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I've seen so many Gossip Girl fans talking about The O.C that I get curious and caught up with it recently
One thing that really confused me is that is it normal to have 27 episodes in a season??? All of the other shows I watch from the US nearly always have a standard season of 22 episodes, or at most 25 episodes (which I know Gossip Girl had for season 2 because of the writers strike cutting season 1 short). Any reason for the extended season? And then in season 2 they have 25 episodes!!! Maybe it's a bit British of me, but seriously do they need to be so loooong? It just results in a whole lot of filler from what I can tell. I thought the first half of season 1 was much stronger than the second half when the Theresa arc kind of bored me to be honest. And Seth and Summer had a lovely reunion and kiss in the rain at the end of episode 15 (season 2), and it would have been nice to conclude the season with them as a settled and happy couple. But oops 9 (!) more episodes to fill, so they end up dragging the love triangle drama back in to it again. Both seasons would have been a lot tighter if they had been cut down to 22 episodes
And I kind of wish that the show had spend more time on Ryan adjusting to living with his new family. After the first 3 episodes it seemed to almost be dropped, with the occasional exception such as the Christmas episode, but I would have liked to have seen more of Ryan adjusting to this new family. Like the third episode had Ryan's mother telling Kirsten that she would be his new mother, but then the show didn't really have any scenes with just Ryan and Kirsten bonding after that point, or spending much time together. There were more scenes with Sandy and Ryan obviously, but really if you'd tuned in just a few episodes after the first three it wouldn't be that obvious that Ryan hadn't been living with the family for years, and I guess maybe that was the point but I would have liked the show to have spend a little more time with the abandonment issues and mistrust that Ryan must have been dealing with.
After hearing that The O.C went downhill in season 2, and then even more so in season 3, I was preparing for the worst for season 3 (as yes season 2 was not as good as season 1) and was left a little confused. It seemed like if anything season 3 was trying to fix a lot of what was wrong with season 2? Sandy and Kirstin's relationship was a lot more stable, more family scenes, more of Ryan, Seth, Marissa, and Summer hanging out together. I also liked that they brought Ryan back to his root a little after spending most of season 2 as Lindsey's girlfriend annd being there more to support her storyline it felt like. They were already giving him some of his old issues at the end of season 2 with the return of his brother, and I liked that season 2 continued that (and aww at Sandy hugging him as Trey leaves!), as well as the story arc with Ryan trying not to fight this time and taking his rage out on the punching bag instead
I liked that Seth and Summer were a reasonably stable couple for the entire season (although I could have done with all the moments of Summer slapping Seth in the face which were clearly meant to be hilarious, but made me a bit uncomfortable. Didn't one scene even imply that she gave him a black eye??? Not cute) And I thought that the episodes dealing with Seth's college crisis were better handled than season 2 dragging out the triangle with Zach for a bit too long. So hilarious when Ryan caught Seth smoking the pot hee
I was also happier with the way they handled Ryan and Marissa. At first I was expecting the typical love triangle with Johnny's intro, but I like that they never went the obvious route of Marissa cheating with him, instead it was more about Marissa's angst over Trey and feeling like she could talk to Johnny more. Really though my main complaint with season 3 was that Johnny was a complete void of suck, playing by an actor with zero charisma. Casting really screwed up there, and it didn't help that the show spend soooo much time on his accident and his problems with surfing like we were really supposed to care that much. They could have cut a LOT out of the middle section with his episodes. But then I think that season 2 did even worse with letting guest stars dominate and isolating your main cast in those storylines, so it didn't ruin the season for me or anything :shrugs:
One thing I will confess too is I guess that the whole thing with Julie going back to her trailer-park roots was being played for comedy, but it was just grossing me out after a while. It was funny when she was driving the truck and saying "just keeping it real" to her snooty neighbour, but then when she was living in the trailer and spitting (!) into a bucket or something, that totally put me off. And it seemed a bit much when they had her thong exposed at the back too, I don't know LOL
Love love love season 4, easily my favourite season. The beginning especially just broke my heart with all of the focus on Ryan, Julie, and Summer's grief. And with the focus going back to Ryan and his downward spiral, it was kind of like the show going back to its roots. The talk between Ryan and Julie made me sob so hard.
