Asking the Wrong Questions

Veronica Mars has got a Veronica Mars problem.  This is the inescapable conclusion one must draw from the multiple attempted--and, for the most part, failed--reinventions the show has undergone since the end of its first, transcendent season in 2005.  In those fourteen years, we've watched the show try to repeat history (the second season, which furnished Veronica with another high-school-set mystery reeking of sexual violence and the entitlement of the rich), switch formats (the third season, which split its storytelling into three multi-episode arcs, each dealing with a different mystery), attempt to switch settings (the "Veronica Mars, FBI agent" sizzle reel Rob Thomas produced in an attempt to earn the show a fourth season), make a time jump (the 2014 movie, which did have a mystery story somewhere in there but was mostly concerned with delivering all the fanservice viewers could stomach), and now, with Hulu's eight-episode revival, seemingly do all of those thin...

Spring has sprung, and with it a whole bunch of movies I want to watch have arrived at the movie theater (as well as this bunch, see my recent review of Snowpiercer at Strange Horizons ).  Though I haven't exactly been suffering, there's certainly a somewhat fannish slant to my recent moviegoing that verges on the embarrassing--I need to get around to watching some grown-up films, pronto.  Of course, it being the end of April these are nowhere to be seen, and by the time fall and its award-bait movies roll around I'll probably have forgotten this resolution.  In the meantime, here are my thoughts on some the films I've seen recently. Veronica Mars - The Kickstarter-funded return to the world of the beloved TV series proves two things.  One, that it was always a mistake for the show's second season to pick up immediately where the first season left off and try to recreate its "mystery in a high school" plot.  And two, that while the world of Neptune, C...

Hot off the season 3 DVD, the Veronica Mars season 4 'pilot', Rob Thomas's attempt to sketch out the show's revamped form with Veronica as an FBI agent: part 1 & 2 . (See also the season 3 blooper reel .) The crazy thing is, I actually have a list of likes and dislikes in response to this, as though it weren't just a sad reminder of something that'll (probably) never be but an actual prelude to a new season. I think the pace could use a little picking up, but I'm pleased to see Veronica surrounded by other smart, observant, driven people, something the third season toyed with but never fully explored. You see? Madness! I was happier before I watched this.

By now you've probably heard about Veronica Mars 's cancellation. Michael Ausiello has it from the horse's mouth . Everyone always says that it's better for a show to die at its peak, rather than linger for an unnaturally long life, hemorrhaging quality and viewers. That's usually true, but it less painful--for the viewers--when a show dies at a midpoint between these two stages--when it's still good, but no longer as transcendentally excellent as it once was. I was pleased with this season's opening mystery arc, but less impressed with the murder mystery, whose handling I found aimless and half-hearted. Worst of all, when the time came for the standalone episodes (two of which have been quite good), I found myself caring a great deal less than I thought I would. I was ready to let go. The truth is, Mars 's writers never worked out how to extend their series into a multi-season format. They tried replicating the first season and discovered that lighteni...

E!Online's Kristin Veitch reports : According to CW insiders, the network has not officially canceled Veronica Mars. However, here's the catch: It is currently considering a different format for the fourth season. From what I hear, that format would leap four years into the future and focus on Veronica as an FBI agent. Aside from returning star Kristen Bell (duh), the rest of the cast is yet to be determined, but it isn't likely that many of her current costars would be on hand. Even before the show's first season was over, I was hoping that the second season wouldn't follow the standard format of high school-set series and rejoin its characters after the summer. It seemed obvious to me that if the writers hoped to repeat the first season's accomplishment and tell another compelling season-long mystery, they would have to give Veronica the chance to accumulate more backstory. Half the fun of the first season, after all, was discovering Veronica's past as w...

How much do I love the decision to split Veronica Mars 's third season into mini-arcs? Not only has the shift in format completely re-energized the show, it gives me three convenient stopping points from which to take stock of the show's progress. And, since I share producer Rob Thomas's fears about the likelihood of a fourth season, it's probably best to take advantage of the opportunity to do some guilt-free criticism while I still can. Before I get to the criticism, however, I'd like to reiterate that the show is re-energized. After a well-intentioned but deeply flawed second season, Veronica Mars is back in top form. The show's opening plot arc was tight, tense, and compelling. The characters, even when they made choices we couldn't condone or changed in ways we didn't care for, were vibrant onscreen presences (except, that is, for the ones who didn't get nearly enough air-time like Wallace, Mac and Weevil). There are, obviously, still some p...

The good news: according to two different sources, Veronica Mars has received a full season order. The bad news: the CW has ordered only 20 episodes instead of the expected 22. In the short run, this means Rob Thomas and his writing staff will have to scramble to rewrite the season's final plot arc, which will end up getting the least screen time--only four episodes. What really worries me, however, is whether this decision bodes ill for the show's chances of being renewed for a fourth season. Loving this show is not easy. Still, this is mostly good news.

