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An astonishingly disappointing season – can it rebound in Season 4?, July 29, 2006

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Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) – See all my reviews

  

  

  

December 1, 2006 Addition: I wanted to add a note responding to my own question in my original headline: Can it rebound in Season Four? The great news is: Yes! If there were an Emmy given for “The Comeback Show of the Year,” THE O.C. after its first five episodes would have to be a leading candidate. I will be honest: I initially tuned in just to verify that THE O.C. in its 4th season was as bad as it was in its 3rd. I was going to watch two or three episodes and then give up on it. The great news is that it has completely returned to form and is now as good as it has been since it first started. This was not expected! The main reason is has been so good has been that it has gotten back to enjoying the characters, instead of introducing a string of unlikable ones that no one can stand. So far this season, not a single irritating new character! I was afraid that they would make Caitlin into the new Marissa, but so far she hasn’t been too bad. The biggest surprise has to be Taylor. I assumed that she would no longer be a part of the show this season, but they not only have brought her back, they’ve made her vastly more intersting and sympathetic than I would ever have imagined. She is actually now a character I like. Who’d a thunk it? Right now the show is as strong as it was in Season One. One of the best turnarounds I’ve ever seen a show make.

The third season of THE OC was an almost unbelievable come down from the first two fun seasons. The things that made people enjoy the show the first two seasons were largely pushed to the side, while the more irritating features of the first two seasons were brought to the fore and made the center of the show. On several occasions both I and my good friend who also watches the show debated about whether we were going to stop watching it. There is a point where the displeasure is watching the show threatened to overwhelm any pleasures it brought. Then, after a season of one unpleasantness after another, the show ended on a shocker. Normally one would require a Spoiler warning for this, but unfortunately Mischa Barton herself spoiled the ending by announcing on national TV a few days before the season finale that her character was going to die on the show. Why she did this has been debated. Was she trying to hurt the show? Was she just being stupid? Whatever the reason, what would have been one of the most shocking endings in recent TV history was common knowledge even before it aired.

What went wrong in Season Three? Well, the same things that went wrong in SeasonsŁ and 2 but that played a smaller role each year: the introduction of exceedingly unpleasant and irritating characters who dominate the course of the show’s narrative. In Season One this was mainly restricted to Oliver, one of the worst characters I’ve ever seen in a TV show. My guess is that the show’s creative team misinterpreted what made the show popular in Season One. Instead of the fun alchemy between the younger members of the cast along with the narratives centering on the adult cast members–which I think was aboutೣ% of the reason people liked the show–they imagined that the chaos injected into the show by Oliver’s character was what people loved about it. My own belief is that people liked the show DESPITE Oliver and the chaos he created, not because of him. I’m sure the show’s producers imagined that Oliver was a character that viewers loved to hate, instead of merely hating him, which was the actual case. So, in Season Two, the show’s producers and writers gave even more characters that we merely hated (instead of loved to hate), the unlikable Alex (who was unlikable not because she became Marissa’s lover but because she was merely unlikable) and Trey, Ryan’s older brother.

Because the producer’s misunderstood what people were liking about the show–people liked the main characters, not the situations generated by the minor, intensely unlikable characters who upset the show’s chemistry–they flooded the third season with terrible characters. It started early on in the rehab facility, where we were introduced to the duplicitous Charlotte, a role on which they wasted the wonderful Jeri Ryan. Luckily, Charlotte didn’t stay on the show very long, though she was extremely unpleasant while she did. Also early in the season was the terrible Dean Jack Hess, another thoroughly unlikable and wildly implausible character who seemed to have a personal vendetta against Ryan and Marissa. He too disappeared fairly early on. But by then we had been introduced to Johnny, a semi-professional surfer at the public school Marissa was forced to attend after she was kicked out of her private school (her dismissal being merely one more of a host of unbelievable developments). Now, in Johnny’s defense, he was not for the most part a terrible character. But his crush on Marissa and Marissa’s ongoing inability to do the commonsense things…

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Not at its best, but still an addictive show, December 5, 2006

By 

Joshua Spaulding “Television God” (Ossipee, New Hampshire) – See all my reviews

  

Okay, so season three of my favorite primetime soap opera, The O.C., wasn’t nearly up to snuff with the spectacular first season and the slightly less spectacular second season. But, despite that, I still tuned in every Thursday night and when the DVDs were released, I bought them and relived the season again.

While the third season was a bit of a letdown in a number of ways, I will say that a month into the fourth season, The O.C. has regained its form and is shining. It’s just too bad that it is up against the two strongest shows on television, CSI and Grey’s Anatomy. Despite all that, season four is looking to be the best season since the phenomenal first season.

My opinion on why the third season was a bit of a letdown is the fact that creator Josh Schwartz seems to have taken a back seat in this season. He was the one with the vision for the show and its fantastic inaugural season and without him in his prominent position (or so it seems), the show wasn’t quite the same.

Unfortunately, the show continued to introduce unlikeable characters in the third season, much as they had in the first two seasons. This takes away from the great relationships that make the show so good, the Sandy and Kirsten, Summer and Seth, Ryan and Marissa and Julie and her man of the week, storylines.