I did like that Sandy and Kirsten became less of a focus this season to be honest. Other than the cute story of Sandy trying to make a friend (heh) and of course Kirsten's pregnancy, they didn't really get any long-running storylines which is frankly how I prefer it. I do like Sandy and Kirsten as characters, but they're such a settled and happy couple that the drama from say Kirsten considering cheating with the magazine editor just felt really contrived.
And I LOVED Taylor, and thought she made such a great match with Ryan. I think that The O.C had a bit of a claustrophobic feel at times during seasons 1-3 quite honestly because there was just the four younger characters and they were obviously set up to be couples with one another, so it became hard to generate storylines outside of breaking them up and getting them back together. I'm surprised they stuck to just four regular younger characters for so long actually, most teen shows like Gossip Girl have at least 6 main characters, and even Dawson's Creek introduced two new regulars after the first season, they wouldn't have got far with keeping it as just Dawson, Joey, Pacey, and Jen for 6 seasons. And The O.C strugged with introducing guest characters as love interest in seasons 2 and 3 IMO beause there was always such a strong sense of Ryan/Marissa and Seth/Summer being endgame, so how seriously could we really take characters like Zach and Sadie. Even at the time they felt more like obvious filler to keep the main couples apart
And grr! Something is up with LiveJournal lately, internet explorer keeps closing pages down when I try and leave a comment, saying there's a problem with this website :/ ETA Argh it crashed AGAIN when I posted this entry, what is up with the world today?!? Is anyone else having problems with LJ lately?
One thing that really confused me is that is it normal to have 27 episodes in a season??? All of the other shows I watch from the US nearly always have a standard season of 22 episodes, or at most 25 episodes (which I know Gossip Girl had for season 2 because of the writers strike cutting season 1 short). Any reason for the extended season? And then in season 2 they have 25 episodes!!! Maybe it's a bit British of me, but seriously do they need to be so loooong? It just results in a whole lot of filler from what I can tell. I thought the first half of season 1 was much stronger than the second half when the Theresa arc kind of bored me to be honest. And Seth and Summer had a lovely reunion and kiss in the rain at the end of episode 15 (season 2), and it would have been nice to conclude the season with them as a settled and happy couple. But oops 9 (!) more episodes to fill, so they end up dragging the love triangle drama back in to it again. Both seasons would have been a lot tighter if they had been cut down to 22 episodes
And I kind of wish that the show had spend more time on Ryan adjusting to living with his new family. After the first 3 episodes it seemed to almost be dropped, with the occasional exception such as the Christmas episode, but I would have liked to have seen more of Ryan adjusting to this new family. Like the third episode had Ryan's mother telling Kirsten that she would be his new mother, but then the show didn't really have any scenes with just Ryan and Kirsten bonding after that point, or spending much time together. There were more scenes with Sandy and Ryan obviously, but really if you'd tuned in just a few episodes after the first three it wouldn't be that obvious that Ryan hadn't been living with the family for years, and I guess maybe that was the point but I would have liked the show to have spend a little more time with the abandonment issues and mistrust that Ryan must have been dealing with.
