Release Date: November 27th, 2007
Running Time: 4050 minutes

The Show

The teen soap has been a stable of television since 90210 shook up popular culture. While there have been a string of hits since, no show exploded onto the scene with the same craze as The O.C.. Despite a critically praised first season and tremendous numbers, the series steadily declined in popularity until its quiet goodbye. The Complete Series offers the perfect chance to catch up on a small but memorable slice of television pop culture.

When the The O.C. premiered it was an instant sensation, introducing new catch phrases into the pop culture lexicon and even coining a new Holiday—Christmukkah. The writing was very sharp, offering as many laughs as tears, and was trashy enough to be a guilty pleasure but not so much so that it was an actual soap. For those unfamiliar, the show follows the story of Ryan Atwood, a kid from Chino, CA who has had a crap deal his whole life, ultimately landing himself in court with a public defender by the name of Sandy Cohen. Seeing his unique situation, Sandy takes Ryan into his wealthy home in Orange County. What ensued was a fantastic fish-out-of-water situation with Ryan being the new, tough guy trying to adapt to the superficial Orange County life. He falls for the water polo player’s girl, befriends his nerdy new “brother,” and never seems able to escape his past.

Be warned—major SPOILERS for the entire series are revealed below.

The O.C. always found a balance between heavy drama and self-aware wit. This ingenious tone carried the series through a hilarious and emotional first season. The show revolves around the Cohen family in wealthy Orange Country, California. Sandy (Peter Gallagher), a public defense attorney, brings home a kid named Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) when his mom abandons him after he runs into trouble with the law. Despite his wife Kirstin’s (Kelly Rowan) objections, he sees the good in the boy and he eventually joins their family, much to the delight of their nerdy, social outcast son, Seth (Adam Brody).

Season One focuses on Ryans integration into this new world of glamour and social events. Every week some new gala tests his innate desire to solve his problems with his fists as he fights with the water polo captain, Luke, over the affections of next-door neighbor, Marissa (Mischa Barton). Throughout the first season strong relationships and events unfold that carry through the end of the series. Ryan and Marissa find love, as do Seth and Summer, the Cooper family breaks up and starts Marissa’s self-abusive downward spiral, and Julie Cooper secures her place in Newport by marrying Kirstin’s father, Caleb. While the constant pairing and de-pairing of couples gets a bit incestuous, the first season always maintained that delicate balance, never taking itself too seriously.

Starting with Season Two, however, things begin to get more soapy and less fun. Legal troubles threaten to ruin Caleb and leave Julie penniless, again. Seth and Summer and Ryan and Marissa all have their troubles and dabble in new relationships. Seth meets up with a girl named Alex who he hooks up with for a while, before Marissa entertains some same-sex ideas with the very same girl. Seth also competes with a fellow comic-geek named Zach for Summer’s affections which becomes very awkward because Seth actually thinks Zach is a great guy and the two start a comic together. Ryan even tries a new relationship with a girl named Lindsay until it turns out she is actually Kirstin’s illegitimate half-sister.

The death of Caleb finds Kirstin becoming an alcohlic and Marissa continues to get worse and worse as well. The season culminates with the release of Ryan’s brother, Trey, from jail. Despite the Cohen’s best efforts, Trey cannot stay straight and becomes obsessed with Marissa to the point of almost raping her. This leads to a tense confrontation with Ryan that ends with Marissa shooting Trey and putting him in a coma.

Season Three is by far the worst of the bunch. It is senior year, and due to the shooting, Marissa has been expelled from Harbor. She heads to a new school and hangs up with a new group of kids, including Johnny who she develops feelings for. Meanwhile, at Harbor Ryan, Seth, and Summer start thinking about college. A new character, Taylor Townsend, shows up as a nemesis/eventual friend and adds a much needed levity to the show. On the adult side, Julie is in the poor house again but soon solves her troubles by hooking up with Summer’s filthy rich father. Marissa’s little sister, Kaitlin, also returns to the series.

In between dodging a new Dean at Harbor and figuring out who is going to what college, Ryan develops a feud with yet another one of Marissa’s love interests—this time it is a complete surfer delinquent named Volchok. The horribly plot line culminates with a car crash that kills Marissa, setting up events that would change the series’ direction completely.

Season Four picks up months later with Ryan living on his own, trying to trace down the man who drove them off the road and killed Marissa. All of the other characters are trying to deal with the accident, many of whom have become fundamentally changed. I consider the first few episodes the epilogue of Season Three. They feature the most intense drama and after a few hours you’ll be glad its over. What ensues, however, is a brilliant return to form. A romance begins to bud between Ryan and Taylor (who is radiant in the season) that is cute, innocent, and a far cry from the drama-heavy Marissa days. Seth has to find a way to deal with Summer’s emerging Green-concerns as well as her strange hippy friend from Brown, Che. Kaitlin and Julie Cooper’s lives are turned around as an oil tycoon named Gordon Bullit (Gary Grubbs) falls for Julie and offers them a billion-dollar solution to their woes. The biggest guest star of the season, however, has to be Kevin Sorbo as Ryan’s father, Frank. There’s plenty more going on, but the creators finally found the balance again of drama and humor that made us care about the characters in the first place. It all concludes in a fantastic finale that wraps everything up and gives us a glimpse into the futures of the beloved characters. The O.C. may have gone through a few rough patches, but it goes out on top.

