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A family tries to survive the insanity that is Orange County, California.
My very first thoughts about The OC. was that any self-respecting male who watched this reincarnation of Beverly Hills 90210 was not a self-respecting male. At first glance, this show appeared to be one rung above Gilmore Girls on the masculinity ladder. So of course it ended up being my favorite show on television less than a year later. Am I no longer a self-respecting male? I'll leave that up to you to decide. But am I an OC addict? Absolutely.
What made me change my mind about this show? Well, Rachel Bilson certainly helped. But aside from the fact that it introduced us to one of the best actresses on TV, the show managed to draw me in by becoming the complete opposite of what I expected. Yes, it's a teen drama through and through, but it's a funny team drama through and through. Adam Brody, Peter Gallagher, and occasionally Rachel Bilson, come out with some hilarious one-liners on a regular basis. In a TV era where the comedy is almost non-existent, The OC. is about as close as we're going to get to the witty sarcasm of Seinfeld. Still, as humorous as the show can be, you have to admit that getting wrapped up in the love lives of high-schoolers isn't exactly the type of thing that twenty-year-old males typically do. But the saving factor in all of this is that The OC realizes how ridiculous it is just as much as I do. It constantly takes subtle jabs at itself, even taking it as far as having Rachel Bilson watch "The Valley", an "OC" within The OC. It's almost as if the creator, Josh Schwartz is telling us that its ok to not take his show seriously, because he doesn't either. The purpose of The OC is to give viewers an hour of entertainment with a few laughs thrown in along the way, and that's how I take it. I won't start crying the next time Seth and Summer break up. In fact, the only way I'll shed a tear for this show, is if FOX decides to take it off the air*.
*Note: This was written after The OC Season 1 aired, a good two years before the show spiraled downward into a complete mess. By the time Season 4 rolled around, I was extremely happy that FOX had pulled the plug and put all OC fans out of their misery.
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