The O.C.

[Ryebeach]

Where's The O.C. fans?

Tonite's season premiere was awesome. I'd forgotten over the past six months just how much I love this show.

It is hilarious and dramatic all at once.

It was nice to see Luke again. I hope they bring him back to Newport again this season. I thought it was interesting how that is where Seth ended up staying over the summer, considering how a year ago he and Luke didn't get along at all.
It was definately the right thing for Ryan to go to Portland and try to get Seth to go home. I could see him struggling to decide though.
I couldn't figure out if it was Theresa or her mother's idea to tell Ryan she lost the baby. I wish the writers had delved into that a bit more. Did Theresa decide Ryan was really not happy with her and decided to let him go or was there another reason?
Marissa is really messed up with all the drinking and the attitude. Hopefully Ryan can straighten her out.
I think Kirsten and Sandy will be alright now that Seth is home.
But Caleb is in deep trouble. I wonder what exactly he did.

[CC Fan]

AHHH! Yes! I was hoping there'd be another fan. I love this show! It's so bad but it's so good.

First of all, I agree, it was great to see Luke again. I love that they made his character nice.

I felt bad for Theresa but honestly, I don't think lying was the best way to go. He's going to find out eventually, although, she knew he wasn't happy and she knew he wouldn't leave, so I guess she had no other option.

Poor Marissa. She is so messed up. I almost feel bad for her. Almost.

[Ryebeach]

Here's an interesting article on the actor who plays the tough-as-nails rich developer, Caleb Nichol.

Source: tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|91672|1|,00.html

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Alan Dale may play the gruff, uncompromising Newport Beach, Calif., real-estate developer Caleb Nichol on the hit FOX Thursday-night drama "The O.C.," but in real life, he's an affable Kiwi from Dunedin, New Zealand.

Oddly enough, the last time he played a man named Caleb was in the 1999 TV movie "First Daughter," which shot in Australia (and also starred Dominic Purcell, who went on to star in FOX's "John Doe").

"I made that in Sydney," Dale recalls, "and that's the thing that launched me here [in America]. It premiered here, and they brought me across for the launch."

Before long, the 6-foot-2 Dale was playing authority figures all over the place, from a Cabinet member on NBC's "The West Wing" to the vice president on "24." "I did stage a coup on '24,'" Dale says. "I was president for a couple of hours."

Caleb Nichol is the grandfather of Newport teen Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), who shares his home with mom Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), Caleb's daughter and business partner, and dad Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), an idealistic lawyer. Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), whom Sandy pulled out of juvie and lives in the Cohens' pool house, is like a brother to Seth. Off and on, Ryan dates Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), whose mother, Julie (Melinda Clarke), just married Caleb. Got it?

"The thing that's lovely about this character," Dale says, "is that there's so much to do with him. His relationships are so complicated, and once the marriage happened, everyone was related in the show. That means he's got all these people to relate to, and he relates so badly with everyone. There's so much food for the writers."

Caleb's shady business dealings have gotten him in legal hot water, which forges an unlikely (and uneasy) alliance between him and Sandy. It's an open question, though, just how far Caleb would go. We know he's not above bribery and coercion, but what about murder?

"Is that what you want?" Dale says. "I'll tell them. I'll speak to Josh [series creator Josh Schwartz]. I'll say, 'We need to plumb the depths of this character, and we're thinking of killing someone and burying them in a shallow grave.' There are insinuations of that type of thing, but it remains to be seen whether it comes up or not.

"We don't know that he's killed anybody yet. That's probably a line he hasn't crossed. But I don't know that he hasn't crossed it, either, because it hasn't come up or because he wouldn't cross it. There's a chance he hasn't gotten to the stage when he needed to."

Dale sees a psychological link between Caleb and hard-knock Ryan, who left behind a potential life of crime in Chino to take up residence at the beach with his lawyer's family.

"Caleb's just hard," Dale says. "I actually think, and this is just me talking, I think he started off much like Ryan. It took him a lot of being pretty tough to get here, so that's the way he stays."