The massive, 28-disc set contains all 92 episodes from the series.

The DVDs

The video is presented in 16×9 anamorphic widescreen. It has to be noted that this is the first time Season One has been offered in widescreen. The transfers are all very solid with very little grain and bright, colorful, and very well detailed images. The O.C. DVDs were always some of the better looking TV sets I reviewed.

The audio is offered in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound with English/French/Spanish subtitles. While I wish there was a 5.1 offering with more true surround sound, the stereo track is clean and balanced. Part of the show’s success has always been the independent music it showcased, all of which sounds great.

The Extras

The packaging for The Completer Series is a treat. It is a hardbound book featuring the discs, information about the episodes, cast lists, and much more. The cover is a lenticular design that mimics a moving ocean.

The book also has an all-new, candid written intro from Creator Josh Schwartz as well as a transcription of a conversation between Schwartz and Executive Producer Stephanie Savage.

New content comes in the form of a Season Three bonus disc previously only available through Target, as well as another Season Four bonus disc. The Season Three disc has video commentaries and Deleted Scenes with introductions. The Season Four disc has the Atomic County webisodes as well as “The Women of The O.C.” featurette. It’s not ground-breaking new material, but at least it is something.

The rest of the special features are carried over from the previous sets.
Season One:

There is only one commentary track and it is on the pilot. Creator Josh Schwartz and Supervising Producer Stephanie Savage speak on it. It is a very encompassing commentary with talk on how the show got to where it was and much more. Don’t expect a lot of jokes, it is mostly jam packed with information.

There is a selectable on-screen music-track guide for the following episodes: “The Model Home,” “The Outsider,” “The Secret,” “The Countdown,” “The Telenovela,” and “The Goodbye Girl.” Operating on the subtitle track space, it gives you artist/album information as well as a lot of facts about the band.

There are three featurettes on the set. The first is is a 15-minute piece entitled “Casting The O.C.” looks at how casting works, the process, casting the various actors, and which roles were hard to cast. The actors also reflect on their casting experiences.

“The Music of The O.C.” is a 10-minute piece discussing: choosing the music, the role of music in the show, music in the various scenes from the season, and getting bands like Rooney. I found the whole piece very interesting, especially considering how strong a role music plays in the show.

“Inside the Real O.C.” is a 12-minute piece where Executive Producer McG interviews a group of actual O.C. teens. They talk about McG’s experiences growing up, differences between real life and the show, dating habits, cliques, welcoming new kids in, and how the kids respond to the show. Not a bad way to dispel some of the fantasies the show has installed in many peoples minds.

“The O.C. Unseen” is 10-minutes of deleted scenes with introductions by Josh Schwartz. Note that the video quality is much poorer on these scenes. The scenes are as follows:

“Boarding School Discussion” from “Pilot”
”Seth’s Dance Lesson” from “Debut”
“Luke Makes His Move” from “The Girlfriend”
“Watching Golden Girls” from “The Third Wheel”
“Kirsten and Ryan Play Video Games” from “The Heartbreak”
“Sandy Gives Seth the Sex Talk” from “The Heartbreak”
“Summer’s Happy Ending” from “Telenovela”
“Seth’s Buffet” from “Telenovela”

They all have great moments in them, but none really advance the action.

Lastly there is a three and a half minute sneak peak at Season Two with interviews from the cast and Josh.

Season Two:

Audio Commentary is available on 2 episodes: The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn’t and The Rainy Day Women. The track includes Josh Schwartz and the crew.

“An Extended Creator’s Cut” of The Rainy Day Women is also included.

“Beachy Couture” is a 15-minute look at the show’s fashion design.

“Obsess Completely” is a 33-minute retrospective special.

The bonus material rounds out with outtakes from the first two seasons.

Season Three:

“The Party Favor From Script to Screen” is a 16-minute in-depth look at the episode.

“What’s In A Name?” is a 14-minute piece on naming characters.

“Pass the Remote: Selected Scene-Surfing Commentary” offers about 19-minutes of scene-specific commentary.

Lastly, a Gag Reel and a “Making Of” a music video segment are offered.

Season Four:

Commentary is offered on the final episode with Josh Schwartz and acts more as a wrap-up talk than an episode-specific commentary. While he does touch on the episode itself, a lot of time is spent discussing the show in general and bringing it to a close. If you are at all interested in why the show turned out the way it did, give this a listen.

Two featurettes are offered with interviews from the cast and crew: “The Magic That is Chrismukkah” and “Summer Roberts – Beauty Meets Brown.” While they are not throwaway pieces, no new information is offered for fans. They are basically retrospective pieces that discuss the hugely popular invented holiday and the evolution of Summer as a character. They are fun to watch but ultimately rather pointless. I would have preferred a in-depth, parting look at the entire series.

Lastly, Deleted Scenes are offered.

Final Thoughts

The O.C. is far from perfect, but for a brief moment in time it was a television force to be reckoned with. One less overwhelming “Complete Series” sets, this is the perfect way to own the entire saga.