DVD/TV Series Review: The O.C. Season 4

 

+++Fair Warning this will contain the major season 3 spoiler and some hints, but nothing major from the final season. If you have not yet seen the third season (which is unlikely by now) avoid the first couple of paragraphs.+++

The fourth and final season of The OC was the shortest season (just 16 episodes) of the series and aired during the fall of 2006 into the winter of 2007. The season rebounded nicely from the messier season 3.  The first half of the season was all about Ryan (and Julie) coping with the death of Marissa, who was revealed to have died in the car accident at the end of the third season. Julie essentially recruits Ryan to go after Volchuck to exact revenge, which, of course, Ryan is all too willing to do, While Sandy, Seth, and Kirsten try to get him to stop pursuing Volchuck and come home. Once that part of the story ends, the focus is really on wrapping up the series and the lingering storylines. The various character relationships are tested again, but luckily not by unlikable characters as in past seasons. The focus is kept (as it should be) on the remaining core characters, with a few ancillary characters (including an appearance by Ryan's father) mixed in.

The DVD set is a five-disc set. The extras include commentary tracks on a couple episodes and a few featurettes on the 5th disc. The focus is on the evolution of Christmakah and the evolution of Summer as a character. There is not a ton of bonus material, but what is included is good. The final episode gives a nice glimpse back at the series as well as a flash into the future to see where the characters ultimately end up. While it is not really a show that requires everything to be tied up in a little bow at the end, I think the writers did a good job of wrapping up the series. While this season is still not as good as the first two seasons, it is still worth the time to watch.

DVD/TV Series Review: The O.C. Season 3

 

+++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.

DVD/TV Series Review: The O.C. Season 2

 

+++Fair warning, this will contain some spoilers from season 1 and plot lines (but no major spoilers) from the second season.+++

The second season of The OC included 24 episodes that aired during the 2004-2005 TV season. This season was all about the relationships between the various characters and how they were strained after the events at the end of the first season played out. At the start of the season, Ryan is back in Chino with a pregnant Theresa, and Seth has run away, sailing off into the sunset. While those storylines were brought (somewhat) to a conclusion after the first episode of the season, the repercussions play out for the teenage characters and the adults all throughout the season. The basic stories around the teenager relationships were the will-they/wont-they get back together for Ryan-Marissa and Seth-Summer. A couple new characters get thrown into that mix, including Olivia Wilde joining the cast as a major recurring character for most of the season. The adult relationships are also strained throughout the season. Sandy and Kirsten are both tempted to stray and cheat on each other, and there is a Julie/Caleb/Jimmy triangle for part of the season.

Overall the second season has less jumping from storyline to storyline than season one did. There is still some of that, but it is clear what the focus of the season is. The show also benefited from paring down some of the cast. Although more recurring characters did appear throughout the season, you did not have as many episodes where someone would totally disappear or have nothing to do, as was the case in the first season. The show kept its blend of witty comedy, family drama, and trashy soap opera going this season. I thought the show really found its footing this season and even made fun of itself a little.

Toward the end of the season, they put a twist on the initial season one storyline when they brought back Ryan's brother Trey (recast and played by Logan Marshall-Green). Trey's storyline is kind of a doppelganger-like version of Ryan's story from season one and plays on the differences between the two characters. The season also dealt with issues like infidelity, alcoholism, same-sex relationships, rape, and drug use. The show did not dive into the deeper stories all the time, but when it did I think they were well done. Like in the first season, it is enjoyable enough to watch as an adult outside the "target" age group of those who were in high school or college when the show aired.

The DVD set is a seven-disc set. Most of the bonus content is on the final disc in the set. The bonus content includes gag reels from season 1 and season 2, a half-hour retrospective on the first season and the wild popularity the show had right out of the gate, and then a 12-minute feature on the style and fashions on the show. There are also commentary tracks on select episodes and a few deleted scenes spread throughout the other discs. All in all, enough to make the people who like going through the bonus material happy. If you are a fan of the first season, the show continues to evolve and get better in season 2, and is definitely worth the time to watch.

DVD/TV Series Review: The O.C. Season 1

 

The O.C. was the latest in a line of teen-centric nighttime soap operas that sprang up in the early-mid 2000s. The first season consisted of 27 episodes and aired during the 2003-2004 TV season. The show was created by Josh Schwartz and starred Ben McKenzie, Mischa Barton, Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody, Melina Clarke, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Tate Donovan, and Chris Carmack. It was what I would describe as a mini "it-show" in that it was very popular out of the gate and had some mainstream exposure. It was not necessarily a show that you could not miss on a weekly basis, but it was talked about a lot. The easy comparisons are to shows like Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson's Creek, etc, and there are certainly similar elements from those shows and pretty much every other show in the genre that got incorporated into this one. But unlike some of those, the OC also made the stories with the adults interesting enough that you did not have to be in (or recently graduated from) high school at the time to appreciate and enjoy it.

