Sunday, January 14, 2007

The O.C.: The owls are not what they seem

Spoilers for "The O.C." just as soon as I figure out which surgical intern helped Dr. Roberts with the unicorn...

I'm a few days late to the party and I have other writing to get done, so I'll be brief. A very light, funny episode that ended on sad notes for virtually every character. (Sandy seems happy, I suppose, but then, the only thing he got to do was his hilarious, out-of-left-field and very loud Jerry Lewis impression.)

Though the cancellation wasn't made official until last week, this one suggests Josh saw the writing on the wall. It's one thing to not try to write ratings bait anymore, which has been the prime motivator for this resurgence. It's another thing to fill up an episode with Jerry Lewis impressions and David Hume name-checking, neither of which is exactly catnip to the younger demo.

Much fun was had with the Taylor storyline -- "Ryan, even if I was that limber, you know I would never do it in the Chunnel" is an early candidate for Line of the Seas0n -- and it was nice to see Henri Lubatti not plotting to kill thousands of people (or performing "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo"), even if his smarmy Frenchman did bear a strong resemblance to Henri from "Cheers." I've had to force myself to stop saying "Je pense!" at random moments as well.

Liked the brief visit to Seattle Grace, complete with "Grey's"-y music, particularly Dr. Roberts summing up the themes of the unicorn case the way Meredith's stupid voiceover usually does. Summer's quick descent into Newpsie-hood was as unrealistic as the idea that "Je Pense" would come to Newport to tape an episode, but Rachel Bilson gives good drunken airhead, and Che continues to be used just right.

Don't care about the Muppet Babies stuff, and I feel like they've gone to the "Summer doesn't know who she is" at least a couple of times already this season alone, but overall, quite fun.

What did everybody else think?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Best line of the night and perhaps one of my favorite ones in all of OC-dom was Che's, "I need to weave you something ASAP" when he found out about the engagement. LOVED IT. Otherwise, like you said, a nice light episode, not as good as episodes past, but still good. I also had to rewind and rewatch the "apparently someone has been impaled by a unicorn" line a few times. So perfect, and it clarifies all that is so dumb about Grey's Anatomy. I still can't believe that crapfest of a show is number 1 in the ratings. And I used to really like it.

JMD said...

The character arc of Summer, and the always undulating relationship of Seth and Summer, is so unrealistic and ridiculous that there's really no meaningful reason to event attempt to comprehend her motivations. So, we just sit back and let them do what they do. That's the only way to enjoy the camp of the show (which, by the way, stands in pretty stark contrast to the grit and irony of the first season). Oh, well.

Anonymous said...

I, too, thought of Henri from Cheers, but first I thought of the second season episode when Sumner comes back and he goes out to dinner with Sam and Diane. Sam spends the whole evening being left out of the conversation, just like Ryan. As good as this season has been, it still cannot compare to quality Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Except...it wasn't Seattle Grace. Foolish OC: they tried to be all witty and meta with Neil going to Seattle Grace, but when they actually built the hospital set, the name was "Seattle General" or something along those lines.