The O.C. - Revisited

I remember watching The O.C. on TV back in my schooldays. In India, back then, TV series from foreign shores were rare. One either had to buy DVDs of entire shows from the stores, which was bloody expensive. Not to mention the hilarious ‘collections‘ at those stores. Simply put, TV shows from the US were plain inaccessible. Now in 2011, I find it very hard to imagine myself living in that India. Yet, as the cliche goes, those were the best days of my life.

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The O.C. was a show which was actually telecast here, on some obscure English soap channel, again something which was rare during that time. I had watched a few episodes of The O.C. and found it interesting. At the time, having the television in the ‘dining room’ was in vogue. The guests come in and BAM, there’s the big screen TV, that was the logic I presume, both flaunting the ‘treasure’ and guarding it from the prying eyes of a fourteen year old searching desperately for easy access to porn. To be honest, considering the amount of ‘resources’ we kids could get our hands on, shows like The O.C., with its occasional ‘hot scenes’ almost substituted the need for the real thing (admit it, season one of the show was pretty hot and intense and Marissa Cooper, she was HOT!). I know, people will find it hilarious now, but yea, that’s what life was like back then. No internet, no porn.

Many years later, after ‘maturing’ (both porn-wise and emotionally, emotionally as in not interpreting shows like these as mini-porn), I got down to the task of finally watching that goddamn show. The O.C., which deals with the lives of the uber-rich, is all that it’s made out or blamed to be. It’s awfully fake, its surreal and its way, way over the top. Bottomline, it should have sucked. Only it didn’t.

Some terrific acting performances were put on display throughout the four seasons of the show and I had some pretty amazing revelations too.

1. Marissa Cooper is still HOT, albeit she seems a bit fake now.

2. Marissa Cooper may be hot but Mischa Barton cant act to save her life!

3. Summer Roberts is a darling (Realisation - I’m totally not a lovey-dovey-comfy-cosy person, but hey, sometimes being all that is okay)

4. Sandy Cohen and Kirsten Cohen are one of the most adorable mom-dad characters ever seen on TV.

5. Seth Cohen is my hero (in a completely non-gay way). Yes, he is. And Adam Brody is awesome. I’m surprised how underused he has been since the show ended. I have barely seen him in a couple of decent movies but that’s pretty much it. The guy deserves better.

6. Say what you may, but the title track "California" by Phantom Planet, defined an entire generation.

Final words? Well I’m glad the show ended the way it did. I’m also glad that the it finally ended and didn’t keep going on with the increasingly sloppy plotline (yea, I agree season three was pretty lame). This show was a part of me growing up (in whatever weird way that may be) and I am so glad to have finally watched it in its entirety.  I do like my share of Dexter, House, True Blood and Breaking Bad, but a dash of nostalgia surely can’t hurt.

The O.C. wasn’t even close to being a great show, hell I doubt if that was even the most popular show on TV back then, it was fake and unreal, but god it was good!