The first season had a lot of episodes (27 in all) and as a result, the storylines were kind of all over the place. It had a very large ensemble cast (some of whom would eventually be weeded out), and there was a lot going on with all the characters. The main story revolved around Ryan Atwood (played by McKenzie), who was a good kid from Chino but who had a bad family situation and was starting to follow his brother into a life of crime. His public defender, Sandy Cohen (Gallagher), ends up taking him in (initially for the weekend), much to the chagrin of his wife (Rowan). The first part of the season really plays on Ryan adjusting to life in the rich, glitzy Newport Beach as he falls for the girl next door, Marissa (played by Barton), befriends the Cohen's teenage son Seth (played wonderfully by Adam Brody) and is always teetering on the edge of going back to juvie.

The adult stories center around the Cohen's, the next-door neighbors, the Coopers, and Kirsten Cohen's rich real estate mogul Caleb (played by Alan Dale). The standout from that story, in my opinion, was Julie Cooper, played by Melinda Clarke, who plays a great "bad guy" character. At the beginning of the series, she is almost an over-the-top caricature of the rich, snobby housewife who only cares about money, gossip, and how she looks. Clarke stole almost every scene she was in, especially when her character was basically the butt of a joke. Over the course of the season (and the series), she became more and more central to the story, and she was one of the best-developed characters on the show.

The first season almost suffered from doing too much too soon. They were jamming so many stories into the first season that the storylines seemed to jump all over the place. They honestly probably had enough material in the Ryan "crossing the tracks" story and developing that to get through the season without introducing Kirsten's sister, some of the other Chino characters, etc, until season 2. That said, the show did a good enough job of juggling it all, ending a couple of the storylines (even though it meant getting rid of a couple of the characters), and making things flow well enough that it did not get too hard to follow.

Overall, the show was very good and entertaining. It was, at times, somewhat formulaic, given the genre. The themes mirrored many other similar shows but threw in a Westside Story vibe and made it unique enough that it did not just seem like a carbon copy of other shows. The writing and acting were very good. The Ryan-Seth relationship (and all the things that stemmed from that, like the Seth-Summer-Anna love triangle) made the teen part of the show work, and Peter Gallagher, who was involved in almost all the storylines set around the adults, made everything else work. It definitely had the guilty pleasure soap opera elements to it. Lots of skin (especially early on) and the will they/won't they bounce with the Ryan-Marissa relationship, but it also focused on more serious subjects like physical abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, homosexuality, abortion, and the seemingly required adult-teenager sexual relationship.

The DVD set is a seven-disc set with the episodes and the extras spread throughout the discs. As far as extras go, there are a few making of and behind-the-scenes features on the last disc, as well as some deleted scenes. There are also commentary tracks on select episodes that usually include Schwartz and one or two cast members. There are definitely a lot of decent extras for those who like to watch the bonus material. The show is (and especially the first season) very good. It could appeal to people who were in high school in the early 2000s as well as people who were in their mid-20s and into their 30s and 40s. It is certainly not a show that will appeal to everyone. If you only watch documentaries and high-brow dramas, this is probably not going to be your cup of tea. But it is a show that blended comedy and drama and touched on enough serious subject matter that if you are a fan of coming-of-age shows and movies, then it is worth the time to watch.

DVD/TV Series Review: Hart of Dixie: Season 4

 

+++Warning, this contains minor spoilers from the prior season, but no major spoilers from the final season+++

Season four of Hart of Dixie is a shorter season (just ten episodes to accommodate Rachel Bilson's real-life pregnancy so the show could wrap before she gave birth) that ties up the various storylines. The show continues to be very much a primetime soap opera and the focus is on the ever-shifting relationships. Early in the season Lavon and George are forced to work together as volunteer firefighters despite their feelings for Lemon, and Lavon having chased after Lemon to try to get to her before she left on the cruise. Zoe and Wade are doing the will-they-wont-they get together dance. There is also a love square between Lemon, George, Annabeth, and Lavon, as well as Brick having to sort out his love life. So, there is a lot to pack into the ten episodes.

The DVD set is just a made-on-demand set that has the episodes only. There are no extras, which on one hand is not a surprise since Bilson would not have been available to participate in anything that was put together after the show wrapped, but disappointing given that it was the final season of the show. So really, unless you really have a preference for physical discs over streaming, the only reason to get the DVD set is to keep a collection complete, which probably means you prefer the physical discs to streaming.

