After a short time in streaming limbo—thanks for nothing, go90—Veronica Mars arrives on Hulu Monday, July 1. Running for three seasons on UPN and The CW, the series followed the scholastic and investigative exploits of the titular Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), who used to be a member of the Neptune High elite—until her best friend, Lilly Kane (played in flashbacks by Amanda Seyfried) was murdered, and her sheriff dad, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni), fingered the wrong man for the crime. The TV breakthrough for future Party Down and iZombie co-creator Rob Thomas, Veronica Mars garnered praise for its quippy dialogue, cunningly plotted mystery arcs, and deft handling of topical stories, and its cult following has twice brought it back from the dead: as a Kickstarted movie sequel in 2014, and as an eight-episode fourth season, which debuts Friday, July 26 on Hulu. Whether you’re a devoted Marshmallow revisiting the series or combing through Veronica’s high school and collegiate case files for the first time, the following episodes are the “welcome to Neptune” package you need ahead of season four.
Pilot (season one, episode one)
The Veronica Mars pilot, like all pilots, had a lengthy to-do list: Introduce the players and the setting, put the wheels of the story in motion, and start the process of doling out exposition. Being a mystery and all, Rob Thomas and company also have to launch some mysteries: “Who killed Lilly Kane?” “Who assaulted Veronica?” “What’s going on with Duncan?” “What’s up with Veronica’s mom?” That it accomplishes all those things is impressive; that Kristen Bell so instantly makes Veronica a vibrant, compelling character equally so. But it’s the establishing of the tone of this series—centered on an incredibly clever young woman whose use of language adds a sense of playfulness and surprise to even its darkest chapters—that’s most key. Veronica’s patter is contagious. Those who speak with her reflect it back to her, though she’s rarely matched. Veronica Mars is not a comedy, but sometimes it sure sounds like one, and right from the start. [Allison Shoemaker]
“The Wrath Of Con” (season one, episode four)
Veronica Mars didn’t get into the PI game because she wanted to, and while this fact gives the show that bears her name a lot of thematic depth, there’s nothing obligatory about the investigations on Veronica Mars. Sometimes, they can be rip-roaring fun, like the kicky little mystery at the center of this early episode, which involves a purported prank show, an undercover mission that seemingly winks toward Alias, and a couple of dipshit brogrammers who set the standard for the type of suspects who’ll continually underestimate our heroine—to their own peril. “The Wrath Of Con” is also heavy on the flashbacks, filling out the episode with some prime material for Amanda Seyfried and beginning the work of rehabilitating Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), asshole with a heart of gold, that’ll pick up in earnest in the next episode. [Erik Adams]
“Return Of The Kane” (season one, episode six)
What’s apparent about Veronica Mars from the jump is how its episodes are often busy, but never feel busy. Consider everything that “Return Of The Kane” must pay attention to, as it launches plots for Veronica and Duncan from the tried-and-true high-school drama of student elections, all the while using those plots to underline the divisions, double standards, and corruption (and how they go hand in hand) at Neptune High. And yet there’s also room for a full Logan story, his dabbling in illegal-boxing promotion and exploitation of the homeless threatening the career of his hot-shot action-star father, Aaron Echolls (Harry Hamlin). The Echolls family’s troubles could be an episode in of themselves, but they’re the model of economic storytelling here, shedding new light on Veronica Mars’ poor little rich boy in just a few scenes and showing how much a TV show can achieve with some well-placed FM gold and a pan to a liquor-slurping Lisa Rinna. There’s additional perspective on the show’s protagonist, too: The client of the week, pep-squad-member-turned-people’s-candidate Wanda (Rachel Roth) gradually shows herself to be a vision of all the ways Veronica’s fall from social grace could’ve gone, but didn’t. It’s a lesson taught early and often: In Neptune, appearances can (and almost always will) be deceiving. [Erik Adams]
“An Echolls Family Christmas” (season one, episode 10)
