vmars (but there's something kind of special that i want most of all)
Who fell asleep last night?
Hoo boy! And did not set my alarm because come on, like I ever sleep more than six hours lately?
Those eight and a half hours were awesome, and I think there will be a repeat performance tonight, possibly subtitled "nap before Loslias".
I managed to hurt my ankle while I was asleep. Now I am in considerable amounts of pain.
So, here's the thing about Mars v Mars.
This was a good episode of a television show. It had all the right elements: predictable but not quite obvious; focused without being blinded to anything around it; solid internal logic; engaged cast that played nicely with the material; good pacing; sex.
This was a good episode of a television show, but this was not a good episode of Veronica Mars.
And, okay, here's where the fangirls stone me, because I am often verbal with my love for this show. But, well, tonight I'm not feeling it.
Because tonight I was not watching an ep of VMars.
From TV Tome:
NOTE: The plot of this episode is virtually the same as that of the pilot episode for Snoops, a show by David E. Kelly that Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas was writing for. Kelly never used his script for the pilot, so Rob decided to use it in this show, replacing the characters to fit the Veronica Mars universe.
Yeah. We noticed.
It was like... the actors were great, the script was great, but we were playing with a show that was not this show. Largely, I suppose, because it was written for a David E. Kelly show. Oh, Rob Thomas, why do you torment me?
Let's take... oh, anyone. Let's take Daddy Mars. He was hilarious, and funny. And wonderful.
And why, exactly, would Keith Mars play that type of trick on his daughter? They've had the relationship established so well and that was never the type of thing he'd do. He'd force her to do better, he might lock her out of things, but he wouldn't do something to carefully humiliate her like that- not even in front of him. They always seemed to have something of a silent agreement; they might call each other on their behavior, but they wouldn't set the other up to be made a fool of.
Or Logan. This was... Logan out of character. Logan with his soul bared does nothing for me. Mostly because we have no history of him acting like this. He intrigues me when his heart is not actually on his sleeve, but rather, somewhere around his esophagous. Which I am not even spelling right, and not checking, THAT IS HOW MUCH THIS BOTHERED ME. What I like about Logan is that they never felt the need, heretofore, to not make him an asshole. Even when he went to Veronica for help, he was being a dick to her. His mom died? Yeah. But watching Veronica feel pity for him didn't move me. It did the polar opposite. It made me wonder why Veronica could feel sorry for Logan, of all people, and I couldn't.
And why is everyone so surprised that Veronica was wrong? Veronica's wrong a lot. In fact, usually, when she throws her entire self into everything? Wrong! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! Don't get me wrong, I like Veronica being wrong. But I don't really understand why everyone's surprised.
At the end of the day, for me, this was an episode with a badly-inserted B plot and no C plot. Which sucks, because the C plot is what keeps me invested. The A plots on this show, when good (and they're fairly uniformly good, with a few misses and mostly hits), are not enough; when the A plot is in full swing I think you sometimes need to wonder why a high school junior cares so much about bail jumpers (or whatever). She's supporting her dad, yes, but the most powerful episodes have some element of the Lilly Kane case inserted smoothly.
This week it seemed like it was, well, a script for a David E. Kelly show. With whatever the old B plot had been, dumped for Logan and Veronica fight crime. And the C plot... there was no C plot. The Duncan Doctor thing was not a C plot. It was, like, Q. And B plot did not tie into A plot did not tie into C plot. Not at all. I've seen people try to tie things together, the way we have for other episodes, using this ep as guide. And... it does not work. It does not work because this was not, originally, a VMars story, and it did not play out like one on screen. It played out the way I imagine it might have if Joss had filmed his Shakespeare Nights with the Buffy Crew.
I'm sure it foreshadowed a ton for this season on Snoops, though.
This does raise the question for me, though-- it's been said the major plotlines will be tied up sometime this year. Will VMars be able to sustain itself without, well, the C plots? If it will all be episodes like this, with a decent script and good, solid guest stars... I don't know how interested I am.
*misses Mac. Also, Lilly*
And, incidentally? This episode had a story by Rob Thomas (bad Rob Thomas! No biscuit!), but it was cowritten by two staff writers. One of them wrote Echolls Family Christmas. The other cowrote Silence of the Lamb.
Together, they wrote Girl Next Door.
...That actually explains a lot.
I think I'm late for class because I was writing this. I mean, and the ankle? But mostly this.
