The O.C.: Season 4 [DVD]

With the death of Marissa Cooper bringing to an end the third season of The O.C., things certainly had to swing upward with the start of the fourth season. While the first few episodes of what turned out to be the final season of this addictive primetime soap opera were a little sluggish, the rest of the season was a return to the glory of season one, albeit a little too late to salvage the show. Coming into season four, it was likely that this would be the last season for the show, one of my favorites and midway through the season it was announced that the show would conclude after 16 episodes. The announcement did give creator Josh Schwartz enough time to pen a great ending, one that wrapped the series up in a nice bow and presented it to the fans who had been with the show since day one. But starting the season was tough, as it was six months after Marissa was killed in a traffic accident caused by bad boy Volchok. Ryan (Ben McKenzie) is still traumatized over the death of the girl who had changed his life, and as we open the season, he is working in a seedy bar and cage fighting. But, he has connections with Marissa's mom, Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke), who reaches out to him when her private investigator finds out where Volchok is located. Ryan's distance is hard on Sandy (Peter Gallagher) and Kirsten Cohen (Kelly Rowan), as they struggle with watching their adopted "son" fall on hard times. In the first few episodes, Ryan is finally convinced to come home to Newport Beach and begin mending his life and his heart. The early part of the season takes viewers on a trip to Mexico as Ryan and Seth (Adam Brody) look for Volchok south of the border. Sandy and Kirsten follow and eventually, Volchok turns himself in, with Sandy's help, keeping Ryan from going off the deep end and killing him as he truly wanted to do. Sandy's act not only helps Volchok, but helps Ryan stay out of trouble and on the right side of the law. From there, the season picks up and returns to the soapy drama and humor that made it such a hit in the first season. This season truly found the groove again, thanks in part to a great casting move, one that anybody watching season three would've found hard to believe. The show runners brought in Taylor Townsend (the gorgeous Autumn Reeser) in season three, seemingly as a foil for the main characters. While she was only a guest star during that season, the new season finds her among the regular stars in the opening credits and her addition to the full time cast was a blessing. She truly brought a lot of the humor that the show needed. Taylor has been away in France in college for the six months since graduation and returns to California with a wedding ring and a need to escape her French husband, Henri-Michel. She finds her reason in Ryan, though their relationship takes some great twists and turns along the way. Ryan trying to express his feelings for Taylor is pretty funny and when Henri-Michel comes to Newport to woo Taylor back to France, it becomes obvious that he has feelings for her even if he can't completely express them. The relationship with Taylor is Ryan's main story throughout the season, as he is still having a hard time letting go of the memory of Marissa and can't commit to Taylor the way she wants. Watching him struggle to figure out what he is feeling provides a good dose of humor. Summer (the beautiful Rachel Bilson) has spent her first semester at Brown University where she has undergone major changes. Instead of the Newport girl that left Seth, she is now an environmental activist, wreaking havoc on the Rhode Island campus with her new friend Che (guest star Chris