Bringing Back the Funny

Oh good O.C., how I've missed you.  It's certainly debatable whether bad O.C. has been more prevalent in the lifespan of the show than good O.C., but this season has been shockingly solid - shocking after the disappointing, miserable disaster of Season 3.  Somehow, some way, the writers realized that this was supposed to be a fun, enjoyable, over-the-top and humorous show, not some depressing saga about Marissa and Ryan's teen torments.  With Marissa's death now fully mourned - and her horrible, depressing character now good and gone - the show has refound some of the glory of its first years, the reason we all started watching in the first place. The funny is back.   And with Chrismakkuh coming up next week, it couldn't have happened soon enough.  Even Ryan's funny now!

• Ryan: "It's not because you're strange."
• Taylor: "You don't find me strange?"
• Ryan: "Yeah I do, but that's not why I ran off."

So Taylor and Ryan give it another shot after Ryan can't get the R-rated images of her out of his head, but he again backs off just as things are getting interesting, repeating that it's too soon for him to get a girlfriend - what with Marissa having died six months ago and all.  Taylor responds by paying a gay guy to pretend to be her boyfriend for a night to make Ryan jealous.  Stupid, crazy idea?  Well, that's Taylor.  And she somehow pulls it off.  She has easily become my favorite character on the show.  Who would have thought it?

In the meantime, Summer does get kicked out of school - or at least "suspended for a year" - for the bunny-napping incident and returns home to the O.C. only to find Seth has flown to Brown for a surprise visit with her, and Taylor is occupying her room for reasons that are still not completely clear.  Has she given up on college in France?  Was that mentioned?  Did her mom throw her out?  Was that mentioned?  Is she paying Julie rent, or just mooching off Dr. Roberts like Julie is?  It's all very confusing.  But Summer sleeps outside her house on a lawn chair in the grass, all sad and depressed about being kicked out of school, but adorably so.  And she's really kinda angry too.

• Seth: "He's not in his room and neither was your roommate last night."
• Summer:  "Well that's because she's a huge slut."

You gotta respect that.  And speaking of huge sluts, 15-year-old jailbait Kaitlyn decides to throw a party because the most popular girl in school is a bitch, and all of the sudden, a huge pool party with 10 kegs and - I think, a bartender - starts raging at Casa de Roberts.  Summer objects for a brief moment or two, but is distracted by Che being handcuffed to her (he flew to Cali because he couldn't take his best friend being mad at him since he ratted her out and got her kicked out of school).  She refuses to acknowledge his presence, despite the aforementioned handcuffing.

So the party gets rolling, a bunch of pubescent teens drinking and smoking and making out and doing it and it makes me feel way too old to be watching and recapping this show.  At least when it focused on Ryan and Summer and Seth, I knew the actors were in their mid-to-late-20s.  This new generation - well, it feels a little puerile to watch them.  Not that I turned it off.  Speaking of turned off, Kaitlyn gets into the closet with her popular rival's boyfriend, intending to get her revenge even more completely.  He's not really, um, into it. 

• Kaitlyn: "Are we going to make out soon?  Because the clock is ticking."
• Gay Guy: "What if we just talk first? You seem really interesting."
• Kaitlyn: "I'm not.  Let's make out."

"Oh you're gay," comes shortly afterwards, confirmed when Ryan finds him and Taylor's fake boyfriend in bed together later that night.  This pleases Ryan - not because he's into watching guys doing it, I don't think, but because he now knows Taylor still likes him.  And he likes her.  And they're going to live happily ever after, despite the most obviously contrived relationship ever that plans on putting the girl who replaced Marissa in the credits in bed with her old boyfriend.  But you know what, the quality acting by whoever plays Taylor and the guy who plays Ryan - alright, maybe just Taylor, has made it believable and enjoyable.

Of course, Seth and Summer are still centerstage, and he arrives back from Rhode Island to find Summer waiting for him.  He decides to put off school until they can both go together.  And she introduces him to her bunny.  Get your mind out of the gutter, Lenny, that's not a euphemism.

• Summer: "This is your new home, Pancakes."
• Seth: (not as amused as the rabbit): "What's the lifespan on one of these things?"
• Summer: "Hey!"
• Seth: "I'm just curious."

A great episode.  The O.C. is back, baby!  Here's a cover off the new O.C. soundtrack, available here.

• Download Band of Horses - "The End is Not Near".mp3

Comments

[LegFuJohnson]

She introduced Seth to her bunny back when I watched the show.

Who is Taylor, anyway?

[Switsky]

the elbo crowd is not going to like this post..real men do not watch the OC

[Bill]

Taylor Townsend was a fellow student at Harbor who once liked Seth, became friends with Summer, and has now taken over the role of Marissa, just without the vapid boredom of her plotlines or the horrible wooden acting. She's also actually attractive.

[LegFuJohnson]

So she's just a friend of theirs? Why is she in Summer's house? And no one ever liked Seth. He had no friends before Ryan got there.

Sure, he wanted Summer since 1st grade, but if Taylor liked him in high school he'd have hit it.

[Bill]

Yes, she's a friend. She used to be Marissa's rival briefly, then she went after Seth, and became Summer's rival. Then she latched onto Summer. She wasn't so much a friend as a classmate who was used as a plot device until the writers decided to keep her around and changed her into someone sympathetic by showing her evil shrew of a mother and having her admit that she had no friends. That's when the gang started being nice to her. I guess during the summer, she must have become actual friends with them, but that wasn't shown.

When she ditched school in Paris (because she got engaged to some French guy who was nice to her - she likes to "latch") she headed for Brown, where she hid out in Summer's dorm for a couple days, more as a plot device than anything. Then she went back to the O.C. but couldn't talk to her mom, so she got Ryan to be her fake boyfriend when Frenchy came to bring her back to Paris. That's when she fell for Ryan. Then her mom saw her and said she wasn't welcome at home. So somehow - and we weren't really shown how - she ended up in Summer's house with Julie's permission and was living in Summer's room. Until this week. Now she's in the guest room. And might be dating Ryan.

Yes, I've revealed too much (and not about the show.)

[switsky]

Bill, do you know how I know you are gay......see above

[Ira]

Matt, you forgot to add "Not that there is anything wrong with it".