What begins as one of the more lighthearted episodes of Veronica Mars (and the holiday installment, to boot!) ends with a gut-punch reminder of the life-and-death stakes of the series, the kind of expertly executed heel turn that would become one of the show’s signature moves. Veronica is hired to figure out who stole the money at Logan’s poker game—quite literally a low-stakes mystery, albeit with a high cost to ante in—while Keith is enlisted by Logan’s mother Lynn to look into a possible stalker of her husband, Aaron. The dueling cases then come to a head in the same location, as the Echolls’ annual Christmas party becomes the scene of not just both investigations being resolved (one in startlingly bloody fashion), but Veronica getting another emotionally resonant clue in the puzzle of the Lilly Kane murder. Smart, witty, and ready to pull the rug out from under its viewers—in other words, the show at its finest. [Alex McLevy]
“Clash Of The Tritons” (season one, episode 12)
When people talk about the all-time great Veronica Mars episodes, “Clash Of The Tritons” doesn’t come up often. Coming after the one-two punch of “An Echolls Family Christmas” and “Silence Of The Lamb” (and right before the relatively underwhelming “Lord Of The Bling”), this episode gets lost in the shuffle, mostly remembered for moments like Veronica singing “One Way Or Another” at karaoke or the entire concept of the Tritons secret society, a plot point that is really unimportant until it’s important again. But it’s actually impressive just how integral “Clash Of The Tritons” is to the first season, and there’s something about the first time Veronica Mars, teen detective and all-around firecracker, is bested by a peer—even temporarily—that you just can’t forget. “Clash Of The Tritons” isn’t just an episode where Veronica has to get inventive with investigating a school-related mystery while suspended, it’s the episode where she hears incredibly telling testimonials from Logan, Weevil, and Duncan (all thanks to a bug she planted), which all end up being integral to her work on the Lilly Kane mystery. Also: “Veronica Mars is smarter than me” is an all-time great line. [LaToya Ferguson]
“Mars Vs. Mars” (season one, episode 14)
One of the cornerstones of Veronica Mars is that it’s Veronica and Keith against the world, whether that’s healthy or not. Up to this point, there have been moments of teenage impatience that put the duo at odds, but “Mars Vs. Mars” flips the script by having the two go head-to-head. The episode serves as a reminder that, while Veronica Mars may be smarter than you, she’s still a teenager who can let personal biases (against mean girls, for her favorite floppy-haired teacher) cloud her judgment. On top of that, “Mars Vs. Mars” is the definitive “before they were famous” episode of the series: Mr. Rooks is Adam Scott’s most infamous role (right up there with his role on HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me) and a pre-Gossip Girl Leighton Meester is so good as Carrie Bishop it’s enough to get angry at the movie recast (and general story for the character) all over again. Outside of the case, this episode also begins a shift in character dynamics, as Logan hires Veronica to solve his mother’s disappearance. [LaToya Ferguson]
“A Trip To The Dentist” (season one, episode 21)
The pinnacle of Veronica Mars, and the culmination of the first season and what it’s been building toward even more than the season finale. Most specifically, because it speaks to the ecosystem of Neptune High—in finally solving the mystery of Veronica’s rape—which is just as important to the series as the identity of Lilly Kane’s killer. In terms of episodes being “earned,” that’s exactly what “A Trip To The Dentist” is, taking seemingly bit characters from past cases of the week—proving just how great the series was at world-building, even when you weren’t thinking about it as such—and cashing in on the new dynamics they have with Veronica in order to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Season one is when the ethereal magic of Veronica Mars’ flashbacks were at their best too, so this is also an episode that exists both in the right time and right place. [LaToya Ferguson]
“Leave It To Beaver” (season one, episode 22)
The first series finale of Veronica Mars remains its best, satisfyingly wrapping up the biggest of its early mysteries in deeply distressing fashion, while still ending on a note of something best described as mournful optimism. Few episodes of this series pack more emotional punch per square foot: Veronica signs away her rights to the Kane fortune, only to be told immediately afterward that Keith Mars is her biological father after all. She discovers that her mother has been drinking, and sends her packing in brutal yet somehow compassionate fashion, only to have Lianne steal her settlement check on the way out the door. Her suspicions about Logan reach an inevitable climax that sends him to the edge of a meltdown (and a bridge). And Lilly Kane’s killer is revealed, leading to a genuinely terrifying sequence in which the Taser-tough Veronica genuinely and understandably loses her shit. But it’s her goodbye with Lilly, her inner picture of her friend restored to youth and beauty, then set free, that seals the deal. Finally, there’s peace, but with peace comes loss; a difficult thing for any marshmallow to bear. [Allison Shoemaker]
