The OC

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

With his life in shambles, Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) does what any sane teenager with an alcoholic mom and a broken home would do to turn his life around: He gets caught stealing a car. And with that, he meets wealthy public defender Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), who in turn takes young Ryan home, sets him up in his guesthouse, and asks him to fraternize with his son and his fellow rich classmates. And so go the first five minutes of The OC. What follows is a 90210-style (read: 30-year-olds playing 16-year-olds) romp through all of the potholes facing the modern-day teen: filthy rich parents, filthy rich friends, and filthy rich money. Soon, Ryan is prized by local beauties because he doesn’t smile and smokes cigarettes, only further stoking the flames of embitterment among local meatheads looking to pounce on him at every party. And there are a lot of parties. And a lot of local beauties. And even more pouncings. It’s all enough guilty pleasure to distract you from any real story, character development, plot progression, or any other storytelling novelties Fox finds so patently offensive.

Share