This is probably all from me today, unless it isn’t, because I’m a busy worker bee. Writing through cold, &tc. Please, please, please tune in to Veronica Mars tonight, even if you’ve never watched it before. You’ll love it, I promise, and the next few episodes look to be the show’s last chance to grab an audience and stay alive*. Tonight’s ep description is:
Welcome Wagon. Veronica (Kristen Bell) is in true form from the moment she and boyfriend Logan (Jason Dohring), along with close friends Wallace (Percy Daggs III) and Mac (Tina Majorino), set foot on the campus of Hearst College. Wallace enlists Veronica’s help when his new roommate, Piz (Chris Lowell), has all his belongings stolen. While working on Piz’s case, Veronica learns that the campus serial rapist has struck again. Meanwhile, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) runs into trouble while transporting a recently released convict across the country to reunite him with Kendall (guest star Charisma Carpenter, “Charmed”).
Drop by after with your thoughts. (I’m probably not going to post a Gilmore thread, though like the idiot I am, I’ll likely watch since it’s on right before VM and I’m sick; so feel free to jump in with GG thoughts. If it’s an actual decent episode I’ll post a thread for it after the fact.)
*Yes, Kristen Bell will DIE if you do not watch. Why would you want to hurt Kristin Bell?
Arrrgh! I will be at the airport for my flight to london.
boo bad planning me.
I have to share the TV with my housemates, and thus Standoff will probably win over Veronica Mars. Curse the day!
“Standoff”?!?
Ms. Celia, you must fight for what is right!
Scattershot:
Hate the new opening credits. The remix of the theme isn’t nearly so friendly.
Principal Krupps is a criminologist! (No one will get that joke.)
Mac! Great scene at the rally.
Piz = better than Donut, but I hope there’s no actual romance between him and Veronica. I’d be OK if they did the Xander thing and let him pine for a bit, but he’s just not dark and complicated enough for our girl.
I was so annoyed that it wasn’t Weevil getting out of jail.
All in all, this is my show. Can’t wait for next week.
Love the new opening credits. Beautiful and yes, thank god, we’re really done with high school. I rewound and watched them twice, and during the commercials I sang the theme song to Pär at downtempo speed until he threatened violence.
I’m thrilled with the season opener. They managed to introduce the show to new viewers without dumbing it down, everyone’s perfectly in tune, and we’re off to a running start.
Thoughts for the future: Piz needs a haircut, Mac is going to discover that in college, she’s considered cool, Veronica’s criminology class will provide some lively scenes. Something’s up with the teacher but I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I hope good, because he looks like fun.
I love how they’re showing the transition of Logan and Dick into college, especially in the wake of how last season ended. Dick really is falling apart, and he’s stuck in his high school style which doesn’t work anymore. Meanwhile, Logan is a bit lost himself, and squandering his fresh start, because what does he care about school? He’s balanced between pulling himself together or doing the easier thing of falling back on old habits, so Dick is going to be a bad influence on him, and will get between him and Veronica. But Logan can’t ditch him, because Dick’s the only friend who’s always stood by him.
If they’re doing the three-ring plot that Thomas has been talking about in interviews, I think we’re going to start on campus, move into the Fitzpatrick/Weevil problem, and from there, dunno… maybe something around Logan?
All in all: big happiness.
Not a big fan of the new credits, I’m afraid. I liked the scribbles! But I think the song sounds better pepped up and–I like that the show is gritty and noir, but I like it because it’s fun, too. So I miss that in these new credits, and I’m not wholly enamored of the Logan-and-Veronica shot at the end. I know the kid’s popular, but it’s not _his_ show.
Other than that? I wasn’t blown away by the episode–it felt a little flat to me–, but I enjoyed it, and I think they did a really nice job with it for what they were trying to do. User-friendly introductions and backstory without being truly spoon-feedy: yes. So I’m comfy with thinking the groundwork’s been laid and next few episodes we’ll start easing back into the twisty complicated goodness. Optimistic, yes.
From hearing that RT thinks episode two is great, I gotta say, that preview wasn’t quite what I expected. But hey, I’ll go with it.
I thought this was a really strong episode — it did an excellent job of focusing on Veronica and introducing her to new viewers (we hope) without boring the pants off the rest of us. And, in fact, it _felt_ more like Veronica Mars than last season’s opener did. (By which I mean, of course, like first season VM.)
