'O.C.' rocks on

Well, it turns out that "The O.C." was not a one-season wonder.

After a spectacular first season that ended on a less-than-satisfactory note, the Fox series returns tonight and hits the ground running. The first two episodes of the new season are as smart, funny, surprising, involving and entertaining as the best of Season 1.

And there aren't even any fist fights!

"Can you believe it?" joked creator/writer/executive producer Josh Schwartz. "It's a long time before we really see any fists flying. Even then, it's not much of a fight."

As it begins its second season, "The O.C." is the same show, only different. Sort of.

"We've tried to really not just recycle our storylines and just plug in different series regulars into those dynamics," Schwartz said.

In other words, he's not just taking the same plots and switching the players. "This year is not about Seth and Marissa and Ryan and Summer."

First things first, however. Schwartz had to deal with last spring's season finale, in which Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) left ritzy Newport (in Orange County, of course) for his working-class roots in Chino, what with his pregnant girlfriend and all. And a depressed Seth (Adam Brody) took off on a sailing trip while his parents/Ryan's surrogate parents, Sandy (Peter Gallagher) and Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), in a funk.

Schwartz manages to bring everybody back to the O.C. in a way that's only slightly sudsy. It works, and it sets up what's looking like another great year.

Seth does try to get Summer (Rachel Bilson) back. And the attraction between Ryan and Marissa (Mischa Barton) continues. But there are some new characters to complicate things.

In other words, the girls both have new boyfriends as Season 2 begins. And the guys are looking elsewhere, too. But that doesn't mean the original couplings are gone for good.

"The Ryan/Marissa dynamic, the Seth/Summer dynamic, are the core, iconic relationships of this show," Schwartz said. "You can throw as many new characters and hurdles and obstacles in front of those characters as you want, but you can never break free of those original dynamics. That's the foundation of the show."

And Schwartz admits that keeping it fresh and not repeating himself is the biggest challenge as he tries to "evolve the show."

"There's less spectacle than there was last year," he said. "Last year we really had something to prove and we wanted to make a big splash and get seen. Now that's happened, and this year we wanted to slow down the storytelling a little bit, dig in with our characters, not drive everything through a black-tie affair that you knew was going to culminate in a brawl."