“Normal Is The Watchword” (season two, episode one)
The second season of Veronica Mars demonstrates (together with iZombie) that the shows of Rob Thomas and Dianne Ruggerio-Wright at their best thrive off chaos. This premiere takes the relatively straightforward stories of the first season, tosses them in a pot, and sees what boils over. Not only does it take the ridiculous cliffhanger from the first season finale and use it to troll shippers, repeatedly, by showing who is and who isn’t Veronica’s boyfriend, but it also tosses a dazzling set of season-long plots out to be resolved. Bus crash? Obviously. Steve Guttenberg and Krysten Ritter showing up? Why not! Logan accused of murder? Indeed. Meg inexplicably hating Veronica? That’s a thing. All this, and a quick little standalone plot that highlights the race and class divisions at the core of Veronica Mars? That’s about as chaotic and beautiful as a season premiere can get. [Rowan Kaiser]
“Donut Run” (season two, episode 11)
Before exploring any of its other virtues, let us say that “Donut Run” has this in its favor: It gets Duncan Kane out the door. Nothing against Teddy Dunn, who put in the work to make the tormented, then not tormented, then once again tormented Duncan a compelling figure, and he and Bell have some great scenes together, particularly in the first season. But eventually, he was going to need to hit the road, and this story is a particularly smart, entertaining, and even moving way of doing just that. Veronica and Duncan essentially pull a con on the sheriff’s department, the FBI, Keith Mars himself, and most surprisingly, the audience, staging a breakup that allows them to get Duncan and his baby (with poor Meg) out of the country and out of reach of her abusive parents. Just when you think the big twist has arrived, another shows up. And best of all, it allows them to enlist the services of one Vinnie Van Lowe (Ken Marino, terrific), Neptune’s other P.I. and a man whose reliable self-interest and secretly soft heart make him the perfect ally, at least this time. [Allison Shoemaker]
“Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough” (season two, episode 13)
If the mark of a great TV show is its bottle episodes, then Veronica Mars passes with flying colors in “Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enogh.” First, this is by far Tessa Thompson’s best episode as the doomed Jackie, when she’s finally the underdog that Veronica works with. Second, it’s a twisty-turny mystery, one that both reveals the core class and racial tensions of Neptune—then tweaks them. Third, the best denouement of any episode, with Kristen Bell literally singing as she dances around her enemies with Thompson gleefully backing her up. Fourth, a slowly touching B-plot involving Keith Mars reckoning with fandom, betrayal, and forgiveness. And fifth and finally—a warning that there’s a bizarrely transphobic end to a C-plot involving the Casablancas boys. Without that misstep, this might be the single best and most representative episode of Veronica Mars. Even with it, it’s still got a case. [Rowan Kaiser]
“Show Me The Monkey” (season three, episode 10)
Let’s hear it for the too rarely appreciated talents of Mac (Tina Majorino), computer nerd extraordinaire and excellent foil to Veronica’s been-there-solved-that attitude. This episode provides a showcase for the sidekick, as she joins Veronica to investigate the kidnapping of a monkey from a research lab, but in the ensuing undercover operation in which the pair join a PETA-like activist group they suspect is responsible, Mac finds herself falling for the likable head of the organization. This episode begins the second major arc of the third season, as it kicks off the story of Keith investigating the Dean of Hearst College’s suicide, but mostly it works as rich and rewarding character development of the sort it took a while for season three to deliver. Plus, it has Mac and Parker turning their dorm room into the most delightful representation of Canada this side of a Schitt’s Creek episode. [Alex McLevy]
“Debasement Tapes” (season three, episode 17)
