The OC/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Ryan: Y'know what I like about rich kids? * decks Luke* Nothin'.

Seth: So, whats the GP, RA?
Ryan: I have no idea what you just said.
Seth: Gameplan, Ryan Atwood
Ryan: You're just using initials now?
Seth: Yeah, it saves time.
Ryan: Well, not if you have to translate.
Seth: GP
Ryan: Gameplan?
Seth: Good Point.

  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming - At the beginning of Season 2, Kirsten tearfully hugging both Seth and Ryan after they return and calling them "my boys." A far cry from the bitch who earlier declared "I don't want this kid in my house anymore" (referring to Ryan.)
  • Crowning Music of Awesome - One episode usually consists of about five indie-rock gems, but in particular "Hide and Seek", "Hallelujah", "Dice", "Paint the Silence", "Life's A Song", "Something Pretty", "Running Up That Hill", "A Bad Dream", "If You Leave", "Champagne Supernova" etc. "California" is a given.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - Taylor Townsend went from a minor villain, to a recurring friend of the main characters, to a main character herself, to Ryan's girlfriend.
    • Oddly, Summer Roberts. She was originally just suppose to have a small role in the pilot, and ended up being the main female lead of the entire series.
    • Alex Kelly is definitely one of the most popular characters but Executive Meddling made go away.
    • Kaitlin, Marissa's younger sister. Even those who hate Marissa seem to like her.
  • Designated Hero: Jimmy Cooper and, more irritantingly, Marissa.
  • Designated Villain: Julie half the time.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple - While Official Couple(s) Ryan and Marissa and (especially) and Seth and Summer are very popular in the fandom, many fans continued to ship Marissa with her short lived bisexual love interest Alex, long after she had dropped off the face of the Earth. It is also never made clear whether or not Taylor and Ryan ended up together, but the fans are nearly unanimous that they did.
    • The Seth/Anna shippers would like a word with you.
    • Seth/Ryan eclipsed any het pairs in popularity at several points during season one and two. This was addressed within the show as well as outside. Addressed as in nearly confirmed.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment - Chris Brown's three-episode guest spot in Season 4 as the young fifteen-year-old Kaitlin Cooper's nerd boyfriend is slightly odd to rewatch now.
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks - Kaitlin Lampshades this in season 3 with "Death Cab's playing on The Valley now? Never Listening to them again.", which also doubles as a Fandom Nod, as both the show & Death Cab's fandoms voiced similar complaints when they appeared on The OC.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Julie Cooper was considered this even before she legitimately earned woobie points.
  • Memetic Mutation - (Mmm whatcha sa-ay...)
  • Narm: Marissa shooting Trey. The creators obviously meant for this to be a dramatic moment, but they inadvertently replaced all the drama with unintentional hilarity by the sudden and out-of-place activation of Imogen Heap music as soon as the bullet hits Trey (as if the bullet had hit the play button on some kind of sound system hidden inside Trey's ribcage), followed by slow-mo as Trey slooowly figures out that he's been shot. Adding to the unintentional hilarity is the fact that the looks on everyone's faces looks less like "Oh my God," and more like "Hey, do you know where that music is coming from?" The clip has to be seen in order for its hilarity to be completely understood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saEzQcayEPM. All together now: Mmmmmmmmmmmm.....whatcha SAAAAA-AAY!
  • Never Live It Down: People still treat Ryan's wifebeater from early season one as synonymous with his character in season 4.
  • No Yay: Despite how close they are, there's little Marissa/Summer fanfiction, possibly due to the lack of chemistry between the actresses.
  • Older Than They Think - The theme, Phantom Planet's "California", is loosely based on a 1921 Broadway number "California, Here I Come".
  • The Scrappy:
    • Marissa is this for a great chunk of the fanbase. As is her father Jimmy.
    • Two words: Oliver. Thrask. He was intended to be a Love to Hate villain, but he became just plain hated. It's not uncommon to find him at the top of "Worst Characters of the OC" polls.
    • Johnny also deserves a mention here.
  • Seasonal Rot - Season 3 is unanimously considered the nadir of the show. Some say Season 2 as well. If you watched the show for Mischa Barton or the Ryan/Marissa romance, Season 4.
  • Sophomore Slump: It is universally agreed Season 1 was the show's highest point. The other seasons, however...
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Julie Cooper in the early seasons before Character Development made her genuinely sympathetic. While she was indeed a Rich Bitch, she was not nearly as bad as the show painted her. She genuinely cared for her daughters despite her more morally bankrupt actions, and her concerns and points are in a lot of cases legitimate and even right. Add to the fact Jimmy and Marissa were way more unlikable and acted like dicks towards her (unjustifiably in many cases), and is not hard to see why Julie comes off as more sympathetic than intended to many viewers.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Jimmy Cooper. The viewer was supposed to see him as the "good" parent to Marissa and feel sorry for him when his life falls apart. Except, his life fell apart because he mismanaged his family's money on the stock market, and then embezzled from his clients to keep up appearances and try to get back the money he lost in the first place, even having the gall to blame Julie for his problems (True, she's a gold digger, but she never forced him to do that). Let's not forget his actions were what led Marissa's downward spiral, and it's hard to disagree with Julie when she divorced him and told him he deserved to be in jail. This blog post really encapsulates his status as this at full force.
    • Hell, even the actor who played him (Tate Donovan) thought of him as an horrible person. Yeah...
    • Marissa also rightfully deserves to be on this list. Most of the misery she endured was self-inflicted due to her irresponsible decisions, kept whining about her whole family situation even in front of people who had it worse than she did (ex. Lindsey), treated her loved ones like absolute crap (especially her so-called True Love Ryan) and Mischa Barton's monotone acting. It was so bad many cheered when she finally kicked the bucket in Season 3.
  • Wangst - Marissa, Johnny, Oliver.
  • Win Back the Crowd: Season 4 for bringing back the comedy, focusing back on the core characters, and being without the acting talents of Mischa Barton. Unfortunately, that was the final season due to cancellation, although it managed to end on a pretty good note.
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