It’s pretty sad that the over-the-shark-and-through-the-woods version of the Gilmore Girls was better than the Veronica Mars that followed last week. This week:
Postgame Mortem. No sooner has Wallace (Percy Daggs III) rejoined the Hearst basketball team, when the basketball coach, Tom Barry (guest star Matt McKenzie), is found dead. The coach’s widow, Kathleen Barry (guest star Tracey Needham), hires Keith (Enrico Colantoni) to investigate the murder of her husband and to clear her son, Josh (guest star Jonathan Chase), who is Sheriff Lamb’s (Michael Muhney) prime suspect. Logan (Jason Dohring) is wallowing in self-pity after his breakup with Veronica (Kristen Bell), so Dick (Ryan Hansen) invites two girls over to cheer Logan up, but Logan gets stuck entertaining Heather (guest star Juliette Goglia), who is only 13 years old. Keith and Veronica discover that the alibis given by Mindy O’Dell (guest star Jamie Ray Newman, "E Ring") and Professor Landry (guest star Patrick Fabian, "Joan of Arcadia") do not match. Francis Capra, Tina Majorino, Chris Lowell and Julie Gonzalo also star. John Kretchmer directed the episode written by Joe Voci.
This episode reminded me of something James Ellroy once said, which was along the lines of, the private detective novel is bulls— because private detectives don’t solve murders – police do.
It’s one thing for Keith Mars to come in on a cold case, but something quite different for him to be hired on a case where the suspect hasn’t even been charged.
Better than last week, but still… sigh.
Um, are the show runners missing something? Shows are usually supposed to be about the stars of the show that is too many guests shows should not be all about guest stars.
I saw Ed Begley this weekend. He’s alive! And selling some cleaning product he invented at the Studio City farmer’s market.
I liked Dick’s marriage and the break-up argument over her monstrous second toe —
I completely lost interest in the whole basketball coach thing, though I did pay attention to the dean’s murder subplot. And the Logan thing, which was kinda cheesy, but entertaining. The next episode would look exciting if I cared about that whole basketball thing…
I was wondering if maybe the coach’s murder and the dean’s murder might be related in some way. There has to be a reason that they would throw this in (for more than a single episode) when we’re supposed to be paying attention to the dean’s murder. (Although I missed the first ten minutes of the show, too, so I might not know that of which I speak…)
I liked it better than last week’s episode. Of course I knew that Dick was gonna get married and have a quickie divorce as soon as he said he was in Vegas, but it was still fun.
Again, Veronica shows little regard to the fact that Weevil is on probation, although at least this time he brings it up. I wish he’d call her on that. I’m also hoping that being arrested will suggest to Veronica that she does not, in fact, have the right to break the law, regardless of what good she is trying to perform by doing so.
I’m assuming that the coach and the dean’s murders are connected, perhaps even committed by the same person. The show is working pretty hard to get us to suspect Landry (his alibi – both the phone call from Mindy and the film – seems highly practiced), which probably means he’s a red herring.
I’m actually more interested in the coach’s murder than in the dean’s, because Veronica is more intimately involved in the investigation. I like Josh’s character, and I like the fact that Veronica really doesn’t know whether to trust him and that she’s either developed or is pretending to develop a rapport with him.
The Logan subplot was entirely by the numbers, but I enjoy the character a great deal more when he’s not interacting with Veronica (or Dick, who was an absolute delight this week and, it pains me to say this, actually likable when trying to get Logan off his ass) and the little girl was cute and funny. I’m still hoping for an actual plotline for the character, though.