The Story
Should We Watch The O.C.?
When my brothers and I first embarked on our journey to the college world we started a small tradition. Every December, upon our return from another semester, we share the music we’ve found along the way.
In this way I was introduced to Radiohead, Sublime and other stereotypical stuff. I was hoping that I would have something to show my high-school aged brother when I came home this winter, but I didn’t have much. Instead, it was me flipping through his newest CD’s.
Which is where things went suddenly downhill.
“Hey Vinnie?”
“…What?”
“Are you kidding?”
I was holding a copy of the “Official Soundtrack of The O.C.”
Yes, that is in reference to the premiere television program The O.C., the show whose insight and wisdom enlightened a generation.
The O.C. is on par with, say, George W. Bush for things that are easy to make fun of. Any soap-opera has to be taken lightly, but this show is on a different level.
In one now- infamous episode of The O.C., the show’s protagonist Ryan Atwood and his brother are in the throes of a fight-to-the-death altercation when their friend Marissa appears in the background with a gun and shoots the brother (he evidently lives). The show’s producers set up the scene well enough and the acting was fine. But then they decided to break with tradition and cut the orchestral background music to “Hide and Seek” by the R&B/Techno group Imogen Heap.
I was a little confused by the music selection but evidently other people loved it. If you search “Dear Sister Parody” on Youtube there are about ten different scenes from famous movies remade to the sounds of “Hide and Seek.”
My roommate and I browsed these clips for thirty minutes one day. After watching the guy from 300 kick a Persian into a giant pit to Imogen Heap’s masterpiece, my roommate threw out a great question: “How did the producers of The O.C. ever think that this song was a good idea?”
I honestly don’t know much about The O.C. I will say that I listened to and liked The O.C.soundtrack (from which, to my bitter disappointment, “Hide and Seek” was conspicuously absent).
From what I can gather, the show centers on Ryan Atwood, a poor kid taken in by a family in our country’s highest tax bracket. In poverty only a short time ago, Ryan suddenly has access to everything he could ever need or want.
And this is only the beginning of his troubles.
Ryan and his acquaintances (specifically the lovely Marissa Cooper) go through relationship issues and even crazier things as their respective high school careers drag on.
I may be wrong, but I feel like The O.C. received a warm welcome from my generation. Kids ate this stuff up in my middle school, and still in high school.
Looking back, I sometimes can’t understand how we could stand it, or anything else in its genre. Aren’t there bigger things to think about than Ryan Atwood’s on-again-off-again crush on Marissa Cooper?
Namely, the world is a terribly tragic place. While yes, The O.C. is pure entertainment, the fact that we find amusement in such triviality suggests some dangerous tendencies of our generation. At best this is narcissism. At worst, it’s
negligence.
It seems like we can’t go a day without a global disaster of some kind. We say the media focuses too much on life’s negatives, but that doesn’t change the fact that 24-hour news shows have no problem filling a day’s airtime with violence and crime.
Yet here before us is The O.C. I wonder if our progeny will see it as a collective utterance of “let them eat cake” from the last generation of the 20th century.
The O.C. is only one small part of a whole network of entertainment, and that network only appears to be growing. Ironically enough, we live in an age where poverty and suffering are more visible to those utterly unaffected by its existence.
Shouldn’t our interest in mere relationship drama be in decline?
The reason that programs like The O.C. or One Tree Hill make it anywhere must be because they are relevant in some way. It’s perfectly clear that Marissa and Ryan’s most recent breakup will have no effect on anything of importance, but perhaps there’s something more going on.
I think The O.C.’s greatest redeeming quality is that it revolves around very basic problems, problems that make us human. Ignoring details of social class, the soap-opera relationship between Marissa and Ryan could potentially apply to anyone.
And as a society we need that.
We live in a world of utter inhumanity. Wars rage continually across the globe, poverty grows in the gutters of even the wealthiest of nations. While we need substantial dedication to ending wars and poverty and vast human suffering, we can’t simply turn off our basic emotional beings and pin our personal problems as entirely unimportant. In turn we watch teenage romantics experience the emotional turmoil that extends through all levels of society and so much of history.
In this way I see The O.C. as an attempt to return simple humanity to a world gone mad with destruction. That is not to say that our planet has never been filled with destruction before, but rather this television show is our unique way of rectifying, if only within ourselves, man’s inhumanity.
Had the producers of The O.C. had figured out their music, it’s possible I could take the show more seriously.
Max Cunningham is a staff columnist for The DSJ. His views do not necessarily represent those of the entire staff.