Editorial: Mid-Season Report
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So here we are folks. Chrismukkah has past (or is still kind of in effect given the dates that Hanukkah falls on, but work with me here), and I trust everyone’s went well. Moses and Jesus, both sporting beards, hopefully gave you everything that you wanted, and now, as you sit back, you are ready to see what Drew has delivered to your favorite website for
The O.C. editorials.
I noted at the end of last year that the third season was the most crucial season in a show’s run. You’ve already developed your characters in the first season and laid a template for the show. In the second season, you get to stretch your creative juices, play with some characterization and see what the fans respond to. By the third season, you’ve got your loyal fans, your template, your characters, and your actors. Everyone should be primed and ready to go.
But how has
The O.C. responded to this challenge?
Eh.
Yeah, that’s about all I can muster up for what’s been a lackluster ten episode run so far. The episodes have ranged from mundane to excellent, so “lackluster” doesn’t suggest that everything is meandering, but it does suggest that the writers are hit-or-miss. I think we all know what the biggest miss is, but this is an introduction, so I won’t get into that just yet.
So in order to break this season down, I’m going to enlist FOX’s help. I know, FOX, the bastard of network television. The network that broadcasts strong television, sticks it in a difficult timeslot with little promotion, and then bumps it. And I’m not just talking about
Reunion. Of course, I’m still bitter about that, so you can probably expect me to mention it again for somewhere around the next hundred years.
But the one thing FOX does right is its promos. True, they sometimes give away too much, but generally, the promos are amazingly well done from an artistic standpoint. And, truthfully, as much as I bitch and moan, the best ones they do are for this show. Even over a year after the second season premiered, I get chills just thinking about the video package that was done to promote it (I’m assuming FOX put the piece together, not an in-house member of Josh’s staff). And this year’s season three premiere promo was pretty awesome too, but it set a lofty goal by promising us a few things. So let’s take those promises, look at them one at a time, and see if the show has done anything to live up to those promises…
It’s a Season of…Surprises…
Surprises, huh?
Well, for starters, Trey wasn’t dead. Not a bad spin because I was pretty sure that he was done for, so I had already written his eulogy. If nothing else, it’s nice to see that it’s possible that Trey could return because the show benefited greatly from his arrival. I don’t know that it’s possible to capture lightning in a bottle twice, but it might be worth a shot somewhere down the line. I remember that a very powerful episode of
The Wonder Years was Wayne’s friend returning from Vietnam a very changed person because of what he’d experienced. Obviously, I won’t compare Trey running off to start a new life and Wart going to Vietnam, but the idea that Trey could return, completely disheveled because he doesn’t know how to start a new a life is something they could get a two-three episode arc out of. The biggest problem with this storyline was that it wrapped up so quickly, and, with the exception of the ridiculously overblown sequences that the editing team has pieced together, it’s been largely forgotten. Does Kirsten even know what happened? But we’ll get into this a little bit more later on.
Let’s move on to Caleb. Caleb’s gone, and we’re all very sad, I know. I didn’t know that I’d miss him as much as I do, but go back to the last two seasons, the first one especially, and look at how much life he brought to the character. His storylines were always intriguing and really fleshed the show out. The fact that Josh was willing to allow business and legal storylines to infiltrate a teen show was something special. That died down in the second season for whatever reason, but it was a terrible move. Anyway, the surprise with Caleb this season was that he was broke. I didn’t expect that, and I always appreciate a nice twist. And it’s been interesting to see Julie attempt to cope with life without money. The biggest problem with this money storyline was introducing Jimmy back in for the sole purpose of rehashing his money problems. And it’s not even really that Jimmy was broke again because as awesome as he is, he isn’t exactly the most business savvy. It was the fact that he came right in, did a heel turn, attempted to screw Julie, and then left. It completely degraded his character. He showed little to no remorse, then he ran away like a coward. The idea seemed to be to put sympathy on Marissa and Julie, but the fact is that I know far more people who care about Jimmy than who care about Marissa. Somehow, Jimmy should have come out on top, or at least with remorse, to leave the door open for a return later on. Instead, they’ve written him as such an idiot that we’ll never be able to take him seriously again.
