Veronica Mars: She’s A Marshmallow
posted in TV Reviews |
Veronica Mars was one of those TV series that failed to find a massive audience for largely the same reasons that Buffy The Vampire Slayer did. Despite being one of the greatest written, not to mention greatest in general, series to ever hit the airwaves, it could never make that leap past simple preconception when pitched to potential audience members. To hear the premise of a high school girl solving crimes conjures up visions of Nancy Drew, and people immediately write it off as fluff. Buffy had many similar preconception problems, many stemming from the title itself. While Veronica Mars may certainly bear certain overly simplistic qualities of Nancy Drew, the comparisons are few and far between. I mean, let’s take just a few topics from the pilot episode. Heck, let’s sample a line of voice-over: “Quite a reputation I’ve got, huh? You wanna know how I lost my virginity? So do I.” We’ve got a murdered best friend, an alcoholic mother who abandons her family, class power struggles, the main character being drugged and raped (and belittled by the law enforcement for it). And all that’s just the start of the show, in one of the greatest pilot episodes ever made. Unlike many other series that take their time to find their footing, Veronica Mars was a show that hit the ground running. Created and run by the fantastic Rob Thomas, the series rarely made any real missteps. Thomas had a couple natural talents that played into the series with absolute brilliance. The first was his ability to do truly well structured mystery writing. The second was his ability to populate his fictional world of Neptune, California with a wide assortment of fascinating characters of all levels of society. The third was his razor sharp dialog, which was one of the key elements that immediately attracted us Buffy fans.
All of this was handed over to an absolutely top notch cast. To say that Kristen Bell turned in one of the most singularly distinctive character performances on TV is actually an understatement. Bell’s flawless performances, episode after episode, are truly amazing. Nobody can really be sure when they cast roles like this just how well they’ll work out in the long run. Rob Thomas stumbled into the greatest casting he could have possible ever gotten for the all-important lead role of Veronica. Bell has that rare ability to cover every possible aspect of her richly developed character, often simultaneously. From comedy to drama to action, she could do it all while making every last piece of sharp dialog come to life, and make it look easy. She could play the character as both vulnerable and also as one of the toughest characters you’ll ever see, most often as a somebody you do not want to cross or provoke. Very few actors have ever nailed their role so perfectly. It all plays against stereotype. And the amazing casting didn’t stop there. Enrico Colantoni seemed to be something of an unusual casting choice for the role of Keith Mars, Veronica’s beloved father, the private detective. Colantoni could also play the full rang of character, from comedy to drama. And his chemistry with Kristen Bell was flat-out flawless. I dare say it’s the greatest father-daughter relationship ever featured on a TV series, and it was a major featured component of the series. Unlike many teenager/parent relationships on TV, theirs was one of admiration and trust. There were even fascinating distinctions to their relationship, such as secrets Veronica kept from her father, more often than not to spare him grief or heartbreak than to keep herself out of trouble. It wasn’t always a perfect relationship, but it was always solid and one of the few constant sources of hope and consolation that Veronica could always turn to. What also made it intriguing is that it wasn’t a flat or static relationship. It developed as the series progressed, as did most aspects of the story and characters. By the end of the series, Keith had come to figure out that there was little use in trying to shield Veronica from information, no matter how dark or gruesome.