If there’s one thing season three of Veronica Mars proved—other than being a time capsule of the dire, lime-green-color-scheme, Dawn-Ostroff-led early years of The CW—it’s that a little levity could go a long way. In fact, any levity at all could do so. And thanks to Paul Rudd, “Debasement Tapes” is the closest episode in this particular season that gets that and just goes for it. Before Rudd was credited with Thomas, John Enbom, and Dan Etheridge as a co-creator of Party Down, and even longer before he did the voiceover for a zombie documentary in iZombie, he guest starred in this third-season episode of Veronica Mars as burned-out alt-rock star Desmond Fellows. And this wasn’t a situation like the previous guest appearances by Jessica Chastain, Adam Scott, or Leighton Meester: Paul Rudd was firmly established by this point in his career. (Though you’d barely be able to tell from The CW’s “promotion” for the episode. Nor would you be able to tell what Veronica Mars is about.) At the same time, in all of this fun, this is also an episode where Keith’s seemingly direct shot to becoming sheriff of Neptune is suddenly challenged by Vinnie Van Lowe, of all people, which leads the rest of the season down a continued dark path. Really, looking back, “Debasement Tapes” is such a surreal episode of Veronica Mars—kind of like season three itself. [LaToya Ferguson]
“The Bitch Is Back” (season three, episode 20)
“After all these years, do you not instinctively fear me?” says Veronica, early in what used to be the last episode of the series. There was a problem with much of the third season, where Veronica’s disdain for being a private detective—the whole point of the show!—overwhelmed the character to the point where she wasn’t a fun character anymore. That’s not the case with “The Bitch Is Back,” where a very personal case of the week reverts her to the full joyously nasty avenging angel of the first two seasons. But being the avenging angel has consequences, and it wouldn’t be Veronica Mars without some level of betrayal, which is hammered home in the bittersweet final montage. While technically the finale was accidental, it encapsulated the show’s themes and characters perfectly, had great throwbacks to its first season, and solidified Keith and Veronica Mars as the greatest father-daughter relationship on television. [Rowan Kaiser]
86 Comments
Mac’s switched-at-birth bottle episode really impressed me. I was already hooked on the big mystery, enjoyed the pacing with the one-off episodes thrown in here and there, but then this one with Mac made me realize the show did one-offs really well too… like A calibur good.
The whole relationship Mac had with her little sister was heartbreaking.
Also doesn’t help that Madison treats the little sister like garbage… Honestly seeing how much Mac fits in with her whole biological family is just heartbreaking.
Aside from being one of the big shipping episodes, I really love the fake bomb threat storyline in “Weapons of Class Destruction”. You got Logan punching an ATF agent, Veronica fooling Clemmons with old lady voices – all the good stuff.It’s also a great “hey look at these TV actors when they were little!” episode, with Luke Cage’s Shades as the former bully/Kurasawa enthusiast who gets framed for the bomb threat and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Tim the Apple Man as the kid who frames him.And I’ll take ANY excuse to listen to Apple Man again.
Just rewatched it last week, and was amazed to see Shades.
Theo Rossi was so great in VM that I still remembered him when I started watching Sons of Anarchy. Was a full blown fan by the time Luke Cage came around.
Also that kiss scene where everything just works perfectly (acting, score, editing). It was damn perfect and I can’t remember another tv kiss that made me that happy.
That whole s1 love interest arc was handled super well, IMO. I completely 180’d from “Fuck this guy, I’m gonna be so mad if he ends up a love interest” to cheering in my living room for that kiss.
I know not everybody agrees but I think Logan got one of the best redemption arcs I’ve ever seen. And Jason Dohring was doing overtime to make sure it worked.
So so so true. I came late to the VMars party and I remember before I had ever watched the show, seeing people online going on about Logan this, Logan that, how great he was. At the time, seeing pics of Dohring, I was like “OK, yeah I guess he’s attractive but … meh.” I just didn’t get it At. All. Fast forward to watching the show for the first time and actually seeing the CHARACTER in action….
The sort of pull and swoop thing, plus epic soundtrack? Oh man, that kiss is the stuff that launches a thousand ships.
That’s Juice from Sons of Anarchy to you!
When Logan charges into that room, credit to Jason Dohring because Logan looks like he’s genuinely afraid he’s going to find Veronica hurt or dead.
You got all that from Apple Man?
It spoke to me more than “Good Bosses and Friends Let Their Employees Soar Elsewhere If Need Be”. I didn’t connect with that one.
Damn, you had me thinking at first that Season 4 was dropping today (the first). Maybe move that little detail up a bit?
