Customer Rating: 
Summary: TV Crack: Oh-so-good
Comment: "The O.C" reminds me of those sugary, frosted cookies in Safeway: You know they're bad for you, but they taste so damn good you just have to have another, and another, and another... My advice to the newbie to the show, or to someone who watched some of it and kicked the habit mid-way through the first season, give it a chance: It's addicting, sure, but unlike too many TV shows, the dialogue is sharp, the characters intriguing (and gorgeous) and the storyline is fluid. Sometimes, it all gets a tad ridiculous, but this is an outstanding show to escape into; it doesn't have a cult following for nothing! I was hooked on the first season when it premiered. Now, 4-5 years later, watching "The O.C" is still such a treat.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Guilty Pleasure
Comment: This show was a summer replacement on Fox. It was right after my freshman year of college and I basically tuned in because the lead girls were hot. The show was irritatingly addictive. Within five weeks, all of my friends were watching too. The show is ridiculous, on so many levels. So much more ridiculous than Beverly Hills 90210, but I think that is the appeal.
The show burns so brightly the first 10 episodes that it was bound to let down eventually. The inclusion and persistence of the Oliver story arc proves this, but, in the end, the 27 episodes in season 1 are some of my favorite television. I highly recommend this show as I'd watch it multiple times.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great show
Comment: fell in love with this shown when it was on tv, now I can watch it anytime I like!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not What It Seems!
Comment: Three years ago I got over myself and rented the first season of The OC. I was so surprised by what I found under its glitzy surface. I was expecting a stupid teen soap with no substance or importance, but when I finally watched it I found a smart unique show that always challenged the audience's wit. It possessed clever story lines, perfect dialogue, fantastic characters, and episodes that leave you on the edge of your seat. As soon as I saw it I couldn't believe that I'd ever thought it was stupid. The commercials portrayed it to be something that it completely wasn't, the next 90210. All the seasons were good but not nearly as good as the never stop action of the first. All 27 episodes are enthralling, drama, comedy, tragedy, all rolled up in the neat little bundle that is The OC's first season. Compared to other TV shows, nothing reached the level of perfection as this season. So skeptics step aside, you may be surprised by what you find...
Customer Rating:
Summary: First Season Lived Up to the Hype
Comment: The FOX Television Network scored a major hit in 2003 when The O.C. premiered on August 5. The show at first seemed to be the next logical step in updating the Beverly Hills 90210 and Dawson's Creek teen soap genre for the 2000s. In many ways it improved on the formula in its first season and used up and coming music stars to propel the action on screen, making stars of little known recording artists in the process. However, the show's quick rise to popularity is often compared to its equally swift fall. But that's not to say that the first season was a mediocre one.
I didn't catch the show during the 2003-2004 TV season, but viewed the entire season on the subsequently released DVD set. The story centers around fish-out-of-water Ryan, a brooding, bad-boy teenager who moves in with a rich Newport Beach family in Southern California. The Cohens are a family with money - mother Kirsten works for her rich father, who is at odds with father Sandy, a local attorney. It's Sandy who represents Ryan in a case and ultimately invites him into his home.
The key partnership in the series is between Ryan and Seth, the Cohen's son. The show centers around dorky Seth's relationship to bad-boy Ryan, who is sort of like the big brother he never had. The boys juggle relationships with fellow classmates Marissa and Summer, while tackling the usual blend of teen drama along the way.
I always think I've seen it all when I see a teen drama like Beverly Hills 90210, which was remixed for the late nineties with Dawson's Creek. But The OC somehow manages to be just as good, if not better, during its first season. The first half of the season was particularly good, with things slowing down after a plot involving an unstable friend of Marissa's named Oliver, who develops an obsessive crush. Other plots involve Marissa's struggle with alcohol and the divorce of her mother and father.
Perhaps the slight lag during the last quarter of the season kicked off the amazingly swift downfall of the series. In the end, four seasons aired, each with a major percentage of viewer loss in the ratings. Adam Brody, Mischa Barton, Benjamin McKenzie, Kelly Rowan, Rachel Bilson and Peter Gallagher are the main cast of stars that propelled this FOX drama into an overnight sensation that burned out way before it should have.
(I originally posted this review at my personal website: jasonhink.com)
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