Monday, June 25, 2012

4 Reasons Why Season Three of Veronica Mars is Better Than Its Reputation Suggests

Warning: There are spoilers in this post. If you've yet to see Veronica Mars's third season, I'd strongly recommend that you not read it. Seriously, just go watch Veronica Mars instead. It's really good.

Last Friday I posted a list of my reasons why the third season of Veronica Mars is my least favorite. Because I still also have a lot of love for the third season, it's only fair that I follow that up with a list defending it. Your mileage may vary on some of my reasons, but here are four reasons why season three of Veronica Mars is better than its reputation suggests.

1. New Characters



This will probably be the most controversial statement I make in this post: I'm a fan of Piz. It seems that a lot Veronica Mars fans think Piz is one of the worst parts of the worst season, but I consider him one of season three's highlights. I thought he was adorable, sweet, and endearingly awkward. Even though I don't agree with them, I can understand the viewers who simply found him annoying, but I don't understand those who disliked him simply because he wasn't Logan. As much as I liked Piz, he was a terrible match for Veronica. I feel like he was purposefully paired with Veronica to show that she needs a guy like Logan, not Duncan 2.0. Piz provided season three with both an enjoyable character and a nice foil to Logan.

In addition to Piz, a lot of other new characters worked really well in the season three. Near the beginning of the season, Parker seemed like she might be an annoying presence, but she turned out to be a likable, fun character (for the most part). Dean O'Dell was a nice replacement for Principle Clemmons. Even Professor Lasky Landry was an interesting addition to the character mix. It was fun to see Veronica win the respect of a qualified teacher in her field (even if he turned out to be a sleaze).


2. The Finale is Not That Bad

 

 

I'm always surprised when people complain about the series finale of Veronica Mars. It's not perfect, but it's a fantastic episode and even a pretty great finale. The pace of the episode is a little rushed, but really, this just ensures that episode is action-packed. The episode cleverly uses the Castle plot to bring back two of the major players from the earlier seasons, Jake Kane and Clarence Wiedman, in addition to referencing Lily and Duncan through the use of portraits.

I think I've said before that I appreciate series finales that convey a show's central theme. Veronica states her disillusion with Neptune several times throughout the series and given the show's noir-ish vibe, a downer ending just felt right.

I also appreciated how Veronica's life in the finale mirrored her life from the beginning of the series. By the pilot, Veronica and Duncan have broken up. While Piz (Duncan 2.0) and Veronica aren't broken up by the series end, the looks that Veronica, Logan, and Piz exchange in their final scene together make it clear that the relationship won't last much longer.

Additionally, the Veronica of season one had given up her popular crowd status to support her dad who had been ousted as sheriff. The Keith of season three gave up his reputation and likelihood at being elected sheriff to cover up Veronica's crime. In the pilot, Veronica's high school reputation had been ruined as a result of her being drugged at a party. In the finale, Veronica's college reputation had been ruined by a sex tape.

All of these similarities demonstrate that "the more things change, the more they stay the same" principle that Veronica expresses throughout the series. This quote from season two's "One Angry Veronica" springs to mind: "New Years Eve...Someone just needs to change the name to 'Same Old Years Eve.' Because that 'New', implying all that hope and promise, it's not fooling anyone."

Ideally, the finale might have been less open-ended. It might have been nice to see Logan and Veronica back together and to have had a few more episodes to deal with the Castle story, but I feel the series finale had a decent sense of closure and is far undeserving of the hate it gets.

3. Bigger Scope

 

 

One thing I really liked about season three is the sense it gives of Veronica becoming a big time detective. The move from high school to college really allowed the show to widen it's scope a bit. While plenty of the cases still revolved around students, the college setting felt a lot more like Veronica was in the real world than the high school bubble. It was satisfying to see Veronica enter the real world of the PI business and earn a license. While she solved some pretty serious cases in high school (as an obvious example, Lily's murder), it was enjoyable to watch the people around her start to take her more seriously as a detective in season three.

4. It Still Felt Like Veronica Mars 

 


Despite the changes, both good and bad, season three of Veronica Mars still felt very much like Veronica Mars to me. Even though it's my least favorite of the three seasons, it's still a good season of television. Kristen Bell was still excellent as Veronica. Most of the major players from the earlier seasons returned. There were still plenty of good mysteries. Most of all, I still enjoyed it. It's very much a part of the Veronica Mars story and well worth watching.


What are your thoughts on season three of Veronica Mars? Do you feel it's deserving of the criticism it receives? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Friday, June 22, 2012

4 Reasons Why Season Three of Veronica Mars is My Least Favorite

Warning: There are spoilers in this post. If you've yet to see Veronica Mars's third season, I'd strongly recommend that you not read it. Seriously, just go watch Veronica Mars instead. It's really good.

SOAPnet's decision to air reruns of one of my favorite shows of all time, Veronica Mars, inspired me to do a rewatch of the show. I recently finished the much criticized season three, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on it.

