Tonight on The O.C.: Predicatability Meets Product Placement

After about three years of baseball, The O.C. is back on Fox, and frankly, I can't really say that's a good thing. At least not if this week's episode is any indication of things to come. Hopefully, this is just one of those "course correction" episodes that become neccessary every once in a while to get a show back on track, but if not, things are headed into the crapper.

Why the vehement hatred for the last episode, well, how about the fact that it rehashed just about every single plot point in O.C. history: Ryan runs away, Marissa is depressed and moody. A sexual affair between an adult and a minor. Then there was the whole blackmail sub-plot. Gee, I didn't see that one coming. Oh wait, yes I did. And if the utter lack of originality wasn't enough, how about we dedicate the entire episode to Motorola and it's wonderful Sidekick cell phone. Ooh, it's a phone, it does text, it surfes the web! It's also a patently obvious ploy at marketing the damn thing to teenagers, and anyone else dumb enough not to see through the ever so subtle product placement.

Word to the wise (Josh Scwartz and McG, that means you): Get the show back on track, or your going to see your audience disappear faster than you can say midseason replacement...