melinda clarke

(S04E08) If this keeps up, the current season of The OC won't just rival the first -- it'll beat it. Everything that was great about this show in its debut season has returned. The writing is stronger than either of the middle seasons and it seems clear that Josh Schwartz and Co. are flexing their creative muscles fully knowing that this may be their last chance to do so. Seth's dry wit is in full force. The storylines are funny again (no more Marissa to bring it all down). But they're believable storylines too. And the relationships? I actually care about them again.

To illustrate what I'm saying, just look at this episode. It ripped a page right from the Alias playbook and gave us an opening scene only to jump back seven hours earlier. Before this season, I would have never expected to see something like that on The OC.

(S04E07) This was an interesting episode. It's not that I didn't like it, but I just found it a little disappointing. I say that because this episode didn't really do anything to advance the plot of our season. A season, I should remind you, that will only have 16 episodes and may very well be The OC's last. With that in mind, I guess I just expected Josh Schwartz and Co. to give us 16 jam-packed episodes. Up until now they had. This one was fun, it was gimmicky. But it didn't do it for me.

Centering around Ryan and Taylor, the two of them had been fighting about Taylor's "girlfriend status" and whether or not Ryan would be inviting her to Chrismukkah dinner. They were decorating the Cohen's house and in the heat their argument, Taylor tumbled off the ladder and Ryan fell off the roof trying to stop her. Now they're both in comas and when they wake up, nothing is as it seems.

It's no secret that The O.C. is in trouble. It consistently ranks #4 up against tough competition on Thursday nights and it lost its star, Mischa Barton, at the end of last season. Now, Fox has taken the unusual step of launching its own campaign to save The O.C. from cancellation. There's a petition, or 'loyalty oath' on Fox's website. It doesn't directly say that The O.C. is in danger of cancelation, but it does say "not enough people out there have come back to Newport this season" and "good shows deserve to be watched." It asks visitors to sign a 'loyalty oath' that they will ignore all interruptions and watch The O.C. on Thursdays at nine. The whole thing is done a little tongue-in-cheek, but only a little. So far there are more than 71,000 'signatures' but that's probably not nearly enough to 'Save The O.C.', if it really does need saving.

[Via PopCandy]

(S04E05) Thus far this season has been great. So I went into this episode with high hopes, and don't get me wrong -- I liked it a lot. But it was just sort of so-so, right? Nothing too mind blowing happened, save for Summer's predicament, but even that was just kind of weird.

Everything that went on was just a little too obvious. Taylor falling for Ryan? We all knew it was coming. Of course, I support it though. She's better looking than Marissa, smarter, has less emotional baggage, and best of all? She's not a raging alcoholic. So yeah, I'm all for that and I hope it works out. But taking the entire episode to get to what we all knew was coming (the kiss) was just a waste of time if you ask me. It was cute I suppose. The Chinese tea didn't get Ryan to finally overcome his insomnia. Taylor did. Awww....

(S04E04) This is it! The episode I had been telling you all about. How incredibly cool was that opening sequence? Summer zooming through the grieving process, the classical music, the skewed camera angles, the on-screen text. Rachel Bilson really gave her character new life with this scene. I have a new found respect for Summer Roberts after seeing that. I don't even think The OC has tried taking on something like that before. It reminded me of something out of... well I don't know. But it was very un-OC and I loved it.

So as the title suggests, everyone and everything was changing in this episode. We're starting to get a better idea of how things are going to be post-Marissa and not everyone heads in the direction we might expect.

(S04E03) We weren't supposed to get this episode until next week, but because of the season premiere's poor ratings and sweeps, FOX is giving us another new episode right on the tail of last night. So it might seem early for a Thanksgiving episode because well, it is. But that's OK because keeping with the season four trend, this was another spectacular installment. I really can't stress enough how impressed I've been with this season so far.

Plenty happened but the biggest news is that Volchok is back in Newport. This had to happen eventually. I just didn't expect it so soon. Although I suppose it makes sense after his little run in with Seth in Mexico. I think he actually feels guilty about his involvement with Marissa's death. Whatever. I hope they wrap this up soon because once everything tied to Marissa is cleared up, the show is only going to get better.

(S04E02) After last week's outstanding season premiere, I had very high hopes for this episode. With last season still fresh in my mind, The OC did something I'm not entirely used to -- it delivered.

Picking up right where we left off, Ryan is dead set on finding Volchok and gutting him. It's all he wants, all he thinks about. It's great to have some serious moral conflict in this show instead of all the "Will Seth pick Anna or Summer" or "Uh oh, Marissa got drunk again" drivel that got fed to us last season. This is the side of Ryan we never fully saw. It's what left him the second he became a part of the Cohen family in the pilot episode. Well, newsflash. Ryan Atwood? Extreme badass.

