Season one was an extra-long 27 episodes, and accomplishing that unusual length meant an unusual rush to move through often-truncated storylines in season one that might have carried long loads throughout the series. This approach results in the viewer feeling as if the O.C. just maybe would have been better off as a one-season wonder, a mainstream Freaks and Geeks.
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Episode 1: Pilot
The cold open. Ryan Atwood and his ne'er-ne'er-do-well brother Tre skulk out of the thick Chino darkness into the ample streetlight around a late model parked Camaro. Only after Tre breaks the driver's window with a gleeful flourish does Ryan voice some misgivings about their evening. Tre, having already started the car and annoyed at his brother's pussitude, yells at Ryan to shut up and get in, this argument lasting conveniently long enough for a police car to notice the scene and begin a brief chase that leads to the arrest of the brothers Atwood.
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| She can't take this anymore, Ryan! |
As the briefly-iconic opening credits play, Ryan watches from Sandy's Mercedes as his socioeconomic status adds a class to the private-street oceanfront McMansions of Newport Beach. There's a nice jab of self-aware humor as Sandy leaves the keys with Ryan as he goes in ahead to prepare wife Kirsten for the new bundle of joy. Kirsten begins as the bad-cop, protective of her McMansion and of son Seth (whom her mention of implies he's six years old; only emotionally as it turns out) in a quaint white terror moment -- one can only imagine how this scene would play if Ryan weren't as aryan as she is. Sandy insists it's just for the weekend, and she relents, after a second jab about running off to put all her jewelry in the vault.
The girl next door. Ryan has wandered to the end of the Cohens' driveway for a smoke, where he meets cute the girl next door: Marissa Cooper. Who is he? Whoever she wants him to be, he says in an earnest but indifferent fashion that robs the line of its inherent douchiness. She bums a cigarette from the poorest kid in three zip codes, and just like that, it's On. He tells her his story; she decides it's easier for her world if he's just the Cohens' "nephew from Boston/Seattle" and invites him to her fund-raising fashion show tomorrow night.
The brother. His first full day with the Cohens starts early. A second meet cute, this with sole Cohen offspring Seth leads to a morning of sailing and infodump, with Ryan quickly becoming Seth's only friend and confidant in the world. Adam Brody would become the center of the OC universe, but on first impression Seth is only a shade deeper than the other poor little rich kids. Of especial emphasis is Seth's long, long, might as well call it lifelong crush on Summer.
The lavish party. One part of the third-act formula of the OC demands some sort of formal party involving charity, which furthers the various love lives of the series principals while doubling as a skewer of the vapid OC society. The series' first outing leans in the second category, as Sandy and Kirsten's contemporaries line up to make sneering appraisals of Ryan while Marissa and Summer, firmly in their home environment, reveal their own lack of depth by shrieking laughter and filching charity booze for their wild after-party.
The fistfight. OC formula is that Ryan must get in a plot driven fistfight once per episode. Yes, he already had one with his mom's boyfriend, but that was character driven; this one is plot driven. The aforementioned Summer, caught in drunken attempted-mid-mauling of Ryan, forces Seth into a drunk, self-pitying pile-on by the entire water polo team. Ryan intervenes, briefly gaining the upper hand on Marissa's toolish boyfriend Luke, but the numbers overwhelm. The Cohen Brothers are left lolling on the beach in their suit and tie finery. Welcome to the OC, Bitch.
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| First date, Atwood-Cooper style. |
Discovering her son roughed-up and hung over is the last straw for bad-cop Kirsten, she lays down the law on Sandy (returning from his morning surfing, further telegraphing that he is not of this world) and demands Ryan go back to his family. The one that disowned him 36 hours ago? Sandy doesn't argue. For Sandy has read on ahead, and he knows that when they return to Chino, Ryan will find an abandoned house, enabling a speedy return to the Cohens just as the end credits start -- ensuring no further Kirsten objection.