(Also, Christopher watched the whole thing — which he never does, I usually watch it again with him a couple of days later, and he missed several eps last season. So, that’s a good sign for casual viewership.)
Yes, yes, Piz needs a haircut. Maybe a bit over the top putting him in Duncan’s shirt. I feel no chemistry between he and V–your Xander comparison is right on.
Kendall’s dead? Yay!
Will Vinnie save Keith?
The Dick and Logan dynamic was very interesting. I kept waiting for someone to point out, though, that, you know: CASSIDY WAS A MASS MURDERER. Which should be a get out of jail card on personal guilt for letting him jump off your roof. ANYway…
>I kept waiting for someone to point out, though, that, you know: CASSIDY WAS A MASS MURDERER. Which should be a get out of jail card on personal guilt for letting him jump off your roof.
Oh, I rather like that they’re dealing (or promising to deal) with the complexity there. That the murder was still somebody’s boyfriend and somebody’s brother and all.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the complexity too. But I’m only seeing the complex side, and not the simple angry side — both tend to exist when people are dealing with situations like that. Veronica tends to be pretty black and white with people (except Logan), so I’d at least expect her to come down more on other side. After all, he almost killed her and her dad.
Dude killed a busful of their friends, traumatized Mac, raped Veronica, and tried to kill her and her dad. I don’t see V feeling a lot of grey area on Cassidy’s behalf, and I don’t think Logan really is, either. But they’ve had a summer to get past the anger, and it’s still traumatic that it all happened and they were involved in Cassidy’s death.
I’m seeing the dynamic with Logan and Dick as less to do with guilt over his jump, more about the two of them having to adjust to the shock and horror and guilt that the little brother they grew up with turned into a monster, and neither of them noticed or were able to help/stop him. And even Dick’s got to realise that his constant belittling must have exacerbated the problem.
I mean, it was freaky for me just watching a tv show when the cute harmless little dork we’d spent time with was revealed in all his monstrousity. Must really shake up their worldview to be living it.
I suppose I’m probably projecting… based on the way the emotional fallout progressed for my brother and his buddies after one of their friends kidnapped him, then took a bunch of kids hostage in a classroom (there’s more, but it’s not relevant). At first, they did feel that sympathy and guilt about it, but after a few months, they started to feel angry, at him, at what he’d done, at what they had to go through, at how it changed them. So… I’m not completely sold on how the kids are reacting, but it’s because of _my_ baggage, not the characters’.
No, you’re right, it’s realistic to expect that Veronica and Mac would get mad and stay mad. (Though they did have many months of grief and raging at an unspecified villain, so when they could finally put a face on the murderer, they’d already burned through some of that.) I think it’s a little different for Dick and Logan because they grew up like brothers, which puts them in a position to be feeling some responsibility for the little brother.
Mostly the reason this all makes “sense”, I guess, is that we’re in tv land, where things get resolved faster and neater than in real life. I was just glad the show is dealing with it at all.
Thankfully the baseball season pre-empted Standoff. I would fight for the right to watch VM, but Standoff’s the *only* show my housemate looks forward to, so it feels mean to push.
First thoughts: Nice job, Veronica. Piss your TA off on the first day of class.
Overall, I thought it was a nice episode, well balanced between the old and the new, though several people need haircuts (and I’m oddly disconcerted by Logan’s hair being so dark). I am hoping that the roommate doesn’t get a relationship with Veronica, but if that’s what it takes to get his hair cut, I’ll live with it.
>I don’t see V feeling a lot of grey area on Cassidy’s behalf, and I don’t think Logan really is, either.
I think we’ve also seen Veronica shrugging off trauma in the past. Or maybe ‘shrugging off’ isn’t the right word, but she’s tough, eh? I’m not sure it’d surprise me to see her just cowboying up for a while and have some of this bite her harder down the road.
Interrupting the flow for a little GG rant, since they do not get their own entry this week. Oh show. The thing that makes me saddest is that there are parts of last season that this season is just as good (bad) as. But Lauren Graham? Is either sleepwalking or being written as sleepwalking or is being told to sleepwalk and the spark is just not there that I expect. Or, rather, it’s there, but being held in.
Oh, Amy Sherman Palladino. I hates you.
