Billed as more reality than soap, the US-made series The O.C. admits it's ludicrous and vacuous, but it's trash TV and we are, increasingly, liking it.

Think Beverly Hills 90210 crossed with Dawson's Creek spiced up with a touch of Dallas and Dynasty - and you have The O.C. After just one season, the US hit has successfully crossed over from teen drama to pop culture phenomenon.

The series about "the hidden secrets, strange alliances and new romances of the beautiful people of Southern California" may sound like soap but its creators were aiming a bit higher. Executive producer Doug Liman, who directed film thriller The Bourne Identity, said at the start: "We're not going for classic soap. We're looking for the reality."

Another executive producer, McG, director of the two Charlie's Angels movies, acknowledged that people might see shades of Beverly Hills 90210 but believed it would take off where that production left off. "We're flattered at the idea, and hope that we have half the success and half the grip on that specific audience that 90210 had," he said.

"I think the show is wildly different, that it's a more accurate portrayal of what really goes on in these communities and what these kids are really up to while the parents are away."

What he didn't realise was that the adult dramas running alongside the teen ones make The O.C. attractive to more than the target under-35 audience. OK, it's hardly deep and meaningful TV, but it's fun and increasingly aware just how ludicrous and vacuous it is. What more can you ask for from trash TV?

For all its aspirations to be real, The O.C. - it stands for Orange County - is a bit of a fake. Labour union salary rules means it's actually filmed in Hermosa Beach, 40 miles away from the actual Newport Beach where it's set.

The O.C. pool, in and against which so much of the action takes place, is on a set in the LA suburb of Manhattan Beach. The pool is only three feet deep, so when the actors take a dip they're actually only on their knees.

Residents of Orange County never even put the definite article in front of O.C. until the TV series came along. But they resisted a proposal to change the name of Orange County's John Wayne Airport to The O.C. Airport, John Wayne Field.

Viewers are much more pleased with the series which has Ryan, a 16-year-old (played, incidentally, by someone ten years older) from the wrong side of the tracks, taken into the home of a lawyer with a social conscience, Sandy Cohen, and his wife Kirsten.

Ryan gets involved with their awkward teenage son Seth and the beautiful but troubled girl-next-door, Marissa.

Others in the frame include student Summer, whom Seth dated and then dumped; Ryan's now-pregnant former lover; Marissa's vampish mother Julie, who after sleeping with a student has married Kirsten's rich father; and Marissa's embezzler father Jimmy, who was Kirsten's childhood sweetheart.

As you can see, just a glimpse of the shenanigans on offer shows that anyone who says this isn't soap is deluding themselves.

The casting was pretty canny too. Newcomer Benjamin McKenzie, as tough outsider Ryan, has the look of a young Russell Crowe and attitude of a surly James Dean. Adam Brody, alias nerdy and nervous Seth, represents the dorky teenager - although one who ends up with two girls fighting over him.

Mischa Barton, who plays Marissa, was born in London although she moved to New York when she was four. Six years later she was a Calvin Klein model and later still played a dead girl in The Sixth Sense.

The O. C. creator Josh Schwartz says: "We got really lucky. I think we wound up with a young Russell Crowe, a young Tom Hanks and a young Audrey Hepburn with these three kids. Each one just brings such a reality to the role."

There he goes again with the reality thing.

Let's not forget the adults, who behave just as recklessly and irresponsibly as the teenagers. Peter Gallagher, a noted film and stage actor, has eyebrows to rival those of Dennis Healy. The women are impossibly glamorous and well turned out, whatever the time of day or night.

The cast even has a bitch, without which no soap is complete. Melinda Clarke's Julie Cooper was only signed up as a guest cast member. Viewers liked her character so much that by episode 14 she was a regular.

Alan Dale has stayed around longer than anticipated as Caleb Nichol, a powerful developer with a penchant for younger women and dodgy deals. Originally booked for a few episodes, the former Neighbours actor - remember Jim Robinson? - has been promoted to a main character in the second season.

The O.C. is still young. There are plenty of permutations of characters to play around with before ideas dry up or they repeat themselves. Of course, there's only so long we can take Ryan moping around like a rebel without a cause and Marissa hitting the bottle when she has boyfriend trouble. And you just want to slap hyperactive Seth sometimes, when he's behaving like the brainless Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz.

But, for the time being at least, The O.C. promises to go from strength to strength. The future is very definitely Orange. Orange County, that is.

* Welcome to The O.C. - A Day In The Life is on C4 tomorrow at 2.05pm. The new series begins on E4 on Tuesday at 9pm, and on C4 the following week.

Published: 22/01/2005