Seth's goal was to attend Brown University, but he ends up going to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and continuing work on his comic book Atomic County.

[3][4] Schwartz said about Brody that he is "naturally talented, a funny guy, and has a Point of View on the world (and an initial perspective on Seth) that made him feel very specific, and had a little attitude.

It was as much Seth's choice not to fit in, as it was the Water Polo players rejecting him, and a lot of that came from Brody, as well as a love for Death Cab for Cutie.

[5] Carina Chocano of Entertainment Weekly described Seth as "a nuanced portrait of a true-to-life dork [whose] relationship to Ryan is full of nice little ironies.

Seth is a very bubbly character, thanks to the likes of his "only true friend" Ryan, and is prone to not knowing when to keep his mouth shut, however this is more endearing and humorous, than irritating.

His actions are demonstrated in episodes such as "The Dearly Beloved" when Seth hesitates to send his mother to rehab and in "The Man of the Year" when he takes care of her when she relapses in her drinking.

Prior to Ryan's arrival, he was routinely bullied by the jocks (namely, the water polo players), who would intentionally urinate on his shoes[9] and slam him into the lockers,[10] and had hated Newport so much that he wanted to go to a boarding school on the East Coast.

[11] If not bullied, he was largely ignored by his other peers; Summer treated him with disdain, calling him "Death Breath Seth,"[10] while Marissa, who lived next door since they were in elementary school, did not speak to him until after Ryan's arrival.

He would go out on his sailboat, the Summer Breeze, to escape Newport; in Season 2 he admitted to Ryan that he sold it for cash while docked at Santa Barbara and caught a Greyhound to Portland.

Besides his awkwardness, his naivety in social norms and relationships contributes to his propensity to draw trouble to himself and not realizing until it's too late, a running gag in the show; for example, he has to be physically stopped by both Zach Stevens and Ryan when he tries to call his crush Alex Kelly even after she hinted for him to stay away because her ex is in town.

Plans of him drawing comics started at the end of the first season when executive producer Alan Heinberg impressed by Eric Wight's work asked him to be the "ghost artist".

Soon after Ryan's arrival, Seth became friends with Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) and got the chance to speak to Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson), a popular girl on whom he had a huge crush since childhood.

Early in season 2, Seth is staying with Luke Ward in Portland, Oregon and working at a kayak rental shack.

After accepting the fact that his relationship with Summer was over, Seth started dating Alex Kelly (Olivia Wilde), a girl with whom he temporarily worked at The Bait Shop in Newport Beach.

He attempts to impress her by putting on a "bad boy" image, even entertaining the idea of wearing one of Ryan's trademark wife-beaters to meet her and "stealing" his grandfather's Aston Martin.

She couldn't deny her feelings and left Zach for Seth at the airport, sealing the new relationship with a rainy kiss in the style of Spider-Man.

As the story continued six months later, Seth worked at a comic-book store and had problems with Summer, who turned from materialistic gossip into a tree-hugging Vegan (who later protested against poverty at a Thanksgiving meal at the Cohens) at college and would not answer his phone calls.

She visited home for Thanksgiving, and Seth confronted her with this concept, which she eventually accepted, telling him via voice mail as she left to return to Brown to deal with it on her own.

Though Summer came to terms with Marissa's death through therapy and seemed to return to her old self, she and Seth quickly discovered that her tree-hugging ways had left a deep imprint.

"[7] As of 2004, Seth was named one of the 10 best current characters by Zap2it, writing: "The gangly Adam Brody effortlessly delivers his hilarious and sweetly sarcastic lines.