Mischa Barton - Alex/Marissa #2: If they can't go to the red states, we don't want to either. - Page 13

dcfriends · 08-10-2013, 10:23 AM

Josh commented on Malex recently:

Quote:

The intentions behind the Marissa-Alex romance: "I mean, we knew that there would be a certain fun element to Seth discovering that this was going on and that he had lost this girl to Marissa (Mischa Barton), but we also wanted it to be a real relationship. We wanted it to be very grounded emotionally and to understand why Marissa would make that choice ... and not make too big a deal out of the fact that it was another girl. And of course, then Fox would run the ads, 'Tune in for the kiss you don't wanna miss,' and overhype this Marissa and Alex kiss. And then broadcast standards and practices would make us cut it down to, you know, three quarters of a millisecond. So that was odd."

The O.C. Secrets: Fox Wanted Seth Cohen Aborted - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

Also, I found this video:

Malex-Inside Out - YouTube

Sam_MC · 08-11-2013, 12:57 AM

His sentiments are nice, but aside from FOX doing the promo thing, they were the ones who then had Marissa go back to Ryan within half a millisecond of Malex ending. That's what made it come across more like a Marissa-showstopping moment, rather than an actual relationship.

**Cristofle** · 08-12-2013, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam_MC (View Post)

His sentiments are nice, but aside from FOX doing the promo thing, they were the ones who then had Marissa go back to Ryan within half a millisecond of Malex ending. That's what made it come across more like a Marissa-showstopping moment, rather than an actual relationship.

I think he was given a pretty strict time limit on Malex by the network- at least I remember him saying that at one point. However, I doubt the network actually made him write the line "Marissa's only been in love once and he looked a whole lot different in a tank top", so yeah, lol. I buy that Marissa would experiment with her sexuality and could also buy that she might be bisexual, and at the same time she'd clearly never gotten over Ryan as her One Great Love, but still. I wish they'd put a little more care into it, including the RM angle- Ryan had very little serious reaction to it, which also made it seem like Josh wasn't interested in taking it seriously.

Sam_MC · 08-13-2013, 07:23 AM

Care is the right word. There was quite a bit of build up, and then BOOM. Done. They really could have just ignored the whole gardener fiasco and started Alex earlier.

Also, they could have had way more fun with Seth reacting, lol. And they easily could have had Malex play a factor into the breakdown of Lindsay/Ryan which would have made a Ryan/Marissa reunion more organic.

Because there was very little reaction from the others, it felt like a bit of an isolated storyline with everyone behaving like "Oh, there goes Marissa again." So if the characters are acting like it's a stunt, why wouldn't the network and the audience?

**Cristofle** · 08-13-2013, 11:23 AM

Exactly! Josh could have EASILY written not only Marissa, but how other characters REACTED to Marissa differently. No one really took her struggle as a sexual assault survivor seriously either- it was like she asked for that because of her tragic DNA.

Sam_MC · 08-14-2013, 02:19 AM

Fallout was lacking in general, I guess.

dcfriends · 08-17-2013, 09:54 AM

Quote:

And they easily could have had Malex play a factor into the breakdown of Lindsay/Ryan which would have made a Ryan/Marissa reunion more organic.

True! I think that would've been an interesting way to go.

**Cristofle** · 08-17-2013, 10:03 AM

You know what was weird, is that I think Josh HAD been planning to go that way, at least in part. It was clear in The Ex Factor, in both the scene where Ryan told Lindsay how he met Marissa (complete with the windshield flashback) and the scene where Lindsay saw all the pictures, that she was threatened by Marissa and that she had some reason to be. But I swear, Josh saw the meltdown TWoP had about it and backed off- he's already admitted to how seriously he took that feedback at the time. Because that angle was dropped fast and never came up again.

~tammy~ · 08-17-2013, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cristofle

You know what was weird, is that I think Josh HAD been planning to go that way, at least in part. It was clear in The Ex Factor, in both the scene where Ryan told Lindsay how he met Marissa (complete with the windshield flashback) and the scene where Lindsay saw all the pictures, that she was threatened by Marissa and that she had some reason to be. But I swear, Josh saw the meltdown TWoP had about it and backed off- he's already admitted to how seriously he took that feedback at the time. Because that angle was dropped fast and never came up again.

Just wanted to chime in to say that is a really clever observation. I have always thought the turn around from The Ex-factor was utterly bizarre in that it was an episode which made a point to bring Ryan and Marissa's relationship to the forefront and highlight all kinds of loose ends between them and then the next four episodes completely drop any interaction between them (and until then there had still been the odd interaction peppered in here and there). Btw, completely agree that it was a massive missed opportunity to not factor in the Alex/Marissa relationship into the break up of Ryan/Lindsay.

Sam_MC · 08-18-2013, 04:51 AM

IMO, guest stars should only be brought in to service the storyline of the leads. And by not doing that with Malex, they missed the RM potential, but they also then had to kinda rush Alex out without a worthwhile resolution.

So although fun from a Mischa/Olivia point of view, it was a bit of filler arc.