Week 12 -- A generation nurtured by The OC

The OC, promotional picture.

The OC has had a profound effect on teens living in the decade of the new millennia. It represented a change of pace for the soap TV show, a liberation of TV show writing to have a young adult (creator of the show, Josh Schwartz, at 26) writing for other young adults. The show put the real Orange County on the map and ingrained romance stories among entitled high schoolers in young adult hearts. Then there’s the downfall of the show, the decision to break one of these great teen romances in a miscalculated, heartless reflection of the show’s overall saccharine yet wry style. The inspired music choices, the enduring characters and the bizarre state of social chaos the show found itself embroiled in with each story arc was a joy to behold.

The OC still polarises even today. Fans of the show identify with the characters and pine that the show should have gone on beyond the ill-fated fourth season. The people who hate the show, when I’ve questioned them, seem to indicate that they either have never seen The OC and are on the ‘all soapies are bad’ bandwagon or have only seen the pilot, which actually won a Writer’s Guild Award for best writing of a new show.

This is one of my favourite parts from the pilot, perfectly skewing the anarchy in a school party, the excesses and spoilt brattiness of rich young kids, the misconceptions, and the resulting macho bullshit that inevitably takes place after the fact:

The scene ends with a line gloriously indicative of the self-deprecating style: "Welcome to the OC, bitch! This is how it's done in Orange County."

The OC impacted people so because it did something most soapies didn’t have the guts to do: poke fun at itself and let the audience in on the joke. Sandy, the father of the Cohen family on which the show is centred and a lawyer, proves to be the upright and foundational support for the show’s more adult approach to young adult themes, not any of the high schoolers. In the first episode, he takes in Ryan, a 16 year old facing time in a juvenile detention centre for stealing a car with his brother, to stay with them at the Cohen household. When Kirsten, Sandy’s wife, questions him about whether it was dangerous to have one of his potentially criminal clients staying at home with them, he states: “I just know that I'd rather have Seth hanging out with Ryan than some trust fund kid from around here who only cares about getting a new beemer every year. There's a whole world outside this Newport Beach bubble.” This sets the tone for the entire series. Ryan, a kid from a broken home in the back streets of Chino, is thrust into the world of rich young white kids partying, drinking, taking drugs and being romantically confused. He proves another pillar to the show as someone who has more grounding than half of these entitled 1%-ers.

There’s Seth who’s that lovable nerdy kid that everyone knows and can quote comic book references at you all day. Summer, Seth’s secret crush, a judgemental girl obsessed with the internal workings of school social cliques to hide her own insecurities. Their relationship works off of their obsessions. Marissa, friend of Summer and the girl Ryan falls for, who’s been in a relationship with the local bully Luke since primary school and goes tragically off the rails as the show progresses. Marissa’s mother, who’s a manipulative, scheming femme fetale,  at one point having a relationship with Marissa’s (then) ex-boyfriend Luke and marrying an old rich guy for money and power in Newport's social circles. Anna, someone whose interests are better suited with Seth than his perpetually strained relationship with Summer, makes an appearance too, but Seth inevitably screws it up by trying to date both Summer and Anna at the same time in one hilarious episode.

Still, the show manages to send off this relatively minor role with one of the most heartfelt scenes I've witnessed in television.

The show covers all facets of high school life; the hollowness of the friendships; a cocky look into these high school parties where the aim is who’s going to get drunk the fastest; all the vapid opinions of the social groups; the overall silliness in trying to be romantic and genuine at such a socially inexperienced age. The OC reflected a satiric yet affectionate view of the ending days of school, laced with a soundtrack of indie rock hits such as "Rock 'n' Roll Queen" and inspired music placement in scenes such as "If You Leave" in the video above, and this one, utilising the song “Dice” (a song about taking a chance on someone) to coincide with Ryan finally taking a risk to show Marissa how he feels just before the New Year.

I identified with the show, as did other young adults my age, because it explored these subjects at just the right time for us, in just the right way, to make us feel a little sorry for ourselves yet amused and emotionally involved.

The OC is one of the few soapies that sees the flaws of the shallow soapie genre, and lays it out for us, the discerning audience. Even in its final season, when the show went whole hog on the “not taking itself seriously” to the point of absurd parody, the affection its writers have for the characters is still there, even if the decent storylines aren’t.

References:

BestoftheOC. (2007, Oct 13). The O.C. best music moment #5 - The Countdown - "Dice" [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9IyJ3w4SWY

brianbb98. (2006, September 24). The O.C. Anna leaving... [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du7jECNaxfc

diorznotwar. (2007, May 5). The O.C. : Thanksgiving (Summer vs Anna) [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEhxC6wd0KM

ExplicitGamingX. (2011, February 14). Welcome to The O.C. Bitch [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJWV0Brbt4c

Image:

The WB. (2013). The OC: Watch Full Episodes Online [Image]. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://www.thewb.com/shows/the-oc