The OC writers have spent a lot of time in the past few months tying up a lot of loose ends. I would like to say that they have been taking our advice, but it is a little to presumptuous of me to say that would be the only reason. I am not going to discount the possibility that the increase in quality was an organic process, but I think it would be silly to believe that these changes arose without any thought of what the critics have been saying.

Anyway, many weeks ago, when the show was really sucking and I was more prone to ranting on how inconsistent everything was, I mentioned that I wondered what the hell happened to "The Nana". I mean, it would have been fine if they thought she was a bad character and killed her off. You just need a scene where everybody is coming home from the funeral or something. Sure, it may have seemed abrupt, but the show has done worse. Imagine my surprise when the breakfast banter features The Nana. Seth had just finished his observation on the absurdity of Rhino having two albums in the top ten, when his grandmother calls. She scolds him for not cashing her check, but really wants to talk to Sandy about something. He talks to her a few moments, says "So soon?", and then hangs up. Everybody is worried. Does she need more chemo? Some surgery? Is she going to die next month? No, she's getting married, and so everybody is going to have to fly to Miami.

Seth loves Miami, and he loves his grandmother's friends in Miami. He tries to convince Ryan to go by telling him about all of the great things to do like shuffleboard, Mah-jongg, pinochle, and the early bird special, but for some reason, Ryan is not excited. Instead, Seth uses a much easier technique. He says it would really make his dad happy if he would go, and considering Sandy got him and his only sibling out of jail and out of Chino, it was the least he could do.

All of this is well and good, but am I missing something here? Last season, Sophie Cohen was still a social worker in Brooklyn. They made a very big deal about her having lived in the same neighborhood for so many years. Now, it's not that big of a stretch imagining that a Jewish person from New York moving to Florida for retirement, and maybe she reevaluated her life when she learned she had cancer. That is all plausible. However, when did Seth have time to make friends with all of the old men at her condo? Did he take a trip around Cape Horn or through the Panama Canal before he made it to Portland?

As much as that little discontinuity of story line bothered me, it was nothing like the obvious product placement in a scene a little bit later. We have seen Rooney, we have seen all the bands at the Bait Shop, and they can sort of tie into story lines. But who thought it wouldn't be completely obvious what as going on when Sandy asked Kirsten for his American Advantage number because he was on AA.com and wanted to upgrade his seats with their miles? Seriously, how many people saw that and were like. "Oh shit. I have all of these American Airlines miles and didn't know what I could do with them." Aren't tickets and seat upgrades the first things people use their miles for(unless you have another rewards program)? I am trying to decide if AA.com was worse than the A9.com plug that they tried to work into Lindsay's vocabulary earlier in the season.

The trip to Miami is good for Seth, because he is still trying to figure out what to say to Summer after he sort of ditched her during his big fancy comic book party. A little time away might do them some good, and it turns out that Summer wants to have a little bit of a time out as well. She has been boxing to take care of her anger and doesn't even laugh when Seth sees her hitting the heavy bag (with faux zebra stripes, natch) and he calls her his "Million Dollar Baby". Come to think of it, I wonder if he had seen the end of that movie, or at least thought about it before calling her that. Seth is a little upset, but during times like that, sometimes you really do need time to sort things out. As long as he does nothing stupid, things should be OK, right?

Ryan was a little reluctant to go because things just started getting good between him and his brother, and things were going even better between him and Marissa. It took a little while to get past the awkward stage, and now they are ready to translate those feelings into some awkward sex. Looks like that is going to have to wait. Ryan has to go and he is worried about leaving Trey alone, but Marissa is more than happy to hang out with him while Ryan is gone. Everything is just falling into place, isn't it?

Posted by J-Unit on May 8, 2005 7:51 PM