A confession from a recovering soap opera addict
They say confession is good for the soul, and at this point, I could use as much cleansing for my soul as I can get, so here goes.
I am a recovering soap addict... and I was over 3000 days clean of the addiction until last summer when I started seeing previews for this little show that Fox was going to be rolling out called the O.C..... and I thought I recognized one of the actresses from this movie called Lawn Dogs with Sam Rockwell, and I had to find out if it was the same gal (which it was). And within 4 minutes, the damn thing hooked me.
For those of you who missed it last season, basically, the O.C. is one of those fish-out of water stories. In this case, the fish was a intelligent kid named Ryan Atwood(played by Ben Mackenzie) who was on the verge of sinking into a life of crime just like the rest of his Chino-based family, but he was fortunate in having his court-appointed attorney be the liberal and idealistically minded, Sandy Cohen (played excellently by Peter Gallagher), who after a series of events ends up bringing young Ryan home to live with the Cohens in Newport Beach. From these auspicious beginnings, a show that may some day rival Melrose Place for its campy over-the-top fun. In a slightly lengthened first season, so many story lines got played out... from the new kid/old kid dynamic(Welcome to the O.C. Bitch!), a stalker, a pregnancy, suicide attempts, and so many other different types of familial, financial, employment and legal difficulties beset the Cohens and their neighbors, the Coopers(which led to some of the best edited pre-show recap segments I've ever seen on network television because they somehow managed to convey almost everything that is going on in a very, very short time... J.J. Abrams could learn a thing or two from them in this regard).
On a lot of shows that are "teen-oriented," there is a tendency for the focus to solely be on the younger actors, but in this case, the cast is very well-rounded, and the adult stories are just as compelling as the ones the teens/young adults deal with. Peter Gallagher and Tate Donovan both really stand out in this cast(I was going to say Melinda Clarke, but she is a little less than sympathetic), and I like the fact that while a bunch of crazy stuff is happening, the writers will allow things to get light, to have a comic edge to them... especially from the mouth of Seth Cohen(played by Adam Brody), who is one of the most entertaining characters on the show, because he gets some of the best lines.
Seth: (to a singing Luke) Hey man, you know who sings this song?
Luke: Rooney!
Seth: Yeah. And it should stay that way
The show looks really good too in an artistic sense, and it should because while not being as flashy as perhaps one of those grand 1980's prime time soaps, it still has to have some lustre behind the actors, a certain opulence as it were... like it is beyond flat reality. Just by looking at the production values of the show, you can tell that they are sinking some decent money into this Doug Liman/McG produced show. It hits just the right notes for the most part, and it has a lot of potential to become even better in the coming season as the actors and writers are more familiar with their environment.
The second season premieres this Thursday, and I have to say.... Joey Tribiani may have some serious competition this season because this is the real must-see-tv. A guilty pleasure for sure, but sometimes the guilty pleasures are the ones that are the most fun.