The Best Week(s) of T.V. Ever, Part One: Veronica Mars

Several months ago, I wrote an article for this webzine about the upcoming fall season of television, in particular the tertiary seasons of my favorite three shows: Veronica Mars, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica. It’s now two weeks in, and so far? I have to say they have lived up to my expectations. Let’s take this show by show, shall we? Obviously, spoilers live here for the first two weeks of each show. Up first is Veronica Mars, and I’ll be covering Lost and Battlestar Galactica in subsequent articles.

Easily the most at-risk of these three series, our kicky girl detective starts out her college career with a bang, making an enemy out of a T.A. and a new admirer out of best bud Wallace’s new roommate, Piz. She’s solving crimes, bucking authority, breaking records and shagging (yes, they’re still at it!) bad-boy Logan. It’s a good first episode for our girl with just enough of the new (and yet old) mystery to satisfy those of us who’ve been around for awhile and enough zing and allure to capture that Gilmore Girls crowd. And, come on—who else jumped with joy when Veronica said “frak” for the first time?

Well, that was the reaction I was left with. Being a pursuer of knowledge and opinions, I’ve found that there are plenty of people out there (including Entertainment Weekly columnist Jennifer Armstrong) who were disappointed with the premiere of Season 3 (“Welcome Wagon”). The opinion that the show was “too tame” and “not complex enough” seemed a bit contrary to me. While the first episode did wrap up a couple of last season’s cliffhangers (Keith’s storyline, for instance, seemed to be all done with until the very end of the episode when he was left bleeding in the desert) neatly, it also harkened back to Season 2’s “The Rapes of Graff,” showing us that the campus rapist with a penchant for bald girls is still around and causing trouble. Is this the same multi-layered mystery arc we had last year? Not so far. Is that bad? Not at all. A simpler mystery arc is considerably more accessible to more people, thus giving the show’s ratings a chance to increase. Furthermore, the most fascinating characters, in my humblest of opinions, were most certainly Cindy “Mac” Mackenzie and Dick Casablancas. Their first meeting of the season was practically electric with tension, and Dick’s continual downward spiral had me riveted.

It’s now two episodes in, and the show continues to impress. Taking what could have been a trite sorority girl scandal in “My Big Fat Greek Rush Week” and making it unique, interesting, and surprising (okay, nobody expected all that weed to be for actual medicinal purposes, did they?) was a fantastic move, as was the reintroduction of Chip, the frat guy Veronica accused of rape last season. Furthermore, the re-imagining of the classic Stanford Prison Experiment with Wallace as a guard and Logan as a prisoner was, well, frakking awesome. Plus, I just loved seeing my teen crush Rider Strong all grown up and domineering. His portrayal of a prison guard on a huge power trip gets him my vote for the campus rapist. Am I right? Probably not. But it’s fun to guess!

The only thing I’ve found missing from Veronica Marsso far this season is Eli “Weevil” Navarro. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the third episode finally shows us whether or not he’s still in jail and what is going on with his upcoming trial for being an accessory to murder last season.