Friday, November 17, 2006 - 12:00 AM
I blame Lost entirely for my tardiness.
No, seriously. For weeks it's been the same schedule: get home, eat dinner, write my Veronica Mars commentary, then watch Lost. (Schoolwork theoretically gets done in there somewhere as well.) This week? No Lost. The result? Totally forgot about my pal Veronica.
Which isn't to say I didn't like Tuesday's episode. And here I am a day afterward writing about it. There was actually a good deal to admire last week, as the drama was less in the abstract than in the here and now: Keith let her down. Logan is keeping secrets from her. Her teacher is having an affair with the Dean's trophy wife. Wallace is away for a few days. In other words, the producers must be desperate to hang onto those Gilmore Girl lead-in ratings, because all the men in Veronica's life are suddenly letting her down.
You know how I complained about the first few episodes, and the overarching rape mystery, about not being personal enough? This episode felt like it was actually about Veronica and her life, which was nice. (Well, not all of it. But we'll get to that.) I particularly liked the vintage college moment where Veronica goes on a food run for her randomly thrown-together roommates Piz and Mystery-of-the-Week Girl. And I liked when Logan came knocking on Piz's door later on asking where Veronica was: it didn't play out like the cliched scene where the boyfriend immediately suspects the worst and does something stupid. Logan and Piz know each other, and they were friendly, and Logan's worriedness about Veronica was something that Piz could relate to.
And the ending! Finally some life-threatening excitement. I totally called the roofie-in-the-cafeteria, and Veronica hitting her car alarm before she's about to be attacked in the parking garage was great. (I didn't even mind that Logan just-so-happened to be one hundred yards away.) And the attacker started shaving her head before fleeing! Finally we're getting somewhere!
Alas, the bad:
1. If you're going to expand your cast, ACTUALLY USE THEM. No Wallace, no Weevil, no Mac, no Mac's roommate, no Dick. Remember how Season 1 started off with that guidance counselor that the show soon realized it didn't have a place for? I have a feeling one of the regulars might be written out in a similar fashion this season.
2. Veronica has an increased tendency to be (a) mean and (b) stupid. Mean, as in hating Logan so much for not revealing Mercer's alibi that she suggested the complete falsehood that she was cheating on him. That's just not cool: sure, I'm biased towards Jason Dohring's excellent portrayal of Logan, but he's asking you to trust him. Just listen to him. And stupid, as in, someone obviously slipped something into your drink and you decide to wander through a dark and empty parking lot in search of a car you're in no position to drive in? It screamed a bit too much "writing contrivance" for me.
3. THE MYSTERIES OF THE WEEK SUCK. I was watching this with some of my roommates, who are not normal VM viewers. Roommate #1 came in late and asked what was going on. "Um...she's trying to help this girl, uh...find her boyfriend," I respond. Roommate #2 laughs: "I was wondering how you were going to try to make it sound more interesting than that," he says. Why should we care? Yeah, I get the little tie-in at the end about actually trusting in the ones you love, a lesson that Veronica particularly needed to hear. But it was reeeeeeally lame and pointless.
Still, I was moved by the ending, in which Veronica is nursed to health by Logan and Keith. The whole final fifteen minutes in general reminded me of a sleeker, darker, more fun Season 1. For now, though, what we get is still pretty solid.
No, seriously. For weeks it's been the same schedule: get home, eat dinner, write my Veronica Mars commentary, then watch Lost. (Schoolwork theoretically gets done in there somewhere as well.) This week? No Lost. The result? Totally forgot about my pal Veronica.
Which isn't to say I didn't like Tuesday's episode. And here I am a day afterward writing about it. There was actually a good deal to admire last week, as the drama was less in the abstract than in the here and now: Keith let her down. Logan is keeping secrets from her. Her teacher is having an affair with the Dean's trophy wife. Wallace is away for a few days. In other words, the producers must be desperate to hang onto those Gilmore Girl lead-in ratings, because all the men in Veronica's life are suddenly letting her down.
You know how I complained about the first few episodes, and the overarching rape mystery, about not being personal enough? This episode felt like it was actually about Veronica and her life, which was nice. (Well, not all of it. But we'll get to that.) I particularly liked the vintage college moment where Veronica goes on a food run for her randomly thrown-together roommates Piz and Mystery-of-the-Week Girl. And I liked when Logan came knocking on Piz's door later on asking where Veronica was: it didn't play out like the cliched scene where the boyfriend immediately suspects the worst and does something stupid. Logan and Piz know each other, and they were friendly, and Logan's worriedness about Veronica was something that Piz could relate to.
And the ending! Finally some life-threatening excitement. I totally called the roofie-in-the-cafeteria, and Veronica hitting her car alarm before she's about to be attacked in the parking garage was great. (I didn't even mind that Logan just-so-happened to be one hundred yards away.) And the attacker started shaving her head before fleeing! Finally we're getting somewhere!
Alas, the bad:
1. If you're going to expand your cast, ACTUALLY USE THEM. No Wallace, no Weevil, no Mac, no Mac's roommate, no Dick. Remember how Season 1 started off with that guidance counselor that the show soon realized it didn't have a place for? I have a feeling one of the regulars might be written out in a similar fashion this season.
2. Veronica has an increased tendency to be (a) mean and (b) stupid. Mean, as in hating Logan so much for not revealing Mercer's alibi that she suggested the complete falsehood that she was cheating on him. That's just not cool: sure, I'm biased towards Jason Dohring's excellent portrayal of Logan, but he's asking you to trust him. Just listen to him. And stupid, as in, someone obviously slipped something into your drink and you decide to wander through a dark and empty parking lot in search of a car you're in no position to drive in? It screamed a bit too much "writing contrivance" for me.
3. THE MYSTERIES OF THE WEEK SUCK. I was watching this with some of my roommates, who are not normal VM viewers. Roommate #1 came in late and asked what was going on. "Um...she's trying to help this girl, uh...find her boyfriend," I respond. Roommate #2 laughs: "I was wondering how you were going to try to make it sound more interesting than that," he says. Why should we care? Yeah, I get the little tie-in at the end about actually trusting in the ones you love, a lesson that Veronica particularly needed to hear. But it was reeeeeeally lame and pointless.
Still, I was moved by the ending, in which Veronica is nursed to health by Logan and Keith. The whole final fifteen minutes in general reminded me of a sleeker, darker, more fun Season 1. For now, though, what we get is still pretty solid.
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