The Chronic Consumer

I never watched a single episode of The O.C. while the show was actually airing on FOX, but I ended up watching the entire series on DVDs borrowed from friends. At first, I didn’t think the show was anything special, and in fact couldn’t stand Benjamin McKenzie’s take on Ryan Atwood or the love story involving Ryan and Marissa, so I took my time going through the DVDs.

But once I got past the first half of Season 1, I was fully invested in the show and its characters, and couldn’t get enough. That’s why I recently decided to buy all four seasons on DVD for my own collection so I can watch my favorite eps again and again.

The Complete First Season box set contains all 27 episodes that aired from August 2003 to May 2004. There are seven discs in the collection, with four episodes appearing on each disc. The exception is Disc 7, which has three episodes plus several cool bonus features, including:

• “The O.C. Unseen” (deleted scenes)
• “Casting The O.C.” (how and why the actors were selected)
• “Inside the Real O.C.” (McG talks to real O.C. teens to get their take on the authenticity of the show)
• “The Music of The O.C.” (how the music supervisor chooses the tunes)
• “Season 2 Sneak Peek”

I thought all of the features were pretty cool, but especially liked the insights into casting choices. For instance, I had no idea that Peter Gallagher was cast first and that Mischa Barton was second. Both of those were deliberate choices on the part of the producers because they felt those characters would anchor the show. In addition, I didn’t know that Adam Brody was an afterthought or that Rachel Bilson was originally only supposed to be a minor character. It’s amazing how drastically the direction of a show can change based on the actors involved.

The set also includes a guide to the DVDs so you can quickly find out which disc an episode appears on, get a short episode summary, and get chapter titles. This is very handy — and necessary, since no title information appears on the discs themselves.

Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase of The O.C. — The Complete First Season. I paid just $16.99 for it at Amazon.com, so I definitely got a steal. This set is highly recommended, even at twice that price!