And how about this little Charlotte storyline that plagued the beginning of the season? There were about fifty different ways that this storyline could have gone, and about fifteen of those were good ideas. Josh decided to go with one of the other thirty-five. Okay, so we didn’t need Oliver, and we certainly did need her to reveal that she’s Oliver’s mother like people predicted, but she could have played a stalker so well.
Single White Female is creepy for a reason. Instead, they have Charlotte as someone who goes to rehab to find a rich woman to take advantage of. Re-read that sentence. It just sounds brutally stupid. And it was. Okay, it wasn’t a way I expected it to go, so again, I’m happy for surprise, but it was so terribly written. The idea here seemed to be to shift the storyline to Julie so that she could shift it to the relationship between her and Kirsten. Unfortunately, Charlotte’s exit was so terribly done that we never had a reason to care that she was gone. How hard would it be to have Kirsten actually respond to Charlotte? Wouldn’t that be a good time for a catfight? A storyline that completely dropped the ball, for sure.
So Marissa’s in public school where she meets the alternate Harbor group in a bad spin on a classic
Seinfeld scene, and suddenly, her world is over. I was shocked to learn that public school means you can’t have a future, but I guess I don’t know how they do things in Orange County. Essentially, we met a character named Johnny, and no one was impressed. A few girls swooned over Johnny, many guys groaned, but we all saw what was coming. The writers tried to play it off as simply a friendship thing, but then came the ultimate cliché as Johnny revealed, while under medicine, that he liked Marissa. Of course he says that he doesn’t want to like her, so we’re supposed to automatically feel sorry for him because the heart wants what it wants, and there’s nothing we can do about it. That’s pretty much the most ridiculous angle the writers could have taken, but wait, they managed to dumb it down even more by having Marissa continue to hang around him while completely denying that she has any feelings for him. Yeah, that’s normal. Have your boyfriend get jealous, find out a guy likes you, deny you like him, but hang around just in case he can’t use crutches properly. The Johnny knee story was brutally done, too. So yeah, was anyone really surprised at how this all played out? It’s not like Marissa shot Ryan’s brother creating a perfect reason for Ryan and Marissa’s relationship to be strained.
Oh wait.
A Season of…Change…
So a lot has changed this season, that’s for sure. Ryan and Marissa weren’t stable this year. They had someone come between them, and Marissa, generally the wisest of the group, somehow fell victim to being too nice, and now they’re relationship is strained. Yeah, big change. Unless you count Oliver or Trey, two of the biggest storylines, if not
the biggest in the last two years. I think that’s what bothers people the most about this Johnny storyline: it’s been done. It’s not an actively bad storyline aside from the way that Johnny told Marissa he liked her. It’s predictable, sure, but a majority of storylines on any television show are generally are. I have no problem with Marissa meeting someone who she has some sort of connection with, although the idea that he “gets” her is inane and should have never been written into the script. The problem is that we’ve seen it before. It feels horribly stale. I come back to the fact that people complain about Oliver now, but, for the most part, it seemed people enjoyed the storyline when it was on. It was predictable, sure, but it was at least fresh for the show. Johnny isn’t.
Speaking of Johnny, it’s apparent that the show is now making a huge change and deciding to focus itself around Johnny and his misadventures. Too bad people just don’t care. I don’t remember people turning this show on in 2003 and saying, “You know, this sucks, but maybe, in a few years, they’ll introduce some recurring character and center the storylines around him.” That was the general, and most valid, complaint about the Chrismukkah episode this season. What is generally a time for the main cast to be together became a time for Johnny to get an entire episode devoted to him. The characters stopped and altered their lives to benefit him. Some of you may be saying that the same thing happened last year with Lindsay, but you’d be missing something important about the Lindsay story. That story was important and it worked because Caleb’s confession about Lindsay affected Kirsten, one of the main characters on the show. It also complicated Lindsay and Ryan’s relationship. Lindsay was the catalyst for bigger issues on the show. Johnny is the catalyst for Johnny and maybe Marissa, depending on where the storyline is headed.
