Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Selling The O.C.’ Season 3 on Netflix Once Again Sells More Tyler and Alex Hall Relationship Drama Than It Does Real Estate

How much more drama can Netflix’s Selling The O.C. give us around the will-they-or-won’t-they relationship between Tyler Stanaland and Alex Hall? Now in its third season, the show about the glamorous real estate agents of the Oppenheim Group is still peddling gorgeous homes and catty inter-office bickering against the glittery backdrop of Laguna Beach, but at this point the storylines are starting to feel a little repetitive.

SELLING THE O.C. (SEASON 3): STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Real estate agent Alex Hall walks through the front doors of the Oppenheim Group offices and explains, “The Oppenheim Group has a reputation for having very high standards. And, contrary to people’s beliefs, so do I. And I’m not about to let anything get in the way of that.” Despite the fact that this show is essentially a reality ensemble, this show usually kicks off its seasons with Alex narrating something big and bold about the state of real estate and/or her life, which always gives the impression that this show is a little bit more hers than anyone else’s.

The Gist: This is the third season of Selling The O.C., the show about the real estate agents working in the Orange County branch of The Oppenheim Group, owned by brothers Brett and Jason Oppenheim. You know this, you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t already familiar. Last season, in between real estate listings drama, the main storyline was about the simmering sexual tension between Alex Hall and he colleague Tyler Stanaland, which culminated in Tyler revealing his romantic feelings toward Hall and kissing her. This season, even though we’ve picked up pretty shortly after that, things between Hall and Tyler are tense. That beautiful friendship they shared is awkward and weird, partly because right after they kissed, Tyler went on a surfin’ safari around the world and left Hall to wonder about the state of their relationship. (Meanwhile, he thinks she’s the one eluding him. Communication is key, people!)

So while Hall and Tyler’s THING this season is figuring out where their relationship is going, the rest of the agents have their own THINGS going on. Brandi’s THING is that she’s hoping to use her husband Sean’s contacts in the sports world to court professional athletes and become the realtor to the elite sports world. Alexandra Jarvis’s THING is that she just eloped in Italy. Alexandra Rose’s THING is that I don’t think she has a THING. Kayla’s THING is that she has picked up her first truly huge ($28.5 million) listing, a life-changing sale, assuming she actually succeeds. Gio’s THING is that he’s going to undermine Kayla and, if possible, snag that listing away from her even if it makes him look like an entitled douchebag. (Ahem, more of an entitled douchebag.)

And, as always, the Oppenheims’ THING is to let their office remain the three-ring circus where all of these antics play out.

Our Take: If you were to watch Selling The O.C. without reading any gossip around it, I’m sure it would still be entertaining. But, as with most great reality shows, your Pump Rules and whatnot, what happens in real time compounds our interest in the show. We currently know that Alex Hall and Tyler are on the outs (he blocked her on Insta!) and that he quit his job at the Oppenheim Group some time after season two. Knowing that and anticipating how these moments might play out later on in the season definitely add to the addictive quality and only further cement the fact that the real estate is secondary to the realtors.

The show’s supporting cast oscillates between rarely likeable (Gio), occasionally tolerable (Polly), barely there (Austin), and unnecessarily obnoxious (the O Group’s bell), but somehow, it remains compelling (in a way that usually makes me ask “Why do I find this so compelling???”) The answer is, very likely, that these are very pretty people with self-awareness, charm, and senses of humor; they’re already successful salespeople in the world of real estate, and that savvy has come in handy when it comes to selling their brand of drama, too. With Hall and Tyler’s relationship forming the crux of the show though, the real question seems to be what the eventual fate of the show will be if he’s gone for good… Will Selling The O.C.’s listing expire? Will the newly-created San Diego branch take it over? I guess it depends on the market.

Sex And Skin: Not much, but there’s talk of sex, cunnilingus, and as always, there are some revealing outfits that define the “O.C. listing agent casual” clothing genre.

Parting Shot: Gio, having arranged a broker’s listing party at the exact same time that Kayla organized her own broker event, encourages a group of people at Kayla’s event to follow him out to his speedboat, poaching them from her party and bringing them to his own party. “Who’s ready to see a better broker tour?” he asks smugly.

Performance Worth Watching: Nashville native and relative newcomer Ali Harper is a breath of fresh air in the fish-out-of-water/newbie role. Even though she looks the part as a new, beautiful agent in the Oppenheim offices, especially when she’s dealing with her fellow agents, she comes across as almost folksy and naive in her confessionals when she says things like, “I’m chasing and following a career path that is becoming the ultimate goal. I mean, for the love of all things holy, I would not be paying for this apartment and going to eat at vegan places if I knew that it wasn’t going to be worth it.”

Memorable Dialogue: “You confessed your love and she didn’t reciprocate?” Austin asks his colleague Tyler during a conversation about Alex Hall. “I mean, kind of,” Tyler laughs. I mean, no, that’s not really what happened, right? Alex said herself that Tyler confessed his love and then went on vacation without getting in touch with her, so it feels like he’s manufacturing an image as a jilted man who just wants this woman to love him and she refuses. As I said last season, the show rarely holds Tyler accountable for the role he plays in the drama around his own love life, and I fear the same thing might be happening this season.

Our Call: Another season, another dramatic arc of professional relationships that ebb and flow and we have to wait until the end for some big reveals. Selling The O.C. sticks closely to its classic formula, interspersing real estate drama with romantic drama, and thanks to its relatively short 35-or-so minutes per episode run time, it makes for a juicy, addictive binge. STREAM IT.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.