After hearing that The O.C went downhill in season 2, and then even more so in season 3, I was preparing for the worst for season 3 (as yes season 2 was not as good as season 1) and was left a little confused. It seemed like if anything season 3 was trying to fix a lot of what was wrong with season 2? Sandy and Kirstin's relationship was a lot more stable, more family scenes, more of Ryan, Seth, Marissa, and Summer hanging out together. I also liked that they brought Ryan back to his root a little after spending most of season 2 as Lindsey's girlfriend annd being there more to support her storyline it felt like. They were already giving him some of his old issues at the end of season 2 with the return of his brother, and I liked that season 2 continued that (and aww at Sandy hugging him as Trey leaves!), as well as the story arc with Ryan trying not to fight this time and taking his rage out on the punching bag instead
I liked that Seth and Summer were a reasonably stable couple for the entire season (although I could have done with all the moments of Summer slapping Seth in the face which were clearly meant to be hilarious, but made me a bit uncomfortable. Didn't one scene even imply that she gave him a black eye??? Not cute) And I thought that the episodes dealing with Seth's college crisis were better handled than season 2 dragging out the triangle with Zach for a bit too long. So hilarious when Ryan caught Seth smoking the pot hee
I was also happier with the way they handled Ryan and Marissa. At first I was expecting the typical love triangle with Johnny's intro, but I like that they never went the obvious route of Marissa cheating with him, instead it was more about Marissa's angst over Trey and feeling like she could talk to Johnny more. Really though my main complaint with season 3 was that Johnny was a complete void of suck, playing by an actor with zero charisma. Casting really screwed up there, and it didn't help that the show spend soooo much time on his accident and his problems with surfing like we were really supposed to care that much. They could have cut a LOT out of the middle section with his episodes. But then I think that season 2 did even worse with letting guest stars dominate and isolating your main cast in those storylines, so it didn't ruin the season for me or anything :shrugs:
One thing I will confess too is I guess that the whole thing with Julie going back to her trailer-park roots was being played for comedy, but it was just grossing me out after a while. It was funny when she was driving the truck and saying "just keeping it real" to her snooty neighbour, but then when she was living in the trailer and spitting (!) into a bucket or something, that totally put me off. And it seemed a bit much when they had her thong exposed at the back too, I don't know LOL
Love love love season 4, easily my favourite season. The beginning especially just broke my heart with all of the focus on Ryan, Julie, and Summer's grief. And with the focus going back to Ryan and his downward spiral, it was kind of like the show going back to its roots. The talk between Ryan and Julie made me sob so hard.
I did like that Sandy and Kirsten became less of a focus this season to be honest. Other than the cute story of Sandy trying to make a friend (heh) and of course Kirsten's pregnancy, they didn't really get any long-running storylines which is frankly how I prefer it. I do like Sandy and Kirsten as characters, but they're such a settled and happy couple that the drama from say Kirsten considering cheating with the magazine editor just felt really contrived.
And I LOVED Taylor, and thought she made such a great match with Ryan. I think that The O.C had a bit of a claustrophobic feel at times during seasons 1-3 quite honestly because there was just the four younger characters and they were obviously set up to be couples with one another, so it became hard to generate storylines outside of breaking them up and getting them back together. I'm surprised they stuck to just four regular younger characters for so long actually, most teen shows like Gossip Girl have at least 6 main characters, and even Dawson's Creek introduced two new regulars after the first season, they wouldn't have got far with keeping it as just Dawson, Joey, Pacey, and Jen for 6 seasons. And The O.C strugged with introducing guest characters as love interest in seasons 2 and 3 IMO beause there was always such a strong sense of Ryan/Marissa and Seth/Summer being endgame, so how seriously could we really take characters like Zach and Sadie. Even at the time they felt more like obvious filler to keep the main couples apart
And grr! Something is up with LiveJournal lately, internet explorer keeps closing pages down when I try and leave a comment, saying there's a problem with this website :/ ETA Argh it crashed AGAIN when I posted this entry, what is up with the world today?!? Is anyone else having problems with LJ lately?
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 04:49 pm (UTC)Anyway... I loved season one, Summer was always my fav, Marissa not so much, and in her last season I was tired of her drama. But then Taylor show up! and she make everything better, I reeeeeally like her, and it's a very unpopular opinion cause everyone loved Marissa.
Now I watch Nikita and I can't help to think about Julie in that trailer park lmao.
