The O.C. and the Disintegration of the Family
Tijuana, affairs, divorce, (lots and lots of) fistfights, or overhearing that your mom had sex with your ex-boyfriend.
Feuer begins her discussion with how television as an apparatus differs greatly from cinema or novels. Because television is “not very well described by models of narrative analysis based on linearity and resolution” (135), Feuer concludes that television’s narrative structure must be inherently different than that of the self-enclosed film. She then maps out several ways in which the televisual narrative strives to perpetuate itself week after week. She refers primarily to the episodic series and the continuing serial as two means by which television promotes its ideological objectives: “the need to repeat and the need to contain” (142). The episodic series relies upon a “continual reintegration of the family” (137), whereas the continuing serial depends on the family’s disintegration. Were the family to be reconstituted in the continuing serial, it would “mean the end of the hermeneutic chain” (141) and thus the end of the show.
The premise of “The O.C.” relies entirely upon the idea of a broken family. Ryan Atwood, the sixteen year old boy from the wrong side of the tracks, has been welcomed into the home of his lawyer, Sandy Cohen, rather than put under the care of the state after getting into trouble with the law. Sandy and his wife Kirsten are a wealthy
Orange
County couple with a son the same age as Ryan. Not only does Ryan embody the image of the broken family every time he steps on screen (Ryan is originally from Chino, a poor suburb, and his mother is an abusive alcoholic who has all but left him for dead) but he is also quite obviously an external addition to the Cohen family, and thus, brings a certain amount of conflict with him. While living with the Cohens, Ryan gets into fistfights with local bullies, burns down a mansion, and attempts to have a relationship with Marissa, the girl-next-door. Throughout the series, we watch as Ryan becomes more and more integrated into the fabric of the Cohen family, but always lying dormant in the back of our minds is the possibility that at any time the entire arrangement could be thrown out of equilibrium and dismantled.
In addition to the turmoil that Ryan creates as the show’s protagonist, internal conflict is always present among the other characters on the show. The Coopers, the Cohen’s next-door neighbors, are a family torn apart by fraud, drug abuse, and divorce. Though the Coopers are not related to the Cohens by blood, the family narrative still exists, as members of both families are constantly intermingling with one another to create drama. (Jimmy Cooper and Kirsten Cohen dated in high school which leads to an awkward flirtation after Jimmy’s divorce, Ryan and Marissa are involved in an on-again-off-again romance, Julie Cooper then dates Kirsten’s father, Caleb, after her divorce.)
Feuer states that characters on serials do not change; the only thing that changes is their relationship to one another. On “The O.C.” this is plainly evident of nearly all the characters within the narrative. For example, Julie Cooper, once the icy trophy-wife from next door, has been placed in many different narratives. She has been Marissa’s terrible mother (most notably when she attempts to commit Marissa to a mental institution without her consent), a penniless divorcee (after her husband Jimmy gets indicted on embezzlement charges, leaving her with nothing), a money-hungry gold-digger (throughout her relationship with Caleb, the powerful, but much older real-estate developer), a surprisingly competent interior designer (when Caleb hires her at his firm), and the Older Woman (when she begins a sexual relationship with her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, Luke). Julie’s position within the narrative is always shifting, yet she remains the same woman throughout it all – always in the middle of some sort of family-related controversy.
“The O.C.” is a program that offers “an intricate menu of topics which for some viewers are experienced by character and for others by theme” (141). Some loyal fans only pay attention to scenes where Adam Brody (the Cohen’s son, Seth) appears, using the rest of the show as background scenery for chatting or working. Some fans of the show are only interested in the storylines that deal with romance (which doesn’t exclude much) or the “mature” storylines that revolve primarily around the adults. Some fans are only interested in what happens to the “kids” of the show. And some of the show’s fans are so deeply invested in the fate of the citizens of
Orange
County that they watch each episode in its entirety, searching for any signs of foreshadowing or links to past episodes.
