I woke into a fever dream where silence talked and money screamed
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So, because the world needs one more Veronica Mars finale post. I haven't read anyone else's reactions yet, so this is just what I've managed to cobble together on my own.
Well. Uh. OK. I don't read mysteries very often, but it seems to me that it's the responsibility of the writer to make the "who" in "whodunit" difficult to figure out, but not completely impossible. So I kind of cry foul on Beaver. Did anyone put that together? I mean, they explained it in a convincing way as Veronica was doing her little recap, but there were so few clues (IMO) throughout the season that Beaver was capable of anything with that degree of complexity and violence, I feel cheated. I don't really watch the show for the mystery stuff, particularly, so I'm not really furious about it or anything, but it did feel very much like they didn't start out the season with this plan in mind, and that's disappointing. Plus I am sad, because I really liked Beaver, and he and Mac were so adorable together, and poor, poor, Mac (Tina Majorino was wonderful here, too). I thought the revelation itself was very well done--up to and including Veronica finding Mac shivering in the hotel room--but the whole time I was just going, "Huh? NO WAY."
I also thought the denouement was handled very oddly, particularly with Keith and Veronica and Logan and Veronica. Kristen Bell was fantastic in this episode, but they gave her way too many lines after Keith came through that door. I wouldn't think she'd be able to get out much more than "I thought you were dead" before complete meltdown. That reunion should have been a huge emotional payoff--particularly since Veronica's phone call to him on the roof was so wrenching--and it felt so rushed, and then ten seconds later it was like they were on to other things and Keith's making jokes about finding Logan on his couch, and huh? Why did we need to add exposition to the end of that scene? It just felt weird, and then in the next scene they're all cheery and headed to New York. Weird. I also feel enormously cheated that we didn't get to see Veronica and Logan's decision to get back together. That relationship has been a major facet of the show, and to see all that tension apparently resolved (for the moment) without actually seeing it happen was very frustrating. (And if I had a dollar for every word of fic that is likely to be written about that, I could quit my job and buy a vacation home in the San Juans.) I'm also concerned that here they are again at the end of a season, together... does this mean we're going to get another "they were together over the summer but they're not now" beginning to next season? Because that seems cheap. There are only so many breakups and reunions that I can get invested in.
Basically, it felt like they need another half an hour or so to really give everything the weight it deserved. The whole Aaron subplot was completely out of place; his death should have had a major impact (and GO DUNCAN, by the way), but squished in there as it was after the revelation about Beaver, it lost a lot of its power. I don't see what would have really been lost by pushing that subplot into the previous episode, and leaving all of this one for the bus crash revelations. As it was, with so much going on, it was hard to take everything in.
So my problems with this episode were my same problems with the season overall: there was too much going on, and it was put together weirdly. I think, though, that I have finally learned to stop expecting perfection from any show, and it's helping me retain my calm about these things. :) I still really enjoy the show, and I think it's definitely fixable if they (hopefully) get another season, it's just that this finale felt a little bit anticlimactic.
There was a lot that I liked, though. Like I said, I thought Kristen Bell was extremely good throughout, particularly in that roof scene. I loved the role reversals with Veronica and Logan, that he's the one pulling her back from the edge (in convincing her not to kill Beaver), that she's the one stretched out across his lap on the couch in her apartment. Weevil's arrest infuriated me to no end (I FUCKING HATE YOU, LAMB), but it was well done. The resolution (I hope) of the Wallace/Jackie storyline was a little out of left field, but mostly OK. I loved Veronica's pleased suprise at being applauded at graduation, and her farewell with Clemmons. I liked her dream on the morning of graduation, though I'm not sure exactly what to make of it; in some senses, it seemed to be her perfect fantasy of graduation--her parents together, Lilly alive--but then she didn't know Wallace, so that kind of shoots that theory. On the other hand, if it was supposed to be "what would have happened if Lilly hadn't died," it's weird that she was with Logan. But anyway, I thought it was intriguing. I loved the return of Clarence Wiedman, and Donut exacting a little Neptune-style justice from afar. And I like that Kendall is still around to cause trouble next season (hopefully). And overall, I just really like these actors and these characters, even if they aren't always used to their full potential, and I'm really hoping I get to see more of them.
I also had some interesting discussions with Mr. McK, last night and this morning, about the idea of justice and what that means in Neptune, but I think I will save that talk for another day.
sdwolfpup tagged me for a meme about my weirdnesses, but I definitely need time to narrow those down, so maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, though, this is hilarious.
