(no subject)
Just finished my rewatch of Veronica Mars! I already talked about Veronica Mars seasons 1 and 3 quite a lot at the time, but I didn't say as much about season 2, so I wrote a bit more about my impressions of that season on second viewing.
At the time I was confused at all I'd heard on season 1 being the only really strong season and the only one worth watching, and I still think that's a bit unfair, but now I can understand more why so many people were turned off by the second season and didn't like it as much overall. Season 1 felt like it was a lot more focused on the premise of Veronica as a private eye in high school, a lot of it was obviously about her struggling to fit in with her rich classmates and flashing back to more innocent times with Lily, and many of the episodes involved high school concepts like running for student council, gossip about a teacher, being labelled a slut by classmates etc. Whilst season 2 seems like it's more about adult issues in a way and widening the scope to the entire town, everything is super-plotty and convoluted (with a ton of red herrings!) and it really dropped the focus on Veronica navigating school, so I can understand why a lot of viewers found that sitting through episodes like One Angry Veronica just didn't hold the same appeal.
I get the feeling that Rob Thomas was a little too keen to make sure that they repeated the success of the first year and came up with a super-intense and involved mystery, it definitely felt like he had a lot of ambition with the stories that he was telling for season 2. It seems like it would have been tough to follow everything when you were just following it weekly, I watched the season in its entirely on DVD both times, and even now on repeat viewing certain things are coming together for me a lot more the second time around. Of course that then led to the opposite problem of the network requesting that the show become too simplified with the shorter story arcs and stand-alone episodes for season 3, but tbh I can see where those requests were coming from after season 2 tied every single episode together so closely and made everything so involved. I still liked season 2 though personally and didn't feel that there was a noticeable drop in quality, but I can understand why some viewers found themselves caring less when it strayed so much from Veronica in high school and the more relatable teen issues in order to do plots with the Fitzpatrick's, the Mayor, Jackie's Dad etc.
Saying that, season 1 is still my favourite season for the focus on Veronica's struggles after being ostracised by the town and the school, plus the more personal quests of her looking into Lily's death and trying to find her Mom, but I did like season 2 making more use out of the ensemble cast. Both Wallace and Weevil got their own plotlines a lot more, whereas in season 1 Weevil especially would often just show up for one scene in an episode to help out Veronica. (He did have the season 1 subplot of having had a secret relationship with Lily obviously, but that always seemed quite vague to me with not much time spend on it). I especially loved Weevil and Logan working together, that pairing was always fun
Cassidy still makes me sad :( And I felt like there was some retconning going on with Mac's age, I get the feeling that at the last minute they decided that they wanted to make her Veronica's age and go to college with her, before season 3 she always seemed younger than the other characters by several years. She never appears in classes with Veronica the way that all the other regulars her age do for example. Plus her dating Cassidy made me assume that she was meant to be around his age as they both looked about 16 or even 15, as opposed to the other characters being 17/18 in season 2. She just always had a younger feel to me in her scenes with Cassidy and how awkward they were together, maybe she was realistic for a real life 17 year old, she just didn't feel like the 17 year old's that you get on tv in the way that Veronica and the other characters did
LOVED Charisma as Kendell, all of her scenes were so great. Well other than her sex scenes with Logan, I didn't see much chemistry there quite honestly. I would have liked the show to have spend more time on the Casablanca family actually as I thought that was a pretty interesting set-up in those early episodes, it was a shame that the father was written out as early as he was, even though that was a good twist. And aww, how bad did I feel for the teacher who owned the stocks and was planning to fund his retirement with them.
