Editorial: The Avengers
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*I’ve watched the premiere by the old fashion methods of sitting on the couch and tuning in to network television. And while I read the positive buzz and hype and saw a few trailers I did my best to stay away from major spoilers. And shockingly I reframed from watching, discussing, and Google addicting myself on The O.C. for most of the summer. Going in mostly blind and with having had an extended withdrawal till just a few weeks before the premiere was a refreshing approach to say the least.
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The episode opens with a with a hauntingly defining, and exceptionally strong, cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill” by Placebo. And while I felt both Peter Gallagher and Benjamin McKenzie underplayed (not badly played) their performances in the opening montage, it didn’t really matter. The true emotional weight was carried in the music. The song compensated for everything these two actors didn’t bring.
It is told to us before the montage even beings that we have come into the lives our remaining characters five months after Marissa’s death.
Ryan is living in the back of a seedy and dirty bar, which in the late hours of the night also doubles as an underground fight club. There Ryan reenacts the grittier moments of the movie “Fight Club” to vent, or as the case may be fuel, his anger and pain with the use of a Goldberg [the wrestler] look-alike whose merely a imprecise replacement for Volchok’s head. How much easier it is for Ryan to pound on a nonspecific muscle-head than to directly cause pain to the man who’s the fire-starter to Ryan’s most recent batch of demons and the direct reason Marissa is dead.
Julie has become a reclusive and withdrawn pill addict whose also taken up the busy work and copping mechanism of yard work and home repair. From Julie Dr. Roberts isn’’t getting the alertness he needs in bed or the emotional investment that would keep their marriage alive. So in turn it appears he has turned to his ex-wife who was affectionately known as the “Step Monster”. You could argue that this out of character for Dr. Roberts. But I would then argue that we’’ve never really had enough of an examination of the layers of his personality to say for sure. I look forward to the further explored break down of the character and the fall out that comes from Summer’s discovery of how imperfect her father really is.
Seth is moving ahead by staying behind. He’s holding a steady job at the local comic book shop. He’s made peace with and actually hangs out with the Newpsies. And more over, he is able to get through the day to day despite the fact that Ryan is in emotional turmoil and left home. And it’s also despite the fact that his girlfriend is on opposing ends of the country and when is physically present in Newport isn’t emotionally present. Adam Brody has played the clueless and emotionally challenged, forced into survival and true tragedy, geek with great nuance. I’m going so far as to argue that he had the most sincere and perfectly unpretentious performance besides Rachel Bilson. It’s a far cry from how his character was written, and how he played it, in the opening of season three. And the subtleties of his change and growth are a true joy to watch.
Summer is a proprietor of self-isolation at almost any cost making sure to hold at bay her memories of Newport and who she was back in Newport. So while attending college at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island, She is unintentionally aided by a charming and surprisingly genuine, yet equally harebrained, environmentalist named Che. What could have been used to establish basic story arch adjustment, division and cheap laughs is instead a part of the growing complexities in Summer’s character since Marissa’s death. And in the end what is most unexpected, even while using their own distinctive coping mechanisms, is how Ryan and Summer are so alike. While exiting Newport on their own terms and for their own reasons it’s from a shared pain. The commonalities are front and center, with Marissa’s death being the driving force.
When Summer was in Newport her awkward body language and lack of emotional intimacy with Seth was not a sly write to single that there’s a loss of love or that Che will become this season’s Zach. Instead, it’s the inevitable fall-out and change in spirit after the death. And it’s essentially poignant and more heartbreaking when Summer’s withdrawing is in direct presence of Seth, not solely at opposite ends of the country.
And this is, for me, the strongest quality of the premiere. While Josh and Co. could of easily had characters deal with Marissa’s death exclusively in their own arc divided into individual worlds, they choose to balance between the emotional divides, the geographical divides and the necessary truth that even in their grief there are bonds and ties that can never be broken. And because of these strongholds, no one can truthfully not come home again.
Kaitlin is scheming for designer boots and playing with Luke’s younger twin bothers. While there was an air of humor when watching her play vixen and seeing the boys so easily play the part of her slave, it was all trivial in contrast to what every other character had to deal with. It’s also jarring to watch the actors playing two beach blond generics and Willa Holland playing their princess leader actually be roughly the age they are portraying. When we were first introduced to the main four they looked and occasionally acted well beyond their teenage years. And this is what is fundamental to a primetime soap opera. And it’s not a standard without reason. It’s because of the blurred age representations that I as a viewer find complete escapism. The kids are never in fact kids or adults, but rather ageless characters who help propel stories of love, jealousy, angst, etc. Fortunately Kaitlin’s childish antics were underscored by her need to protect her mother. I can only hope that this is where her purpose continues and not back at harbor where she’ll likely be left to play a younger and lifeless version of her mother.
And lastly, Taylor for reasons unknown isn’t enjoying the obviously unrealized dream of going to Sorbonne in Paris, France, but is hiding out in Newport. Ever the Taylor lover that I was and still am, I admit I found her part in this episode to be unfitting as it attempted to transition with scenes of affecting weight. In fact many of the lighter moments, excluding the Cohen family scenes, were victims of the same problem.
The arcing and construction of storyline was well written and established. Unfortunately execution and translation to screen seemed awkward. While I haven’t seen the on-line edits or the promotional DVD cuts I’d wonder if there were two edits, one fuller and with extended scenes seeing as many scenes seemed unnecessarily cut short or re-shot and re-written to tailor down. When Ryan utters his one-line response after Julie asks why he has changed his mind about finding Volchok it is forced and curt. And it doesn’t help that his words prelude with an awkward pause and epilogue with an abrupt shift to commercial. A bit of extended dialog after his stinger line would of helped ground the scene and offer a natural transition between the scene and the commercial break.
Moments of sentimentality that I expected to feel syrupy actually were honestly touching and authentic. I’m not afraid to admit in the moments where Seth turned Ryan’s Cohen centered part of his life into Atomic County representation to help lure him back home weighed on my heart and brought near tears to my eyes. Am I a sappy sucker or is the dynamic and love found in this family’s relations that powerful and moving? I declare it’s the later.
So while there wasn’t a following resolve that mimicked the season two premiere, the writers made sure in this moment that we never lost sight of the emotional impact this family has on each other or the precious history that ties it all together. Ryan may of left Newport to avenge Marissa’s death rather than happily set his bags back in the boathouse, but that leaves things a little less pat. And more importantly it allows characters such as Ryan to progress and evolve rather than to become adjusted, as was the case in season two.
As I have mentioned in past reviews I’ve never claimed to be an expert of camera direction and editing and rarely critically analyze it. But when it’s glaringly self-evident that some thing seems off I’m quick to point it out. I’m farley certain it was part set design, part editing and part direction, but the episode as a whole came off technically amateurish. It left a feeling of being a rough pilot rather than the premiere to the fourth season of an established show. The only logical explanation is possible reduced budgets for a show that’’s been progressively decreasing in ratings. The substandard production and unpolished presentation of the episode left stronger moments to regrettably come off as a tad jilted and the show overall to be not as strong as it could have been. But it was still a unpredictably great episode that far surpassed last year’s season three premiere as well a majority of third and second season. The O.C. for once is not simply reinvented, but appropriately reformed and refreshed.
*** ¾ stars out of ***** stars
