All 92 Episodes of The O.C., Ranked

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https://www.vulture.com/article/best...oc-ranked.html

It’s hard to believe The O.C., Josh Schwartz’s teen drama to end all teen dramas, debuted on Fox 20 years ago on August 5. This show helped turn indie bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, Bloc Party, and the Killers into radio-friendly hitmakers. It inspired everything from MTV’s Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County and paved the way for other prime-time soaps like Desperate Housewives. Its fashion — UGGs, strappy tank tops, graphic tees — set trends that defined the Y2K era. Schwartz himself, with his longtime collaborator, Stephanie Savage, went on to develop a dozen more shows, including the CW’s original Gossip Girl and, most recently, City on Fire on Apple TV+.

Looking back, we can see how easily the Newport Beach adventures of a troublemaker named Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) who came from the wrong side of the tracks (i.e., Chino) beguiled seemingly an entire TV-watching nation. Schwartz’s sharp writing combined with the show’s high-drama situations proved irresistible, with all of it set to soundtracks that spoke directly to a younger viewership. The chemistry of its cast, especially the core four — McKenzie’s Ryan, Adam Brody’s Seth Cohen, Rachel Bilson’s Summer Roberts, and Mischa Barton’s Marissa Cooper — set a new standard for soapy teen characters. It also made space for complex adult roles, like Peter Gallagher and Kelly Rowan’s flirty parents, Sandy and Kirsten Cohen, and Melinda Clarke’s love-to-hate survivor, Julie Cooper.

While nothing will ever compare to the first part of its first season — a summer fever dream that crammed more ups and downs into its seven-episode run than most shows these days manage to do in their entirety — the 92 episodes that make up its four seasons captured the mid-aughts in all its messy glory in television amber. We’re ranking them all, looking at how they balance soapiness with character dynamics, their cultural impact, and, of course, their pioneering use of music. Travel back to a time of hard-partying teens wearing puka shells and low-rise jeans, real-estate moguls going bankrupt building McMansions, and comic-book nerds who were still outcasts, not the dominant force in pop culture. Yet at The O.C.’s center is a story of found families, the journey toward overcoming trauma, and rooting your life in ethics over capitalist values, which allows the show to feel both utterly of its time and remarkably timeless.