Death may jolt 'The O.C.' ratings
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON - Calgary Sun

The gang graduates from Harbor High in The O.C. season finale.

To paraphrase its theme -- California, there she goes.

Fox's teen melodrama The O.C. killed off Mischa Barton's resident drama queen Marissa Cooper at the end of Thursday's third-season finale.

The demise -- not quite a shock as Barton had reportedly been looking to exit the series -- is expected to signal a shift in tone for the fourth season.

Simply put -- a little more mellow, a little less drama.

As Barton told Access Hollywood, "My character has been through so, so much and there's really nothing more left for her to do."

With Thursday's instalment, the creators and Fox gave the actress her wish -- sending Marissa to her grave in a climactic car crash, after which she died in the arms of her on-and-off-again love interest, Ryan.


It may also give viewers sick of gloom, doom and sap a welcome return to the show's first season when it established itself as a smart, sarcastic breakout hit.

By the second season, however, things began to bog down. Characters moped, got shot, broke up, cried, spiraled into rehab and died. Not surprisingly, all the dire drama turned off critics and viewers.

Ratings slipped. Fans balked.

The death of Marissa -- while likely necessitated by Barton's desire to move on -- gives the show an excuse to reinvent itself with new characters, including Marissa's little sister.

Facilitating this will be creator Josh Schwartz, who left the past couple seasons to other writers and producers, and is returning to guide what could very likely be the series' swan song.

Schwartz, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, said he intends to jettison the moodiness for more wit and winsomeness. (Fear not, though -- he also told the magazine it won't turn into "the Muppet babies" or into something resembling the latter years of Beverly Hills 90210, in which the characters conveniently ended up at the same college.)

As for the future of 20-year-old Barton, she's hardly out of work.

The former model was already a veteran actress when The O.C. premiered in 2003, having appeared on TV series such as Once and Again and in films, most memorably as the ghost of a girl poisoned by her mother in The Sixth Sense.

She's currently a spokesmodel for Neutrogena and the Collection bebe clothing line and a favourite of the press; in recent months, she's even participated in a public skirmish with Paris Hilton.

As far as her acting career goes, one of her future films, due in 2007, is ironically called Guilty Pleasures. Ironic because one hopes her departure may make The O.C. just that again.

I will of course watch it but I'm not very hopeful

S1 was amazing. S2 was decent. S3 was pure crap. >.<

Actually, I liked the latter season more, as they were older and there was no more of a return to Ryan's past. Anyways, this is now destined to flop. I guarantee it. Anytime TV shows or even music groups loses a big member...demise usually follows soon. Although, who does Mischa Barton think she is? She is nothing without this show. All those other "achievements" listed were not at all legendary and her character had sooo much more to wrap up, which I am going to enjoy seeing wut the producers are planning to do to cover the plot.

Well, Josh Shwartz is back on. He was responsible for all of the first season (best one) and basically none of the 2nd and 3rd, so hopefully it can only get better.

Same here.
And thank God Schwartz is going to give more attention to The O.C. again.

The show will never be the same again.

Season 1 and & 2 were way better than Season 3. It just got worse and worse with every season. Still love the show but yeah, i guess a fresh new start is what it needs.

Marissa has experienced gay relationship, drug problem, almost getting raped, involved in killing someone, and plus all the drama with her and Ryan .... she was just all over the place.