Season three picked up a short while after the shocking season two finale left off. As we left them, Marissa (Mischa Barton) had just shot Ryan’s (Ben McKenzie) brother Trey (guest star Logan Marshall Green) as the two brothers fought. Fearing for Ryan’s life, Marissa pulled the trigger just moments before Seth (Adam Brody) and Summer (the absolutely gorgeous Rachel Bilson) walked through the door.

Trey had been nothing but trouble since his arrival in Newport Beach in season two. He had betrayed Ryan and the Cohen family, attacked Marissa and gotten into a boatload of trouble. The gunshot didn’t kill him, but left him in a coma. Marissa’s role in the shooting was questioned, as Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke), still reeling from the death of her second husband Caleb Nicol at the end of season two, tried to pay off Trey to implicate Ryan and spare Marissa. The ploy didn’t work and Trey rode off into the sunset on a Greyhound bus.

But, the implications from the shooting lived on, as both Marissa and Ryan were expelled from the Harbor School. While Ryan was readmitted, Marissa spent most of the season at Newport Union, the local public school, where she met even more people that would play a significant role in the rest of the season.

The start of the season also found Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) in rehab, where she had been admitted at the end of season two, as Sandy (Peter Gallagher), Ryan and Seth tried to cope with her out of the house. Kirsten met Charlotte (guest star Jeri Ryan) in rehab and she would also play a big role in the early part of the season.

The Marissa-Ryan story line again took some strange turns, as has been the case in the first two years. Her banishment to Newport Union found her hanging with new friends, particularly surfer Johnny (guest star Ryan Donowho), which brought out a little jealousy in Ryan. The two were on and off for much of the season, with Marissa hooking up with bad-boy Volchok (guest star Cam Gigandet), a former friend of Johnny’s, after Johnny fell off a cliff to his death in front of Marissa, Ryan and Marissa’s younger sister Caitlin (guest star and future series regular Willa Holland). His death also led to the introduction of his cousin Sadie (guest star Nikki Reed). Sadie and Ryan had a brief relationship, but his acceptance at college kind of turned things around as she headed off into the sunset. Marissa eventually returns to Harbor, thanks to a little help from an unlikely ally, Taylor Townsend (guest star and future series regular Autumn Reeser, who is Summer’s top competition for most beautiful woman on television).

While Marissa was at Newport Union, her mother Julie was searching for a way to get back on her feet. Caleb’s will left her with no money and because of that, her attempt to reunite with her former husband and Marissa’s dad, Jimmy Cooper (guest star Tate Donovan) failed and Julie was forced to move into a trailer park, while Marissa bunked at Summer’s house. Of course Julie wasn’t down for long, as she quickly became cozy with Summer’s dad Neil (guest star Michael Nouri) and the two became engaged near the end of the season. Julie and Kirsten also started a high end match making business that remains part of the show in season four.

With Kirsten in rehab, the management of the Newport Group is left to Sandy and he finds himself caught between his morals and big business as he strives to build a new hospital. Kirsten’s return home isn’t all roses either, as she brings Charlotte to town and with that comes a whole load of trouble, as she tries to bilk…

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After what seemed like forever The O.C. season 3 is coming to DVD this October, August 2, 2006

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Porfie Medina “Porfie Jr. Medina” (Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA) – See all my reviews

  

The O.C. Season 3 is just as good as the first two seasons. I like the fact that the show is not just about kids in high school, but also their parents and family and how they all interact. The cast is really good and believable enough to either make you love them or hate them. The show is very emotional at times and it is very addicting. I think what scared me away before I ever saw an episode was that I figured The O.C. was just another show about rich kids in California like Beverly Hills 90210 and/or Melrose place. The show is so much more than those other shows and has just the right amount of drama mixed in with just the right amount of heart. I highly recommend The O.C. for anyone who likes must see TV. This Complete Third season of The O.C. will be released on October 24th, 2006 just in time for the premiere of season 4 in the Fall. This 7-DVD set will contain all 25 episodes (1089 minutes) presented in widescreen and will be in Dolby Surround audio along with French and Spanish subtitles, and english captions.

The Bonus Features are

* Making of The Subways music video

* What’s In a Name?

* From Script to Screen – The Party Favor

* Gag Reel

* Pass The Remote – Scene surfing commentary

Below is The O.C. third season episode list

52 The Aftermath

53 The Shape of Things to Come

54 The End of Innocence

55 The Last Waltz

56 The Perfect Storm

57 The Swells

58 The Anger Management

59 The Game Plan

60 The Disconnect

61 The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah

62 The Safe Harbor

63 The Sister Act

64 The Pot Stirrer

65 The Cliffhanger

66 The Heavy Lifting

67 The Road Warrior

68 The Journey

69 The Undertow

70 The Secrets and Lies

71 The Day After Tomorrow

72 The Dawn Patrol

73 The College Try

74 The Party Favor

75 The Man of The Year

76 The Graduates

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