lol every year...that's so incredible. I don't think we fell off the bandwagon due to plot...I think it changed times or something? But it's funny...I had heard so many complaints about the last season (Ryan's a cage fighter, for example), and practically everything people bitched about happened for like a single episode if that! I was surprised how good it was until the end.
Did you listen to Melinda Clark and Rachel Bilson's podcast? I wish i had more time...I would have no problem being an Old Man and listening to those two dish about the show.
Also, Julie Cooper? Rowr
I have not listened to that podcast, or even knew about it until now. But I also probably will never listen to it now that I know -- I don't want to upset my personal head canon about the show.
Julie Cooper never did it for me, but to each their own.
I think part of the hate for season 4 is: (1) people shipped Ryan and Marissa for obv reasons, and (2) Marissa's plots and the relationship drama was always just the same comfortable arm chair rolled out again with a different name for the third guy. Her issues with Luke [the guy is a cad and Ryan identifies accurately but goes to far in telling her as much which feels like "he is telling her what to do" which enrages her and she pulls closer to third dude because she hates feeling boxed and has a negative reaction to control stimuli, and eventually the dumbest woman on the planet realizes Ryan was right all along] are the same with Oscar. And Jonny. And Volchek. Its the same goddamn pattern -- and that makes it a delightful comfort watch: you know the beats after the first time or two. You don't have to watch but so closely: you can look down at your phone. You can make out with your grad school girlfriend for 15 minutes and not worry about missing shit.
Then Taylor comes in and the relationship drama is NEW. It does not fit this pattern. And Mini Coop is over there being ridiculous. And so yeah, it felt like a very different show and people articulate that as "Ryan is a cage fighter" as a symbolic way to reference the fundamental changes to the patterns the show ran on, despite, your very astute point that that particular plot line exists for 25 minutes of one episode.
But if you actually embraced these characters in new environs, it still slapped! (Also, I think most people hate teen dramas that start in HS once the characters are out of high school because all the power dynamics, ie parental controls and stressors, go away. See also: Gossip Girl, Buffy, etc.)