I expect that we’ll see a major Mac/Dick confrontation at some point. I get what you’re saying about the anger, Gwenda, but Cassidy’s not there for anyone to vent on; they’re all just picking up the pieces at this point. The thing Thomas did best during the first season was show the aftermath, and I expect that he’ll be able to do the same here.
I don’t have much to add to these comments except that I really liked the fact that for a moment there in that last scene, Dick looked shockingly like Beaver. It was something about his hair and a bit of heavy make up around the eyes – subtle but very much there, and particularly impressive given that Ryan Hansen and Kyle Gallner look nothing alike.
I’m falling on the ‘hate’ side of the new credits fence, and I agree that the shot of Veronica and Logan is wrong and inappropriate for the show.
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that I hate the new credits and I double hate the remix of the theme song. EVIL! Don’t be messing with my Dandies!
Would there have been any real evidence, beyond Veronica’s word, that Cassidy blew up the bus? Did even Logan hear him say that or did he just hear Veronica say it and not hear Cassidy contradict it?
I feel Dick and Veronica’s relationship should be less cordial than it is. Veronica has known for a long time that Dick arranged for her to be raped. And if someone told me my brother was a murderer, I wouldn’t be quick to believe it. Especially if it was someone I didn’t like much.
I liked the first show. Logan seemed very mature all of a sudden, except for skipping class, and Veronica didn’t seem all that into him. I liked the new characters.
The first year of college was my favorite Buffy season. Maybe I’m just nostalgic. But how did Dick get there without taking summer school?
I think Logan and Dick’s relationship makes sense. Whatever their personal tangled history, they’ve had a long history together. And now both of them have lost their entire families. Who else in the freshman class has a clue what it’s like to be them?
I do worry about the dog. Who walks and feeds Backup while Veronica parties with her friends and Keith transports felons to love nests in the desert?
I feel Backup gets the short shrift a lot — he should be in the credits (maybe he is…).
On the evidence and bus bombing, it seems like there probably would be plenty. The emails to Woody would be analyzable by law enforcement, there might still be extant explosives he was in possession of stolen from that warehouse, and surely to god blowing up the plane would have left some evidence. He would have had the device he used to blow it up on him. Certainly enough evidence to establish a motive for killing Woody and the planting of the other bombs would tie him to the bus. Off the top of my headachey head.
But yes, the rape is another reason Veronica (and the others) feelings about Cassidy were bugging me. Logan and Dick’s relationship did seem very well handled. We’ll see how it plays out, I guess.
The new characters were all likable and I’m with you on college Buffy. That was the first season I started watching, so I loved it too.
Although p.s. How could Logan stand to let someone who set up the rape of his girlfriend live with him? That takes Dick entirely out of the realm of the sympathetic to me, and I don’t really care about the poor little rich boy circumstances.
You know, I hate to admit it, but I tend to forget about the rape. But taking it into account, yeah, the whole situation becomes quite a bit more problematic. I wonder if we’ll see some friction between V. and Logan because if his new roommate.
Backup seems to vanish from the Mars household for long stretches at a time. I think he’s out on his own, solving doggie crimes.
I admit I didn’t understand the mechanics of it, but I thought all he needed to blow up the plane (and the bus) was his cellphone. The emails to Woody were about incorporation. They might have contained references to the molestations, but wouldn’t have needed to and so might not have. It would be a big jump to get from those to blowing up the bus. A smaller jump, but still a jump to get from those to blowing up the plane. Maybe there would still be explosives and detonators left behind. If it were my brother that wouldn’t be nearly enough to make me believe he’d murdered anyone. Those things can be planted, for one thing.
Which means, from Dick’s point of view, that it’s only Veronica making his brother out to be a vicious killer and he will surely want to not believe her.
We’ve never seen Veronica tell Logan about Dick’s role in the rape. Maybe he doesn’t know.
I think the show has a tendency to have characters do despicable things for the drama of it and then carry on as if the characters aren’t quite as despicable as we know they are. I think that’s why it’s easy to forget about the rape. The show doesn’t dislike Dick enough to keep it in your mind.
Now there’s Eli. Eli is a murderer and it’s only through luck that he didn’t murder the wrong person in retaliation for Felix. But I feel the show expects us to continue to like him and soon it will be easy to forget about the murder, too.