Editor's Note: This review is a part of a larger article written by Rhett on prime-time television soaps. To read further, you can find that feature by clicking the image.

We did so much last year, we have nothing left for season two.” – Series Creator, Josh Schwartz.

That, in a nutshell, is season two. Season one was enthralling in the way it threw the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, Chino delinquent Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie,) into the lavish and luxurious world of Orange County. He was adopted by do-gooder father, Sandy Cohen (Peter “Eyebrows” Gallagher) and his family of architect mother, Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) and cynical loser son, Seth (Adam Brody). Ryan collided with nearly everyone on the show in first season, creating sparks with Seth’s prom queen neighbor Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) and her jock boyfriend Luke Ward (Chris Carmack), not to mention the rest of the pampered rich. He also helped Seth come out of his shell and hook up with his grade school crush, Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson). So many fights, relationships and twists in so little time; season one moved with the breakneck pace of an F1 race – only with more soap.

There was so much crammed into the first season of The OC, with a double-double of Summer and Seth and Ryan and Marissa already getting settled into romance at the midway point of the season. It took Angela Chase an entire season to even acknowledge Bryan Krakow in My So-Called Life, and it took Joey a full three seasons to finally get with Pacey in Dawson’s Creek. The underdog romance is one of the most rewarding of all teen soaps, and The OC made the mistake of compressing it over a few episodes when it deserved at least a full season. When the dust of season one was up, such a move made for great short-term drama. But when it all settled for season two, the empty dramatic horizons could be seen in full view.

Attempts were made to keep things interesting, like creating endless love triangles between Seth-Summer-Zach or Ryan-Marissa-TheRestOfTheTeenagePopulation, making Kirsten a drunk or even dabbling in gay chic. These plot devices ring incredibly hollow, since they seem more guided by plot than they do by characters. Watching season one, there is no way Kirsten would ever be so fragile that she’d become a raging, cheating alcoholic, yet she treads this path throughout the second season, and it always feels like a gimmick rather than a natural character progression. Similarly, Marissa’s bout with lesbianism is of the worst kind, consisting of sensationalist kissing sessions designed to get off every teenage boy who stuck it out with their girlfriends to watch the show.

The relationship Marissa develops with the beautiful Alex is so hollow it never feels like they had any sort of chemistry whatsoever. When you consider how perceptive and honest Anna’s realization of her sexual ambiguity was in season two of One Tree Hill, where she considered throughout the season what it meant to be a label rather than how hot lesbian kissing can be, you get a feel for what kind of meaning each show strives for. The OC took the crowd pleaser route with big thrills and trashy exploits, where One Tree Hill went introspective in exploring teenage themes with earnest maturity. The OC was satisfied with safe, exploitive fun; but in its probing of highly nostalgic themes, One Tree Hill surpassed The OC in season two in terms of overall weight and enjoyment.

This sounds like a pan, but it really isn’t. The OC undoubtedly remains a fun watch throughout despite its hollow core. The twists are often never believable, but they always go for high shock, and at the very least the show can be deemed ambitious in where it pushes its characters every show. Although the film lacks the heart that Dawson’s Creek or even rival One Tree Hill has, it benefits from a charismatic cast as pretty as the beach side locales. The Orange County life is so far removed from reality it plays as breezy fantasy, and it’s tough not to want to be taken away to this bourgeois playground, especially when you have Peter Gallagher as a father. His character remains the freshest on the show, in that he never makes a lapse in judgment. Almost every soap character in history does something wrong at one point or another, but his Sandy Cohen remains infallible. It will be interesting to see if in season three, The OC will destroy this quality in its hunt for more big twists.

Other than its hunt for the next big twist, The OC is also guilty for its rampant cross-marketing. When the show starts pimping out the latest band of the week at the Peach Pit After Dark facsimile dance club, the fantasy impulses of the show go to the wayside of blatant consumerism. More than any other show, The OC wants to sell you something, and it will go to any means necessary. There are several soundtrack compilation “mixes” already released today, but that is only the start of it. The show basks in chic teen fashion that is promoted in every sleazy star-watching magazine available today, and even devotes a featurette to it on this set. The group all go away to Fort Lauderdale to be on MTV, just to make sure the series creators were really tapping into that teenage demographic. Even worse are the celebrity cameos, whether it is Paris Hilton giving Warner’s own House of Wax a little extra push or George Lucas(!) talking to Seth about writing Star Wars the week before Episode III’s release. It is tough to get lost in a narrative when the wheels of capitalism are so clearly in view throughout season two.

