Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is a fantastic show - the greatest since Twin Peaks. I feel very sorry for those who can't appreciate its incredible acting, suave and wry humor, amazingly detailed storytelling and hyper-complex characters. The massive amounts of angst and intensity among these high schoolers is the only unrealistic (or rather, surrealistic) aspect of the show, and it is forgiven because this is an superbly crafted exercise in stylized fiction and symbolism.

The names, for one thing - Neptune, Tritons, Mars -, are not only planetary, but mythological. Neptune is a cold, distant place, but reluctant gods of war inhabit it. Keith and Veronica Mars do not instigate war, but when others declare it on them, they prove supremely good at it.

The show represents one of those very rare couplings of a great concept, great writing and great directing with a remarkable actress who totally "gets" the whole complex atmosphere of it, and can act the part perfectly. Kristen Bell is an incredible actress (I, for instance, became aware of this show solely because I took an interest in Bell after seeing her tiny but impressively acted part in the movie Spartan); she has every conceivable facial expression completely nailed, and on top of that she is also fabulously gorgeous - all the more so because of her obvious intelligence.

Veronica Mars is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the two best American TV-shows I've ever seen, and my rating of it would be 9 or 10.

This show WILL go down in history as a timeless TV classic.

The first two seasons of VM were my favorite two seasons of television ever. The writing was smart, the characters' interaction touchingly human, and the story lines fun (both the episodic and long arch story lines). It can be cerebral at times and laugh out loud funny others. I have watched the first three seasons back to back four times. I consider myself a true Marshmellow. These seasons were ahead of there time on so many issues. It is fun to watch the "before they were famous performances" of Amanda Seyfried, Tessa Thompson, Kristen Ritter, and Tina Majorino. Ken Marino slays the role of the slimy PI as does Darren Norris the role of dead pan smart-alec public defender. All the minor characters contribute to the overall enjoyable quality of the show VM's Dad, principal, the antagonists, the supporting crew are all great.

Season four was pure money grabbing garbage. Characters whose traits led you to watch the show week after week. (Yes, I used to set my DVR. I am old. I accept it) changed to fit a more female oriented demographic. Which is NUTS because what made the show great was empowerment without condescension and blatant pandering. Not shoving an agenda down the audiences' throat the made the underlying messages seasons 1-3 more potent.

So the first two seasons A+ Third season A-/B+ Fourth season F

Veronica Mars is a dark and poignant tribute to teenage angst and isolation. As a sophomore, we find Veronica popular and happy. She is dating the most popular guy in school, Duncan, and is best friends with Duncan's sister- the wild Lily Kane. After Lily's brutal and highly publicized murder, Veronica loses her friends, her social status all because she choose to stick by her father who accused Lily Kane's own father, the rich and beloved Jake Kane.

Season 1 follows Veronica's life post Lily's violent murder. Veronica has become cynical and disheartened due to what she feels as betrayal by her closest friends. Overnight Veronica became the most hated girl in school. She formed a hard outer shell, cutting herself off from her emotions in order to handle all the events that occur after the murder, the taunts of classmates, and the current class war that's been waged through out her town.

Veronica Mars is homage to the noir film genre of the 1950s with our main character being a high school teenager. The uses of color in scenes are key to understanding the story. Every aspect of the show is used to tell parts of the story from lighting to background prop placement and it all comes together to tell a beautiful story about death, betrayal, love, revenge and redemption.

The best thing about Mars, besides the character develop, plot twist, and witty dialogue, are the issues that Veronica Mars faces on a daily bases. Including murder, rape, teen pregnancy, gang violence, reports on abuse, and drug trafficking. It also tackles the normal high school issues all teens face like peer pressure, cliques, and gossip but in a smart way. The story lines are tasteful and believable; the writers did a great job avoiding the normal camp and clichés found in a lot of teen shows.

Veronica Mars is hands down the best show ever to be featured on UPN/CW, and possible network TV in general. It is defiantly worth your time.

I hate being sucked in. More than anything. I avoid anything that's popular just because I can't stand the herd mentality. It took me three years before I touched a Harry Potter book. I would not have watched this show willingly. My one uplifting, redeeming quality is that I'm a good friend. Always. Even at the sacrifice of my Wednesday evenings. I originally started watching VM because I was taping it for a friend who didn't get UPN in her new town. I was just going to tape it, but I thought it would be nice if I cut the commercials for her. Now, half a season later...I can't stop watching it. It's horrible. I actually rented the entire first season and watched it in one twenty-four hour sitting. If you start watching this show, be warned you WILL get hooked, no matter how hard you try to resist. It is a great mystery. Each episode has its own mystery that is self inclusive, but the overall season mystery is what keeps you speeding through traffic to get home in time on Wednesday nights. Kudos to the creators, they did a great job!

Season One: 8/10

Themes: Mystery, High School, Drama, Private Detective, Crime, Suspense, Murder Investigation, Lies, Blackmail & Relationships.

Review: This show has some really interesting and compelling things going for it. The main character being a smart, sarcastic bad-ass being amongst the first of those things. It's very easy to root for her and get sucked in with her shenanigans. Then again, I did find some of those 'adventures' to be a bit more on the boring side; especially when they focused on a storyline only related to one specific episode, rather than the over-arching plot of the whole season. I just felt like sometimes the show lacked direction and tended to drag. It still managed to be pretty entertaining but I definitely had a preference for the episodes that tended to be a bit more meaningful for the general plot and the character's relations to each other.

Top three character: 1) Veronica Mars, 2) Logan Echolls and 3) Eli 'Weevil' Navarro.