The O.C.

Much as Smallville re-imagines the Superman mythos for a fresh, skin-cream-using, disposable-income-rich generation, Fox's The O.C. is an updated look at the youth of noted Batman villain Oswald "O.C." Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin.
As the series begins, a teenaged O.C. (Benjamin McKenzie) is arrested for breaking into the Bludhaven Zoo in an attempt to liberate its captive Arctic waterfowl. Eyebrow-intensive public defender Julius Dent (Peter Gallagher) takes pity on the boy after hearing his story of growing up above an umbrella factory with an alcoholic, frequently absent mother. After conferring with his wife Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), Julius legally adopts O.C., bringing him home to the Dent mansion in ritzy Gotham City. There, O.C. must try to fit in with a new upper-crust crowd of kids, with the Dents' shy, nerdy son Harvey (Adam Brody) as his only friend. 
The series follows O.C.'s on-again, off-again romance with Marissa Crane (Mischa Barton), the daughter of a prominent psychiatrist, and Harvey's less tumultuous relationship with outspoken feminist and budding botanist Pamela Isley (Rachel Bilson). O.C.'s tendency to hit people with his umbrella when confronted has become a running joke on the series, which offers an unusual level of self-referential humor for its genre. (The series' younger characters all watch a teen soap called Arkham, whose characters and storylines echo the series' own previous events.)
Producers have taken care to layer the series with numerous hints of its characters' future destinies, including Pamela's internship at a landscaping business, O.C.'s adoption of a top hat and monocle to try to fit in with his wealthier classmates, Harvey's attempt to merge two holidays, Christmas and Hannukah, into one monstrous whole, and the passing flocks of crows that constantly attack Marissa.
Fans of The O.C. have complained that the series has lost steam since its initial season, with O.C. and Marissa repeatedly getting back together and breaking up; Marissa's serial infidelities with various fifths of Jack Daniels; Harvey getting himself into romantic complications, always seemingly of two minds about the notion of dating Pamela; and the repeated attempts by Julius' eyebrows to break free from the tyranny of his forehead and launch a reign of bristly terror upon Gotham City.