I felt that way about stranger things. Not just here, but so many sites had articles/reviews and I woke up yesterday ready to watch the first episode before work and then realized it doesn’t start until Thursday.
I hear the Veronica Mars movie will be about her failed efforts to solve the Cleveland Torso Murders.
I stopped after the first season, mainly because I think the hype killed it for me. (And I was disappointed that Veronica’s dad wasn’t Elias from Person of Interest).But something that bugged me throughout was that despite Veronica’s constant self-identification as some kind of outcast/social pariah, her classmates generally didn’t seem to treat her much differently than anyone else who wasn’t actually their friend, but was getting up in their face and bugging them.So honest question here: did anyone feel the same way? Or was I mostly alone on this? And did this change after the first season, once she had basically single-handedly brought a murderer to justice?
Not in the slightest.The show constantly made all the hazing, harassment, and general bullying that went on to be rough. It’s not remotely an exaggeration to say the show continually demonstrated how much of a pariah she was among her peers. Like that one episode when someone puts her clothes in the toilet while she’s in gym and she has to borrow something from Meg. Or when she winds up accidentally falling in with the not-really-a-cult because, unlike her peers, they accept who for who she is (nailed home by them doing study groups in one of her classes and no one wants to be in her group). Or let’s talk about the night she went to Shelley Pomroy’s party after everything went down, where Madison gave her the “trip to the dentist” with the roofies that Dick meant to give to Madison, and spent the rest of the night semi-conscious, being made out with, fed more drinks against her will, and oh yeah, then Beaver raped her. (And Duncan slept with her in what he thought was consensual sex but then ran away, leaving her to think he had raped her.)
Also, I’m not really sure how well “they treat her like everyone else” serves as a litmus test. Really it’s to say “the rich kids tend to treat the poor kids like shit” and Veronica gets treated like shit. The poor kids all get it, but the rich kids run the school, and Veronica often gets singled out.
I didn’t remember any of that so clearly I was just not watching very carefully. Thanks for the response.
The whole Beaver reveal was a second season thing.
“The whole Beaver reveal”Phra… no, it’s okay, I’ll see myself out.
As long as we’re talking spoilersALERTWasn’t it revealed that not only were Veronica and Duncan related, but that he never had sex with her in the first place? My recollection is spotty; good thing it’s on Hulu now.
You are misremembering
SPOILER-Y QUESTION
“Wasn’t it revealed that not only were Veronica and Duncan related, but that he never had sex with her in the first place? My recollection is spotty; good thing it’s on Hulu now.”
EVEN MORE SPOILER-Y ANSWER
The very opposite. They are not related, and they did have sex while both of them were drugged out of their minds. But unfortunately Veronica learns the latter prior to the former, which is…awkward.
The thing to remember is that everything that happened before the first episode has left Veronica a rather bitter and untrusting person with a desire to make someone pay, there are several times where she is outright mean to people who don’t deserve it.
I think that is part of what makes the show so great, Veronica is as flawed and broken as the rest of the character
I don’t agree, Veronica’s rough time in school rang very true to me (I fell out with a clique after a round of unpleasant mean girl games when we were 13). Even when rape and murder aren’t involved, it is horrible and wearing to have friends turn on you and suddenly realise that pretty much anything they know about you or that you told them is fair game for them to tell anyone else.There was also another clever component to do with gender that the show explores, where teenage girls who would seem to have a lot going for them (pretty, smart etc) have to tread really carefully with their peers. I liked how they explored this further with Meg, who agreed she needed to be tougher but wasn’t down for being vengeful and also with Carmen, who is sexually shamed by her ex-boyfriend but doesn’t want to retaliate.
I didn’t watch Veronica Mars first-run, maybe because it started airing during a period when I did not have access to TV, maybe because it was on a lesser network that wasn’t available where I was living when it started or perhaps it was not marketed toward me. I’m not sure what the reason, but I didn’t watch first-run and only caught it later because of the hype, via streaming from theWB.com.With that said…Veronica Mars pre-dated Person of Interest. To me and probably most people my age, Enrico Colantoni was the photographer from Don’t Shoot Me and the good-guy ex-husband from Hope & Gloria. Though I enjoyed VM and am looking forward to the reboot and rewatched PoI with my son just last year, plus we’re always making real-life comparisons to “Samaritan”, the two early comedic roles are what’s going to come mind for him, first to me.
