Information Report On "THE OC" - Film and Television Studies

‘The OC’ is a television series aimed at teenage viewers, which has been carefully constructed to appeal to its demographic. In order to be successful in attracting a regular youth audience, many things needed to be considered such as the character types and storylines, as well as the ideology of the series and the representations of youth. Although it lingers in the genre of the dramatic it is occasionally comedic in order to create a successful amalgamation of the two genres most popular with teens. ‘The OC’ is essentially about a network of friends, family and aquaintances and the trials and tribulations which they go through in their wealthy turbulent community of Orange County, making it a unique and interesting series for young viewers.

Character TypesThe characters of ‘The OC’ have been constructed to all be very different yet all appealing to the target audience. Because like all teen shows, the majority of characters are within the age range of the youth audience, they were all constructed to be different to the usual characters of a teen series, yet also with many similar aspects and character types that the viewers are familiar with.

Julie 08

Julie 07

Ryan Atwood

Ryan is a troubled teenager from the wrong side of the tracks in Chino, Los Angeles who is thrown out of his house after an unfortunate run-in with the law. He finds himself on his own and is welcomed into the expensive Cohen residence in the wealthy community of Orange County, California. He is the typical “bad boy”, “rebel without a cause” character, which is especially appealing to teenage girls despite his often cynical and pessimistic attitude.

Sandy is the “ideal dad” who is the head of the Cohen household. He welcomed Ryan into their lives and gave him a chance when no one else would...