Welcome back to “The O.C.”

Fox, Thursdays at 8 p.m.

You know you’ve seen a good season premiere when something actually happens in it – rather than just dragging out last season’s cliffhanger. Not so here. We got a great conclusion to the Trey storyline handed to us, wrapped with love in a nice big bow.

Happily enough, the episode gave Trey closure; he didn’t just disappear from the hospital room after saying Ryan shot him and vanish from the series for a season and a half. He woke up a third of the way into the opener, tried to accuse Ryan halfway through and was swayed by Marissa to do the right thing.

Despite all the closure from last season, this year’s opener still managed to set up several interesting mysteries to unravel in future episodes. Who is Kirsten’s stalker? And why is she wearing white after Labor Day? Also, why did Jimmy randomly show back up?

Both couples retain just as much chemistry as they had at the end of last season. The long music montage of Sohen (Seth and Summer) and Ryissa (Ryan and Marissa) aboard the self-steering yacht and playing on the beach is so sweet, producers are going to have a hard time breaking up these duos this year.

I’ll put it simply: The magic is back in full force. The dialogue is as witty as ever and the characters as endearing as before.

A “Reunion” I’d Rather Skip

Fox, Thursdays at 9 p.m.

How does the series with the most original and intriguing premise of the new season turn into the biggest cheesefest since “One Tree Hill”?

“Reunion” opens at the funeral of one of six life-long friends and the mysteries of the series are: Which of the friends was killed and which of the friends killed him/her? The mystery aspect of the series falls completely flat. Viewers cannot hope to find any clues or motives, let alone know what to look for if we don’t know who is dead!

Yet the series remains watchable. No series that has a car crash, two deaths, an unexpected pregnancy, a Seth Cohen clone, a court case so cliche you can’t stop laughing and couples cheating can be all bad. It’s also fun to just sit back and watch Sean Faris try to emote in his scenes – that guy has to be one of the worst actors to ever score a lead.

So, I’ll be back tonight for the second installment, just to see if the series goes from bad to worse.

Contact ALL correspondent Robert Taylor at [email protected].