Marissa has been the most frustrating character of the season, without question. She’s had absolutely no character development. If anything, it’s character regression, and I can’t imagine that the writers actually want to demean the characters. Alas, though, it’s happened. Why exactly are we supposed to care about Marissa right now? She puts herself in these terrible positions and then whines when she has to get out of them. The only legitimate trouble that she has ever had, as far as I’m concerned, was shooting Trey, because that was a lose-lose situation. But if she’s concerned about her relationship with Ryan now, then it’s her fault for absolutely blowing it. That relationship is easily the worst on television. I’ve never seen two apparent soulmates with so many problems. I got an e-mail from a fan – and yes, I will post it at the end of this review because I’m immature – who told me I sucked for not thinking Ryan and Marissa were the best couple and that all couples had their fights. Yes, every couple fights, but these two go beyond fighting. It’s generally one-sided. Ryan is a horribly insecure person from what I can tell, so Marissa seems to prey on that. She hooks Ryan, makes her mistakes, then makes him feel bad when he calls her on them. Never, ever forget the drunk Lindsay episode, the episode where it was revealed just how low the writers would sink to make sure their precious Marissa remained in a good light even if it was at the expense of Ryan. These two will forever be thrust together by the writers, but the writers have made no case to demonstrate why they are good for each other. They may look pretty together, but that’s the extent of it. If someone can give me a good reason that these two work, then let me know.
Not all is lost and unchanging on the relationship front, though, as Seth and Summer finally have some stability. True, the relationship hasn’t been perfect thanks to some whining from Summer and moments of idiocy, namely the SAT debacle, from Seth, but at least they’ve stayed together so far. I think ten episodes is a record for non-married couples on the show. I’m not sold at all on the Brown thing, as there is no way in hell that Summer gets in, with only a slightly larger chance that Seth gets in. I’m putting money on Seth having everything packed and ready to go when he receives a well-timed DENIED from Brown while, in the same pack of mail, getting an ACCEPTED from Berkeley where Ryan, Marissa, and Summer have already decided to go.
But the best thing about Seth and Summer so far hasn’t been the fact that they look good together, are funny, have amazing chemistry, continue to uncover new layers about their childhood that shows they are perfect for each other, or that Seth has finally gotten in good with Dr. Roberts; it’s that these two introduced us to Taylor Townsend. I thought Taylor was outstanding from day one. She had a spunk that was completely overblown, but in the perfect satirical fashion. She seemed too much to be real but just right to be television. The affair with Dean Hess – a character who was a painful, stereotypical mistake who won’t even warrant his own section – was completely predictable, but at least that ended relatively soon. Taylor suddenly managed to win over the entire audience with her spunk and her ability to go from bitch to psycho to emotional wreck in the matter of seconds. She has such great delusions of grandeur that come from an obvious difficult home life that it’s almost impossible to dislike a character. She fits in perfectly with Seth and Summer, too, as she’s quick-witted and intelligent. She’s also the most layered non-main character on the show as we’ve seen glimpses of her parents, we’ve seen her open up, we’ve seen her shut down, we’ve seen her interests, we’ve seen her go psycho, and we’ve seen her act normal. The story almost went in the direction of the love triangle, then to Oliver, but somehow steered back around to become something we haven’t quite seen. Sadly, she wasn’t in the last couple of episodes of the first half of the season, something that the writers should be ashamed of, but something that’s completely understandable given that, up until this point (yes, I know what’s coming in the next episode), she hasn’t had anything to do with Marissa aside from the connection with Hess. Taylor’s the kind of character that I think we’d all love to see become a regular as I’ve heard very few complaints about her. The only complaints that even have to do with her are the complaints that she wasn’t on the last episodes. She is the most beloved recurring character since Anna.
Julie is now poor. How’s that for a change? Of course, the writers haven’t done anything too interesting with it yet. I like seeing Julie spit dip, show her thong, and watch NASCAR, but I can’t imagine what money Julie is managing to live even a meager lifestyle off of. The storyline with Kirsten, at the moment, is dead. It’s not even remotely interesting. The possibility of Julie and Dr. Roberts has potential especially since he’s lonely, and she’s poor. There’s a lot of controversy there. But throwing Julie and Kirsten together because there’s really nothing better for them to do just shows a complete lack of creativity.
