The OC: the odious cyst on primetime TV
The OC: the odious cyst on primetime TV
Friday, February 3, 2006
It began with a bang, literally, when Orange County's heroine Marissa Cooper shot Trey, Ryan's ex-con brother and the latest beneficiary of the Cohen family outreach program. Marissa's plummet from adolescent alcoholic to resident gunslinger typifies Season Three's over-dramatized story line. With the vodka-swilling Marissa to lead the way, the O.C. ventures into uncharted territories of pre-fab drama.
Season Three is peppered with similarly epic episodes. The show's intense exaggeration prevents any one theme from gaining preeminence and instead creates a web of unfocused, errant motifs. The show, which started off as an entertaining chronicle of the privileged, fast-paced lifestyle of Newport's residents -- a glorified Beverly Hills 90210 with an Olsen twin wardrobe -- has devolved into a second-rate soap opera. Each plot development seems to be a desperate attempt to re-capture the once enthusiastic fan base, yet it backfires in its excess and transforms the intended drama into comedy.
Characteristic of the impossibly scandalous Cooper-Cohen social circle, not a moment of repose passes before the next outlandish development. Within a matter of minutes, Marissa's felonious behavior is marginalized to make room for the commotion of Kirsten's return home from rehab. Banal in the world of the O.C., Kirsten's homecoming is necessarily accompanied by the arrival of Orange County's newest malefactor, Charlotte. In a theatrical feat of dramatic irony, the fragile Kirsten is betrayed by her duplicitous friend Charlotte -- hint: rehab might not provide the most stable pool of friends -- and Julie Cooper, Newport's resident scandalmonger. Yet, in a typically public moral awakening, Julie selflessly uncovers the scam and thereby resigns herself to life in a trailer park.
Signaled by Ms. Cooper's heroic martyrdom, Newport's residents undergo major character transformations throughout the season. With dreadful acting, each character breaks from one stereotype and finds comfort in another.
At the same time, the teens of the O.C. struggle with typical adolescent bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder, the horrors of organized crime and perhaps, of greatest concern, the volatility of teenage love … all in the course of a few days.
Marissa, the awe-inspiring queen bee of Harbor High, is flung into the oh-so-Californian scene of surfer dudes and beach-loiterers -- i.e. a highly glamorized public school. Now enamored with life on the other side of the tracks, Marissa quickly adjusts to the world of surfer-feuds and unpredictably attracts the eye of Newport Union's radical heartthrob, Johnny. The two find that their attraction extends beyond their perfectly bone-structured surfaces -- they truly "understand" each other, whatever the hell that means. The former fashionista emerges as a down-to-earth surfer chick.
Newport's enduring couple, Ryan and Marissa, find themselves again seeking asylum at the lighthouse to discuss Ryan's qualms about Johnny and Marissa's "platonic" friendship. Ryan and Marissa, whose relationship is about as convincing as that of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, show no hope of realizing their unavoidable incompatibility and promise to annoy viewers with trivial fights and equally trivial reconciliations for seasons to come.
Perpetually O.C.-worthy, Johnny proves to be a trove of exhilarating drama. On the eve of his professional surfing debut, his dreams of becoming the next Kelly Slater are dashed away when his ACL is torn in a freak hit-and-run (perhaps committed by a rival surf gang?!). Comical is the only way to describe the scene in which Johnny is mercilessly run down in a tranquil parking lot. With dashed dreams and a broken heart, the dubiously Emmy-worthy skills of actor Ryan Donowho have acquainted viewers with agony of both the body and the soul.
While Marissa enters the world of surfer-intrigue, Summer, Newport's queen of sassy one-liners and "adorable" ditziness, braves the gossipy grounds of Harbor High sans "Coop." Fear not, Summer is now a genius (touting a 2100 on her SATs!), further proving that nothing really is ever what it seems in Newport.
Seth, who was once actually funny, risks losing his now formulized quirkiness as he plunges into the depths of marijuana addiction. All the show needs to complete its repertoire of high school stereotypes is the histrionic Tracy Flick type.
Enter Taylor, a cliched Type-A persona (think Marcia Brady on speed) satisfies every fictional high school's need for a neurotic overachiever. Regardless of her haunted past, Taylor Townsend is simply too annoying to exist.
To complement the all-star cast is an equally overstated costume design. Summer and Marissa, proteges of the boho-chic school, flit around Newport in get-ups of carefully studied eccentricity -- and pull it off. Mischa's ability to mismatch in style excuses her unconvincing tears, her scarily unfunny jokes and her altogether limited capabilities. Similarly, the males of the show are not bereft of fashion consciousness. Seth, the template of the hybrid Euro-California vintage look, challenges Ms. Barton for the award of trendiest O.C. character. They both lose.
With recent developments such as the return of Caitlin, Marissa's younger sister -- the hackneyed good-girl gone bad -- the show's only hope is in its cancellation.
