+++Fair warning, this will contain spoilers from season 2, but no major season 3 giveaways. Chances are, after all this time, anyone reading will know how season 2 ends, but just in case, skip the first couple of paragraphs.+++
Season 3 of The OC included 25 episodes that aired during the 2005-2006 TV season. The third season is much darker than the others. The season continues the fallout over Caleb's death, Kirsten going off to rehab for alcoholism, and Marissa's shooting of Trey. The cast shuffle continues this season with the departure of Tate Donovan (the show uses Jimmy's continued money woes to write the character off and introduces a bunch of ancillary characters to stir up relationship issues (mainly the Ryan/Marissa relationship). Personally, I think the best addition to the cast is Autumn Reeser, who plays Taylor Townsend. At first, she is kind of a villain for the younger characters and ends up being (almost) one of the group. She has great comedic chops and brings what little comedy there is during the season. Willa Holland also joins the show this year, taking over the role of Marissa's younger sister, Kaitlin.
The rest of the season is really about the characters spiraling off the rails. Sandy takes over the Newport Group and becomes more and more like Caleb than he or anyone else wants. Seth goes through a "troubled" phase, which is fairly tame considering but threatens his relationship with Summer. Marissa continues the tailspin she never really got out of, which leads Ryan to have to choose whether to try and protect her or let her go. Like in the other seasons, they jam-pack a lot of storylines into the season. Some play themselves out within a few weeks, and others linger throughout the season. I don't necessarily think trying to take the characters in a different direction (which they were clearly trying to do, at least to some extent) always worked very well this season. I think the show would have been better off putting a heavier focus on a few of the storylines and not trying to jam as much in. The season does end on a massive cliffhanger that will definitely have reverberations in season four.
The DVD set is a seven-disc set, and the extras include a few behind-the-scenes featurettes and a gag reel. While there are no episode commentary tracks, there is a feature with commentary/interviews about specific scenes. The acting in the show was still very good despite some lackluster material to work with. Autumn Reeser pretty much stole every scene she was in, especially toward the end of the season. The recasting of Kaitlin Cooper with Willa Holland was okay, but they never really gave the character much to do besides being a trouble-making brat. There was not as much of the main cast interaction that made the first couple of seasons of the show really good, and the show did fall off some as a result. I am not in the camp of people who totally despise this season, but I did think it was more lackluster than the first two seasons. Even so, it is still worth the time to watch.
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