we used to be friends
Does anyone watch Veronica Mars? A friend crashed on the couch a few days ago, and she brought over season 1 of VM. Now, I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I (mistakenly) thought that a particularly noxious producer, formerly involved with Buffy, was involved with the show, so when it first aired 2 years ago, I ignored the net buzz and chose to abstain. (If you saw the last season - arguably, the last two seasons - of the once brilliant Buffy, you will understand my choice.) But the producer is not involved, and VM is flippin' brilliant.
I don't want to give anything away, just in case someone reading this is watching season 1, or if anyone intends to watch. It's the kind of show that you need to watch in order, and without ever googling the title of the show, the names of any of the actors, or, in fact, Mars bars. I'm dying to talk about it... I have a few issues with the mostly-brilliant ending, and there is one plot point that really confuses me.
Ok, I realize I am not really recommending it terribly well. Let me try to articulate this clearly. Please note that I am referring to the first season, as I haven't seen the second.
VM is an extrodinarily well-crafted, noir-ish show. The characters are well-developed, consistent, and complex; the suspense is built brilliantly; the villans (or the possible villans) are human, and sympathetic; the dialogue is snappy and witty and isn't afraid to approach emotion, but never gets out-and-out sentimental or sappy; the acting is, for the most part, solid, and, often, very very good; the actors have chemistry; each episode is tight and self-contained with a mystery or case to solve, but still pushes forward the main plot/mystery; even the heroine isn't perfect, not by any means, and she knows it. The basic plot (and I'm not giving anything away here) is that, a little under a year prior to the first ep, Veronica had what was arguably the worst week ever: her boyfriend, Duncan, dumped her, and a few days later, her best friend (and Duncan's sister) Lilly was murdered. Veronica's father, Keith, was convinced that Lilly and Duncan's father, Jake Kane, who happens to be the richest and most beloved man in the small town they live in, was involved in the murder; when Keith was proved wrong, he lost his job, and his wife left town. So now Veronica is an outcast; her father is desperately trying to make a living as a PI, with which his daughter helps him; her mother is gone, and no one knows where she is; her best friend is dead, and occasionally haunts her; and her ex is not speaking to her. And that's just the first, like, ten minutes. Then it gets worse. (For Veronica. It gets more awesome for us.)
I did, at first, have issues with the format; I mean, I was nervous when I realized what they were doing. It's tricky to tell part of a story through flashback and not have your audience feel that they are being cheated, or condescended to; in fact, the flashbacks have to make sense with the way Veronica is thinking. The show is narrated by Veronica, and her voice-overs often lead us to flashbacks. These can be triggered by a number of things; in the first ep it's easy to forgive them being triggered for expository purposes, but later, they are triggered by circumstance - a comment another character makes, a detail from a case triggering something in her memory that leads her to find another clue, down another dead end, that will eventually lead her to solve the ongoing mystery of who murdered Lilly. The point is, they make the flashbacks work without annoying me, and that's pretty hard.
I'm afriad, though. My friend informs me that season 2 is nowhere near as good.
I don't want to give anything away, just in case someone reading this is watching season 1, or if anyone intends to watch. It's the kind of show that you need to watch in order, and without ever googling the title of the show, the names of any of the actors, or, in fact, Mars bars. I'm dying to talk about it... I have a few issues with the mostly-brilliant ending, and there is one plot point that really confuses me.
Ok, I realize I am not really recommending it terribly well. Let me try to articulate this clearly. Please note that I am referring to the first season, as I haven't seen the second.
VM is an extrodinarily well-crafted, noir-ish show. The characters are well-developed, consistent, and complex; the suspense is built brilliantly; the villans (or the possible villans) are human, and sympathetic; the dialogue is snappy and witty and isn't afraid to approach emotion, but never gets out-and-out sentimental or sappy; the acting is, for the most part, solid, and, often, very very good; the actors have chemistry; each episode is tight and self-contained with a mystery or case to solve, but still pushes forward the main plot/mystery; even the heroine isn't perfect, not by any means, and she knows it. The basic plot (and I'm not giving anything away here) is that, a little under a year prior to the first ep, Veronica had what was arguably the worst week ever: her boyfriend, Duncan, dumped her, and a few days later, her best friend (and Duncan's sister) Lilly was murdered. Veronica's father, Keith, was convinced that Lilly and Duncan's father, Jake Kane, who happens to be the richest and most beloved man in the small town they live in, was involved in the murder; when Keith was proved wrong, he lost his job, and his wife left town. So now Veronica is an outcast; her father is desperately trying to make a living as a PI, with which his daughter helps him; her mother is gone, and no one knows where she is; her best friend is dead, and occasionally haunts her; and her ex is not speaking to her. And that's just the first, like, ten minutes. Then it gets worse. (For Veronica. It gets more awesome for us.)
I did, at first, have issues with the format; I mean, I was nervous when I realized what they were doing. It's tricky to tell part of a story through flashback and not have your audience feel that they are being cheated, or condescended to; in fact, the flashbacks have to make sense with the way Veronica is thinking. The show is narrated by Veronica, and her voice-overs often lead us to flashbacks. These can be triggered by a number of things; in the first ep it's easy to forgive them being triggered for expository purposes, but later, they are triggered by circumstance - a comment another character makes, a detail from a case triggering something in her memory that leads her to find another clue, down another dead end, that will eventually lead her to solve the ongoing mystery of who murdered Lilly. The point is, they make the flashbacks work without annoying me, and that's pretty hard.
I'm afriad, though. My friend informs me that season 2 is nowhere near as good.
posted by j | 9:17 PM
1 Comments:
S2 of VM is not as good as S1, no. But it's still really, really good imho (better than almost anything else on TV), and there are many wonderful moments and a few fantastic episodes. So don't despair and do try the S2 DVD when it comes out August 22.
S2 will probably also play much better on DVD than it did on TV. The mystery is far more complicated than S1 and the long stretches of repeats really made it hard to follow the 523 different plot threads.
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