Overall, the final season is good but definitely rushed. Even so, the storylines are tied up well, and the show uses a flash-forward to give fans an idea of how the main characters turn out. The "fish out of water" plot that was the focus of season 1 was pretty much scrapped as Zoe had committed to staying in Bluebell, so really the only mystery is what characters would end up together. The acting was good even if the writing could get a bit sappy at times (which pretty much is the case with all prime-time dramas that lean toward the soap opera end of the spectrum).

DVD/TV Series Review: Hart of Dixie: Season 3

 

Hart of Dixie most definitely embraces its soap-opera-like qualities over the fish-out-of-water aspects that the first couple of seasons had. It focuses a lot more on the various romances of the characters than it does on Zoe's adjusting to life in Bluebell. The season starts out with Zoe working in an NYC ER, having left Bluebell, seemingly for good at the end of season two. She decides that she misses Bluebell and returns, to a much different reaction than she expected. She has a new boyfriend in tow, a writer named Joel (played by Josh Cooke). The show is much more of a serial story now with the story arcs (mainly about the various characters' love lives) stretching throughout the course of the season than it is a story-of-the-week procedural.

For those who get the DVD set, it is a pretty standard MOD DVD set that just has the episodes, but no extras. There are captions in multiple languages, but there are no deleted scenes, gag-reel, etc., so really the only reason to get the physical disc over just streaming the show is if you got the first two seasons on disc and want to keep your collection complete.

Overall, the show continues to be good. I would not say that it is great, it is definitely a prime-time soap opera as opposed to a traditional medical drama. It does not take itself too seriously, blending in elements of comedy here and there, but it also does not lampoon the south and probably shows what life is really like in most southern towns as opposed to what people who do not live there think it is like. Some of the storylines do get a bit dumb, but on the whole, it is a good-natured character-driven show that is worth the time to check out if you don't expect it to be an award-winning drama.

DVD/TV Series Review: Hart of Dixie: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the first season, but no major spoilers from season two.+++

Hart of Dixie is a serial prime time soap-opera set in the fictional small town of Bluebell Alabama. Season one focused on the fish-out-of-water storyline with Rachel Bilson's character Zoe Hart, leaving NY and taking over her father's portion of a medical practice that he shared with Tim Mattheson's character, Brick Breeland, and trying to assimilate to life in a small southern town. Season two picks up immediately after the events that ended the first season, with George calling off the wedding to Lemon Breeland and walking out on her because of his feelings for Zoe. The repercussions of this event ripple through the entire season and result in major shifts in character arcs as Lemon has to grow on her own without George (and Jamie King does a great job this season), and Zoe having to decide between George and Wade, as well as continuing to acclimate to the town. In another side arc, Lavon's ex played by Golden Brooks returns to town and decides to run against him for mayor.

The show continues to be a good blend of comedy and drama. Because it is a prime-time soap it can get sappy and a bit much with all the various love triangles going on. That said, it is pretty well-written and very well-acted. The only disappointing thing about the DVD release is that it has no extras, just the episodes, so it is basically a MOD release. But, the second season of the show aired just when physical releases for TV series were getting scaled way back, so the fact that it got any physical media release is nice. If you were a fan of the first season, I definitely recommend season two.

DVD/TV Series Update: Hart of Dixie - Season One

 

Hart of Dixie is a show that premiered in 2011 that takes a twist on the themes of the series Northern Exposure and Doc Hollywood. The premise of the show is that a doctor from NY named Zoe Hart (played by Rachel Bilson) fails to get a fellowship at the hospital in which she was interning. She ends up taking the offer of a stranger who attended her graduation from med school to work at his practice in the small town of Bluebell Alabama. When she gets there, she discovers that the stranger was her biological father and left her with half of the medical practice he shared with Tim Mattheson's character, Brick Breeland. What follows is a pretty typical fish-out-of-water story in which Zoe has to adjust to life in small-town Alabama and while being an outsider. The show has a fairly large ensemble cast including Cress Williams, Jamie King, Scott Porter, and Wilson Bethel. It does get soap-opera-like with multiple love triangles going on between the various characters. It has a good blend of drama and comedy (mostly about how the north views the south and vice-versa) and ultimately tells a good story.

The DVD set spreads the 22 episodes over five discs. The extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a behind-the-scenes documentary that runs just under twenty minutes. A decent amount of material for those who like the extras. The show is pretty well written and acted. It is a bit formulaic and predictable and does not really do anything that is extremely new. It is definitely more of a prime-time soap opera than it is a straight prime-time drama. but it has likable characters played by a good cast, so it works. It is definitely worth picking up.