And finally, one of the biggest changes of the year: Sandy takes over the Newport Group. In the season two preview on the season one DVD, Peter said he hoped that season two would include a courtroom scene. A lot of fans asked for something like that, too. Sandy is such a fun character – minus the season two stuff with Rebecca – that more is always better, especially when we could see him passionate about something. So what does Josh do? He has Sandy open his own small law office. We’re almost there! He’s going to be in a courtroom and have a real case! Or not. Instead, Sandy moved to the Newport Group, a job that he’s less than qualified to do, in all honesty. He’s got good intentions, but how easy can the transition be between public defender and head of a major, bankrupt company? The only way this is going to really work is if we slowly see the company and greed start to corrupt Sandy. I don’t want to see Sandy change the Group until it changes him. This storyline also allowed the writers to introduce Matt, an extremely one dimensional character with a stripper friend trying to get through law school. It’s possible that he’ll have something more to do later, something that will reveal that he is definitely corrupt, but again, I don’t see this story having much potential. This should be about Sandy. Josh, you’ve got a perfect way to strain Kirsten and Sandy’s marriage and also help Kirsten get insight into why her father was like he was with Sandy holding the same position. Think psychologically here. Love triangles are out.
A Season of …New Beginnings…
Well, this heading was simply a way for FOX to extend the commercial since a new beginning and a change are essentially the same thing, but I’m going to work with it because dammit, I’m better than FOX!
Okay, so I’m going to do a thumbs-up, thumbs-down thing here. I’ll just pick a topic, give it a thumb, and then give a one-two sentence description on why I chose it. There may be spoilers here but nothing you couldn’t get from reading the USA Today article that was posted a few weeks ago. It’s mostly all common knowledge and will be hyped heavily. Still, read at your own risk. And reminder, I hate episode spoilers, so please, no e-mails with them in it.
Johnny – thumbs down – A ridiculous character that no one wanted to see and that no one wants to see played by an actor with little talent. A huge blunder from the creative staff after hearing so many complaints about these types of characters last season.
Taylor – thumbs up – Fresh, vibrant, and spunky, Taylor has somehow transcended the recurring curse that pretty much all of the recurring characters were plagued with last season. Autumn Reeser is a tremendous actress, and the character is layered so that we have real reason to care.
Charlotte – thumbs down – One of the biggest letdowns ever on the show, the entire storyline was built to be some monumentally life-changing story but fell very short of that thanks to an anticlimactic ending and bad scripting. Jeri Ryan gets points for being able to change emotionally quickly.
Dean Hess – thumbs down – A stereotypical character whose only redeeming value was being a punching bag for Ryan, Hess and the ensuing Taylor storyline helped slow the stories down at the beginning of the season.
Anna – thumbs up – I don’t know what Anna can bring to the show this season, but since she’s slated to return, I have to admit that I’m giddy because not only do I think she’s insanely hot, she’s also the kind of girl that every guy searches for but never finds. Wise beyond her years, she’ll likely cause trouble for Seth and Summer in some way, and we can only hope that they don’t Jimmy her character.
Kaitlin – thumbs up – I’ve been saying for a while that they need a Valerie Malone character, and Kaitlin could be that person if they keep her on longer than a four-episode arc. She’s got a bad girl aura about her just from the previews, and as long as she can translate that look into her acting and the writers can use it in their writing, we may have a winner.
Senior year – thumbs down – The writers have half-heartedly approached senior year simply because they can’t ignore it, and it’s getting frustrating because things should be slightly more hectic. They’ll need to focus more on the emotional aspect of finishing high school and less on the non-emotional aspect of Johnny and Kaitlin in order to grab viewers and give them a reason to care about the characters again.
9:00 Timeslot – thumbs in the middle – Okay, this is going to warrant more than a few sentences. The timeslot change, effective with the next new episode, is something that I’m just not sure about. On one hand, in February, the show will have an
American Idol lead-in, and that’ll be excellent for February sweeps, much better than a lesbian storyline. But what about when it’s over?
