Remembering “The OC”

It seems strange to say that Fox’s teen drama The OC was my first fandom. It’s not completely true – had I easy access to the internet is the mid 90s, I’d have been finding fic for Lois and Clark or The West Wing – but in college, The OC came along and started my passion for television (leading me here).

As the show’s pilot aired a little over fifteen years ago, I find myself remembering how the show captured me, and later, how it allowed me to cope with bad news. For how I started to watch the show, I spent my summer away from home for the first time (in the sense that I worked at my college for all but two weeks) and I missed California. Massachusetts is not suburban Los Angeles, but I kept hearing of this new show that took a kid from near enough to my home town and dropped him into Orange County, I had to watch.

Ryan Atwood’s story was nothing like mine, but I was captivated. Maybe it was the music (I remember getting my first iPod and filling it with songs from the show, downloaded after each episode aired), or maybe it was all these fish out of water in a place that looked familiar, but it was love at first watch.

Religiously I watched the show all through my time in college, and had the first season’s DVD on as I waited for the 2004 election results. In the highs and lows of the Cohens, Coopers, and Atwoods, I also found forums to talk about the show and all the complicated relationships, leading me into the whole world of fandom. I spent hours talking to other fans about the show, about the ‘ships, about the characters, while also forming relationships with them. (I’m thankful that I’m still friends with some of those friends today.)

When much news was made this weekend about The OC turning fifteen, I remember the chords of “California” and Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” I laugh remember going to the unauthorized musical of the show (where Rachel Bilson stopped by) all with fondness and just a bit of nostalgia. I guess it’s time for a re-watch.