If I'm honest I thought that Alyson Hannigan was miscast as Trina. And it distracted me how she seems to bring the exact same mannerisms to every acting role now, even ones as diverse as Willow and Trina. I didn't notice it as much with high school Willow actually, but since then she seems to always have the same acting tics. It was nice to see her on VM, and I loved the scene of her getting bitchy with Charisma as Kendell heh, but I have to admit that I got the feeling that she was mostly there because Rob was excited to have a Buffy shout-out, rather than her being the right actress for the role
At the time I was confused at all I'd heard on season 1 being the only really strong season and the only one worth watching, and I still think that's a bit unfair, but now I can understand more why so many people were turned off by the second season and didn't like it as much overall. Season 1 felt like it was a lot more focused on the premise of Veronica as a private eye in high school, a lot of it was obviously about her struggling to fit in with her rich classmates and flashing back to more innocent times with Lily, and many of the episodes involved high school concepts like running for student council, gossip about a teacher, being labelled a slut by classmates etc. Whilst season 2 seems like it's more about adult issues in a way and widening the scope to the entire town, everything is super-plotty and convoluted (with a ton of red herrings!) and it really dropped the focus on Veronica navigating school, so I can understand why a lot of viewers found that sitting through episodes like One Angry Veronica just didn't hold the same appeal.
I get the feeling that Rob Thomas was a little too keen to make sure that they repeated the success of the first year and came up with a super-intense and involved mystery, it definitely felt like he had a lot of ambition with the stories that he was telling for season 2. It seems like it would have been tough to follow everything when you were just following it weekly, I watched the season in its entirely on DVD both times, and even now on repeat viewing certain things are coming together for me a lot more the second time around. Of course that then led to the opposite problem of the network requesting that the show become too simplified with the shorter story arcs and stand-alone episodes for season 3, but tbh I can see where those requests were coming from after season 2 tied every single episode together so closely and made everything so involved. I still liked season 2 though personally and didn't feel that there was a noticeable drop in quality, but I can understand why some viewers found themselves caring less when it strayed so much from Veronica in high school and the more relatable teen issues in order to do plots with the Fitzpatrick's, the Mayor, Jackie's Dad etc.
Saying that, season 1 is still my favourite season for the focus on Veronica's struggles after being ostracised by the town and the school, plus the more personal quests of her looking into Lily's death and trying to find her Mom, but I did like season 2 making more use out of the ensemble cast. Both Wallace and Weevil got their own plotlines a lot more, whereas in season 1 Weevil especially would often just show up for one scene in an episode to help out Veronica. (He did have the season 1 subplot of having had a secret relationship with Lily obviously, but that always seemed quite vague to me with not much time spend on it). I especially loved Weevil and Logan working together, that pairing was always fun
Cassidy still makes me sad :( And I felt like there was some retconning going on with Mac's age, I get the feeling that at the last minute they decided that they wanted to make her Veronica's age and go to college with her, before season 3 she always seemed younger than the other characters by several years. She never appears in classes with Veronica the way that all the other regulars her age do for example. Plus her dating Cassidy made me assume that she was meant to be around his age as they both looked about 16 or even 15, as opposed to the other characters being 17/18 in season 2. She just always had a younger feel to me in her scenes with Cassidy and how awkward they were together, maybe she was realistic for a real life 17 year old, she just didn't feel like the 17 year old's that you get on tv in the way that Veronica and the other characters did
LOVED Charisma as Kendell, all of her scenes were so great. Well other than her sex scenes with Logan, I didn't see much chemistry there quite honestly. I would have liked the show to have spend more time on the Casablanca family actually as I thought that was a pretty interesting set-up in those early episodes, it was a shame that the father was written out as early as he was, even though that was a good twist. And aww, how bad did I feel for the teacher who owned the stocks and was planning to fund his retirement with them.
If I'm honest I thought that Alyson Hannigan was miscast as Trina. And it distracted me how she seems to bring the exact same mannerisms to every acting role now, even ones as diverse as Willow and Trina. I didn't notice it as much with high school Willow actually, but since then she seems to always have the same acting tics. It was nice to see her on VM, and I loved the scene of her getting bitchy with Charisma as Kendell heh, but I have to admit that I got the feeling that she was mostly there because Rob was excited to have a Buffy shout-out, rather than her being the right actress for the role