I don't want to know what it says about me that I think of that as a valid excuse.
Hoo boy! And did not set my alarm because come on, like I ever sleep more than six hours lately?
Those eight and a half hours were awesome, and I think there will be a repeat performance tonight, possibly subtitled "nap before Loslias".
I managed to hurt my ankle while I was asleep. Now I am in considerable amounts of pain.
So, here's the thing about Mars v Mars.
This was a good episode of a television show. It had all the right elements: predictable but not quite obvious; focused without being blinded to anything around it; solid internal logic; engaged cast that played nicely with the material; good pacing; sex.
This was a good episode of a television show, but this was not a good episode of Veronica Mars.
And, okay, here's where the fangirls stone me, because I am often verbal with my love for this show. But, well, tonight I'm not feeling it.
Because tonight I was not watching an ep of VMars.
From TV Tome:
NOTE: The plot of this episode is virtually the same as that of the pilot episode for Snoops, a show by David E. Kelly that Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas was writing for. Kelly never used his script for the pilot, so Rob decided to use it in this show, replacing the characters to fit the Veronica Mars universe.
Yeah. We noticed.
It was like... the actors were great, the script was great, but we were playing with a show that was not this show. Largely, I suppose, because it was written for a David E. Kelly show. Oh, Rob Thomas, why do you torment me?
Let's take... oh, anyone. Let's take Daddy Mars. He was hilarious, and funny. And wonderful.
And why, exactly, would Keith Mars play that type of trick on his daughter? They've had the relationship established so well and that was never the type of thing he'd do. He'd force her to do better, he might lock her out of things, but he wouldn't do something to carefully humiliate her like that- not even in front of him. They always seemed to have something of a silent agreement; they might call each other on their behavior, but they wouldn't set the other up to be made a fool of.
Or Logan. This was... Logan out of character. Logan with his soul bared does nothing for me. Mostly because we have no history of him acting like this. He intrigues me when his heart is not actually on his sleeve, but rather, somewhere around his esophagous. Which I am not even spelling right, and not checking, THAT IS HOW MUCH THIS BOTHERED ME. What I like about Logan is that they never felt the need, heretofore, to not make him an asshole. Even when he went to Veronica for help, he was being a dick to her. His mom died? Yeah. But watching Veronica feel pity for him didn't move me. It did the polar opposite. It made me wonder why Veronica could feel sorry for Logan, of all people, and I couldn't.
And why is everyone so surprised that Veronica was wrong? Veronica's wrong a lot. In fact, usually, when she throws her entire self into everything? Wrong! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! Don't get me wrong, I like Veronica being wrong. But I don't really understand why everyone's surprised.
At the end of the day, for me, this was an episode with a badly-inserted B plot and no C plot. Which sucks, because the C plot is what keeps me invested. The A plots on this show, when good (and they're fairly uniformly good, with a few misses and mostly hits), are not enough; when the A plot is in full swing I think you sometimes need to wonder why a high school junior cares so much about bail jumpers (or whatever). She's supporting her dad, yes, but the most powerful episodes have some element of the Lilly Kane case inserted smoothly.
This week it seemed like it was, well, a script for a David E. Kelly show. With whatever the old B plot had been, dumped for Logan and Veronica fight crime. And the C plot... there was no C plot. The Duncan Doctor thing was not a C plot. It was, like, Q. And B plot did not tie into A plot did not tie into C plot. Not at all. I've seen people try to tie things together, the way we have for other episodes, using this ep as guide. And... it does not work. It does not work because this was not, originally, a VMars story, and it did not play out like one on screen. It played out the way I imagine it might have if Joss had filmed his Shakespeare Nights with the Buffy Crew.
I'm sure it foreshadowed a ton for this season on Snoops, though.
This does raise the question for me, though-- it's been said the major plotlines will be tied up sometime this year. Will VMars be able to sustain itself without, well, the C plots? If it will all be episodes like this, with a decent script and good, solid guest stars... I don't know how interested I am.
*misses Mac. Also, Lilly*
And, incidentally? This episode had a story by Rob Thomas (bad Rob Thomas! No biscuit!), but it was cowritten by two staff writers. One of them wrote Echolls Family Christmas. The other cowrote Silence of the Lamb.
Together, they wrote Girl Next Door.
...That actually explains a lot.
I think I'm late for class because I was writing this. I mean, and the ankle? But mostly this.
I don't want to know what it says about me that I think of that as a valid excuse.