The O.C. - The Complete First Season (DVD)

It is no wonder "The O.C." has managed to take television by storm considering the first season manages to offer up everything "Beverly Hills 90210" took an entire series to do, plus managing to make far more interesting characters especially when it comes to the parents compared to "90210."

The first season of "The O.C." surrounds Ryan Atwood (McKenzie) a young Russell Crowe look alike that has found himself adopted by the Cohen's, a wealthy Orange County family, after he was accomplice to a car theft with his brother and the victim of his mother walking out on him following the incident.

What lay ahead of Ryan is a life that he is completely unfamiliar with and about to be infiltrated by the likes of drug overdoses, a couple of gun wielding idiots, a homosexual father, business fraud and more than enough relationship drama to keep the ladies in the audience interested.

I will admit that I enjoyed this show and took no time in getting through all 27 episodes, but I did get to the point that I actually hated the character of Marissa Cooper played by Mischa Barton. For some reason the writers of this show have decided that if something extremely stupid and irrational is to be done it is going to be Marissa to be doing the dirty work and Barton doesn't add anything to the character but the fish-lipped look of an actress struggling to emote what she is feeling.

As for the rest of the cast I don't have anything bad to say and nothing but good words for the likes of Peter Gallagher and Adam Brody as they play Sandy and Seth Cohen respectively. These two manage to keep the show somewhat down-to-Earth and humorous despite the usual soap opera clichés that pop-up everywhere.

As far as this box-set goes for features you not only get all 27 first season episodes you get a good look at the casting of "The O.C.", on screen music guides, audio commentary on the pilot episode, deleted scenes, a sneak peek at Season 2 and a look at "The Real O.C." with show producer McG.

Out of all these features the best has to be the look at the casting of the show and the worst certainly falls on the shoulders of McG as his Californian guide to Orange County is anything but interesting.

Special Features are by no means the reason to buy or not to buy the first season of "The O.C." as this is definitely going to be a long running television show, even though I hear the ratings are beginning to slide on Season 2 and a few of the rumors I have heard concerning the second season plotline are a bit far-fetched. Nevertheless, even if you don't like the second season and aren't sure if you want anything other than the first season on DVD, the final episode of this season is definitely left in a situation where you could call it a finale if you were so inclined.

I don't think this is a risky buy, you know what to expect if you have ever caught an episode of "Dawson's Creek", "90210" or "Melrose Place" and deny it all you like, I know you have seen at least one episode of those shows, if not more.