“The O.C.” Season 4

Fox Network

Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.

Starring: Benjamin McKenzie,… “The O.C.” Season 4

Fox Network

Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.

Starring: Benjamin McKenzie, Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody and Melinda Clarke

Alcoholism, drug abuse, homicide, statutory rape, experimental lesbianism, gold digging, infidelity, grand theft auto, shootings, hookups, breakups and embezzlement are nothing compared to the challenge “The O.C.” faces this season: college.

The fourth season of “The O.C.” is a transitional year for the show. Summer (Rachel Bilson) moved to the East Coast, Seth (Adam Brody) will soon follow, Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) is staying on the West Coast and Marissa is dead. With the core group scattered, it’s going to be difficult to keep everyone’s lives intertwined.

Marissa’s death may have seemed like a good way to end the third season, but her death has far greater consequences than just a really good season closer.

Summer no longer has a best friend, Ryan doesn’t have a go-to girl in his life and Seth doesn’t have anyone to make fun of for being too skinny. The writers’ track record with new female characters doesn’t leave much hope, considering only one new female has been brought on as a series regular in the first three seasons.

The writers are trying to fill that void with Taylor (Autumn Reeser), Seth and Summer’s pseudo friend from last season. Taylor doesn’t really fit with the other characters on the show because she’s too perky and depthless to really connect or make an impact on anyone.

In the first episode of the new season, the writers hint that the original characters won’t play as big a role in the new season. Summer and Seth aren’t really talking and Ryan isn’t living with Seth and his parents.

With the young cast going off in different directions, the parent aspect of the show is still intact, but all the major storylines were wrapped up last season. Sandy (Peter Gallagher) is back at his old office, and Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) and Julie’s (Melinda Clarke) new business didn’t amount to anything last season.

That only leaves one new direction for the show to explore: Kaitlin. This is a disaster on many levels. Kaitlin (Willa Holland) showed up last season to stir up trouble and was established as a heartless, manipulating liar who didn’t care about anyone but herself. Now, if she’s going to be a main character, she needs to have some semblance of relatable characteristics. Yes, it’s good to have a character like her, but she’s too cold to be at the center of her group of friends.

The thing that made the original four work is that they were all relatively normal people who had a tendency to make horrible life decisions. With Kaitlin, the trouble doesn’t happen to her — she causes the trouble, which isn’t nearly as compelling.

It may be good for “The O.C.” to go in a new direction because the show has steadily declined in quality since the first season. The second season had its strong moments (accidental, borderline incest), but the third season was surprisingly dull, with storylines getting stretched far beyond their natural length (Johnny lived about three episodes too long).

While these characters have been through a lot — and will probably require a decade’s worth of therapy to be set straight — the show could work with them in college because there’s a whole new group of people and a new set of situations to deal with. The first season worked because it was about Ryan adjusting to a new life and changing everyone else’s.

Going to college could be just the thing that “The O.C.” needs to get back on track. As long as the writers have something very good up their sleeves, they’re capable of restoring “The O.C.’s” cat-fighting, party-throwing, who’s-with-whom, guilty-pleasure glory of the first season.

“The O.C.” has to be better this season because, truthfully, it couldn’t be any worse than it was last season. To find out, watch it Thursday at 9 p.m. on Fox.