Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) was previously a popular girl in school next to her rich best friend Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried). When Lilly was murdered, her father Sheriff Keith (Enrico Colantoni) arrested Lilly's powerful father, but later someone else confessed. They ran Keith out of office and Veronica became a pariah. Now she investigates the deep dark secrets of her school divided between the ultra-rich and the poor minorities.

Rob Thomas has created a high school Nancy Drew with an edge. She's as smart as Sherlock Holmes. Only she's a girl trying to survive the High School world. It works as both a murder mystery, and a high school teen drama. This is Kristen Bell's break out role. She really gives a funny spunky likable compelling performance. This is a teen drama for smart people.

The story of Veronica and her search for the truth in the spoiled and famous Nepture is far more compelling that your average UPN teen drama.

Real characters, complex situations and issues and topics beyond who is hooking up with whom. The detailed story arc might make it a bit challenging for new viewers to pick up the threads, but each episode stands alone.

Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars mixes, humour and pathos, into both complicated life and death issues and high school life. Just as Buffy was about more than surviving high school with a social life, Veronica Mars looks at real things with a sceptical eye and an ironic twist.

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

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.

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!