SPOILER ALERT.
I don’t
think I’ve written here about Veronica Mars before, but I’m not going do a
comprehensive review of the entire series. In fact, this isn’t even much of a
review per se, but rather just a random series of comments mostly in reaction
to Hulu’s fourth season of the much-beloved show.
Thinking
back, it kind of surprises me that I even liked Veronica Mars to begin with…Mysteries
weren’t really my thing back then. (I like them more now, but they’re still not
my favorite genre.) I think I watched it originally on its debut during the
last decade because the critics gave it a nod, and I paid attention to those
things back then. What kept me watching likely had to do with Kristen Bell’s
refreshing portrayal of the spunky, wisecracking title character. (A note about
the wisecracks: it could be argued that a flaw of the series is that the
dialogue is too well-written for the characters. People really don’t have a
thousand witty remarks at their disposal to throw into any conversation,
regardless of how many old movies you’ve seen and can reference.) This
character was an original, not a carbon copy of a hundred other teen characters
I’d seen on television.
But her male
counterparts (with the exception of her noble and almost equally witty dad) all
left something to be desired. Logan didn’t grow on you until later (though when
he did, his schizophrenic sensitive bad boy was quite alluring). Duncan, the
ex-boyfriend, was kind of a bore. Weevil was unlikable, and I wished he wasn’t
in the show so much; I liked him more this last season than I ever have though.
Adulthood suits him. Wallace was fun in a goofy sort of way, but that hair…And Dick
was…well, he lived up to his name. His little brother, Cassidy (or Beaver—and
why they ever started using that as a boy’s nickname is beyond me), was
mysterious and cute, but we never really got to know him. The finale of season
2, which revealed the depth of Beaver’s depravity, broke my heart because I
knew he was sad, and troubled, and I would rather he’d gotten help than take
his own life. Leo was hot and charming but never got enough screen time. My
point is, it wasn’t until season three when we met Piz that I finally found a
male character who was my kind of guy, someone that would make me watch a TV
show to see him every week. And yet I’d been there the whole time.
Needless to
say that when they did the movie in 2014, and there was a big debate over who
Veronica should end up with, although by that time I liked Logan a lot, I found
myself on Team Piz. However, I knew from the fact that Veronica and Piz were
together in the beginning of the movie that they would not be by the end. That’s
just how these things work; no mystery here: if she started out with Piz, she
had to end up with Logan. What I took issue with was how the breakup happened.
Piz just kinda gets pissed off at Veronica for being busy and doing what she
needs to do. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me. How long had he known her? But
it was okay because, like I said, I liked Logan too.
It’s
interesting to note that I’m at the top of a new page now and I haven’t really
talked about the mystery plot elements that the show centered around. See, I
liked the mystery plots, but the thing that kept me engaged was the relationships.
I don’t mean sexual, just the relationship dynamics between the characters. (Yes,
even those characters I initially didn’t like grew on me.) To me, that’s what
anchored the show. I think that’s what fans liked the most. But it’s not what
show creator Rob Thomas likes.
Enter the
long-awaited season 4. It was a good season. It should be, at only 8 episodes
long. The writing was still fresh, the dialogue crisp (except for the bad joke
about replacing every cuss word with the word “cuss”, something that got old
fairly quickly), and each character’s respective journey still interesting. J.K.
Simmons was a good addition to the cast. I was disappointed that his character
and Mr. Mars couldn’t reconcile their differences in the end. The pizza guy and
his idiot band of sleuthers were annoying. The congressman’s storyline was
intriguing as well as the Mexican hit men (although, as a rule, I don’t like
hit men in film or TV). The night club
owner was a great reflection for Veronica, and I was disappointed that this
ended badly. I suppose the original character who showed the most change was
Logan, thanks to his therapy sessions with one of my favorite actresses, Mary
McDonnell. Logan was almost dull at times in this season, but his passion was
fired up when it mattered. It was interesting to see Veronica’s trust issues
still getting in the way of her happiness as she dodged Logan’s marriage
proposal. What a nice feeling it was for her to come to her senses by the last
episode; maybe now she’ll be able to learn to trust others, and not destroy
every good relationship that comes along.
Then, boom.
Now, I don’t want to go full-on Annie Wilks here. I was never the Number One
fan of the show. I didn’t even contribute to the crowd-funding campaign that
made the 2014 movie possible, though I wished I could have. It’s been said that
the movie was made to please the fans in every way possible, and so with the
season 4 revival, Rob Thomas seemed to wash his hands of all that fan-induced
obligation. You could even say that he flipped the fans one giant middle
finger. Based on interviews I’ve read, he seems to think that everything about
the show except the title character herself bogs Veronica Mars down. He wants
her be alone. He wants her out of Neptune. He wants a strictly mystery show
without the framework of relationships. Never mind that this was never what the
show was. And my guess is it’s not what the fans want. I know it’s not what I
want. Does an artist owe his fans anything? Well, you could argue that because
of the crowd-funded movie that revived interest in the franchise, maybe this
one does. As an artist, perhaps I beg to differ. An artist has to be true to
his vision, or it just doesn’t work. But there are a lot of ways to be true to
your vision without alienating all the people it means so much to. I think fans
would have been willing to give Rob Thomas an awful lot of leeway, but he just
didn’t seem to care, and that stings a little.