That ‘70s Show is not strong enough creatively to be a strong lead-in for our show. And up against
CSI, things don’t look good. It’s going to take strong writing for
American Idol fans to stick around post-February. It’s one of the most competitive timeslots on television with NBC boasting a new comedy lineup to go along with CBS’s powerhouse line. FOX is taking a gamble. Execs say they’ll stick with the show, but most shows are sent to 9:00 to die. It’s a tough call.
A Season You’ll Never Forget…
Well, let’s see how well they’re doing with making me remember. I’ll give myself a simple test. The honor code says that I’m not cheating, and common sense says that I shouldn’t have to, as the test is whether or not I can name all the episodes of this season in order. Here we go:
The Aftermath, The Shape of Things to Come, The End of Innocence, The Swells, The Perfect Storm, The Anger Management, The Safe Harbor, The Game Plan, The Disconnect, The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah.
So, how’d I do?
Oh, not so well. The Safe Harbor wasn’t even in the first half of the season. Yikes.
Here’s the actual list:
The Aftermath, The Shape of Things to Come, The End of Innocence, The Last Waltz, The Perfect Storm, The Swells, The Anger Management, The Game Plan, The Disconnect, The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah.
So, yeah, obviously, things aren’t very memorable here. I know that’s kind of a goofy way to test how memorable a season is, but since I, someone generally obsessed with things like titles, can’t even remember those, then there’s no way I can remember what all happened in each individual episode.
But alas, I don’t want people to think I’ve actively hated this season. There have been episodes that I thought were fantastic – “The Anger Management” and “The Game Plan” for instance – and moments that I loved – numerous cool, non-Johnny moments from “The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah” for example. Seth and Summer have come to terms as a couple and despite the stupidity that was “The Disconnect,” the writers have done an amazing job keeping the two of them together and making them appear happy. Brody had to shake some screen rust off, but Bilson was ready to handle everything this season, including finally getting a little more meat to her character. She’s easily the MVP. There was also the scene with Ryan punching the punching bag that was just brilliantly done and said a lot about his character without any words.
Simply put, the writers just haven’t learned from their mistakes like they should have. I was reminded while browsing through the Television Without Pity forums that Josh had said that season two would shift focus from Ryan to the Cohens and Coopers. That’s fine, but it’s failed. There’s no “s” at the end of what he’s focusing on. He’s focusing on a single Cooper, and it’s absolutely killing the show. There is just too much centering around Marissa when she’s the weakest character and actress on the show. She can’t carry the load. No one is going to buy the fact that she’s 18, been through hell and back, and hasn’t learned a damn thing if they continue to rehash these same storylines. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: making us hate someone for being dumb is not the way to get us to sympathize with someone or anyone. It’s just not. There is only so much that we can take.
The storylines need to be more evenly distributed with a stronger focus on the adults. Watch a season one episode and look at how much time was given to the adults. And no teen fan responded sourly to that. Most were impressed by the fact the adults were given such strong storylines, and many found themselves admiring Seth and Ryan for having such terrific parents. The storylines now are focused on the kids. The best example is the Chrismukkah episode where, for one moment, we had a tender scene about Kirsten dealing with her first holiday without Caleb. But that was all. One scene. Josh should have mined that particular story and allowed Kelly Rowan to flex her acting chops. I’ve heard a rumor, a false one I’d imagine, that Kirsten may be the next funeral we visit, and I have to say that if they’re trying to get us not to care that she dies, they’re doing a good job. She’s essentially done nothing since returning home from rehab. As I mentioned, the Charlotte story was more about Julie than Kirsten, and even once Julie shifted the story to her and Kirsten, it didn’t take off. The business idea is just flat.
Alas, though, there is still hope. Kaitlin coming in provides the opportunity for drama within the group (I count her as a group since she’s a family member) that’s been sorely lacking. Of course, it also shows the inherent weakness in the show’s writing since they’re having to resurrect a character from soap opera death just to create the drama. Okay, she’s not really dead, but she could have been with all the mention she’s been given since she moved away. The previews show that the writers are going to kill any momentum the storyline has by putting Kaitlin and Johnny in a compromising position. Not only is that likely statutory rape on camera, it’s statutory rape off camera since Donowho is likely twenty and this actress is fourteen. Not that they’ll have sex either way but work with me here. No one’s going to spend an hour watching Kaitlin and Johnny. No one cares enough about the character. No one believes that Marissa’s jealousy will lead to anything more than a few episode breakup of Ryan and Marissa. I don’t think that any of us can suspend our disbelief long enough to even remotely care about the storyline.
