Does digging 'The O.C.' make me a sissy?

I love "The O.C." There, I've done it. Friends, family and co-workers know I dig television's premiere prime time soap (and poke fun at me unmercilessly for doing so), now so do you. Am I a wuss? Maybe, but not because of my affinity for Fox's firecracker of a series.\nSure, it's not the best thing on TV. That honor could go to a slew of other, better programs (HBO's "The Sopranos," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Deadwood;" FX's three late-night dramas "The Shield," "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me;" Comedy Central's "South Park" and "Chappelle's Show;" NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" or even other Fox shows "The Simpsons," "24," "Arrested Development" and the soon-to-return "Family Guy"), but I'll be damned if it's not one of the most addictive.\nFor those not in the know, I'll summarize the greatness that is "The O.C." as succinctly as possible. It's a soap opera, so bear with me. The show revolves around the Cohen clan -- attorney, dad and all-around good guy, Sandy (Peter Gallagher), mom and real estate maven, Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), and their smart-alecky son, Seth (comedic wunderkind Adam Brody). The Cohens, good folks that they are, have taken in an underaged client of Sandy's. His name is Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), and as per usual, he's from the wrong side of the tracks. In the case of Orange County, Calif., that'd be Chino. In spite of being a rather nice and intelligent dude, Ryan's wreaking havoc on suburbia (think: "Good Will Hunting" syndrome); punching-out player haters at debutante balls, torching a model home, impregnating his old school, Chino chica, balling the well-to-do babe next door, Marissa Cooper (sexy stick figure Mischa Barton), etc. \nSpeaking of the Coopers -- they're in a whole other realm of screwed-up. Jimmy (Tate Donovan), the patriarch, was Kirsten's high school sweetheart and served as an investment banker until he got caught with his hand in customers' proverbial piggy banks. His wife, Julie (the deliciously bitchy Melinda Clarke), soon thereafter divorces him, tries to have Marissa committed, shacks up with and later marries Kirsten's father, Caleb Nichol (the appropriately priggish Alan Dale) -- this, in spite of boning her daughter's ex-boyfriend (Abercrombie and Fitch poster boy Chris Carmack) and her ex-husband. \nIf this weren't enough, Jimmy eventually screws around with Kirsten's wild-child sister, Hailey (Amanda Righetti, who defected to Fox's ill-advised "North Shore"). Ryan begins hooking-up with Caleb's illegitimate love child, Lindsay (Shannon Lucio, or as I like to call her -- Lindsay Lohan's clone). Seth has the conundrum of incessantly having to choose between the hot, Wonder Woman costume-wearing, mallrat, Summer (Brody's real-life girlfriend Rachel Bilson), the hot, emo and comic book-loving, Anna (pixie-ish actress Samaire Armstrong, also of HBO's "Entourage") and the hot, punk rock chick, Alex (the lovely Olivia Wilde) -- the last of whom is now unavailable as she's currently swapping saliva with Marissa (Hot!).\nEssentially, everyone is related in some shape or form. It's the stuff three-eyed babies, Jeff Foxworthy standup routines and peoples' preconceived (inaccurate, mind you) perceptions of Kentucky are made of -- only these O.C. inhabitants are lavished with loads of moolah and California sunshine.\nSure the show is contrived, but I'll give you four reasons why it's not the second coming of tripe such as "Beverly Hills, 90210" or "Melrose Place."\n1.) The Writing -- Creator Josh Schwartz knows his stuff and often writes the show's best episodes. "The O.C." is self-reflexive week in and week out. It mocks itself, its characters and its actors with wanton abandon, i.e. an episode entitled "The L.A.," where the kids hit Tinseltown and run into actor Grady Bridges (Colin Hanks), star of fictitious series "The Valley," who's essentially an assbag Seth/Brody proxy. Also, the pop culture references are second to none -- see last week's "Spider-Man" movie parody as a reference point. Lastly, the dialogue is witty -- a novel notion for prime time soaps.\n2.) The Babes -- Barton is gorgeous, but I'd love to take her to an In-N-Out Burger in hopes that she wouldn't catch the innuendo. Wilde is even better looking. Bilson is adorable, though, I'd have preferred to see her in Princess Leia's metal bikini as opposed to Wonder Woman's duds. Even the moms are a couple of MILFs; granted they're only 10 to 15 years older than the actors playing their kids.\n3.) The Dudes -- OK, you're hearing it here first: I have a hetero-man crush on Adam Brody. Perhaps I'm an egotist? Seth is a hell of a lot like me -- he's into movies, music, comic books and video games, is a smart-ass and frequently has problems with members of the opposite sex. Then again, he's half-Jewish, rich, lives in Cali, weighs about 50 lbs. less than me, etc. Either way, the dude's funny. I've suffered through the good "bad" movie "Grind" (it's like a car crash in that you can't divert your eyes) a few times on HBO just to see the cat in something else. His sterling work on "The O.C." seems to be paying off with supporting roles in the upcoming Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie comedic actioneer "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and the all-star satire "Thank You for Smoking" with Robert Duvall and William H. Macy.\nIn addition to Brody, there's Peter Gallagher. This guy never got enough credit for his solid turns in Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" and "The Underneath," as well as Sam Mendes' "American Beauty" (he was sleazy real estate "king," Buddy Kane). On "The O.C.," Gallagher stands in contention with Homer Simpson, Tony Soprano and Peter Griffin ("Family Guy") as TV's coolest dad -- only he's actually a good father and surfs. How cool is that?\n4.) The Tunes -- As a tip of the hat to the Flaming Lips' performance on "90210," "The O.C." often sports cool musical guests, i.e. Modest Mouse and the Killers. Episodes have also featured tunes by Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley, as well as alive rockers Interpol, Ben Kweller and the Thrills. Covers of Oasis' "Wonderwall" by Ryan Adams and OMD's "If You Leave" by Nada Surf further highlight the show. Even the theme song, Phantom Planet's "California," while played-out, is cool.\nMaybe I'm not a nancy boy after all for liking "The O.C." Hell, I spent last Saturday afternoon shooting handguns and enjoy about a third of Sylvester Stallone's filmography (also referenced on "The O.C" -- Sandy rented the Italian Stallion's arm-wrestling classic "Over the Top" on last year's "Chrismukkah" episode). Then again, I could just be a creepy, gun-toting, Stallone-loving nancy boy.