Asked what he's like to see in Caleb's future, Dale says, "I'd just like him to continue to be deeply involved with everyone's lives, causing trouble, because it makes it fun. I don't want him to go too far, though, because I don't want him to leave the show. If he kills somebody ... that's the problem. We've already got Ryan's brother in jail, so we probably don't need more people in jail.

"Although, it looks like I might be going to jail over the ... um, I don't know if it's come out yet. I might be telling you something I shouldn't tell you. He gets into a bit of trouble with the company and things ... that's why I was saying that, then I realized I shouldn't be saying it. I shouldn't tell you any more, because you'll print it, and I'll get in trouble, and the boss will come over."

[Ryebeach]

Not the best ep. The writing was not strong in this ep. The storylines went just too fast.

Hailey left without a formal goodbye to her sister or her father. I didn't buy that. And come on, Japan was the on;y place she could get that type of job. I don;t think so.

I also didn't believe Marissa with the yard guy. Seemed to forced to me. And she would have definately told Summer if they's been together all summer.

The cops arresting Caleb at Kirsten's house during dinner. Puleeze. How in the world did they know he was there and did they really have to cuff him like that in front of his family. It's nor like he was a serial killer or something.

I did like Seth in this ep. he was funny and quirky but I think he and Summer should not be together at this time. It's been three months and she had to move on. I think this Zach kid is good for her, even though he is kindf of like Seth.

It was really nice of Ryan though to talk to Summer for Seth. He's a great friend to Seth.

[Ryebeach]

This ep made up for last weeks so-so ep. It was well written and so funny. Every cast member had some great scenes.

When I heard there would be a new girl this season who would have a thing for Ryan, I was sceptical but I really like Lindsay. She's funny and kinda tough. I couldn't believe Ryan spilled coffee on her shirt and then elbowed her in the face.

Seth was good in this one too. He got a blue collar job, as he called it. How funny was it with him pushing around the mop at The Bait Shop.

Julie had the best lines in this ep. My favorites when she arrived at the Cohen's house after finding out Caleb spent the night in jail and was now on bail. "Honey, when I heard, I stepped right out of my seaweed wrap and came straight here." The other was when Caleb appointed her the new CEO of The Newport Group, she smiled at Sandy and Kirsten and said, "OK, who needs more Champagne?" Julie really is my favorite character.

It was sad at the end when Seth and Marissa are sitting on the pier, so unhappy. I felt bad for them but I certainly don't think they should ever hook up. They are really better off just friends, as are Seth and Summer and Ryan and Marissa. They should all just move on, although Zach seems to good to be true. I think there may be more to him that we know.

[Ryebeach]

Well, I didn't see this coming. Should be interesting though.

Source: tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|92292|1|,00.html

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Wherever Mischa Barton goes, lesbian subplots seem to follow. During a much-discussed run on "Once & Again," Barton's character found halting young love with Evan Rachel Wood's confused teen. In the indie feature "Lost and Delirious," Barton's character was shocked to discover that her friends played by Piper Perabo and Jessica Pare were more than just friends. Barton is expected to explore alternative lifestyle choices again in January, when Marissa Cooper finds love in unexpected places on FOX's "The O.C."

The drama's creator Josh Schwartz confirms to Out.com that next month will see some unexpected changes for Barton's character, who has had emotionally distant relationships with Chris Carmack's Luke, Benjamin McKenzie's Ryan and Nicholas Gonzalez's D.J. during the show's run.

"Marissa's at a point in her life where she's trying to find herself and her true identity," Schwartz tells the site. "There's another character who she really connects with. It's a girl, which is not something Marissa may have anticipated. But she's willing and game to explore and experiment with that."
Although Schwartz declined to discuss Marissa's future romantic foil, speculation has centered on Olivia Wilde's Alex, a new character introduced this season. Alex has already had a blind date with Ryan, a romantic kiss with Adam Brody's Seth and a kiss with a random female to prove a point, but that doesn't mean that there isn't room for flexibility when ratings are involved.