Other series regulars came and went, but there were a core set of characters that would hang in through the end. One of them was Veronica’s best friend Wallace, played by Percy Daggs III, who she met in the first episode. Wallace always remained a faithful friend over the years of the show. He was her faithful sidekick. Then there’s the on-again, off-again, tormented romance between her and Logan Echolls. Logan was introduced as a real jerk at the start of the series. Eventually, we would learn all the dirty details of what made him who he was. Ultimately, we would see Logan grow and (somewhat) mature by the end of the show. While I was one of the few fans that preferred Veronica end up with somebody other than Logan, he was still a fascinating character, played very well by Jason Dohring. Then we have Weevil, a character that had a strained but respectful relationship with Veronica. Starting as the leader of the local biker gang and ending up as a rehabilitated handyman at Hearst College, Weevil was another trusty character that Veronica could turn to for favors. And, like any characters in the series of that nature, there were plenty of favors that she would do for them as well. Some characters came and went as recurring and/or regular cast members. Dick & Cassidy Casablancas were great sources of comedy and occasionally very dark drama. Michael Muhney did a wonderful job playing quasi-incompetent sheriff Don Lamb, Keith’s successor. Scenes between Lamb and Veronica were guaranteed to be razor sharp and loads of fun. The first half of the show featured Teddy Dunn as Veronica’s original boyfirend, Duncan Kane - somebody very heavily tied into the first mystery arc, involving his sister and Veronica’s best friend, Lily Kane. Mac was one of my favorite recurring characters, as somebody who turned into one of Veronica’s best friends. She was thankfully promoted to a main title regular in the third season. The third season also saw a couple new characters added to the cast. Parker was a less integral character to the series, but her material was well done, and Julie Gonzalo did a nice job with the role. Piz managed to end up being a bigger part of the show, and I thought he was a very nice match for Veronica as a romantic interest. He didn’t have the danger or tumultuous nature of Logan, but I still thought he was a great match for her. Other great characters were filled by former Buffy cast members, like Kendall Casablancas played by Charisma Carpenter and Allison Hannigan as Trina Echolls. Heck, even Joss Whedon turned in a great cameo performance. There were many, many more great supporting performers, but I have to single out two of them that were my favorites. Ken Marino played the rival, unscrupulous private detective Vinny Van Lowe. He was always hilarious in the role, and could be counted on as a great foil for not only Veronica but Keith as well. Then there’s my absolute favorite supporting character, public defender Cliff McCormack, played pitch perfectly by Daran Norris. Every scene he had was pure gold, including countless lines of great dialog with Veronica & Keith. He also had a voice and characteristics that helped bring out the noir style of the show.
Then there’s the fantastic production work of the show. While this series wasn’t one to feature any flashy visual effects or massive action sequences (though there were a handful of decently staged action bits), every other production aspect was handled with talent and class. Most notable was the rich cinematography and set design. Ranging from the high-contrast noir lighting and the souther California color pallet (which combine into fascinatingly unique visual style) to the bright and cheery upper class world of Neptune’s neighborhood and country clubs, it was all made with outstanding talent. It’s also one of those genre shows that most of the time featured excellent source music usage. Rob Thomas was a key part of that aspect, often times even including music choices in the original writing process. It’s one of the typical aspects of such a production that he used to give the show the edge it wanted.
While the final fate of the show didn’t come as a huge shock, thanks to the constantly struggling ratings, it was still a heartbreaking cancellation. It had barely survived the death of the very network it ran on at the end of its second season, when its network (UPN) and WB folded and combined to form CW. Said to have survived primarily on the fact that UPN and then CW network president Dawn Ostroff was a huge fan of the series, the show just couldn’t muster up a bigger audience than its loyal core fans. The series was in no way tired or worn out. It was constantly changing and evolving, and had nothing but massive amounts of potential. Rob Thomas is one of those writers that can take something like the network pushing to cut back on the season long mystery arcs and actually take the opportunity to try something new, and as always being able to make it shine. In fact, he even took the last handful of episodes and really made some interestingly laid out stories weave in and out of each other, while still maintaining self-contained primary stories. And all that was in the middle of finding out his final episodes count was being cut back by a few episodes. While he ultimately couldn’t convince the network to continue with the show, even after a valiant attempt to pitch them via a produced demo reel a revamped series set a few years into the future (which I’m anxious to see on the upcoming season 3 DVD set), he did as well as one could hope closing out the series with style - heads held high. I greatly miss having new episodes of this series to look forward to. Still, 3 seasons worth of top quality episodes is something to be proud of, and will be something I will watch on a regular basis for many years to come.
