After the real-life ups and downs of World Series Wednesday and Election Tuesday, it's finally time for the kitschy fakeness of "O.C." Thursday.
The show that many consider the best and most popular teen drama since "90210" (apparently they've forgotten "Dawson's Creek," "My So-Called Life," "Party of Five," "Felicity," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "7th Heaven") begins its second season tonight.
In case you've forgotten what happened since the season finale six months ago, here's a brief refresher: Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) discovers that his ex-girlfriend Theresa (Navi Rawat) is pregnant with his child and decides to follow her back to their old neighborhood to help raise the baby. In the process, Ryan breaks Marissa Cooper's (Mischa Barton) heart and devastates Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), his best friend. After seeing Ryan drive off to Chino and losing the affections of his long-time crush Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson), Seth heads for Tahiti on his tiny sailboat.
Meanwhile, Sandy (Seth's father, played by Peter Gallagher) and Jimmy (Marissa's father, played by Tate Donovan) have invested most of their money in a risky restaurant endeavor that could result in both men losing everything. Marissa's mother Julie (Melinda Clarke) has married Seth's grandfather Caleb Nichol (Alan Dale), and Caleb's business (which employs Seth's mother Kirsten, played by Kelly Rowan), is also struggling because of illegal and immoral deals Caleb has made.
The sharp banter between Seth and Sandy balances out the clich?©d love story between Marissa and Ryan - which is not to say that the Marissa and Ryan corniness isn't a vital part of the show.
In its first season, "The O.C." quickly became a smash hit and made fast celebrities of its four stars (McKenzie, Brody, Barton, and Bilson). Soon their private lives became almost as much of a soap opera as the show itself, with reports of Brody and Bilson dating, and Barton getting in diva-style fights at clubs with her partier-boyfriend Brandon Davis.
Controversy only added to the success of the show, which won over teenyboppers and cynics alike with its combination of melodrama and clever self-reflexiveness.
Though "The O.C." often falls into "guilty pleasure" territory, it's aware of it: Summer makes fun of Seth for being an emo-stereotype to a T, Seth laughs at Sandy when he tries too hard to be the "cool dad," and so on.
A good example of the show's internal melodrama-versus-wittiness balancing act occurred when, toward the end of the first season, Ryan and Seth took a trip to Vegas and inconceivably ended up accidentally promising all their money to prostitutes. Ryan had to win it back in a poker game against a thug in a trucker hat who wanted to beat him up. When Ryan - who is no stranger to the business end of a barstool - expressed his nervousness about making the hoodlum angry, Seth reassured him: "Maybe he's angry because he found out people don't wear trucker hats anymore."
Seth's quick wit endeared him the most to "O.C." viewers last season, making the issue of his flight from Newport Beach the primary concern of the majority of fans. Not to spoil season two for anyone, but this week's TV Guide says that he ends up in Portland, Ore. The real question, then, is not "When will he return to the O.C.?" but "How did nerdy intellectual Seth make such a grievous cartographical error?"
There should also be a resolution to the Theresa and Ryan parenthood arc soon - word has it that Theresa will miscarry - and maybe an explanation as to why Kirsten acted unusually empathetic when Theresa was considering an abortion. The show will also introduce new love interests for each of the four main characters and have hot "It" bands (the kind music fan Seth would love) like the Killers and Modest Mouse play at Sandy's and Jimmy's restaurant - a "Peach Pit"-style place called "The Bait Shop."
This season, "The O.C." moves to Thursdays at 8 p.m. (previously taken by "Friends") but viewers who used to breeze into Greenwich Village every week should have no trouble changing their tune from "I'll be there for you" to "California, here we come."
The show got off to a rocky start ("Welcome to the O.C., b**ch!") but hit its stride once producers realized they could get away with basically anything, no matter how implausible. In fact, the less believable the episodes became, the more the public ate it up. MTV even created "Laguna Beach," a reality TV show with the sub-title "The Real Orange County."
On "Laguna Beach," a spring break trip to Mexico results in a jealous boy calling his ex-girlfriend a slut for dancing with another boy.
On "The O.C.," the Mexico trip has Marissa see her ex-boyfriend Luke (Chris Carmack) dancing with another girl, leave the club in tears, binge on alcohol and pills, collapse in an alley, and end up in rehab where a fellow patient becomes obsessed with her and eventually holds her hostage in a hotel room as he threatens to commit suicide.
Ah, fiction.