A lot of people flat out hate season three of Veronica Mars. I've seen plenty of hate for it on the internet, and I've even seen people recommend that viewers stop watching after the second season. Season three is undeniably different from the first two seasons. The setting of the show changed from high school to college. The mystery arcs were handled differently. Even the opening credits were restylized and placed with a remixed theme song. Despite all of the changes, I still enjoy season three of Veronica Mars. I'd pretty confidently rank it as my least favorite of the seasons, but I think it tends to get a harsher reputation that it deserves.

I've come up with two lists about season three: one illustrating the bad aspects of the season and one illustrating the good ones. This post contains my criticism of the third season, but I'm going to try to post my defense of it in a couple of days.



1. Mini Mystery Format 

 


Seasons one and two of Veronica Mars contained a season-long mystery; in season one, the focus was on the mystery of Lily's murder, and season two centered around the mystery of the bus crash. Season three, on the other hand, had two mini mysteries and a handful of standalone episodes at the end. This new format was intended to make it easier for new viewers to jump into the show. The new format wasn't terrible, but it was a bad idea to mess with something that worked so well for the first two seasons.

Veronica Mars does stand alone episodes quite well, but the lack of a season long arc made season three feel a bit disjointed. The first two seasons were defined by their mysteries, and after a whole season of following one mystery, the big reveals in their finales had more weight to them (although I must admit that "Spit & Eggs" was a pretty great episode). I suspect that most people would define season three as "the college year" rather than "the season of the Hearst rapist" or "the season of the Dean's murder." Granted, the "college" label might stick even if the season had been defined by one mystery, but that mystery would still provide a secondary label that the season lacks.

2. Veronica and Logan Drama 

 


I'm as big a fan of Veronica and Logan as the next viewer, but their relationship in season three was much too dramatic for my liking. Their on-again, off-again relationship seemed to change status every other episode. Also, I don't know what was worse: the whipped Logan we saw when their relationship was "on-again" or the "off-again" Logan who did little more than sulk. I will admit that the relationship aspect of season three didn't seem quite as bad on my re-watch as it did initially, but it's the kind of thing I'd expect from The O.C. not Veronica Mars.

3. Meaner Veronica

 


From the beginning of the series, Veronica has always been snarky. She had good reason to be after the way she'd been treated, and it's part of what I love about the character. In season three, however, Veronica's snark occasionally veered into an overly acidic area. It's understandable that she would bring some of her bite to college. Even if she was no longer an outcast, the events of her high school years changed her, and it would have been weird if she went back to being pre-season one Veronica. Still, several moments in season three, such as Veronica cracking jokes about Chip being sexually assaulted with an Easter egg, felt a bit over the top, and the writing of Veronica just seemed to occasionally be a bit off.

4. Madison Sinclair (Among Other Storylines)

 

 

In addition to some of my bigger picture issues with the third season, some of the specific storylines in it bugged me. One of the storyline that bothered me most was the Madison one. Look, I know Veronica isn't a flawless character; it's one of the things that makes her such a great character. It's completely understandable that she would dislike Madison. However, Veronica's blaming Madison for her rape bothered me. Yes, Madison was a jerk and spit in her drink, but Dick was the one who put the GHB in that cup intending to drug Madison. It would have been one thing if Veronica had expressed hatred towards both of them, but the fact that she tolerated Dick while seething with hatred for Madison (declaring "If Dick starts dating her again, you're going to need to get a different roommate") felt extremely catty and strange for Veronica.

I also didn't care for Keith's affair. It wasn't enjoyable for me to watch, and like Veronica, I was disappointed in him. Dick's guilt storyline near the end of the season was perhaps an admirable effort to give the character depth, but it just seemed too little, too late for me and rang false. The Logan and Parker storyline wasn't completely terrible, but it wasn't great and led to the terrible moment of her blaming Veronica for their eventual breakup (a la Meg in season two). Additionally, the Fitzpatrick storyline felt unsatisfying and somewhat lacking in direction. The earlier seasons had some storylines that just didn't work well (the Duncan baby storyline, anyone?), but season three seemed to have quite a few of them.


What were your thoughts on season three? Do you agree with my points of criticism? What didn't (or did) you like about it? Let me know in the comments.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Burning Love: This is what a parody should be


If you've spent much time on the Internet today, there's a good chance you've heard of Burning Love. It's a web series parody of a show that's almost a parody of itself, The Bachelor. Burning Love features quite a few celebrities including Veronica Mars vets Ken Marino, Kristen Bell, Ryan Hansen, and Adam Scott. Often parodies have a tendency to go for over-the-top generic jokes, but it's clear that those behind Burning Love have watched a lot of The Bachelor.

I've posted the first episode here, but you can check episodes two and three on the Burning Love website (that's amazingly similar to the actual Bachelor site). The site reveals that new episodes of the series will be posted on Mondays and Thursdays.