r/TheOC

I watched the show for the first time last summer and currently doing a rewatch.

Just watched 2x23 and I saw a scene that I think is amazing. I think the acting in the scene and the writing are beautiful and I have not seen this talked about before on the thread.

Ryan is back in Chino looking for Trey after the Marissa assault. He runs into Theresa who has just gotten groceries. They are walking back to her house and she tells Ryan that he should believe Marissa over Trey.

She then says “Because last summer when I needed you. She let you go. Even though she loved you” or something like that and Theresa gets a little emotional. I think that line has a duel meaning for her and Marissa.

I just thought it was great and a very well written scene. Just wanted to share and hear what everyone else thought. Poor Theresa also had to stop Ryan from entering the house so he didn’t see the child :(

I enjoy learning about shows and actors. I loved this show when I first started watching it a few months ago, but a search result spoiled one of the later season plot lines for me and I wasn’t sure if this show was still worth watching if I saw too many spoilers. Should I still finish it?

i love love his music taste and ik he loves modest mouse + death cab for cutie but i was wondering if there were any other bands mentioned by him

I hated Marissa when I first watched it because I thought she caused too much drama and treated Ryan like shit. she's really growing on me tho because she seems like the heart of the show and so much shit happens to her like her mom sleeping with her ex boyfriend, her dad leaving, the Oliver situation, etc. sure she should of believed Ryan but she so trusting and Ryan didn't communicate much so it would be super hard to understand him sometimes. She also has that I can did him mentality because she's kind and wanted to help Oliver and be his friend and didn't think he would end up being a crazy person.

Sorry if this is all over the place but I don't know I just really love her character now and her style is amazing.

I also think Ryan isn't my favorite character anymore and I like Seth better because at least he says what he's thinking. Ryan has a good heart and the best intentions but it must be a pain in the butt to date him. He was a great friend to Seth tho they are my favorite friendship on the show.

I don't mind seth anymore either. he lies a lot which isn't good and makes bad choices sometimes but he wasn't the only one causing the problems in his relationship with summer. he gets wayyyy too much hate. Him leaving her was wrong but his best and first real friend he ever had was leaving and he was scared of being alone again. and also lying about brown was wrong but he wanted the best for her and didn't want her to not go to brown just because he didn't get in. still should of been honest.

my opinion about summer didn't change she's always been amazing. bitchy and short just like me :)

sorry if this is stupid

I grew up watching The OC and always wished Sandy and Kirsten were my parents. Rewatching though, I noticed some subtle differences between how they treated Ryan vs Seth in terms of finances (Ryan getting a job, which colleges they would pay for), and punishment (not feeling like they could punish him or stop him). What do y’all think?

Felt very forced to me, I mean the community knows what the kids have been through, I hate this plot line. I also think the idea they have to go to a fancy private school to go to a good college is very overblown, you can go to any highschool and go to college. I dunno, I feel like this plot line was a grasp at straws after the incident with Ryan’s brother.

I think Ryan has spoken more in the first 4 episodes of season 4 than he has in season 1,2 and 3 combined lol

This interview popped up in my YouTube feed. Love that he did mention there’s a lot of OC jokes in his doc.

I thought that it sounded so cryptic when he told Julie “I’m not who I say I am”.

Also, when Sandy punched him and he said “That was a mistake”? I for sure thought that was the beginning of Frank’s villain arc.

okay, so I just finished Season 4, Episode 15—the iconic earthquake episode I’ve heard so many great things about. The gist is, I really tried to like Season 4, considering how many mixed reviews I was coming across. I mean, I’m a die-hard OC fan; it’s such an amazing show, and I was hooked from the very start. Season 1 felt like I had discovered pure 2000s gold. But as much as I love the show, Season 4 was so… well, let me just make a small list.

