Where to Watch The OC Episodes Online for Free! Legal & Full Length Videos

Looking to watch free episodes of The OC online? They are available from legal sources, for free!

The O.C. (Orange County) was released in 2003 and ran for four seasons on the FOX network. Seasons one and two were the best, three was o.k., but unfortunately season four was the demise of the show. One factor as to why it was cancelled is do to the fact that as the characters grew up, graduated high school and transferred to college, so did the viewers. The ratings plummeted.

This article will give you several locations where you can watch select episodes online for free!

The controversy - The OC got a bad wrap by some critics when it was first aired saying it was too controversial as it covered topics as teen drinking, pre-marital sex, etc. While in fact, the show was a great tool for parents to use to discuss these issues that their kids were experiencing. Many parents enjoyed watching this show with their children. I, on the other hand was not allowed to watch it. Of course that made me want to watch it even more and I never missed an episode.

I remember one day my mother overheard me discussing the show with my friends and she pulled me aside and said "Why would you want to watch garbage like that? I've seen the previews!". I looked at her and said "Honestly, mom, the characters aren't too different than people in our family and I can relate to the situations quite a bit." I think she was really surprised at the response, but the truth is that I always found solace with the familiarity of the events portrayed in the show in the coastal community of Newport Beach. I live on the East Coast, but my life was filled with similar events, the same people, the gossip, the same conversations and I felt really closely connected to the characters, unlike on any other TV show I had ever watched. 

The basic premise of the show is that it follows the lives of several affluent families in gorgeous Newport Beach, California. The Cohen family lives in a 'McMansion' paid for and built by Kirsten Cohen's father, Caleb Nichols. Her father is a wealthy real estate developer and she is employed very high up in the company. In college, she married a man, Sandy Cohen, from New York who was used to a completely different lifestyle growing up than that of Kirsten's upbringing. He went to law school and much to his father-in-law's dismay, became a public defender for troubled youth.

One day, Sandy brings home a youth who was arrested because he happened to be with his older brother while he was boosting a car. All in all, Ryan has the potential to be a good student, he just needs a home life where he doesn't have to deal with his alcoholic mother. Sandy bargains to get Ryan Atwood out of jail, brings him home to Newport Beach and the story begins. Ryan is submersed into a completely different culture than that of Chino, California. There are fundraisers to attend, lavish parties and something completely different for Ryan - private school. The Cohen's have a son, named Seth, and he and Ryan immediately become close and legally become brothers when the Cohens become Ryan's legal guardian.  Throughout the show, Ryan forms a close friendship with the girl next door, Marissa Cooper, who's life looks wonderful and glamorous to the outside world, but Ryan knows different and he repeatedly attempts to help her cope with her family issues that make her feel completely restricted and suffocated. Her best friend, Summer Roberts, just happens to be Seth Cohen's major crush and because Ryan comes to Newport, he's able to help the two get together.

The show is a wonderful drama with really intense emotional moments as well as the funny quirks of Seth, paired with Ryan's dry sense of humor. If you've never seen the show, I urge you to check it out as it really covers a wide array of topics for everyone in the family. Business scandals, infidelity, divorce, alcoholism, the list goes on and on. There is something to look forward to in every episode. It's not surprising that many parents watched it with their teens, back when it was first released.

For now, you can watch selected episodes from seasons 3 & 4 here at Fancast and part of season 1 over at Hulu. Old episodes are frequently being rotated, so make sure to bookmark the sites so you can catch all the episodes. The first few episodes of the show aren't available at Hulu, but you can always purchase those individually (per episode) at Amazon.com through their Video-On-Demand service. 

Enjoy the show, and make sure to come back and share some of your favorite episodes below!

• Peter Gallagher played Sandy Cohen
  
• Kelly Rowan played Kirsten Cohen
  
• Benjamin McKenzie played Ryan Atwood
  
• Adam Brody played Seth Cohen
  
• Mischa Barton played Marissa Cooper
  
• Rachel Bilson played Summer Roberts
  
• Chris Carmack played Luke Ward
  
• Melinda Clark played Julie Cooper-Nichol
  
• Alan Dale played Caleb Nichol
  
• Autumn Reese played Taylor Townsend
  
• Shailene Woodley played Kaitlyn Cooper
  
• Tate Donovan played Jimmy Cooper