Of course, to say that “The O.C.” is a show that relies entirely upon the disintegration of the family due to internal conflict is a bit misleading. In order to fully understand this idea, we need to realize that there are several families contained within the larger scope of the cast. Yes, the Cohens and the Coopers are two families in the literal sense, but the case can also be made that family units exist both among the children (Ryan, Seth, Marissa, Summer, Luke) and among the adults[1] (Sandy, Kirsten, Jimmy, Julie, Caleb). Within these smaller families, outside forces are constantly appearing to disrupt the already-tenuous balance. In the children’s case, the outside forces were Oliver (a mentally-unstable boy who tried to break up the group and cause harm to its members) and Anna (a former friend/romantic interest of Seth’s – while her presence was useful for the love-triangle subplot between her, Seth, and Summer, now that Seth has chosen Summer, it was inevitable that Anna would be cast out of the inner-circle). For the adults, the biggest “outside” player has been Hailey, Kirsten’s fiery sister, who has recently come back into town. Not only is Hailey wild and unpredictable, she also has her eyes on Jimmy Cooper, which will certainly lead to drama in the coming weeks.
Considering these two families (the children and the adults), it only makes sense that the two interfere with one another from time to time. This has happened most recently with the subplot involving Luke and Julie Cooper. Luke, Marissa’s former boyfriend, has started a sexual relationship with Julie, much to the disdain of the other members of the “kid” family. (Namely Ryan, who understands how a scandal such as this could devastate both families.)
As soon as one situation gets resolved on the show, another one rises to take its place. Conflict is rarely saved for the end of an episode – instead the conflict is resolved in the middle, leaving room within the show to develop the next week’s conundrum. This is what keeps the audience coming back week after week; “disintegration must be the method of self-replication,” (141) Feuer states. “Integration into a happy family remains the ultimate goal, but it cannot endure for any given couple” (144). As soon as the Ryan and Marissa relationship begins to work itself out, the drama begins for young Seth, who now finds himself with two women to contend with.
Feuer states that when analyzing the continuing serial, there is always the possibility that “the very need to ‘rupture’ the family in order for the plot to continue can be viewed as a ‘dangerous’ strategy in the sense that it allows for a reading of the disintegration as a critique of the family itself” (141). In looking at “The O.C.”, specifically, I do not feel this is a valid observation. Though many of the families portrayed on the show are broken or altogether absent (for example, Marissa’s younger sister Caitlyn who has appeared on the show a grand total of two times), there is still a solid foundation in the Cohen family, comprised of Sandy, Kirsten, and Seth. The three of them have proven time and time again that the family is an incredibly strong unit – a force not to be reckoned with. When
Sandy gets propositioned by a sexy coworker, without even thinking he turns her down and runs home to Kirsten. When Seth needs sex advice from his father, he feels comfortable enough to talk with
Sandy about his problems. Seth repeatedly refers to Ryan as if they are brothers, always trying to integrate Ryan into the fabric of their little family. The Cohens are forgiving, open-minded, and intelligent – definitely a family to look up to. They serve as an excellent base upon which the rest of the show is built.
So, while it may be true that “The O.C.” depends heavily on endless plot twists and merciless intermingling between all of its cast members to keep our attention, it certainly doesn’t follow that this disruption means the show is against the concept of “family” as an ideological institution. In fact, the show’s narrative twists and turns would not be nearly as riveting were it not for the strong bonds between all of the people within the narrative. Without the underlying familial bonds set in place, the plot ceases to be an entertaining foray into their slick, glossy world and instead becomes a confusing and boring glimpse into the lives of complete strangers.
Works Cited:
1. Feuer, Jane. “Narrative Form in American Network Television,” High Theory/Low Culture, ed. Colin MacCabe (Manchester, UK: Manchester UP, 1986) 101-114.
[1] – When visiting the discussion forums on Television Without Pity (www.televisionwithoutpity.com), we see that the discussions about cast members are broken down into two main categories: “The OF” (Old Folks) and “The YC” (Young Crowd).