Pratt, who is hilarious in this role). When she gets kicked out of school for setting rabbits free from their cages, she returns to Newport and has to face the fact that her best friend is gone, something she had been putting on a back page during her activist stage. Seth is working in a comic book store, leaving long messages on Summer's answering machine, longing for the days when he had Ryan and Summer to keep him company in Newport. He soon gets both of them back and things seem to return to "normal" for Seth despite the fact that Summer has obviously changed. Julie and Kirsten continue as business partners in New Match, a high-end dating service that Julie turns into a male prostitution ring, temporarily ruining her friendship with Kirsten. It is through this business that Julie meets Gordon Bullitt (guest star Gary Grubbs) and Ryan's father, Frank Atwood (guest star Kevin Sorbo). Unable to decide, Julie dates both men, unable to make a choice in her life, despite the best efforts of her daughter Kaitlin (Willa Holland) to get her to choose the wealthy Bullitt. The return of Ryan's father also brings trouble, much like the return of his mother and brother in previous seasons. Frank has been in jail and initially, Ryan wants nothing to do with him, but Frank lies to get Ryan to see him and the two slowly begin to mend the fences that came down quickly in the past. Ryan even helps Frank on the Julie front, teaming with Taylor to form "Team Frank." Sandy and Kirsten get a major surprise on Kirsten's 40th birthday, as she reveals she is pregnant and instead of having an empty nest, the couple will be welcoming a new baby, though both parents cringe at the thought of raising another kid in Newport. Perhaps the highlight of the season was the Chrismukkah episode, where Ryan and Taylor fall off a ladder and end up in an alternate Newport, where Sandy is mayor and married to Julie, Kirsten is still working at the Newport Group and married to Jimmy Cooper (guest star Tate Donovan), Seth is still a geek and Summer is marrying Che (or Chester as he's known in the alternate world). This episode allowed the stars to play different characters for a while and was pretty funny to watch. The final few episodes wrap the series up very nicely. An earthquake rattles Orange County, putting everyone in danger and it is revealed that the Cohen house has been destroyed. This leads Ryan and Seth on a mission to Berkeley to try and purchase Sandy and Kirsten's first house even as a pregnant (with Frank's kid) Julie prepares to marry Bullitt (and yes, he knows). Sandy and Kirsten fly to Berkeley and end up having the baby in their old house, prompting Julie and Bullitt to move the wedding there as well, eventually convincing the new owners to sell the house to Sandy and Kirsten. The final few minutes glimpses into the future of the characters, looking at what Ryan, Summer, Seth, Sandy, Kirsten, Julie, Kaitlin and the whole group is up to. It is a great way to end, with everyone seemingly in a good place, just where you might hope they'd be. This set also has some good extras, which add to the release. Schwartz provides commentary on the series finale and it is well done and informative. There is a couple of good featurettes, one on the creation of Seth's holiday blend, Chrismukkah and another on the evolution of the Summer character, focusing on her transformation from Newport Barbie to well-rounded young woman. Her character did go through possibly the most changes throughout the four-year history of the show. All told, the season wrapped up well, surely leaving viewers pleased and as a big fan of the show, I think this DVD set did a great job presenting the final 16 episodes.

