Let's face it, the producers of The OC promised us a lot in the offseason. We were told to expect lots of things to change, and nothing was to be the same. Other than establishing that the Ryan/Marissa and Seth/Summer copulations are coming to an end, the most interesting thing to happen on the show were Summer's strange bangs from last episode. It looked like she got some of those low flow shower heads like that episode of Seinfeld. Oh sure, Caleb's big trial is coming, but Julie Cooper had a husband last year that got in trouble with the feds, and Sandy helped him out, so I have all the faith that Caleb will get off as well. And somehow Seth Cohen went from being that funny but awkward guy who got the hot chick to the annoying and awkward guy who won't shut up. I feel like some of the writers got lost on their way back from Burning Man, and the PAs had to pick up the slack.
Just in case there are some idiots out there that were wondering, Seth hasn't quite rid himself of his Summer bug. He talks about her constantly, and has progressed through the phases of breaking up in a pain-inducing manner. But at least he wants to move on, and the best way to do that is to pick out random girls from his yearbook. Newport is so high-tech these days, I thought some enterprising lad would make up a facebook for high school kids. It's much better to scope your potential mate in person. In my case, it is either from the corner booth of my local bar, or if I am too, uhh, altered or unmotivated, from the balcony of my apartment. For Seth, he tries the quad before class. He and Ryan play the old "yes, no, yes, yes, no" game that all eligible bachelors and their sidekicks play while on the hunt. They are having fun leering when Lindsay just happens upon them and knows what they are doing, which is basically a "rack and/or ass" comparison.
I would have loved to have seen Seth's reaction when he got a load of Marissa. I am not sure what happened to her, but it looked like she took a look at this months's "In Style" magazine, went straight to the "What's Hot" page, and put on everything all at once. This sort of strategy is more of a tactic for Duluth, not Newport, and so Marissa looked like some sort of chimney sweep from a Dickens novel. Hey, it's possible, perhaps the school is putting on a show of Oliver Twist, and Marisss wants to stay in character. Anyway, the writers once again showed their power of making the obvious, well, obvious to the viewer by letting us know that Marissa is always filled with guy drama, whether it's watching your ex-boyfriend hook up with a skank in Tijuana, knwoing your ex-boyfriend hooked up with your mom, or finding out your ex-boyfriend is the father of a child. (Speaking of which, shouldn't we have at least had a cameo appearance from Theresa to see what she was going to do now that she had thrown out the alleged father of her baby?) Summer is doing much better, but we already know she is going to spend another episode trying to convince herself and her new boyfriend that she isn't in love with Seth.
Sandy is sort of enjoying his new found freedom. He only has one client, and so he prepares for his case with a little breakfast with Caleb at the country club, also known as the high school set with nicer tables. By Caleb's demeanor, he was hiding something. He kept on trying to distract Sandy by asking about fritattas all the time, but still looking quite comfortable in his new age Mao Zedong. OK, it might be a stretch, but I have laughed every time I have said Zedong since seventh grade.
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Comments (6)
I know the show is not heading in the right direction I when get more irritated by Seth/Summer then Marrissa/DJ, and Micha acting has not improved ... and DJ why even bother with dialogue. After #202 and #203 I had thought the trend was up... but now it all has take a turn for the worse.
What happened to the subtleties of season 1? This season is so in your face: new era... yeah we get it; Seth is still obsessed with Summer, ok we get it; Summer deep down still loves Seth, check! Adam needs to tone down, his witty-over-acting it is getting a bit annoying (wow, thought I would never say that... ). Bilson still looks hot... nice!
What was with the “group hang” plot line (... use the word “plot” looosely) with the predictive date switch... Duh!
Zach, a character I find myself eerily warming up too, had the best line of the night walking away from Summer “... ok I am going to jump of the pier.” For 5 seconds I thought now that is the OC writing I love. But that scene quickly degenerated into over played Summer/Seth we don’t want/but we do want each other banter.
BTW it is cool to have hipster music play nicely in the background of scenes occasionally. But now it’s like the volume is turned up, and the bands are on the show... its actually NOT cool to have a hip band lip-sync on a TV drama show, making instantly both the show and band that much less-hip. The Bait Shop must burn down!
I will give credit to: the Jimmy/Julie scene it was precious.. till he said “.. love this New Era”, stop it! And Ryan/Lindsay a good track, keep it up.
Anyway season 2... Please fix it... I suggest that YOU watch the season 1 DVD... and start writing some episodes yourself. Hint: fire 90210-writer-wannabes.
PS: Barton’s beret wardrobe and Alex’s hair, are hilarious, maybe this is new direction for the show, how ridiculous can we make the characters look ;)
1 of 6 | Posted by drchip | Posted on December 3, 2004 9:54 AM
I enjoyed how Caleb Nichols seemed to be bribing Kathy Griffin. Did anyone else notice that?
Also, I wish they'd let Alex take her hair down. She was on the short-lived (and awful) show Skin and looked amazing in it.
I also was amused by the little dialogue between Ryan and Alex when he said that he didn't really like live music and she responded "It's my passion." Shut up, Alex. Anyone who says something like that in small talk sucks.
anyway, i agree with pretty much everything in this post. Seth has suddenly become super annoying. That whole spiel about how talking about the same thing is driving away all his friends? Yeah, well, it's pushing me away too.
The pacing of this episode was all wrong too. At least it wasn't very somber. I still want the teenagers to do more teenage things, like go to keggers, but I suppose that would detract from Mischa Barton flask moments. And what's up with the glaringly loud soundtrack now. The entire cold open was almost ruined by a way-too-loud indie song that seemed to only be in there for a comical downbeat at the end.
Speaking of the cold open, the entire stagey feel of the characters walking from one room to another, babbling about New Eras was completely distracting. Someone fire the playwright.
The good news is that the Street Urchin chic Mischa's pulling is really a lovely new direction for the series. I would have been really happy had she said "Top o' the mornin' to ya, guv'nah!"
2 of 6 | Posted by b-side | Posted on December 3, 2004 1:36 PM
agree on Alex's hair. maybe bilson and barton have contracual clause limiting future casts relative atractiveness. Because if they ever let Olivia Wilde look like she did in Skin... she would SMOKE both of them!
3 of 6 | Posted by drchip | Posted on December 3, 2004 2:58 PM
I figured "The New Era" was meant to be tongue in cheek.
We know the new relationship will eventually collapse like Marissa on a vodka binge, one at a time, and Seth will revert to Summer while Ryan does likewise with Marissa. Well, don't we? "The New Era" is clearly the beginning of the return to status quo, methinks.
4 of 6 | Posted by toyochin | Posted on December 3, 2004 9:57 PM
If the new era is full of nausiating fashions and utterly suckee realtionships that are bound to come to some overly dramatic end by the season finale well then F**K the new era in the goat ass.
Someone really needs to tell the lush that you are not supposed to where all the trendy items off pg 6 of In Style at once. MODERATION--it applies to fashion and alcohol babe, please check yourself into some kinda 12 step already.
5 of 6 | Posted by S-LO | Posted on December 6, 2004 3:30 PM
Watching this I was struck by how amazingly old DJ looks, oh wait, he's a 28-year old Latino guy playing a high schooler rocking the pants off of Mischa Barton? This would be a lot better if I hadn't already seen it in the Enrique Iglesias 'Addicted' video.
6 of 6 | Posted by J | Posted on December 6, 2004 9:15 PM