Alternatively: Watch everything. Watch every episode. Even the heavily maligned third season which suffered from budget cuts.Then watch the movie, and join me in seething frustration as the obvious choice for Veronica is tossed aside for that flashy fricken playboy and that perfectly tailored uniform.#TeamPizForever!
Aw gawd, never team piz.Team anyone, even Weevil.
I’ll take Piz over Logan any day. That shitty romance plot nearly ruins the show for me.
You have to give Chris Lowell serious kudos for making what would, in most shows, an incredible lovable character so reviled.
Honestly I love Chris Lowell’s performance as Bash in GLOW, and I feel like Shirtless Twentysomething David Tennant could have been playing Piz and the LoVe train would still have run him over without a second thought. He was always going to be That Other Guy.
If you like Lowell, check out the short-lived but very fun “Enlisted.” He plays the slacker-with-a-heart-of-gold in a trio of Army brothers, and it’s very watchable. Surprisingly deft touch in presenting life in the armed forces too.
Parker Young made Enlisted for me, although I liked Chris Lowell’s part as well. I bought the DVD on demand.
Oh man Parker Young is so good in that role. The episode where he’s trying to pass the marksmanship test by reciting the plot of Toy Story 3 without crying is SO hilarious.
Starts around 9:20. Sound quality is funky but it can’t ruin the magic.
So underrated. It even made me like the guy from Suburgatory who I could not stand on that show.
Yeah, Piz was always milquetoast. Logan was a prick more often than not but at least he was interesting.Or, to share a phrase from a different discussion, “piz is the dude every girl cheats on or leaves”
I remember that moment in the first episode of season 3 when Piz arrives at the “Logan defends Dick in the cafeteria” scene, and tells Veronica : “Does that kind of things work for college girls? Cos’ I’ll tell you upfront : I’m a lover, not a fighter.” The first thing I thought was : man, this is not the show for you. He was doomed from the beginning. And I like Chris Lowell very much.
My memories of the show, especially my first watching and season 3, are dim.But it is entirely possible that is the root of my extreme “meh” to Piz.
I agree with this – I liked Chris Lowell even then, and I really didn’t like the Logan character as V’s love interest, but the chemistry was never going to compare. Piz was never going to stand a chance. I told someone that all I was watching for this summer was new Veronica Mars, Stranger Things and GLOW, but I am looking forward to GLOW the most.
I think it’s the other way around — it took me a while to realize how good Lowell is because of how much I hated (and still hate!) Piz. Lowell does a great job making a wiener into an actual character, the problem was that he never really fit into the rest of the show — as a Good Guy, he would’ve been fine for an episode or two but was obnoxious in his continued existence over the course of the season.
I completely agree with you there – Piz just didn’t fit the tone, especially with the “everyone lies, everyone cheats, everyone is fucked up” ethos/sensibility the show applied to everybody, (including moral centers like Keith, Veronica, and Wallace). If he’d turned out to be another Troy Vandegraff or had ended up being the one who made the sex tape but didn’t mean to leak it, Piz might have fit better. But just making him aggressively boring never fit with the show’s philosophy.
Bingo. Having him work for NPR in the movie was note-perfect.
Literally Team Dick before Team Piz and Dick is .. well, Dick.
I starred this after the first paragraph. Then I kept reading and had to take it away.LoVe is literally the only TV couple I’ve ever really shipped. Well, Buffy/Spike to some extent, but not fanatically.
Love means never taking a golf club to her car because you got grounded.
Man I love S3. Get bent, haters.
Shipping Veronica and Piz is like shipping Buffy and Riley.