After one episode, we find that from what little we know, less than half of the characters are sympathetic. Ryan is the anointed hero of the series -- the noble, poor everyman, who alone can acknowledge that the emperors have no clothes. Sandy the idealist, the liberal father who lives his principles. Marissa, whose crime of being rich is overshadowed by her lack of control -- at this point the series is saying, yes, she plays the game, but it's not what she wants. Seth, despite his half-hearted protestations, is more Newpsie than not, and at this stage in development, he clearly deserves this vapid, superficial, Summer whose defining character moment is her interest in Ryan turning to revulsion the instant she learns he's been to Chino.
Pros: Beautifully shot, quality direction from Liman. Later directors attempt to ape this house style of the OC, but few come close.
Cons: Strictly a pilot, rough around the edges and uncertain of its direction.
Then: B
Now: B-
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Episode 2: The Model Home
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| The O.C., sponsored by In-n-Out. |
Fortunately, Luke has a moment of conscience about possibly leaving someone to die (or prefers jail to Summer) and circles back for Ryan, who has extricated himself from the inferno and cashes in Luke's guilt for a ride out of town until his own guilt brings them back to the model home and a second perp walk.
While the kids play shenanigans, the adults find themselves distracted by their own troubles. Jimmy Cooper, father to Marissa and onetime Kirsten-suitor, is having major money problems. He's hidden this from his oblivious wife (even with some color here, Julie Cooper is about half a season from having a rudimentary brain), but can't hide from the one woman who ever really understood him. Kirsten fronts him a hundred Gs to get his affairs in order, which, like Ryan's problem last week, seems a nice quick end to a messy situation while enabling a nice character moment or two. As with that situation, it's nowhere near "stealthy" enough, and Jimmy Cooper's money problems is his single character trait.
* Seth and Marissa begin a detente here, each insisting the other is a standoffish snob with exactly the same tastes in music and literature...
* actually, there are more lit candles in Ryan's room than any three Catholic churches.
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Pros: Once nice moment between Jimmy and Marissa does not dig this one out of the hole.
Cons: The first signs of cram-it-all-in OC plotting, which leads to a pedestrian director outing by pilot director Liman. What in the pilot were lingering, outdoor money shots now look like PM Magazine filler.
Then: B
Now: C-
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Episode 3: The Gamble
Concerns that the series is spinning its wheels are hardly assuaged by episode 3's opening scenes, with Sandy again meeting Ryan in lock-up. Even though the premise of the series is spelled out weekly in the opening credits, the permanent addition of Ryan to the Cohen home continues to be delayed. Here he is menaced by gang members (including Veronica Mars' token biker, Francis Capra) as Sandy glowers concernedly through the bars. He's powerless, but a later visit by a Seth-chaperoning Kirsten springs Ryan (again) temporarily for a little light bonding (bonding, not...). This time, he'll be back with the Cohens until they can find his runaway mom, Dawn (Daphne Ashbrook, sister to Twin Peaks' Dana).
The entire episode is nothing but filler, accented by awful TV moments like Dawn's tremors, or Kirsten's entree into sternly confronting her after one and a half drinks. Dawn's character arc ended two episodes ago, and her screen time should have as well. Fortunately, I believe this is the last we see of her in season one.
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Pros: Sandy and Julie's little feud.* Advantage: Cohen. And no fistfight!
Cons: Summer hilariously never remembering Seth's name. A classic that never gets old...
* It seems like Kirsten accepting Ryan has a little to do with the money she loaned Jimmy...
Then: C
Now: D-
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Episode 4: The Debut
The Debut begins with Sandy and Kirsten assuming legal guardianship over Ryan, and there is absolutely no reason this couldn't just be the second episode of the series: aside from one reference to The Model Home, the opening summary of Ryan's questionable ethical choices all date back to the pilot.
Finally, the series is go.
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| What a rebellious breath of fresh air! |
In the land of the adults, Jimmy Cooper's financial problems have hit the wall. Taking a page directly from Jim Court, his friends are approached by the SEC, his credit cards stop working, and his daughter loses faith in him. The series dips back into the "stealth" by outing his business troubles during the cotillion by way of a hysterical client, and quickly it escalates into this week's society fistfight.
Pros: Gallagher comes so very close to rescuing this mess.
Cons: Anna, scheduled to be a one-shot character, is written out at the end.
Then: B-
Now: C-
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