I don’t have an active answer of how to improve this storyline other than to simply get rid of Johnny. It took until episode fourteen last year to hit the reset button, and sadly, it might take that long this time, too, since I’d imagine that they were around episode twelve or so in production when the Johnny backlash started. Focus the stories less on Marissa and give them to characters who actually have the ability to grow and actors who have the ability to show range.
It’s been far from a dud of a season, but it’s been an overall letdown, especially considering Josh claimed he had the formula for the show down pat. I just don’t see it happening.
And, on that note, let’s move on to a special bonus feature that I decided to add on at the end. It’s my first hate mail! It’s horribly immature for me to post this and complain about it here, but I felt like that if someone was going to send me such constructive hate mail, I should let everyone see it, too. It’s from Emily Harmon, emilyharmon524@yahoo.com.
what the fuck?!?! you sound so incredibly full of yourself that it makes me want to cry, to know that there are people out there that think that they really are the shit. newsflash, you arent. i know its sad, and i symithize for you, unless.... NO i dont!!
anyway, to your review, well it SUCKED! its so apparent that you really dont have any clue what is going on in the show, that you dont get the meaning of what happens.
question: are you gay? "Let’s dwell on the fact that Seth and Summer are, well, adorable, their nose graze was perfect" -wow, that just screams gay. i have nothing against it, but wow! you sure are out there huh?
"Ryan and Marissa…
Glaring mistake, thy name is Ryan and Marissa. I’m serious." WHAT?!?!?! ryan and marissa are the perfect couple. they belong together. yes, they have their fights, but what couple doesnt? they are the basis of the show.
as i read your review and i got to the part about how ryan should understand what marissa is going through better than johnny does, it was like a sigh of relief. i thought, wow, this dumbass finally got something right!!
"Forgetting Marissa because I hate her, let’s move on to Ryan" wow, that statment alone makes me question why you watch the show, it seems to me that you hate all the characters on the show, but ryan. hmmm..........GAY!!!
another thing, second year of college and still live with your parents??? wow, i mean come on man, grow up and move out of your mommy and daddy's house.
and just to prove my point that you are complety and utterly full of yourself, you go on to end your review with complaints that no one listens to you. you COMPLAINED about that you shouldnt be doing that because no one listens to you, that just screams that you are full of yourself. and you shouldnt stop doing reveiws because of that reason, but you should stop because you are full of shit and dont have any idea what the hell your talking about.
sorry if it was a little to harsh.....unless.......i'm not!! the truth hurts, deal with it.
Now, first of all, I want people to realize that the fact that I come off as full of myself is intentional. It’s a little shtick that I do. It’s very tongue-in-cheek. I thought everyone had picked up on that. I guess not.
And somehow, since I like Seth and Summer and, God forbid, used the word “adorable,” I’m gay. And despite the fact that I like Seth and Summer, apparently I only like Ryan. Hmm. Something’s not quite adding up.
Oh well, as I said, I realize how immature I am for posting that letter in this review, but I felt that it should be shared. Maybe you people could e-mail her and bash me together, or you could e-mail her and “symithize” with her because she spoke her mind, or you could just tell her she’s a moron. I don’t care. But I just thought that my first actual hate mail was worth sharing.
Finally, I forgot to mention this last time around, but Summer wearing a DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES t-shirt is basically the coolest thing ever. Google it if you must know.
Folks, at nine-and-a-half pages, this is clearly the longest show related piece I’ve ever done, but I’ve enjoyed doing it. I didn’t quite get to everything I wanted to thanks to the stupid stunt I tried to pull by using the commercial as my guide, but it’s fun to experiment every once in a while. I probably won’t use any such format in the year-end piece, but I’m proud to give it a shot while I could.
I apologize for how late this was, but I ended up having to work extra this past week (four nights of holiday high school basketball to cover), so I got behind. C’mon, you definitely expect that from me, right?
See you in a few.
-Drew