Unpopular opinion here: though it’s widely accepted that the first season of Veronica Mars is the best and had the most satisfying season-long mystery, I hated the resolution provided in the finale—including the revelation of the murderer, which has basically no connection to the complicated intrigue slowly parceled out over the course of the rest of the season. It’s barely less arbitrary the murderer being revealed as a guy who walked in off the street, and the way Veronica catches the perp essentially boils down to “She finally took the time to search the victim’s room thoroughly.”It’s also hard to overlook the obvious rejiggering that took place in the middle of season 1, when Logan unexpectedly took off as a romantic interest for Veronica and the writers took the storyline they’d clearly been planning for Weevil and gave it to him instead.That’s why, although season 2 has its own problems, including a gut-punch in the first episode (“They’re all dead!”) that’s immediately walked back in the subsequent episode in service of a really lame and improbable subplot, I much prefer it to season 1. The overarching mystery hangs together a whole lot better, at least in the sense that the slow accumulation of clues actually leads Veronica to the murderer instead of to a complete red herring.
As far as the season finale for Season 1, the culprit was clearly a suspect earlier. If anything one could argue that the culprit was too obvious, rather than out of left field.
I much preferred season two. For one I never really liked Lilly as a character, and so I was more interested in who killed a bus full of kids than who killed an unlikable character. Also, season two has less Duncan and more Dick.
I’m not as down on Season 1’s ending as you are, my main issue with it was some awkward mixing of the case-of-the-week stuff with the larger plot (I’m recalling Veronica getting some huge info on her mom’s disappearance at the end of one episode that was not dealt with or even mentioned in the next), but I’m definitely with you on Season 2 being the best. Like you said, the relationship stuff is ironed out at this point, the larger storyline is better integrated on an episode by episode basis, and Thomas and co. go all in on the youth vs. adults and poor vs. rich dynamic that Season 1 built — it’s basically Teen Chinatown, I love it.
I don’t think Logan and Veronica getting closer came out of nowhere though. Veronica’s life seems so painful at the start of the season because it is clear Logan and Duncan were both genuinely friends, not just hangers on when she and Lilly hung out together.
I liked Season 2 because from the first episode I said, “oh, it’s ____” and then spent the entire season thinking “it’s definitely ____” and feeling very smug about being right. I like feeling smug, so I was super into it.
Can’t wait for this. The Good place has only one season left, so she can do Veronica Mars forever!
My take is season one is excellent. Season two is OK. Everything else is kinda “meh.”
I know a lot of people didn’t care for the movie, but I have a soft spot for it. But, yeah, as far as the seasons go, you’re right on the money.
I thought the movie was fine, especially as a cast reunion for fans of the show, but the mystery wasn’t as interesting as the best standalone cases in the series. Surprisingly though, I have a friend who watched the movie with no knowledge of the series and thought it was great.
I primarily remember Mars Vs. Mars for, some years later, leading me to correctly finger the Life Is Strange big bad as a predator targeting the protagonist in the first ten minutes of the game. He had exactly the same vibe as Adam Scott pre-reveal.I still think it was super weird how Veronica and the show skipped right over Logan sexually assaulting her in the flashbacks of A Trip To The Dentist.
After hearing people rave about this show for years and despite my general disinterest in shows about overtly or relatively wealthy and attractive people whining about how tough life is, I was totally hooked by the 1st season. Specifically the main mystery storyline. What a great show!That being said I totally lost interest in the 2nd season after 2 or 3 episodes. What am I missing?
“Adam Scott’s most infamous role” – surely his role in Boy meets World is more infamous?
I really wish Hulu had started streaming this a little earlier for a pre-new season rewatch. There’s no way I’m getting to it all before the new ones come out.
But I’m starting with episode 1 tonight. I’m very excited this is coming back.
Aw, “Clash of the Tritons” was a standout episode for me. Maybe it’s not the best but it was definitely memorable for the aforementioned karaoke scene (in the name of the investigation!) and “Veronica Mars is smarter than me” bit. Also the great sequence where she crashes the Tritons’ ceremony, takes a bunch of pictures, gets chased through the halls and literally jumps into the getaway car using the back bumper. It was a fun one.To add to the “but also this episode!” comments: It’s been a while since I’ve done a rewatch, but I remember liking “My Mother the Fiend” from season 2. Veronica’s mother was always a mysterious but mostly terrible person, so it was interesting to get an episode that challenged that perception. It also had the bit where Veronica and Trina Echolls film a fake deathbed scene to try and flush out Trina’s birth parents, featuring Kristen Bell and Allyson Hannigan’s best bad acting. Reading the Wikipedia summary reminded me of the final twist, which was that the Vice Principal engineered it all along because he wanted Veronica to figure out the truth and get the Principal fired.
