I used to write a weekly review of the O.C. Then two things happened. First, I taught a class Thursday nights making it incredibly difficult to catch the show. I relied too often on illegal downloads. Second, I ran out of things to say about the characters. Though the drama kept churning in new forms, the characters pretty much stayed the same. There are only so many times you can say, "Julie is a whore, Summer is dumb, and Ryan has serious anger control issues." But the season finale provided a totally novel description for one of the characters. Marissa is dead!
Mischa Barton wants to do movies so she needs to leave the show. But, even though she just graduated high school and there’s a convenient explanation that she went away to college – or sailing with dad – the series decided to kill her. Of course Ryan is at fault. That kid can’t stay out of trouble. Of course the violence boils down to the type of lovers quarrel only a primetime soap can promulgate. But this episode was less drama and more just serious.
Catching up with the residents of Orange County didn’t take long. Poopernickel has married Summer’s rich father. She’s still a whore. Sandy is very forgiving of his son’s pyrotechnics. He’s still the unbelievable superdad. And Marissa is still making a mess of every relationship to which she’s a party. But things are a changing in Newport. Now that some are leaving for college and one is dead, it seems like there are going to be a lot of new characters and a whole new dynamic.
Marissa’s less attractive little sister is going to ‘rule arbor high school.’ What does that even mean? I’ve seen that convention in endless teenie movies and TV shows. What do they mean when they say a little snot will rule a high school? Will she not be subjected to discipline or make the best grades? Nooooo. So it has to have something to do with social interaction. Maybe ‘ruling’ means she’s popular because she puts out and has money. Maybe she gets to decide who is invited to which parties and stuff. Whatever. Rule on. High school really is so important in the grand scheme of things.
And poor messed up Ryan. He killed the only girl that really loved him in the new car from his screwed up estranged mom. What’s he up to now in terms of years of therapy. Bee bop boo bop bee bee bop … ding! 124 years! Ryan will need over a century of psychoanalysis to cope with his pitiful life so far. And he’s only 18. Let’s just hope he gets someone better than Dr. Melphi. She asks a lot of nice questions but usually says nothing. And her patients never really progress.
I’m not so sure I’ll tune in next year. The show is going to change so much. 90210 managed to stay on the air for 7 more years after Brenda-the-bitch "went to France" and never ever came home, not once, not even for Christmas every year. What a bitch! I may keep watching the O.C. if they take it in a really new direction. I want to see Zombie Marissa terrorizing the town. Now that would rule arbor high school.
Maybe it's just that I really hate Marissa as a character and always have, or that I knew Marissa was goin to die ahead of time, but I honestly felt worse about Ryan messing up his new car than I did about her dying. I mean I imagine it must have taken some work for his mom to pull that together and all, and Ryan seemed so happy to have it.
I am entertained that the producers were so mad at Misha Barton that they killed her character off rather than using any one of the other easy outs they had for the character that wouldn't have precluded her coming back.
Unless she comes back as a Zombie which would rule and would probably make her more interesting person.
Posted by: Stephen | June 01, 2006 at 12:45 PM