Ughhh I'm hating lj these days! sometimes the rich text box doesn't show up, and there was once that I try to edit something and the post wasn't showing.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 05:18 pm (UTC)And Summer was great in season 1! I'm kind of sad that they toned down her character so much and lost some of the funny character traits later on like the "eww". She was hilarious in the christmukk-huh episode from season 4
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 05:07 pm (UTC)And hee yes, I was really impressed with the actress for Taylor, she really gave the part her all
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 05:46 pm (UTC)I also appreciate that, AFAICR, this show didn't have a single Bad Boy Woobie. YAY. They could so easily have gone that route with Ryan (especially since they could have set him up in contrast to Seth in typical TV Trope fashion), but IMO they chose a much more unusual, original route and I liked it.
After watching the Ryan/Theresa arc in S1 I am still boggled as to how Josh Schwartz also produced GG. Granted he's just a cardboard cut-out figurehead now who hasn't done any real work on the show since S1, but still.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 08:17 pm (UTC)And yeah I'm glad that they didn't go in the obvious direction of Ryan being a ~bad boy~ that needs to be tamed, instead right away they showed us that he was basically a decent kid at heart when he bonded with Seth over video games. And pretty much made fun of that cliche even with Ryan trying to be all "Who do you want me to be" with Marissa, and his attempts just totally falling flat
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 06:33 pm (UTC)IA about The OC having trouble introducing guest stars, and I do think it was because the endgame~ couples were too established. I think they should have kept Anna, personally. Ryan/Anna might have been interesting. GG has had this same problem, but it's been equal parts a problem with the casting and the writing IMO. I really don't understand the way the wrote/casted Aaron Rose, who is an awesome character in the books and could have easily been folded into the show as Blair's step-brother.
(I think I just replied to your post anonymously, fail. So you're getting this x2, sorry!)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 08:10 pm (UTC)And yeah, not to sound like I'm fixating on the season lengths lol, but I do think it's interesting that both season 1 of GG and season 4 of The O.C were the best ones, and also the shortest. IMO seasons of something like 15-18 episodes are so much better, especially on something like a teen soap when you do have to keep coming up with a lot of stories when there isn't a franchise as such, it's purely about the main characters and their relationships. There just isn't always an unlimited number of stories to tell, especially for 20 episodes or more, so they do end up resorting to filler Dreading season 5's extra episode tbh, they strugged so badly with season 2's extended season
And I did really like Anna (although was sorry to see her getting those hideous extensions in season 3 heh). A few more characters like that being treated as recurring would have been cool, instead of the obvious temporary guest starts just being there to find something different to do with your regulars outside of showing the four leads all happily settled down with one another every episode. And in the beginning they didn't even have that many, just Ryan, Seth, and Marissa (well and Luke I suppose). But I'm surprised they didn't consider making Summer a regular from the beginning, it really does it make seem like the focus was so much on Ryan settling into the Cohen family and falling for the beautiful girl next door, and they didn't have all that many plans for an extended teenage cast outside of that. Which is fine for one season, but doesn't really seem very well-planned out for a show that's going to run for several seasons
Aaron was odd, I think Blair even referred to him as some kind of really ~hot~ artist to Serena at one point? So yeah, casting really screwed up there... In fact with season 2 of GG I think Aaron is a good example of them struggling to bring in a guest star as an obvious temporary love interest, but you could tell at that stage that they were still so hung up on Dan/Serena that it made things feel very stagnant, especially with Chuck and Blair endgame dragging on at the same time
And when they do get an interesting character like Carter, he pretty much disapears :sighs: I would add Georgina cause I do love her, but perhaps she works best in smaller doses :P I'm still questioning how they're going to make Ivy work as a regular next season, but we'll see I guess
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 08:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-07 09:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-08 08:19 am (UTC)The OC? Was never very impressed by it. Standard WB show.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-08 02:45 pm (UTC)I'm thinking of changing internet browsers to see if that will help...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-09 04:36 am (UTC)