The O.C., R.I.P.

When 5'5", 140 lb Ben McKenzie is a cage fighter, the show has more than jumped the shark.

The sickest thing to come out of the show was Seth actually nailing Rachel Bilson in real life.

 

I thought I remember her making noises about wanting off the show (no doubt to "Shelly Long" herself into that Academy award-winning movie career) and was being difficult. But I'm not sure her contract was up.

One thing's for sure, once her brief fling with lesbianism was done, and they completely destroyed whatever was left of her relationship with the cage fighter (the dramatic tension there, the good-girl, bad-boy thing, sort of stopped dead once he stopped getting thrown in jail every week and she started trying every pharmaceutical known to mankind) there only thing left was for her to sleep with either Seth, or his dad.

Either one would have been trop beaucoup gross.

I thought she frankly was terrible, nice to look at (except for awful legs) until she opened her mouth. The one who plays her younger sister looks like her, and sounds just like her.

But sometimes shows just run out of ideas and places to go (especially when most of the characters aren't particularly drawn with depth in the first place), and this is one of them.

But when it was good, it was must-see.

 

Won't miss it a bit. Maybe the TV writers can come up with a plot line other than "Teens fucking every week." But I doubt it.

I'm surprised FOX didn't hang on to this one as long as it could since it has no fucking clue about developing original programming -- with live actors -- that can last.

 

You shouldn't be surprised. This opens the door for more cheap reality programming such as "When The Guy From So You Want To Marry A Millionaire Attacks."

 

I can just imagine the FOX fucktards programming this week:

"Hey, we have live sports the first three nights! Now we can move our shitty reality shows to the end of the week and still not come up with anything original! High-five!"

 

Ummm I'm in my 30s and for the life of me I don't know what "DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES" means. Please explain.
Wasn't Rachel Bilson the one who was cast or rumored to be cast as Wonder Woman in Joss Whedon's version new version?
And never saw the O.C., but I got the impression it was clever at first, but not as clever as Buffy.

 

How can you be my age and not remember the 90210 episode where they weren't going to let Donna graduate because her dad gave her booze before the prom.

 

Donna Martin Graduates is a reference to 90210, which none of the 16-year-olds who currently watch The O.C. have probably ever heard of, but all of the show's writers and people like BYH and I grew up watching a steady diet of.

The O.C.'s problem was it was caught between two worlds. It wanted to be funny and clever and appeal to television junkies like me, but in order for it to stay on the air, it had to snag as many high school kids as possible every Thursday night, and hold their attention with plots like "Marissa shoots someone, is a lipstick lesbian and does cocaine." I think a lot of the high schoolers are still paying attention, but it lost 90 percent of the people like me, who watched for smart ass jokes, the Chuck Klosterman/Nick Hornby banter, and the complete awesomeness of Sandy Cohen. Though he can often feel like nails on a chalkboard, I hope Bill Simmons gives it some kind of proper eulogy.

 

The best part about DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES!!! was the fact several hundred kids, none of whom were cool enough to hang out with Donna and her clan, decided to risk graduation so that she could graduate.

 

For me, the shark was officially jumped when Ryan punched out the school vice principal ... was that at the start of season 3? He'd punched out everybody in the county by then. It just made no sense anymore.
Also, the death of the dad was a big mistake. He was a great TV character.

 

The dean punching moment was when I officially stopped defending the show to friends, or caring if I missed it. It was ridiculous.

And I think they killed off Alan Dale's character so he could be on every other show on television. Seriously, the guy was on ER, 24, The O.C., Lost, and now Ugly Betty. He even showed up in a few episodes of The West Wing.

 

Was never a huge fan, but Mrs. Irish was/is, so I've been watching pretty steadily for the last couple of years. Sandy Cohen, I must say, is one of the great characters in television. A man to emulate. He makes the show. But it's been running off the rails since the beginning of last season. Time to go.