Schwartz denies, though, that Marissa's explorations are Nielsen-based. Since moving to Thursday nights this fall, "The O.C." is averaging more than 7.6 million viewers.

"We cooked it up well before the show ever premiered this year," Schwartz says. "We're constantly looking at evolving and growing these characters. And challenging them. They're at that age where they're open to it. It was either that or Oliver's return."

There's still no word on when Ryan and Seth will consummate their long-smoldering friendship.

[Ryebeach]

I missed the last weeks and tonites episodes due to being involved with Christmasty things. I was really looking forward to tonite's Chrismukkah episode, especially after reading this article.

Source: tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|92409|1|,00.html
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Last year, only a few fictional residents of Newport Beach were aware of the joys of Chrismukkah, the blended holiday that is now sweeping at least some portion of the nation thanks to FOX's "The O.C." The festival that millions of over-Christmased young Jewish children never knew they needed celebrates its second anniversary on Thursday (Dec. 16) night's episode of the FOX soap.

"I grew up, as a lot of young Jewish boys do, envious of all the Christmas holidays that went on," says "O.C." creator Josh Schwartz. "When it came time to figure out what the holiday was for the Cohens, interfaith, I wanted to try to come with a holiday in the vein of Festivus from 'Seinfeld.' We started bandying around interfaith holiday names -- you know, Hannumas -- and someone in the writer's room said 'Chrismukkah' and that was it."

The identity of the influential scribe has vanished into the wind, but in "The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't," the name of the blended holiday becomes a mantra, repeated by nearly every major character with an insistence and cadence that suggests a mellow Mamet on a Manischewitz bender ("Merry Chrismukkah" "Chrismukkah?" "Yes, Chrismukkah" "What do you mean by Chrismukkah?"). Filled with the Chrismukkah spirit, Adam Brody's Seth Cohen launches a campaign to bring his annual jubilee to the masses, creating new holiday icons and attempting to pen a holiday anthem. Seth's determination to give his creation the trappings of a mainstream jubilee mirrors Schwartz's minor disappointment with his own Hanukkah memories.
"What Jewish boy or girl growing up doesn't feel a little jealous?" he ponders. "They get all the good songs. They get the tree. They have all the characters -- Frosty and Rudolph. We've got dreidels. It's not really the same."

However, Schwartz and Seth are also well aware that Chrismukkah is, by its very fabricated nature, right on the edge of over-exposure. After the first season of "The O.C." featured special episodes celebrating Chrismukkah, New Years, Thanksgiving and Passover, the show's scribes have a pretty good idea of how to write holiday episodes that seem organic to the show's master narratives.

"Last year we felt like it got some nice traction, but we felt like we could come back to it this year," Schwartz says.

In addition to regular reminders of last season's episode -- Summer (Rachel Bilson) in a Wonder Woman costume and Marissa (Mischa Barton) busted for shoplifting -- and plenty of the self-referential humor that the show's fans adore, "The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't" is a surprisingly emotional affair with earnest and heart-felt work from some of the cast's older actors including Alan Dale and Kelly Rowan.

"There's all the sort of Chrismukkah kind of self-awareness in the episode, but there's so much stuff happening in terms of impacting these characters that it pulls them back down," explains Schwartz.

Facing the three-hour finale of "The Apprentice" on NBC, it may take a Chrismukkah miracle for "The O.C." to get any ratings boost from the holiday.

"We do it was gonna be tough on Thursday," Schwartz says. "We have our core viewers and we're hoping word-of-mouth will build as the show really starts to pick up. Last week, this week all the set-up is starting to pay off and things are about to start getting crazy."

[Ryebeach]

So imagine my delight when I spotted on thefutoncritic that FOX was going to reair both episodes Thursday December 30th starting at 8:00pm. I guess that's my Christmas present from FOX.

[misguided freak]

This show is like crack. I got sucked into it a few weeks ago and I've been chasing it like a madwoman ever since. Really enjoyed the Christmukkah episode. Lots of cute stuff in it.