California Dreaming

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Oh, but not to worry -- there are plenty of girls in the mix. Luckily, Seth and Ryan are hot for different ones. Unattainable beauty Summer (Rachel Bilson), whom Seth pines over, may drool over Ryan in the pilot -- but he's decent enough to turn her away. And why not? He's got his eye on the luminous Marissa (Mischa Barton, described by Schwartz as a ''young Audrey Hepburn''), who is literally the girl next door.

But forget ''90210'''s coy conflicts and heavy moralizing. ''The O.C.'' is aiming for a more honest depiction of teen life, circa 2003. In the pilot, a drunk Marissa passes out at a party, and her friends just leave her lying in the driveway -– with nary an ''underage drinking is evil'' life lesson in sight. At the same bash, there's a steamy jacuzzi scene and a brief ménage à trois. Explains Schwartz: ''[Fox Entertainment president] Gail Berman sat us down and said, In the post-reality television world, the game's changed. She wanted us to go out there and push the envelope and present things as realistically as we could.''

To that end, the show takes a cinematic approach, highlighted by gritty handheld camerawork by director Doug Liman, who used a similar style in his critically praised indie feature ''Go.'' Liman, who directed the pilot and the first episode, serves as an executive producer for the series, as does McG (''Charlie's Angels''). But Schwartz's cinematic inspiration for the show is yet another director, Ang Lee. '''The Ice Storm' was a big paradigm for me -- the ability to show a world and not necessarily judge it.'' If only TV critics and audiences can show the same restraint.