‘Veronica Mars’ is a teen crime-drama which is incredibly addictive. It might be Kristen Bell, who hits almost every fetish button in my body or it might the plausibly unreal world they are living in. It may even be that, for the most part, the individual stories are well written, entertaining and feature an awful lot of Apple Macs.
It isn’t, however, the season one plot arc and it definitely isn’t the extended cast of characters.
The season one plot arc; who killed Lilly Kane? is vaguely interesting but a) it is jammed into episodes which leads to b) Veronica gets leads which she then doesn’t follow up for what seems weeks at a time and c) its resolution at the end of season one is actually fairly crap, what with a startling resolution they try to intimate was telegraphed earlier but actually wasn’t. Still, since it was resolved in one season I can hope that seasons two and three are a little more consistent in their execution and resolution.
And now, the extended cast.
‘Veronica Mars’ was obviously a show that went through a few changes in the first third of the season. Characters who looked as if they were going to be mains are written out and characters who look as if they are going to be important get sidelined and are underdeveloped. Veronica’s best friend, Wallace, only makes token appearances in some eps (which is disturbingly funny as he is the token African American) whlist Duncan, the ex-boyfriend, should feature more as he is the newspaper editor but disappears into the background. It seems that the show started out with too big a cast, some of which become unnecessary very early on but, due to contracts, were kept onboard. Most of them seem to be back for season two, so I can only imagine that the lead writers were told to make more use of them.
All that being said, this is a damn fine show. The mysteries are quirky and fun, the narration Marlow-esque and the general vibe slightly Twin Peak-ish. It is easy watching fodder; I could happily imagine myself devoting a Sunday to the show, with chips, dips and a couple of friends over. If I were seventeen I’d have posters of Kristen Bell on my walls (I probably should, anyway; she’s only three years younger than me). I’d be discussing the latest ep with people in class. The show is cool for cats.
And no, even I can’t believe I used that term.