"Veronica Mars" Case Files 1.1 & 1.2 Talkback

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Hey, anybody else watching this show and willing to gab about it? The comparisons people make to Buffy the Vampire Slayer are, IMO, almost completely justified, at least as far as the first two episodes go.

My two complaints are that the detective work in the second episode (aired last night) was pretty shoddy (you discover a signature on a room service receipt, but you don't go and ask the person who signed the receipt?) and they put Paris Hilton on the show in the second episode. Oh, and "Backup" didn't show up in the second episode :). These two things are pretty minor when they're up against some very smart writing, clever pacing and characterization, great acting, and the extremely cute Kristen Bell as the hard-boiled title character.

Veronica Mars site at UPN (http://www.upn.com/shows/veronica_mars/), full of photos, a smart-alecky "Ask Veronica" section, a plot summary of the first episode and the Over-Arching Plot, and character bios.

After seeing Keen Eddie disappear due to lack of interest, I'm hoping Veronica Mars doesn't share the same fate (hmmm....Keen Eddie/Veronica Mars team up? Nah.)

-- Ed/Ace

[Martianinvader]

UPN kept airing a spunky promo that seemed to equate Veronica with Chloe, and I thought in my head, why should I wait for Chloe to reappear on Smallville when I can see her NOW? Dunno why I keep turning on UPN shows; they always fail. But anyway....

Wow, was this depressing. It won't last too long if it keeps teaching lessons like "if your best friend dies, everybody else will hate YOU" and "if you are raped and go to the police, they will just laugh at you." What a downer of a show. What a waste of Chloe. I never bothered with much of the second one because they said Hilton would show up in it...this is a UPN show; will she do anything for a little money? How ironic....

It needs less depression, and less phony attempts to be "gritty" by having the characters swear all the time. As it is, I'd have to down two Prozacs to watch this again. How do you compare this to Buffy?? I mean, I never saw Buffy, but this has nothing supernatural in it and it's doubtful there will be an episode where nobody can speak or everybody has to sing.

[Kathy Kane]

I love this show!
I really love her spunky and cool quality, I even like how she explains stuff about her past to the new viewers.
I wonder after this new ep, if the new guy Troy is just playing her or really wants to be friends. I hope that Paris Hilton whom, I'm sick of, isn't a reguler on the show. I don't what's happening next week but I can't wait.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Wow, was this depressing. It won't last too long if it keeps teaching lessons like "if your best friend dies, everybody else will hate YOU" and "if you are raped and go to the police, they will just laugh at you." What a downer of a show. What a waste of Chloe. I never bothered with much of the second one because they said Hilton would show up in it...this is a UPN show; will she do anything for a little money? How ironic....

It needs less depression, and less phony attempts to be "gritty" by having the characters swear all the time. As it is, I'd have to down two Prozacs to watch this again. How do you compare this to Buffy?? I mean, I never saw Buffy, but this has nothing supernatural in it and it's doubtful there will be an episode where nobody can speak or everybody has to sing.
Hmmm...well, if we're going to try and pull lessons from TV shows, I'm not sure I want Buffy to teach lessons like "you can die (twice) and come back from the dead more or less intact" :). On the plus side of Veronica Mars, I think it also teaches lessons like, "Family and friends matter" and "You can live through the most horrible things you can imagine and still be strong, smart, spunky, and independent."

I think you may be latching too much on the "high school" aspect of what's on screen when I don't think that's where the show is coming from. Mars is a hard boiled detective film noir-ish story that happens to be set in a high school, not a high-school story that's got a detective in it. Hence, the really horrible people around her, almost none of whom can be FULLY trusted (with the possible exception of Wallace), the really horrible things that happen to Veronica (which let up considerably by episode 2), and the general down-and-out sensibilities behind the glitz and glamour on the surface. If anything, Mars tends to downplay those elements because it is supposed to be a 17-year old girl we're watching.

I compare Mars to Buffy because they're both sharply written with the occasional unexpected turn, with winning female heroines who count on their brains as much or more than their fists, and because it manages to succeed at what it does despite sounding incredibly hokey. I'm not expecting anybody to start singing -- I'm expecting something new.

And, for what it's worth, I made loud MST3K noises whenever Paris Hilton showed up on screen and it made me feel better. She played a spoiled, worthless, rich brat of no intelligence or redeeming social value who got very little screen time except as an object of scorn and hatred. So, I liked her in the role a lot more than I thought I would :D.

For anybody else who's interested, MTV will rerun the previous episode of Veronica Mars on Tuesdays at 7, with the new eps showing up on UPN at 9PM that same night. If you missed last night's episode, you can catch it again on Oct 5.

-- Ed/Ace

[The Penguin]

After seeing Keen Eddie disappear due to lack of interest, I'm hoping Veronica Mars doesn't share the same fate (hmmm....Keen Eddie/Veronica Mars team up? Nah.)I don't want to take this thread off course, but "Keen Eddie" star Mark Valley will be a regular on "Boston Legal" which premieres this Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. ;)

Now back to Mars...

[MahouShoujo13]

I seem to like this series. This girl's got spunk, attitude, wits, and intelligence. Can think up a plan right off the bat.

Well, the police didn't really laugh at her when she got raped. The secretary didn't.
As for the sheriff, he laughed because HE was the one that raped her. Isn't it obvious?

Well, you can't really trust people in Neptune (the town where Veronica lives), except for Wallace, since he's new. Everyone still hates her because:

Veronica's dad blamed the best friend's dad for killing her own daughter. Veronica had a choice, and chose to stick with her dad, with the whole school hating her.

I don't really get the end of Episode 2 though. I know the guy stole Logan's girl, and planned to run away with her. But how did she found out. And what about the bikers?

This show has much potential of being an all-time favorite. Can't wait until the next episode.