After the lackluster storyline in Season 3, the O.C. was redeemed again in Season 4, but by that time it was too late. The viewership dropped astronomically by the millions when Season 4 rolled around and never picked up momentum causing the Warner Bros., the studio behind the show to cancel the O.C. abruptly. This abruptness was noticed towards the end of Season 4 when the O.C. experiences an Earthquake in the show. The continuity is noticed at that point where the studio pulled the plug and suddenly the show is wrapped up quickly in a nice pretty bow. Season 4 was an exceptional season after Season 3 dragged downward through one ridiculousness after another. Season 4 starts off just as low as we're dragged through the aftermath of the Marissa Cooper death in Season 3 and then the revenge on the guy responsible, Volchak. Once that wraps itself up after a few episodes, then the show begins to build steam upward again becoming interesting and moving in the way it was in Seasons 1 and 2. Unfortunately many stopped watching the show by the time it hit Season 4. You can notice the downward trajectory in viewers with Season 1 having 10 million viewers, Season 2 dropping to 7 million, Season 3 dropping to 6 million, and then Season 4 only having 4 million viewers left. Not enough for the studio to keep shooting episodes. It's a shame as Season 4 was better than 3.

Great show and I’m glad I own all the seasons to watch anytime I want!

The final season of one of the ALL-TIME greatest T.V. shows.. The show started out as a summer mid season replacement and grew to a worldwide Phenomena. Its stars, reaching life from the unknown to global stardom... This season itself started out quite dark after the death of Marissa Cooper(Mischa Barton). Ryan Atwood(Ben Mackenzie) is living a life as a bartender by day and a underground fighter by night, losing fights on purpose so he can receive the punishment(and pain) that he thinks he deserves.. Cut to a few episodes in. Summer Roberts(Rachel bison) and Seth Cohen(Adam Brody)are living together,but apart with Summer attending Brown University and caring more about the environment then what shoes are in season(true O.C. fans will understand the irony here). The weird item for this season is the introduction of Taylor Townsend (Autumn Reeser)as Ryan's new love interest.. The season was created as a tie up for all the characters to show how all their lives moved on after Marissa's death and the death of the show. Personally i LOVED this show. it was a fun and sometimes poignant family drama, in which even myself a(35 year old at the time)found myself with a tear in my eye more then once.. Josh Schwartz is a credit to the industry with his witty and edge full writing, while still being able to create a "REAL" existence to a elitist community.. If your a fan of "Buffy the Vampire slayer(and its utmost awesome creator and scripe, Joss Whedon) and loved the way the show's witty humor pulled you in,then this show is for you..Welcome to the O.C.

First of all, I can't even begin to comprehend how anyone enjoyed this season. Many people have written that the season is surprisingly good despite the criticism. I want to inform potential season 4 victims that this season is absolutely horrible. If you understand what makes a good network show, then you will agree that the season is worthless. Without Mischa Barton the series lacks life, which becomes even more evident when the producers desperately try to replace her with Autumn Reeser. While Autumn is an unbelievably hot girl, this effort cannot salvage the remainder of the series, and it turns out to be a disappointment. Summer becomes a hippie? Why? Seth defers a year to go to RISD...If they are really the wealthy family the show makes them out to be, why can't he go to college. Not only that, RISD is not a good school. Furthermore, Summer would have never got into Brown. If someone as hot as Summer got into Brown, she would be the hottest girl in Brown's historic existence (this is true, I go to an Ivy League school, the girls are grim). Anyway, I guess I am trying to emphasize the fact that the plot begins to make absolutely no sense. Obviously, the first seasons aren't completely realistic either, but they have at least a shred of truth in them. I mean who is Volchek, that is such B.S. The guy would never pull Mischa Barton: he doesn't have a four year degree, he's ugly, and he's poor. Please, let's be realistic. If you want my opinion they should have had me producing. All the characters should have all been in the same area for college, they should have ditched Sandy and Kirstin back in the beloved O.C. and gone to college to get drunk, blackout, and have sex with everyone in sight. Not only is that what people want to see, it is life!

I haven't watched the special features yet, but I wish there would have been more on this set. I'm sure the ones that are on here are nice but considering it's the end of the series, I wish there would have been more interviews. I did listen to the commentary on "The End's Not Near, It's Here" and it was fantastic. Josh is funny, informative, and self-deprecating and it makes for a very satisfying commentary to the finale. It would have been nice though if some cast members contributed to the commentaries though. The cover art is my favorite, I think, out of all the other seasons. Honestly though every cover has been really great each season. The only problem is that they aren't consistent. It's too bad that 3 and 4 didn't follow the same trend as 1 and 2, but at the same time the differences are nice. I miss the montages. I also hate the two-disc trays. But they aren't horrible I suppose. Hopefully the complete series set will improve on the special features, hopefully there'll be more commentaries and documentaries/interviews.

When I first heard about the show I was sceptical but I gave it a try. So, Season 1 was probably the best season of a TV show I have seen so far. Sadly, the show could not live up to the high expectations in season 2 and 3. The story was just too weird and too extreme in my opinion with a lot of unnecessary characters (Johnny etc). Surprisingly, as some guys noted before, the show recovered nicely in its fourth season, though not quite as good as the first one. The show regained its good sense of humor and relationships were, for most part, more credible than in the previous two seaons. I think Autumn Reeser does a pretty good job taking the co-lead female role, showing some very good acting skills. I have to admit really convincing performance. I could have well imagined her for further seasons of the O.C. What I can still not understand is how it got cancelled. Ok, granted, season 2 and 3 were not too exciting. Still, it seems like the few TV shows that are worth watching get cancelled too soon. And others, without naming them, are running for the 10th season or something. Strange.

The product came fast, the product also was in great condition for used.all the DVDs played well.