(S04E01) The OC is back with a vengeance... big time. After what I think most considered to be a lackluster third season, I think both die-hard and casual fans are going to be impressed with what this show still has to offer. We pick up five months after the death of Marissa Cooper and everyone, especially Julie and Ryan, has had to adjust their lives in the wake of her passing. Corny as it sounds, nothing is going to be the same.

This show has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I didn't watch it during the first season though. I waited for the DVD. Needless to say I was glued to the TV set for a whole weekend once I got it. Let me go on record as saying that the first season of The OC is one of the best seasons of television I've ever watched. That first season? Yeah, it's that good. Then came the sophomore slump. Not bad but not great. Then last season? A stinker? A bomb? I could be harsher, but the general consensus seemed to be that season three wasn't all that good. At least I didn't think so. To top it off, Mischa Barton killed the finale for die-hard fans when she blabbed about Marissa's death days before the episode aired. Frankly, that didn't bug me and I was glad to see the demise of the ever-moody Cooper sister. So going into this season, I don't think expectations are too high, especially since FOX has only ordered 16 episodes as of right now. Well let me cut to the chase and dash away all The OC naysayers. I've screened the first four episodes of the new season and they are impressive.

The season premiere of The O.C. will debut online one week before its premiere date on Fox. The entire episode will be available for early viewing on MySpace and MyFoxLocal websites in 24 owned and operated television markets beginning this Thursday. It premieres on the network on Thursday, November 2nd. The second episode will also debut online before it airs on the Fox network.

The O.C. is the latest in a long line of Fox shows that debuted online this season, including Prison Break, Justice, Vanished, 'Til Death, Bones, Happy Hour and The Loop. Of all those, The O.C. probably has the most to gain from early internet exposure. So far, Fox has only ordered half a season and, in its new 9 o'clock time slot, The O.C. is going up against heavy-hitters Grey's Anatomy and CSI. Even Howie Mandel looks like a threat at this point.

Facing some intimidating competition this fall, FOX has only ordered up 16 episodes of season four of The O.C. The network moved the teen soap opera to the 9 pm Thursday slot. After all the upfronts were announced, it turns out The O.C. is now scheduled against ratings juggernauts CSI and Grey's Anatomy. This is dicey news for The O.C., which has averaged 25 episodes for its first three seasons. But, the show may have died anyway since the writers killed off the extremely unlikable Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton). Plus, who knows whether it will have any legs as the kids head off to college (most likely in the same town)?

You know, I think the show got really dull this year. How many times can we see Ryan and Marissa break up? And how many times can we see Seth and Summer fight? I think three seasons is all The O.C. had in it.

Mischa Barton and I are both happy about her character's death on The O.C. last week. We just have different reasons. I am just thrilled that she's no longer on the show. Mischa, however, says she's happy her character, Marissa Cooper, got killed in a car wreck rather than "one of those lame farewells." She told Newsweek, "Well, I was really excited that I got to die, to be honest. I've done pretty much everything else with that character." Like pout. And drink. And do drugs. And pout some more. She said that the decision to kill of her character was the producers', not hers. But, she says, she's ready to focus on movies now. She was only on The O.C. for three seasons.

FOX has an interesting promo running in hopes that we'll all scurry to watch the season finale of The O.C. on Thursday night. It shows the main characters and tells us that one of them won't survive the night. The characters it shows are: Seth, Summer, Marissa, Ryan, Kirsten, Julie Cooper, and Sandy.

I think I have a pretty good idea of who it's going to be, but my official vote is for the untimely demise of Marissa.

(S03E23)  What has happened to our wonderful little group of four? Remember back in the day when everybody got along? Yeah, I think there was one episode where that happened way back in Season One. They were on a beach or something.

This week it's all about Senior Prom and, quite frankly, I have given up trying to suspend my disbelief that any of these characters remotely looks like they're in high school. The characters seemed really subdued to me this week. I guess that's because they're all bummed out about their respective situations. Ryan isn't with Marissa but he does know that Kevin is cheating on her. Seth can't find a way to explain to Summer that there's nothing between him and Anna. And, Kirsten and Sandy are moping about because he's turning into her father and she's turning back to the bottle.

When new episodes of The O.C. return this Thursday (now at 9 pm on FOX), the gang is going to launch a campaign to get Marissa Cooper back into Harbor High in time for graduation. Let's just say that public school hasn't been all that good to her. I'm not sure exactly how she's supposed to pay for private school, but has money ever been an issue in The O.C.? Anyway, FOX wants viewers to feel like they're helping with the caper to get Marissa back in school, so it has launched an online petition: Free Marissa. I kid you not.