There is no nostalgia that hits me quite like the opening bars of ‘California’ by Phantom Planet. Suddenly, I’m a tween again and am swept back into the world of The OC, with its sun-kissed cast, the Newport Beach coastline studded with McMansions, and a soundtrack that is still (embarrassingly) included in my most-listened to playlists.
Like many other women of my era (i.e. Millennials), I was obsessed with Marissa (Mischa Barton) and Summer’s (Rachel Bilson’s) style – when they wore headbands, I wore headbands; when they wore jeans with a nice top, I wore jeans with a nice top. I was also a complete Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) stan.
Seth Cohen was a whole new type of leading man. Despite his character not intending to be the show’s main love interest (that went to Ryan, played by Ben McKenzie), Adam Brody’s Seth made a generation of teens swoon after the hot nerd. Seth and Summer’s on-again, off-again romance was also what kept viewers (well, me) coming back – even for the questionable fourth season. I had a poster of him on my wall right next to Pete Wentz and pictures of the cast on my school books. It’s safe to say I was obsessed. As a young adult, I thought he was the perfect man: charming, funny, witty, and that ideal blend of cute and hot.
Yet, having recently re-watched the series some 20 years later – the show has just celebrated two decades since it was first aired – I’ve realised that everything I thought I believed about Seth Cohen was wrong. As it turns out, he’s a pretty strong candidate for television’s worst boyfriend.
OK, hear me out (this will obviously contain spoilers but it also came out like 20 years ago, so). In the first season we are introduced to Seth as a quiet nerd who doesn’t really have any friends and is obsessed with a classmate called Summer. Long story short, he ends up in a love triangle with Summer and his friend-turned-love interest Anna (Samaire Armstrong) and is essentially pitting the two women against each other in order to win his affections. Yes, he wasn’t used to this amount of attention from women, but the whole thing was just gross TBH.
When he finally realises that Summer was the one for him, he stood up on a coffee cart and declared his feelings for her, which was a total swoon-worthy moment. Yet, in season three, when Seth lies about getting into Brown and breaks up with Summer just so he doesn’t have to tell her the truth – a total red flag on its own – she gets on the coffee cart and declares her love to him, saying she will love him no matter what. But instead of owning up to his lie and telling Summer the truth, Seth lies even further and tells her that he doesn’t love her anymore.
In fact, communication was never Seth Cohen’s strong point. In the first season, instead of talking to Summer about having a hard time when Ryan leaves town, he takes his sailboat and heads off to Tahiti (he only makes it as far as Portland) without a word. In the last season, Seth thinks Summer is pregnant and proposes without even discussing if that’s something that either of them wants, and he then proceeds to take back the proposal.
Perhaps, one of the worst things Seth did was successfully break up Summer and her new boyfriend, Zach (Michael Cassidy) in season two. After Seth’s jaunt up the Pacific coast to Portland, he returned expecting everything to be the same, but Summer had moved on and was happy (happy being the key operative here). Yet, Seth did everything in his power to break the two up, even giving up on his dreams of being a comic book author just to sabotage their relationship.
While Seth did have some redeeming qualities, looking back now he wasn’t quite the charming nerdy heartthrob we all fell into puddles for. The red flags were large and glaring, and while he did eventually stop lying to Summer, so much of their relationship was based on miscommunication and manipulation on his part. Yes, he was a teenager and yes he’s a fictional character, but for my tween heart he was everything I thought a boyfriend should be. Only now, as an adult with perspective, can I finally see the error of my ways. Maybe we should have all been falling for Ryan after all.