So, because the world needs one more Veronica Mars finale post. I haven't read anyone else's reactions yet, so this is just what I've managed to cobble together on my own.
Well. Uh. OK. I don't read mysteries very often, but it seems to me that it's the responsibility of the writer to make the "who" in "whodunit" difficult to figure out, but not completely impossible. So I kind of cry foul on Beaver. Did anyone put that together? I mean, they explained it in a convincing way as Veronica was doing her little recap, but there were so few clues (IMO) throughout the season that Beaver was capable of anything with that degree of complexity and violence, I feel cheated. I don't really watch the show for the mystery stuff, particularly, so I'm not really furious about it or anything, but it did feel very much like they didn't start out the season with this plan in mind, and that's disappointing. Plus I am sad, because I really liked Beaver, and he and Mac were so adorable together, and poor, poor, Mac (Tina Majorino was wonderful here, too). I thought the revelation itself was very well done--up to and including Veronica finding Mac shivering in the hotel room--but the whole time I was just going, "Huh? NO WAY."
I also thought the denouement was handled very oddly, particularly with Keith and Veronica and Logan and Veronica. Kristen Bell was fantastic in this episode, but they gave her way too many lines after Keith came through that door. I wouldn't think she'd be able to get out much more than "I thought you were dead" before complete meltdown. That reunion should have been a huge emotional payoff--particularly since Veronica's phone call to him on the roof was so wrenching--and it felt so rushed, and then ten seconds later it was like they were on to other things and Keith's making jokes about finding Logan on his couch, and huh? Why did we need to add exposition to the end of that scene? It just felt weird, and then in the next scene they're all cheery and headed to New York. Weird. I also feel enormously cheated that we didn't get to see Veronica and Logan's decision to get back together. That relationship has been a major facet of the show, and to see all that tension apparently resolved (for the moment) without actually seeing it happen was very frustrating. (And if I had a dollar for every word of fic that is likely to be written about that, I could quit my job and buy a vacation home in the San Juans.) I'm also concerned that here they are again at the end of a season, together... does this mean we're going to get another "they were together over the summer but they're not now" beginning to next season? Because that seems cheap. There are only so many breakups and reunions that I can get invested in.
Basically, it felt like they need another half an hour or so to really give everything the weight it deserved. The whole Aaron subplot was completely out of place; his death should have had a major impact (and GO DUNCAN, by the way), but squished in there as it was after the revelation about Beaver, it lost a lot of its power. I don't see what would have really been lost by pushing that subplot into the previous episode, and leaving all of this one for the bus crash revelations. As it was, with so much going on, it was hard to take everything in.
So my problems with this episode were my same problems with the season overall: there was too much going on, and it was put together weirdly. I think, though, that I have finally learned to stop expecting perfection from any show, and it's helping me retain my calm about these things. :) I still really enjoy the show, and I think it's definitely fixable if they (hopefully) get another season, it's just that this finale felt a little bit anticlimactic.
There was a lot that I liked, though. Like I said, I thought Kristen Bell was extremely good throughout, particularly in that roof scene. I loved the role reversals with Veronica and Logan, that he's the one pulling her back from the edge (in convincing her not to kill Beaver), that she's the one stretched out across his lap on the couch in her apartment. Weevil's arrest infuriated me to no end (I FUCKING HATE YOU, LAMB), but it was well done. The resolution (I hope) of the Wallace/Jackie storyline was a little out of left field, but mostly OK. I loved Veronica's pleased suprise at being applauded at graduation, and her farewell with Clemmons. I liked her dream on the morning of graduation, though I'm not sure exactly what to make of it; in some senses, it seemed to be her perfect fantasy of graduation--her parents together, Lilly alive--but then she didn't know Wallace, so that kind of shoots that theory. On the other hand, if it was supposed to be "what would have happened if Lilly hadn't died," it's weird that she was with Logan. But anyway, I thought it was intriguing. I loved the return of Clarence Wiedman, and Donut exacting a little Neptune-style justice from afar. And I like that Kendall is still around to cause trouble next season (hopefully). And overall, I just really like these actors and these characters, even if they aren't always used to their full potential, and I'm really hoping I get to see more of them.
I also had some interesting discussions with Mr. McK, last night and this morning, about the idea of justice and what that means in Neptune, but I think I will save that talk for another day.
sdwolfpup tagged me for a meme about my weirdnesses, but I definitely need time to narrow those down, so maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, though, this is hilarious.