• first off, the first thing that pissed me off was the random cage fighting Ryan did in the beginning of season 4. Like, I get the way he releases anger is through physical activity, but like, really? It seemed so exaggerated and unnecessary, lasted approximately one episode btw
• the whole Marissa dying was SO brushed over. it annoyed me. it was a huge plot for the first three episodes of S4, then literally after Summer "got over" the death and her grief, and Ryan got w taylor (so much more to say), it was literally like there was never a Marissa. I get that Micsha was basically fired from the show, but like Marissa wasn't??? It seemed so taboo to even mention her name in Season 4. I think the last time she was mentioned was the Christmas-huh episode. Makes sense since Ryan finally realizes Marissa's death was ultimately inevitable, and he could have done nothing more to save her, so it kind of was a full circle for him and allowed him to move on, but like COME ON. Also, hello, the plot holes in the apparent reality that she would have died in TJ. She would have gone with Luke if it weren't for Ryan; Luke would have never cheated, hence no overdose. Didn't make sense. Can I also point to how ICONIC it would have been if, in season 4 episode 15, when Ryan was struggling with his wound, he had hallucinated Marissa and her encouraging him to push forward or let go, something like that? Just another missed opportunity from the stubborn writers.
• Taylor Townsend. her existence annoyed the shit out of me. She completely failed to recognize the amount of grief Ryan was going through at the beginning of Season 4 and immediately made it about herself and how she could get him to reciprocate her feelings. And the way she did this was by acting as his “sleep therapist” when he was struggling to sleep because of everything he was dealing with, like, is that not just disgusting? Somehow, she still succeeded (honestly, it felt like the writers were running out of ideas and used her character as a substitute for Marissa). And throughout all the pressure she put on Ryan—to say “I love you,” to be with her 24/7, to constantly prove himself—I think the worst thing she did was push him toward his literal abusive dad… which leads to my next point.
• Why would they even consider bringing Ryan’s dad, Frank, into the show? It felt like a desperate attempt to save their obviously declining viewership. If they were going to introduce him, I wouldn’t have been opposed if it had been done the right way. They had spent the past three seasons describing him as abusive, alcoholic, and careless. I get that people can change, and sure, he stopped drinking, but the way they wrote him into the show through Julie’s prostitution ring storyline was so lazy and weird. And, of course, he and Julie start dating...because it wouldn’t be Julie Cooper if she didn’t get involved with the first man she saw, right? The whole storyline was just bizarre. Like, make it make sense. Then everyone starts pressuring Ryan to rekindle a relationship with his abusive father, which felt completely off. I will say, though, I appreciated that Ryan never really seemed to care much about reconnecting with him. It felt like Ben McKenzie actually understood his character and played it that way—something the writers didn’t seem willing to fully acknowledge or commit to.
• okay so is it just me but did kirsten seem...not Kirsten-like in this season? I think her fire lit out around season 2 when she got diagnosed as an alcoholic, and her depiction of what it felt like to lose yourself to alcohol was actually very inspired and accurate, in my opinion. However, her character seems so checked out in season 4. New match bored the shit out of me, another desperate attempt from the writers to keep the drama going. I think I actively had to skip through those parts because they served no purpose. I miss the old girlboss Kirsten from season 1...I think the writers should have shown her really making her father's business her own. She had a point not to be another newspie, and by the end of the show, she is exactly that. I think she was such a role model that you can be a mom and a hard worker. Then, of course, she gets pregnant, which caught me completely off guard and seemed like another unnecessary lazy storyline (but I thought the jimmy kirsten flashback episode was really interesting, I would have loved a Kirsten Jimmy Sandy spinoff)
• You know who else lost their fire, Seth. I think Adam Brody was basically checked out this season, because you could tell he was so emotionally detached. I think he was just waiting for that last paycheck. example: season 4 episode 15, when Ryan was literally bleeding out, and he was too busy talking about random shit like zombie apocalypses and complaining that he couldn't change a flat tire? Ryan was literally walking him through it and was ignoring everything my king was saying. it was laughable

There’s so much more I could say, but I don’t want to come off as a hater, I swear I’m not. I’m just a girl frustrated with one of my favorite shows this past season, please understand! I can also appreciate the comedic relief in Season 4 (I definitely laughed more than in any other season), but I was still so disappointed. It honestly felt like a spinoff show—it didn’t feel like the authentic OC! From what I’ve seen, though, people either love or hate Season 4; there’s really no in-between. I guess it all comes down to personal preference. Let me know what you guys thought of the concluding season.

I cannot wait to rewatch from Season 1—the prime!!! Anyway, hopefully the last episode of Season 4 is good. I’m planning to watch it later tonight, so wish me luck!!! Who knew the death of Marissa would also be the death of the show… well, I guess I should have figured!!!

In those exact words?

Editing to add: Thank you to everyone who replied!