The OC will never be taken as sincere drama however, so perhaps caring about the sweeping forces of narrative are counterproductive. The series is too cynically detached, with all Seth’s witticisms and pop culture quips, to ever really care about creating a meaningful story of its own. But in its pop culture and consumerism-laced production, it achieves a sort of shallow rush of sugary fun. Once you pop, you can’t stop, and even if the manufactured aftertaste of the show leaves little to be desired, the constantly corkscrewing story line is often irresistible. The season moves more into lumbering melodrama as it limps to conclusion, but those looking for fun, disposable, date fodder needn’t look further than Orange County. It provides enough wit and thrills a minute to make you forget you just wasted 18 hours of your life watching it.

Presentation
The OC made the jump from full screen to widescreen this season on DVD, and the results are gorgeous. The 1.85:1 anamorphically enhanced picture looks incredibly clear, more so than the at times grainy and soft One Tree Hill DVDs. Although both were shot on 16mm, The OC looks incredibly clear, sharp and saturated, with all those California tans coming off with golden glow. There is so much more room in widescreen than there was in the cramped full screen first season release that the opened visual canvas alone is cause for celebration. The next best thing to hi-def, this transfer is pitch perfect.

Audio
Like One Tree Hill, the sound is your standard stereo, as it was broadcast. As another show that thrives, or should I say relies on music to promote albums and sustain pacing, the strong stereo track accurately reproduces the milieu of music used throughout the series.

Extras
The extras on The OC and One Tree Hillare pretty representative of the content of their respective series. One Tree Hill had plenty of deleted scenes fleshing out further their intricate characters. The OC on the other hand, goes for the witty detachment, stressing gag reels and funny EPK quips. The two big extras on this set are a pair of gag reels, one for the first season and the other for the second. Both run about ten minutes each, and both feature some amazingly horrible flash animation that make the episode seem like an episode from TV Funhouse on SNL. There are some funny bits on the gag reels, particularly when Peter Gallagher lets the Fuck train loose after missing a few lines. Adam Brody tries to hog the camera with his improvs, and often time it comes off as trying and narcissistic. Still, some funny bits for those looking at some inside shots of the show.

A seventeen minute documentary on the fashions of the show called “Beachy Couture” further demonstrates the flashy, empty approach of the show. The featurette is somewhat enlightening in showing how much planning goes into all the luxurious clothing sampled on the show, even if none of the interviewees ever seem to take anything seriously.

More substantial is the self-congratulatory “The O.C. Obsess Completely”, which entails how the cast was picked and how they came together to form the players we watch today. Their interviews are less jokey here, and they are open to admitting all the insecurities they had when coming into the show. The featurette then talks about favorite moments and even offers an amusing compression of the entire first season into three minutes. At thirty two minutes the segment overstays its welcome, especially when the end is devoted to promoting soundtracks and DVDs. Still, a surprisingly thorough document of the show, it’s well worth a look.

The set is rounded off by some commentaries with creator Josh Schwartz who is joined on one by producer Bob DeLaurentis and on the other by Stephanie Savage, Alexandra Patsavas and Matt Ramsey. The commentaries are a little smug and self-stroking, and really aren’t nearly as informative or sincere as the ones included on One Tree Hill. The group commentary on Rainy Day Woman is even smugger. Rainy Day Woman itself contains an extended scene making it long enough to be dubbed an “Extended Creator’s Cut” on the extras, but its really just an added shot of Marissa doing a little more lesbian love. Nobody ever accused the show of being too deep.

There is also a short little thirty second deleted scene housed on the sixth disc that basically further emphasizes Kirsten’s drinking problem. Cheers to empty plot turns!

The Bottom Line
The OC started out a slick, sensationalist teen show with a lot of heart, but after the jam-packed first season, there was little heart left to explore. As a result, the show deviated into shallow, if undeniably entertaining plot twists that always kept the show interesting and unpredictable. Season two isn’t particularly memorable, but it’s breezy escapism of the trashiest kind, so you can’t fault it for what it does best. The video transfers on this seven disc set are pristine, and the audio serves the heavy music rotation just fine. Although some more deleted scenes would be nice, there is a fair bit of extra material delivered with the witty detachment that has made the show such a hit. If you are a fan of the show this is a no brainer, but those looking for longer term commitments to today’s soaps may wish to climb up One Tree Hill instead.