A Slice of Fried Gold

The Weekend Edition

Monday, July 20, 2009
Another great summer weekend, one full of crazy times and lazy times, just the mix that I like. It's raining now, but after a lengthy period of know rain whatsoever, good ol' Alaska needed it badly. Did that damper the weekend? No way!
  • Getting back on track at the gym with Joanne
  • Making a tasty dinner with Amy and Joanne
  • Buckaroo Club for darts and shuffleboard with Amy and Joanne (and some new friends!)
  • Early breakfast at Middle Way Cafe with Sheri
  • Harry Potter again with my mom (worked better the second time)
  • Working a GCI event - fun!
  • Moose's Tooth before Citizen Cope with a number of fun folks
  • Great night out at the Pio and the Avenue with Amy and assorted others (note to self: am no longer allowed to go to Middle Way or Snow City)
  • Lazy Sunday with Amy, chilling and watching the OC
So yeah, it was a very eventful weekend with standard hijinks and David-isms. Whether that is a regrettable thing or not, I was entertained throughout.


Strangely though, the highlight for the weekend was Amy and I jumping back on the OC bandwagon and mowing through half of season 4 on Sunday. We were both fans of the first and second seasons of the show, but the third one completely sucked so we both bailed. After a long delay in watching the fourth season, Amy and I finally started it up and I am only slightly ashamed to say it is pretty brilliant.

It's like Josh Schwartz spent the season between season 3 and season 4 figuring out everything that didn't work about the show and what did work, and then set out to make the good happen again. By removing perpetual downer Marissa and replacing her with the strange and enigmatic Kaitlyn (her younger and less lame sister) and the perpetually chipper and remarkably charming Taylor Townsend, the show reversed almost entirely and came back as something that is hip, fun and emotionally truthful again.

It's too bad it took one entire abomination of a season that must have crippled the shows ratings to figure that out, but at least we're left with this stellar season. Who knows though...there are 8 episodes left. The rest of it could be terrible. Zombie Marissa could enter the show, furious at Ryan and Taylor and thirsting for revenge (and brains!). Actually, on second thought, I kind of hope that happens.

3 comments:

Troy Olson said...

Oh, it makes me joyful to see a fellow OC fan. It truly is my guiltiest of TV pleasures (well, that or 80's soap operas, but there really isn't much of a difference) and was really the only reason my wife and I really gave Chuck a shot (and we're glad we did).

Anyways, as you already stated, season 3 was atrocious. Ryan and Marissa were together/apart every other episode, Seth went right past "loveable loser" to "annoying asshole", Volchek and Johnny sucked the life out of things, and all I could wait for was the moment that Marissa died, because the show HAD to revolve around her (although I appreciated how they tried to redeem all of her suckiness in that last episode...my eyes may have gotten the littlest bit moist).

Phew. But season 4, ah, season 4 feels like the dry run for Chuck in many ways. Taylor was a godsend (and it makes me sad that I've seen no more of her on my TV since The OC went off the air), the Taylor/Ryan dynamic was brilliantly done, and Kaitlyn was sooo much better than Marissa. Sure, Seth and Summer could be somewhat annoying with how they treated each other, but overall, there was good comedy, some decent angst, the right amount of soapiness, and it felt like the characters acted like they should, as opposed to the way they did in the prior season.

And with that burst of enthusiasm, I think I really need to devote the time I spent on this comment to writing about the show on my own blog!

jo said...

i'm now thankful i missed the lazy sunday movie marathon. i truly hate the OC and it's meaningless plots and sub-par acting...at least you guys got it out of your systems and i don't have to suffer through it next time.

i am sad that i missed a fun filled amy&david day though :*(

David Harper said...

You hit the nail on the head. It's like Schwartz targeted precisely what was wrong with season 3 and fixed it all in season 4. In season 3 they forgot what made the show special (the well drawn characters and the natural chemistry they all had) and started going into typical soap pitfalls, but thankfully they resolved that problem.

I'm really kind of blown away by how much I like the Ryan and Taylor combo. They even managed to successfuly pull off the coma episode, and I think a lot of it stems from the two actors natural chemistry (I'm of the small contingent of people who considers Ben McKenzie to be a good actor).

As for you Joanne, stop neing a naysayer! It's harmless fun!

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