10 Years

So yeah, when I title this 10 years, I'm talking about 10 years since the start of the television evening soap opera/drama/teen comedy thing called the O.C. which has been a consistent part of my television experience. Now I realize that this is not always the most morally sound show, that the characters make mistakes and the jokes are not always on color. With that acknowledgment, though, I'd be lying to you if I said that this was not my favorite television show of all time. In an effort to be honest, I will try and explain here why I love it so much. People will laugh at this, I'm sure, but I feel almost duty-bound to write it. And I promise there's a point. So here we go. 

One of my favorite websites out there is grantland.com. Once again, it's not Catholic or always perfectly on color, but I somehow find that the human commentary I find there on sports, pop culture, and everything in between is more authentic and real than what I find elsewhere, and so I love it. I digress. I am so very proud to be a fan of this website today, when there are 3 articles reflecting on the experience of the O.C. One article is by a person who never watched the show, but knows it changed the music world. Another is by a movie reviewer who does a wonderful job of explaining what the O.C. did so well. The third, the one I loved the most, is a personal reflection of the way that the O.C. impacted a man's life. Here's a quote:

"The O.C. was a show, and an experience, about growing up — especially behind the camera even as things were falling apart in front of it. Now that I write about TV full-time, I often think of that first set visit as a reminder that everything on the air is personal to somebody, even if the specific material isn't, and that much of what we fall in love with on TV is really just the hope and promise of beginnings. On soap operas, as in real life, the start of something is always brighter and better than the eventual slow fade of endings." 

-Andy Greenwald, Looking Back on The O.C., A Decade Later

Yes Andy, that's it. You see for me, the show didn't enter my life in 2003 when it started. When I was a junior in high school, though, looking at my time in high school starting to wind down and my future looming on the horizon in front of me, The O.C. came almost out of nowhere. Originally, I began watching this maybe as a joke or maybe to impress a girl or whatever (no comment), but quickly it became something more. Very quickly, my experience of this show was not some fictional soap opera about drama and relationships and the goings-on of rich kids  in California, but something much deeper.

Unlike Andy, I don't write about TV full-time, and I never got to visit the O.C. set like he did. I can, however, relate to the experience of saying that the things happening on TV are somehow personal to somebody, because that is my experience of this show. Was I going through the exact relationship issues of Seth and Summer? Had I gone through the change and turmoil or Ryan or of Marissa? Did I know what Sandy Cohen felt on a morning surf? No-of course not. I was a kid in the Chicago suburbs growing up. What I fell in love with, what I will still tell you about this show, is that through watching the material became personal because they experienced life at the same time I did. These characters grew up, and I grew up (or tried to). Every episode brought the hope of a new beginning. Every character went through rough times but kept moving forward. The prospect of life after high school was brighter than the end of the comfort of what I had known, and this show helped me to prepare for what was to come.

Listen, I'm not saying that I wanted to be like these characters. They were at times dysfunctional or worse, they made plenty of mistakes. And yet, in the midst of all of it, there was something I couldn't draw myself away from. From the raw experiencing of reality of Seth Cohen, making jokes always at the wrong time, to the turmoil of Ryan Atwood trying to figure out who the heck he is, something about these characters helped me learn who I was. And so, from those days until now, I watch this show and it makes me feel something. I'm not saying you need to run off and watch this show. But I am saying that, for me, there will never be anything that could compare.

You might think I'm crazy, but I think sometimes the Lord works in whatever way He knows He can reach us. For me, it was a crazy teen soap opera from the early 2000's (which spent the better part of every episode making fun of its genre in a way that you could miss if you weren't looking for it) which taught me that there is always a light, that the end isn't dark but that there is always a new beginning. And then, as quickly as it began, it ended. But it didn't end with the end. No, in the way that only this show was capable of, it ended by showing a whole bunch of new beginnings. Here's the final video. Don't make fun of me too badly, and don't forget that there is a brightness ahead that is much better than any darkness behind.