Teen soaps tread in mediocrity

Robert Taylor

“The OC”

Fox, Thursdays at 9

“The OC” is officially dead to me.

It used to have at least five or six quotable lines for every episode, now viewers are lucky to get one funny line every three episodes.

It used to perfectly juggle its large diverse cast of characters, both adult and child. Now, Kirsten might as well become a prop in the kitchen instead of a character, and Summer and Seth have all the electricity of a wet blanket. It took Kirsten almost boozing it up again and Summer screaming at Seth to leave her alone to make me even remember why the hell I liked the characters to begin with.

How could the show have become this far gone? The writers must be holding weekly meetings to try and come up with ways to take all the life out of the show, and the actors must have lost all faith in the writers. And the network doesn’t seem to care.

There are so many ways to save the show. Remind the viewers why they rooted for Summer and Seth for so long. Give Kirsten something to do. Bring Theresa back with her baby. Get Marissa and Seth together. Anything would be better than this mopey bunch doing the same scene 11 times in every episode.

“One Tree Hill”

The WB, Wednesdays at 8

Just a few weeks after that excellent school-shooting episode, “One Tree Hill” has returned to its usual level of complete stupidity. As a reviewer, I must tell you that this is possibly the worst hour of drama on television and that you will not for one second believe any of the characters or situations.

I was hoping for some emotional fallout from the shooting in one form or another, but two episodes later, the gang is out in a cabin in the woods dealing with their usual problems and acting dirtier than ever.

As an example of just how bad the show is, viewers were treated to Brooke reading a sexy note from Lucas then going into her bedroom and “Brooking” herself. Did the writers really have to come up with that term? Because I can now never hear the name Brooke without giggling like a little girl.

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