Oh man, I love that one! Duane Daniels was a great crusty antagonist for Veronica so him actually playing her for once was awesome.
I very much love the Clemmons & Veronica dynamic, and the mutual respect that is the basis of the relationship is solidified in that episode.
I wouldn’t call it the BEST episode, but”The Bitch is Back” (in addition to being hand after one of Elton John’s best songs) is one of the most fulfilling and satisfying episodes of television I’ve ever seen. Sarcastic, ruthless Veronica is back, making hidden doe eyes at a violent bordering on psychotic Logan, the mystery is tight, Keith is again the next TV dad ever. The show found its groove again, was back to being Veronica Mars… Oh, that’s the end? Fuck you universe.
“Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni), fingered the wrong man for the crime.”Come ON. Are we really not doing “Phrasing” anymore?
I dunno, ask Beaver (If ever a character was the walking definition of phrasing, it was Beaver Casablancas, right up to the point he took the plunge).
The show was responsible for me calling my little brother Beaver for years because my elder one is called Richard. To this day my mom still thinks it’s because of the animal.
Echols Family Christmas, Mars vs Mars- good stuff. Whatever happened to those AVClub 10 lists?
Interesting that Hulu’s subtitles call out every backing track (Pete Yorn!) except for The Streets.
I saw The Streets in the closed captioning in the first episode. Was it a later episode?
No, I simply missed it. In fairness, the closed captionioning calls out the song a full scene before the music takes hold.
I might not have noticed if I hadn’t read your comment earlier in the day. I do like how they’re doing the captioning, other shows often don’t caption the extras in the background saying random things. It helps me catch things I might normally miss.I remember being briefly fascinated with The Streets after hearing an interview with Mike Skinner on NPR in 2oo2, I don’t think I’ve heard that music in years so along with rewatching VM it was weirdly nostalgic for me.
I gave the show a try mainly because Whedon had said he was a fan. I was not unhappy with it – that show was really good. The mysteries were excellent (for the most part, I think that overarching mystery of the first season got muddled a bit) and the character work was great. Well worth watching.
for me, Rob Thomas earned a lifetime pass simply on the basis of his first go-round with CUPID, which was probably one of the finest cancelled too-soon shows, ever.
yeah, Jeremy Piven turned out to be a little too much, but the rest of the cast was A-plus calibre and the writing came down perfectly on the “is he a crazy person or an actual myth?” leaving you with no way of knowing for sure.
i didn’t think the casting was as good for the attempted revival but, really, i’d love a decent DVD retrospective of both to compare side by side. watching on youtube is kinda painful and really illustrates how spoiled we’ve become, with our flatscreens and high def streaming, since it very much recreates the late 80’s-mid 90’s feel of sitting in the basement, watching a crappy UHF station on a tiny console TV your parents picked up at a garage sale. (at least we no longer have to fiddle with foil-wrapped rabbit ears every few minutes.)
I didn’t realize he had done Cupid until I had watched all of Veronica Mars. Cupid (the Marshall/Piven version) was one of the first shows that I can remember watching and going “yup I like that, that’s the kind of TV for me.”
stupid kinja won’t let me star your comment, so let this serve as my “thumbs up!” of agreement and affirmation.
Just as a sidenote, I love that Cotton Mather song “Lilly Dreams On” that they used to soundtrack Veronica’s dream about Lilly Kane.
Every episode is essential.
I’m not sure if I imagined this but didn’t Hulu say they would give us the first 3 seasons with “plenty of time” to rewatch/catch up? Maybe I don’t dedicate enough time to TV watching but 26 days is not enough time for me to watch 64 episodes and a full length film. Not that that’ll stop me from trying though.
I was too young to get into Veronica Mars when it was first on, but I like Kristen Bell and crime shows. Should I check it out?
Absolutely. It’s a great show. Smart, witty, poignant, funny and it has a unique voice, something that I find quite rare. And if you like Bell… Well, to me, it’s her best role. I can’t imagine anyone else playing Veronica.
It’s very good. Even though the pilot has to do the heavy lifting of establishing many of the characters, it still works great. If you hate the pilot, I would stop. If you are just lukewarm, keep watching.