A few months back, I reactivated my Hulu subscription because I really wanted to watch The Runaways. It was highly recommended to me, and I can’t remember if I wrote a post about it or not, but if not, I’ll get to it another time. Something about it reminded me of The O.C. but I couldn’t put my finger on it. So, I wasn’t too surprised when I saw the name Josh Schwartz as one of the series creators, as he was also the series creator of The O.C (and Gossip Girl, which I adore.)
I finished The Runaways and needed something else to watch. It just so happened that day was the 15th anniversary of the premiere of The O.C. When the Universe sends you a sign, you take it. Thus, I returned to Newport Beach. Mind you, I hadn’t watched the show in at least 12 years. I lost interest around the 3rd season when Katilyn returned and went from a little girl to a teenager, which was a big mistake on my part.
I just finished the series Thursday night and it was quite a ride. I remember starting the show as a teenager. It’s funny looking back and realizing they were supposed to be my age when I was in high school (as they were also the class of 2006) but I didn’t do ANY of the things they did at that time and I feel I looked like a baby in high school.
When I started this new O.C. journey, I had very little empathy for Marissa, I’d always been team Summer, hell, let’s be honest, I was team Julie. Marissa just seemed like a spoiled brat. I didn’t really understand what she had to be upset about, and maybe it’s the fact that I no longer have my mother that I resented her being so bitchy to her mom when her mom did so much for her benefit (a quick note about The Runaways, my biggest issue with it is that though the parents are shown as the villains, I sided with them rather than their children, I don’t know if it is because I’m in my 30s now or what, even when watching The O.C. I was like, I get why the parents are doing this and found their stories more compelling and interesting.)
By the time I got to season three, I felt completely different about Marissa, perhaps because I knew she would be dead by the end of the season. I never got that far when originally watching. I couldn’t tell you what truly made me stop watching. In high school, I remember passing notes to my friend Nikki, having written a complete synopsis of the previous night’s episode when she missed it. My high school time was spent between Buffy and The O.C. (at least as far as TV is concerned.)
I was emotional when I reached the season three ending. Marissa in season three reminded me a lot of Buffy in season six, which helped me empathize with her and I her plight made more sense to me. She didn’t see a future for herself so she used boys, drinking and drugs. Self-destructive, but I get it. I wanted her to find a way out of the hole of despair she’d found herself in, and it seemed she was about to…
Season four, I enjoyed it, though I thought it would be more about getting justice for Marrisa’s death, but that kinda wrapped itself up faster than I would have liked. I did really enjoy Kaitlin, who was serving some Lil’ J tease (which is funny because the actress played one of Lil’ J’s friends on Gossip Girl). She was a younger version of her mother and Julie Cooper is my favorite character of the show (Seth is a close second and is the reason I love myself a geeky, dorky man.) I really enjoyed Taylor as well. She was very quirky, and reminded me of Anya from Buffy, and also reminded me of myself too.
I didn’t understand the earthquake two-parter (it seemed a little odd to have a natural disaster take up two of your final three episodes, but to each his/her own,) and the final episode was a bit too cheesy/campy, even for this show, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Long story short, as far as the main part of the final episode, everyone from Newport ends up harassing this gay couple in their own home because Kirsten and Sandy owed it… twenty years ago, and Seth and Ryan think the gay couple should sell it back to them. I’m just like, really? Kirsten has a damn baby in their bedroom, they set up a wedding in the backyard, Ryan and Taylor have sex in another one of their bedrooms. I would have been like, all of y’all need to get the hell out of my house. But maybe Berkeley gays are nicer than I, as they end up deciding to sell their house to them.
Then it jumps forward in time and you see Seth and Summer get married (which made me very happy) and I loved the last scene. Ryan is successful (driving his own Range Rover) and sees a kid sitting on a wall and thinks back to himself as a kid and asks if the kid needs help, then there is a flashback of the first (of many) times he was going to go back to Chino and saw Marissa. I thought that was great.
This show meant so much to teenage me that it is hard to critique it. I suppose at times it bothered me that the girls in the show would often let the boys lead the way, which felt misogynistic to me (example, Summer can’t decide whether she wants to be with Seth or Zach, so she tells them to decide for her. Girl, what? Or the girls trying to decide where to go to college based on their boyfriends. Hell to the no. Maybe I don’t get it because I didn’t date in high school, but even now, I couldn’t see myself moving for a man unless there were a ring on my finger and it would be beneficial to my career goals.) And there were times when characters seemed to act, well, out of character, for the sake of plot, but that can be found in any series, I suppose.
It was a great ride and I’m glad to say I finally watched it all. Perhaps Gossip Girl is next?
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