Comments
None 3 years, 8 months ago
I Cry every Night Now That The Oc Is Over I Am Adopted Just Like Ryan and it inspired me to give my life a chance when the oc ended my life ended i got unadopted and life went horrible oc come bk you made me happy
None 3 years, 8 months ago
A more interesting question is this: why was a Dane working to bring an American political candidate to an American political campus?
None 3 years, 8 months ago
"Is this creep allowed to return to Yale? Isn't there a code of ethics in place for students to abide?"
No.
None 3 years, 8 months ago
Not to disparage President Levin in any way, but I believe his opinions on this matter are ill-founded (as are the opinions of so many other well-intentioned environmentalists). When faced with the issues of CO2 and other emissions, it is intuitive to imagine that a cap will be beneficial. Certainly capping emissions means fewer emissions, non? However, a blind cap actually increases overall emissions by forcing industries abroad to countries in which the regulations are less stringent. Thus, such a cap can act as a double-edged sword, bumping up global emissions while crippling American industry (and the economy as a whole - just look at the nearly 7 trillion dollar price tag on this thankfully failed legislation).
I'm glad the climate change bill failed. I sincerely hope that future presidents and legislators act in a level-headed manner and consider the practical effects of proposed laws, instead of perhaps jumping at the chance to be seen as proponents of saving the planet.
None 3 years, 8 months ago
Let me get this straight: When a foreign Yale student burns an American flag on the door of a New Haven property owner (and risks a house fire), no problem. Yale says: you go!
But when a foreign Yale student does something stupid and immoral but not anti-American, that student is expelled. And when a Yale student gets into trouble for exercising his Second Amendment right in a frathouse, that student also gets expelled.
Good to see Yale has consistent policies on what actions should be encouraged and what actions should lead to expulsion.
None 3 years, 8 months ago
So Harvard's not "too big" after all?
None 3 years, 8 months ago
If people worry about the number of abortions carried out every year, and about the weight the mere thought of all those "innocent" deaths produce on people's conscience, I wonder... why don't we concentrate instead in making a world were women are empowered to take control of their lives so that they don't have to face such decisions (to abort or not to abort).
Contraceptives, anyone? What percentage of those 33 million abortions could have been avoided if people had been careful? Now, of course not all abortions happen because people are irresponsible or uninformed or just don't have access to contraceptives (as is the case of rape victims, planned pregnancies that pose a danger to the mother or those that were careful but unlucky). Just suggesting other things that deserve attention but don't elicit such a passionate racket. So if people feel "bad" about these women help them not get into the situation in the first place and become passionate about education and teenage access to contraceptives.
Anyway...
Abortion is one of those topics that will probably never be settled because, as with all ethical problems, there are basic philosophical differences between perspectives that can't just be ignored. There's no manual with life that tells us which one of the contrasting postures is right or wrong and that is what makes philosophy philosophy and the problems it faces (over and over again for the entire history of humanity) so difficult. Religion and holy books are the closest to a life-manual that we can get but, again, it's been a while since communities shared ONE holy book (particularly with globalization).
First of all, is human life more valuable than the life of a horse? a rabbit? a fly? (living creatures we dispose of without a second thought) Really? How can you justify the superior value of something? What is value? Is it a intrinsic quality 'within' the object or completely up the person doing the valuing? Can we ever even know?
Then even if you accept that human life IS more valuable than that of other living creatures, how exactly do you define humanity? What makes us human? Our capacity to reason? To communicate? Is there one particular determining factor that makes a human a human? Or is it the sum total of our experience in the human condition?
I know these things may sound stupid (particularly because English isn't my native language) but they are the base to everything we confront in the debate of abortion. And the thing is, the more you think about these questions the more you realize the limits of human knowledge and that you can't expect people that start of with different premises to end up in the same conclusions. So basically, for everyone to have the same opinions about abortion society would have to be indoctrinated not educated.
What a prospect. I think I'm fine with people not agreeing with me.
By the way, the comments on this article are an outstanding example of Godwin's law. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law);
None 3 years, 8 months ago
Re#4 Yes, Yale has "a code of ethics".. it is embodied in The Undergraduate Regulations and its enforcement is carried out by the Executive Committee ("ExComm"). ExComm deliberations are independent of, and may be additional to, any judicial proceedings and are confidential except for executive summaries of all actions published at the end of each academic year. The only penalties Yale can apply (not being a governmental entity)are varying degrees of separation from the Yale community, with the maximum penalty being expulsion.
None 3 years, 8 months ago
In preserving the hundreds of years of Yale legacy in the practice of arts and sciences, I believe Yale should honor the individuals who have developed such a practice the most. In the spirit of the residential colleges appearing on Science Hill, Yale should name one of the residential colleges after Josiah Willard Gibbs. No one else in the history of the College, the University, and perhaps science has contributed more to understanding, teaching, and practicing science than Gibbs.
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