Sandy Cohen vs Coach Taylor: The Life Advice Wars
Where have all the TV nice guys gone?
Overnight, the good people at Vulture put together a supercut of Sandy Cohen, in honour of The O.C.‘s tenth birthday this week. At only 1:30 minutes long, it’s packed with so many nostalgic goods, as Sandy (Peter Gallagher) dishes out love advice to Ryan (“Tell her that. Before it’s too late.”), Marissa (“You hang in there anyway … because it’s worth it.”), Anna (“The key is patience“) and Seth, who always got the best stuff: “Foreplay. The appetiser is as good as the main course.”
Watching the compilation, I got the same feeling I get watching king-maker Coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights, who — after an idiosyncratic verbal run-up — would always deliver a strong, powerful and personal pep talk to the young men and women who looked up to him. In the age of the TV anti-hero — the complicated protagonists at the center of shows like The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, The Wire et. al. — it’s refreshing to see a genuinely good, warm husband, friend and father trying to make himself, and the others around him, better. (Also: great hair, you two! Well done!)
Their marriages were not equal, by any means: Kirsten Cohen battled with alcoholism and monogamy while Sandy (mostly) stood by her; Connie Britton’s Tami Taylor is the greatest woman to ever appear on TV, ever, but was often sidelined by her blinkered husband’s career. But I wouldn’t say no to a pep talk from either of their men: Sandy, with his gentle, fatherly ease and wry wit; Coach, with his tough love, take-no-prisoners-very-handsomely approach.
Thanks to Vulture, you can now compare, contrast and then decide: who would you rather get a life lesson from?
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