Veronica Mars

I caught an episode of Veronica Mars last night. It might have been the first one since there was a lot of exposition.

Did anyone but me think that Veronica is channeling Sydney Bristow (of Alias)?

Well, yeah.

I thought it was an interesting show which obviously gorged itself on the carcasses of superior (mostly cancelled) shows. I could see the pitch in my head: “So, basically boss, we’re going to do Wonderfalls crossed with Karen Cisco, with a dash of My So Called Life and the hairdos from Smallville. Kids’ll love it!”

But I’m a little bewildered at the party scene. I wonder if my son should continue watching it with us. He’s 11, and loved Buffy and Angel and Firefly with adult supervision - but some of the later seasons made me squirm, and we did end up pre-screening much of Buffy season 7. While I like seeing that issue brought up well, as well as noting how much her reaction to it reveals about her character, I’m not sure I want a lot of that fed to him yet. We did discuss it afterwards, and some Life Lessons were imparted, so maybe it’s not all a bad thing.

For as derivitave as it was, I thought it was pretty good. I thought the direction was interesting without being obtrusive. The lead actress was strong, I love the guy who plays her dad, and their relationship is spot-on. The twisty handling of the biker boys and the token black sidekick was an interesting play-out. I want to find out what’s up with the mom, so I’ll tune in further. I hated her Chloe-hair, though.

Therefore, according to WhyNot’s Law of TV Shows She Likes, I give it six weeks before it’s cancelled.

It seemed like it was trying just a little too hard, but overall I liked it. They did an interesting job of intertwining the various threads together and having each one pay off the others.

I thought the rape was handled amazingly well. VM’s concern for how her father would react is mirrored nicely by her father’s keeping the information about the Kane case from her. Each of them believe that no good will come of the other knowing. And I wanted to beat that sheriff.

I’m never home on Tuesdays so I’ll have to remember to tape it. Unless it’s going to repeat on Saturdays regularly?

I’ve heard comparisons made to Alias, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks, Joan of Arcadia, Karen Sisco, My So Called Life, Square Pegs and Wonderfalls. In other words, people are saying Veronica Mars reminds them of a lot of good series. Watch this one.

It’s probably going to help that it’s on UPN. They’re a little more used to weak ratings and will hopefully be willing to cut the show some slack if it’s not an immediate hit.

I’m counting on it. I missed it when it originally aired, but it just repeated for me and I caught it this time around. Great show. Looks like fun.

I just watched it and “Lost” and enjoyed VM much more than Lost. Of course, I’m squeamish and a sucker for strong female characters, so that’s understandable.

Unfortunately, I doomed my beloved “Karen Sisco” last year. Will I doom Veronica this year? Most likely.

I’ve always liked the actor who plays Keith Mars. He’s very good at conveying emotion without saying anything much.

So, this isn’t about space travel, then?

The hair is kind of a given, seeing as how the character is a pretty direct rip-off of Chloe Sullivan.

Six weeks sounds about right. There’s not enough depth to the bad guys (rich teens) to support this level of angst.

I know what you mean. I have a TiVo pass for Veronica Mars because I heard good advance word on it, but I’m afraid to watch the episode (one so far) for fear of falling in love with another show that gets axed for being, essentially, “too good for television.”

Man, Karen Sisco was good. And now this… sigh…

If it’s any consolation, I don’t think it’s as good as Karen. But then, I don’t think much is, so take that for what it’s worth.

I thought it was pretty good considering UPN’s penchant for crap reality shows.
Maybe this will signal a trend away from that stuff. One can only hope. Kevin Hill has some good advance buzz as well.

I TiVo’d it and watched it last night. Not too exciting, though Taye Diggs is completely babelicious.