Thursday, July 10, 2008

a perky blonde


Veronica Mars (2005) SEASON 1

Status: Cancelled after 3 seasons

Genre: teen/drama/noir

DVD Extras: a few deleted scenes. Pretty lame.

Basics: In the wealthy seaside community of Neptune California the rich and powerful make the rules. Unfortunately for them there's Veronica Mars a smart fearless 17-year-old apprentice private investigator dedicated to solving the town's toughest mysteries. Veronica used to be one of the popular girls but it all came crumbling down around her after her best friend Lilly was murdered and her then-sheriff father Keith was removed from office for naming Lilly's rich father as the lead suspect. During the day Veronica must negotiate high school like any average teenage girl. But at night she helps with her father's struggling new private investigator business--and what she finds may tear the town of Neptune apart at the seams.

The good: Veronica is a total ball-buster (while still managing to be cutesy but not annoying). Everyone at school hates her, her boyfriend just stopped talking to her one day, she got raped at a party, her best friend was murdered and no one is looking for the real killer… and yet she handles it all. With talent, brains, and sarcasm. Every episode has a Mystery of the Week that VM solves. The overall arc of the season is defined by Lily’s murder case. We get tantalizing clues throughout and the payoff definitely delivers.

The bad: The voice-overs are an interesting tool, and help give the show a noir-ish feel. I sometimes wish they did more than just explain what VM was doing, though. In the pilot it helped give us some insight into VM’s thought-process and beliefs, but they didn’t really do that enough throughout every episode. Could have been a great tool in propelling the story lines forward. But you know, that’s a complaint in hind-sight. The viewing experience overall is very nice.

The ugly: Dad, Wallace, and Mac are all great. Logan’s character just keeps getting better throughout the season. But for some reason, they left Veronica’s love interest, Duncan, oddly underdeveloped and LAME.

Why it’s awesome: The feel, the dialogue, Lily’s murder plotline… it’s all amazing. The Mysteries of the Week are sometimes a bit uneven, but they’re never dull. An advantage of watching it on DVD is that the impact of the MotWs are minimized and you can get more involved with the main mystery.

Best Episodes: In episode 4 they do a good job of establishing the characters’ back stories and relationships. It’s essential to see why Lily was so important to Veronica (lots of good flashbacks throughout the season too). The Christmas episode is my favorite. And of course the finale episode is HOT (oh look, I made a pun—you’d get it if you saw the season).

In conclusion, a very good summer distraction. It’s fun and engrossing. Everything’s solved at the end of the season. Ok, it’s a little cliffhangery with a couple of things, but trust me, what follows in season 2 and 3 are disappointing. Use your imagination and make up your own ending; it’s much better that way. Without Lily’s case propelling Veronica forward, she just seems kind of lost in later seasons. But this first season? Nearly perfect.

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I tend to get obsessive about things for a while, then get over it, and start to wonder what was wrong with me in the first place. Also, having no section for "Favorite TV Shows" makes absolutely no sense to me. That should tell you a lot right there.