Veronica Mars, Season 1 (long)
I was correct in my supposition that the big story arc of Season 1 would benefit from seeing all the eps pretty much back-to-back. On the other hand, there is enough separate stuff in all the episodes that you can watch them at a moderate pace - unlike with Lost where it was impossible to wait to see another episode immediately. However, by the end of the season, I really had to watch through all the rest of the eps in the last two discs to see the final resolution on the Lilly Kane case and the personal stuff in Veronica's life as soon as possible.
In case someone doesn't know the series I'm talking about, Veronica Mars is a recent tv series that Subtv in Finland has started showing this Autumn. The heroine is a 17 year old girl who used to be one of the in-crowd (the "09ers"), but was shunned and abandoned by her former friends after her best friend Lilly Kane got murdered and her father, the then sheriff, accused Lilly's father of the murder. Her father was fired from his job and Veronica decided to support him rather than her friends.
In the series, Keith Mars, Veronica's father, has become a private detective. Veronica is still going to Neptune High, but is leading quite a different life from what it used to be. She is also working part-time in her father's agency, while also trying to find out who really murdered her best friend.
What I love about this series is that the characters have all these layers that are slowly revealed to the watchers as the season progresses. Veronica may look tough on the exterior - and actually she has been toughened up quite a bit since her 09er days, but inside she is vulnerable and has serious trust issues after what happened to her after Lilly's murder. Her father is still trying to solve the case and is trying to keep it a secret from his daughter. Weevil, the leader of the local biker gang is shown to have a great deal more depth than one would initially think, etc. etc.
I guess the only people who stay relatively the same throughout S1 are the new sheriff who starts out as a real bastard, and mostly keeps on being as obnoxious as ever, and Veronica's friend Wallace, who mostly stays on the loyal sidekick mode whatever happens.
A lot of the series revolves around Veronica's life - well, it is called Veronica Mars, after all, her cases and her relationships. Her past and present relationships are, of course, also central to the Lilly Kane murder. Her former boyfriend Duncan Kane is Lilly's brother, and Logan Echolls, the proverbial spoiled rich kid and Duncan's best friend, used to be Lilly's boyfriend. As the title song says, "We used to be friends", they all formed a tight group, but all of them abandoned Veronica after Lilly's death.
None of the above was really spoilery, because most of this is revealed during the pilot or the first couple of episodes of the series. The real spoiler stuff for later happenings in the series follows below. If you haven't seen all episodes of Season 1 and don't want to know what happens, including who murdered Lilly Kane, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER.
I don't understand what Veronica saw in Duncan. He is such a wooden and passive character, extremely boring. I don't know if it's the actor or how the character is written, but I see no spark between them. Of course, when it's revealed in the series that they might be siblings, that adds a bit of ickiness to the relationship as well, which stays on even though it's later revealed that Keith Mars really is Veronica's father.
Logan Echolls, on the other hand, initially seems like a prime spoiled brat, but is later on revealed to be a hurt and abused kid who hides his feelings beneath the role he plays. His father is a real bastard: the big movie star who does everything for his career, but cheats on his wife every chance he gets and takes out his frustrations on his defenseless child by beating him badly if he does something that might make his father or the family look bad.
The character has just been written so well and the actor playing Logan manages to show both sides of his character extremely well, so that one can't help being slowly wooed by his character. First he is shown as being beaten by his father in Episode 6, "Return of the Kane", and in the next episode, "The Girl Next Door", he demands his share of the blame when only Weevil is suspended from the school after the prank both he and Logan play on a strict teacher.
The storyline about Logan looking for his mother after her (supposed) suicide jump from the bridge and his breakdown after all hope is lost was really heartbreaking. It was also pretty revealing that the person he turned to for help with the matter was Veronica.
There is also his coming to Veronica's rescue in Ep. 18 "Weapons of Class Destruction" and beating up the guy he thinks is a possible school bomber who is threatening Veronica, and, of course, THAT KISS on the balcony. Oh, my! And in a later episode, his speech about how he doesn't feel guilty any more about moving on and their necking in the "out-of-order" girls' bathroom…
I admit it, I am a big Logan/Veronica shipper. There are hints of the attraction between them throughout the first season, even in the flashbacks to the past - for example, when during their Prom night ride Logan mentions having been attracted to Veronica when he first saw her.
The trust issues and the way both the characters have been damaged by things that have happened in the past bring more interest and tension to the relationship. Veronica can't help being suspicious of Logan and questions everything he does. She has been hurt really badly by her friends abandonment of her, Troy's duplicity early on in the season, and not knowing who raped her in Shelly Pomroy's party adds yet another layer to her inability completely trust anyone.
Notice how she constantly keeps stuff to herself from her father, from Wallace and from Logan. She also has to find out who gave her the GHB that made her act the way she did, who raped her, and what really happened during the party she can't remember. It doesn't help, of course, that during the final episodes of the season she suspects Logan of Lilly's murder and of betraying her trust.