Well, if two links can be called a linkdump. Rian Johnson, writer and director of the awesome Brick , has made the film's shooting script (plus annotations) and the original novella on which the film is based available on his website. ( Via ) Hot off the season two DVD (on sale starting today), the Veronica Mars gag reel . Trust me, you haven't lived until you've watched Joss Whedon, in character as the uptight rental car guy in "Rat Saw God", compare himself to "the minstrels of old." ( Via )

Coming a distant second on my list of reasons for being glad about Veronica Mars ' renewal is the fact that, had the show been cancelled, I probably wouldn't have had the heart to post this entry. Praising the season's strengths would have been too painful, and listing its faults would have felt cruel and pointless. And, let's be honest, there are faults to list. When judged against any other standard but the impossibly harsh one it had set for itself, Veronica Mars ' second season is unquestionably a stunning accomplishment, and still the best show on TV. That impossible standard, however, is the one that matters, and in their second outing the show's writers have clearly failed to meet it. But I'd rather start with praise than with censure, and in one case at least I believe that fans' complaints against the show are thoroughly unjustified. Pacing has been on the top of most fans' complaint list throughout the second season--the investigation moved...

TV Guide 's Michael Ausiello reports : Straight from the horse's mouth, Rob Thomas just e-mailed me to confirm that Veronica Mars has been renewed for a third season. The show got a 22-episode order that, depending on ratings, can be reduced to 13. Expect my thoughts on season 2 some time tomorrow.

Ha! And I say again ha! Ha- ha! Which is not to say that I'm pleased with what we got. My reasons for picking Beaver as the killer were that I hoped that by making the bus bomber a teenager the writers could avoid the cliché of the mustache-twirling villain, the seeming good guy who turns out to be a cackling criminal mastermind. As you might imagine, I am not thrilled with what we got--I think I could have lived with Beaver killing the kids on the bus because he wanted to keep his 'secret', but his sadism towards Mac and Veronica (dear God, did we have to bring up the rape again ? Wasn't it a bad enough idea the first time around?), and for that matter the entire grand guignol of a climax felt over the top and unearned. I'm planning to write a longer post about the season as a whole, but that's going to take a while. For one thing, I'd like to rewatch the season and see if it hangs together a little better when viewed as a single block. Also, I'd...

Via Gwenda , this article about Veronica Mars ' as-yet-unconfirmed third season. The good: Rob Thomas wants to make Mac a regular next year. About bloody time. The ambiguous: the writers are moving away from a single mystery that underlies the entire season and writing three mysteries, each lasting 7-8 episodes. This has been rumored for quite some time, and given the show's problems with pacing during the second season, it might be a good idea. I'll miss the grandeur of the season-long mystery, though--I enjoyed knowing that the writers had the guts to demand such an extended commitment from their viewers. The potentially splendiferous: Rob Thomas is very, very certain of a third season. The official announcement won't come until May 18th, which gives us all time to sacrifice a black goat at the north end of a graveyard at midnight on a full moon, just to be on the safe side. Counting the days until Tuesday--I'm sticking with Beaver as my pick for the bus bomb...

First of all, I should probably mention that I have the investigative skills of a stunned wombat. Seriously, you wouldn't believe the things that I had to have pointed out to me this season: that Logan deliberately targeted Hannah, that the bomb was stashed in one of the bus passengers' bags. I have absolutely no chance of working out the solution to Veronica Mars ' season-long mystery simply by examining the available evidence and deducing a theory of the crime. The thing is, I don't think anyone else has a chance of doing that either, or at least not yet. Veronica Mars is a mystery story, which means that although on a certain level it is an intellectual puzzle, first and foremost it is a drama, and its writers' primary objective is to maintain tension and ensure that the mystery's solution is surprising to its viewers. There is, without a doubt, at least one piece of crucial evidence as yet undiscovered, without which the mystery can't be unraveled. The ...

From Lindsay: Is the Donut (Teddy Dunn) off Veronica Mars for good? Or will he be back in future episodes? I can tell you the original plan was Vanilla Sprinkles would be off the show for good. He was released from the show as of Jan. 24. However, there are rumors Rob Thomas may be asking him back for another episode or two. I'm not sure whether that has yet been decided. But when I told you (about six months ago) a series regular was being written off the show this season, that is whom I was talking about. Teddy Dunn is no longer a series regular, and if and when he returns, my sense is that it won't be permanent. I can't tell how surprised I am at this development, and how pleased. Duncan's character has been mishandled from day one, and Teddy Dunn certainly didn't help bring an extra dimension to the character. Mars ' writers, however, really did seem to be trying to sell us on Veronica and Duncan as a love story with no ending, and I was certain that they...

Looking over the TWoP forums , it seems that the general reaction to last week's episode of Veronica Mars , "My Mother, the Fiend", has been a negative one. I can see where some of the complaints are coming from (Veronica develops a selective sort of intelligence that, for instance, leaves her blind to the 'friend'-'fiend' connection, and there's no denying a certain soapiness to the episode's plot--abandoned babies, secret paternities, multi-generational grudges), but as a whole I think this episode actually harkens to many of the show's most important themes. I've written before about the way Mars uses investigation as a metaphor for self-discovery and the process of growing up. I've also drawn comparisons between the show and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, which also posit that in order to fully understand themselves and achieve maturity, young people need to understand their past, specifically their parents' own childh...