So, Veronica Mars:
I have two main quibbles with the movie:
1. Logan in the military? Really? I guess I could see him joining up to finally get his shit together, but I'm not sure how he survived. When he first showed up in the (sadly ill-fitting) uniform, I thought either Veronica was hallucinating or it was an extended Officer and a Gentleman gag, or that he was hiding from the paps in costume. It just seemed like a really odd character choice, and since we don't know how or why, it required handwaving.
2. And more importantly, the recasting of Carrie Bishop. This was the biggest issue I had with the movie, and many of my smaller complaints stem from it. It was just jarring every time they cut back to her and it wasn't Leighton Meester. Why even use Carrie? Shelly Pomeroy could have been the dead rock star, or Meg's bad girl sister, or someone else whose actor was available. (Was Carrie even musical?) I also feel like Logan still dating within the Neptune High 09er pool - even if it was someone who became famous - was not really believable.
Both of these lead to the fact that we didn't really get to see much of how Logan felt about yet again being accused of murdering his girlfriend, or how he was responding to being the son of Lilly's murderer etc.
I didn't mind the other contrivances (that it happened the week of the reunion, while Veronica was interviewing etc.), and while I felt bad for Piz, I just don't care that much about him (or how poorly Veronica treated him), though I liked that they hadn't been together the whole time, just the last year.
I needed more Mac and more Wallace, and I don't understand why Keith and Alicia weren't married, but I'm so glad Keith survived. I didn't think anything would happen to him and then Weevil got shot and suddenly things were nerve-wracking, and I was afraid Keith was going to be another Wash, and I wouldn't have been able to handle that. So Rob Thomas is lucky Keith is still alive.
There were so many clever lines and awesome shoutouts - I did not expect to see Corny! and I (and everyone in the theatre I think) gasped when Celeste Kane was revealed - though I rolled my eyes at how they made sure to keep Dick's hands clean of everything. Otherwise, it felt very noir, with the corrupt sheriff's department just getting more and more corrupt, and Sacks finally stepping up to help and dying for his trouble. I was less happy to see Weevil back on his bike at the end, because honey, no! You have the hot wife and the adorable baby! Go home to them and let Veronica sort it out. I can handle Veronica being sucked back into the trap of Neptune, because it's where she does her best work, but you truly got out of your old life and into a healthier, better one! Don't let someone like Celeste Kane take that from you!
Even though it could have used a couple more hours - miniseries length - to flesh everything out, overall, I enjoyed it and found it tremendously satisfying. I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of tv movies a year or something to continue Veronica's story.
***
This morning, I got up, spent almost 3.5 hours traveling out to the island - they are doing track work on the Ronkonkoma line and substituting buses for trains from Hicksville on, so I decided to take the Stony Brook train, which is fine, but 1. requires a change at Huntington, and 2. takes two hours. But I arrived and went to my sister's, where Alyssa, my dad, and I baked Irish soda bread (
pic) - well, I mostly supervised (i.e., made sure nothing exploded or got set on fire), since this was always my dad's thing, and Alyssa did most of the grunt work.
The recipe, for those of you who are interested:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup raisins (we put a whole box in each loaf, which is 12oz)
1 tbsp caraway seeds (optional, since I don't like them)
Heat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9" cake pan (my dad just shapes them and bakes them on a cookie sheet, which also works).
Mix all ingredients together - we just dumped everything into the stand mixer, dry ingredients and then wet - and mix until a sticky dough forms. You might need to flour your hands to handle it. Shape into a loaf either in your cake tin or on the cookie sheet. Score the top in a cross shape with a razor or sharp knife. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown (if you tap it, it'll sound hollow). Cool on a rake. Best served warm, but is good for breakfast the next day too.
We made two loaves, the first without caraway seeds, since my sister and I dislike them, and the second with, because my dad likes them.
There was a slight mishap with baking the first loaf, since we heated the oven, but the loaf barely cooked. We discovered that somehow (it's not my stove, so I don't even know), the temperature got reset to "warming" after it reached the 375 we set it to. I don't even know. So we baked it for another 30 minutes or so, and it turned out fine. (It's the one in the picture.) And then we made the second loaf.
Note: I doubt this is in anyway Irish or authentic, but it's how we've always made it. My dad got the recipe from the cook at the place we used to go on vacation in the 70s.
There's been some other family drama, but I'm still trying to figure out how to process it myself, before I can figure out how to talk about it here.
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