insistence on beating people up for Mischa Barton was often too much to stomach. Even on television, on a teen soap, they couldn’t possibly rationalize someone repeating their mistakes that many times. But The OC did, over and over again. Though there was ample opportunity for the creators to shift the focus to Adam Brody, the story always revolved around Chino’s wayward refugee. And it wasn’t until this season that I felt he warranted the attention. Ryan’s finding his place in the Cohen family, and the world, probably would have happened a lot sooner if Mischa had the courtesy to die sooner in the series, but let’s just be thankful he made it at all. We leave Ryan 98% certain that his cage-fighting days are over.
Ratings show that The OC was never good at picking up new viewers along the way, so those of us who tuned in last night have likely been doing so for the last four years. And like many series finales, The OC makes a small plea to devotees to abandon the boob tube for more “gratifying” pursuits. Spellbound by the hilariously titled game show, Briefcase or No Briefcase, Seth and Summer have to break free from the bonds of television before they can find their respective destinies. Should we take this extra hour this gap in programming has left us with as an opportunity to fight complacency and declare our independence from TV? Thanks for the mixtapes and the memories, guys, but there’ll be a substitution before you know it. The Black Donnellys premieres next week, and I’ve never been one to underestimate the thrall of Irish-American stereotypes.
Great review! Your comments about Ryan are so spot-on. If they could have somehow drawn him away from the suck that was Marissa earlier and evolved his character slowly, I really feel seasons two and three could have been better. Happy Ryan, as I like to call him, suits Benjamin McKenzie’s acting skills much better and has been a joy to watch this year. Although I am sad The O.C. is over, I am happy that the show got to go out after such a great season.