‘IT’S been nothing but drama since you got here,” a character on the Fox hit “The O.C.” complained in a recent show.

As its first season draws to a close, the angst-ridden “O.C.” residents have weathered so many crises, catastrophes and random couplings, it’s hard to imagine what else could possibly befall them.

Has “The O.C.” jumped the shark in its first season? (That’s a reference to “Happy Days” when a water-skiing Fonz jumped over a shark, a plot twist so over-the-top that an inevitable decline follows.)

It usually takes a few seasons to reach the shark-jump point. But less than halfway through the first season of “The O.C.,” brainy Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) had already completed the transition from friendless nerd to confident popular guy.

And his best pal, disadvantaged bad boy Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), has been in fistfights, accidentally burned down a house, was almost shot, caught his girlfriend’s mother hooking up with her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, discovered his friend’s dad was gay, been publicly humiliated by his alcoholic mother, run illegal errands for his incarcerated brother and spent a little time in jail.

The nonstop melodrama has been duly noted by the show’s writers: In a recent episode, Seth wryly proposed an “angst-free Ryan week.”

Yet the teenage trauma has continued unabated.

Ryan’s girlfriend, the troubled Marissa (Mischa Barton), nearly killed herself with painkillers and alcohol, was blackmailed, lost her virginity out of spite, was held hostage by an ex-pal, and was nearly sent to a mental hospital.

Last week’s episode veered dangerously close to “Melrose Place”-level hysterics, with a poolside catfight, an angry Las Vegas pimp and a who’s-the-father pregnancy cliffhanger.

“It’s been one insane plot twist after another,” says Jon Hein, the 36-year-old creator of the Web site Jumptheshark.com.

He says the show jumped the shark in the gunpoint stand-off episode, in which Marissa’s misfit friend Oliver turned out to be a psychotic stalker who held her hostage in his penthouse hotel suite.

“[Oliver was] the moment when it started to go downhill,” says Hein.

“It didn’t work, it was obvious it didn’t work . . . [and] the show became more farcical after that point. I don’t know where they’re going to go from here.”

The show’s creator, Josh Schwartz, admits the hostage episode has been a sticking point with critics.

“Yeah, they didn’t like Oliver,” he says. “But what’s the alternative – stay the same and get boring?”

Additional reporting by David K. Li