On the other hand, Logan's expression after being arrested and making the phone call to Veronica asking her help, after which the sheriff comments that Veronica was the one who pointed the finger at him, is also very revealing. He has been yet again betrayed and hurt by a person he has committed to and who he thought he could trust. Just as Lilly and his parents betrayed him. And then finding out that it was his father who is the murderer, though that isn't shown during S1, must have a pretty severe effect on him and on the L/V relationship, however they might try to patch it up.
Looking back, one can see that there are a lot of hints to the real person who killed Lilly Kane, but the writers also successfully divert the watcher's attention from all the clues by throwing constant suspicion on the role of the Kane family in the murder and it's cover-up.
Lilly's attempts to gain her parents' attention by rebelling against them and constantly doing things she knew would antagonise them make it obvious that in her mind an affair with Aaron Echolls and then finding that he had taped them making love would be a major coup. Unfortunately, she obviously wasn't aware of his real personality. Aaron Echolls is fairly early on shown to be a psychotic, violent personality who cheats on his wife every chance he gets. He is also shown to be quite careful about his publicity and ready to do protect his family and his public image any way he can, even through violence.
It's hard to imagine what could happen in Season 2 that would have the same kind of intensity as the major story arc of the first season, but from the spoilers I have already stumbled upon, it looks like it might be as interesting as ever, revealing yet new sides to the show's characters. Unlike with Lost, I probably will start looking for episode descriptions and spoilers for VM, starting with looking through dangermousie VM musings :-).
In case someone doesn't know the series I'm talking about, Veronica Mars is a recent tv series that Subtv in Finland has started showing this Autumn. The heroine is a 17 year old girl who used to be one of the in-crowd (the "09ers"), but was shunned and abandoned by her former friends after her best friend Lilly Kane got murdered and her father, the then sheriff, accused Lilly's father of the murder. Her father was fired from his job and Veronica decided to support him rather than her friends.
In the series, Keith Mars, Veronica's father, has become a private detective. Veronica is still going to Neptune High, but is leading quite a different life from what it used to be. She is also working part-time in her father's agency, while also trying to find out who really murdered her best friend.
What I love about this series is that the characters have all these layers that are slowly revealed to the watchers as the season progresses. Veronica may look tough on the exterior - and actually she has been toughened up quite a bit since her 09er days, but inside she is vulnerable and has serious trust issues after what happened to her after Lilly's murder. Her father is still trying to solve the case and is trying to keep it a secret from his daughter. Weevil, the leader of the local biker gang is shown to have a great deal more depth than one would initially think, etc. etc.
I guess the only people who stay relatively the same throughout S1 are the new sheriff who starts out as a real bastard, and mostly keeps on being as obnoxious as ever, and Veronica's friend Wallace, who mostly stays on the loyal sidekick mode whatever happens.
A lot of the series revolves around Veronica's life - well, it is called Veronica Mars, after all, her cases and her relationships. Her past and present relationships are, of course, also central to the Lilly Kane murder. Her former boyfriend Duncan Kane is Lilly's brother, and Logan Echolls, the proverbial spoiled rich kid and Duncan's best friend, used to be Lilly's boyfriend. As the title song says, "We used to be friends", they all formed a tight group, but all of them abandoned Veronica after Lilly's death.
None of the above was really spoilery, because most of this is revealed during the pilot or the first couple of episodes of the series. The real spoiler stuff for later happenings in the series follows below. If you haven't seen all episodes of Season 1 and don't want to know what happens, including who murdered Lilly Kane, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER.
I don't understand what Veronica saw in Duncan. He is such a wooden and passive character, extremely boring. I don't know if it's the actor or how the character is written, but I see no spark between them. Of course, when it's revealed in the series that they might be siblings, that adds a bit of ickiness to the relationship as well, which stays on even though it's later revealed that Keith Mars really is Veronica's father.
Logan Echolls, on the other hand, initially seems like a prime spoiled brat, but is later on revealed to be a hurt and abused kid who hides his feelings beneath the role he plays. His father is a real bastard: the big movie star who does everything for his career, but cheats on his wife every chance he gets and takes out his frustrations on his defenseless child by beating him badly if he does something that might make his father or the family look bad.
The character has just been written so well and the actor playing Logan manages to show both sides of his character extremely well, so that one can't help being slowly wooed by his character. First he is shown as being beaten by his father in Episode 6, "Return of the Kane", and in the next episode, "The Girl Next Door", he demands his share of the blame when only Weevil is suspended from the school after the prank both he and Logan play on a strict teacher.
The storyline about Logan looking for his mother after her (supposed) suicide jump from the bridge and his breakdown after all hope is lost was really heartbreaking. It was also pretty revealing that the person he turned to for help with the matter was Veronica.
There is also his coming to Veronica's rescue in Ep. 18 "Weapons of Class Destruction" and beating up the guy he thinks is a possible school bomber who is threatening Veronica, and, of course, THAT KISS on the balcony. Oh, my! And in a later episode, his speech about how he doesn't feel guilty any more about moving on and their necking in the "out-of-order" girls' bathroom…
I admit it, I am a big Logan/Veronica shipper. There are hints of the attraction between them throughout the first season, even in the flashbacks to the past - for example, when during their Prom night ride Logan mentions having been attracted to Veronica when he first saw her.
The trust issues and the way both the characters have been damaged by things that have happened in the past bring more interest and tension to the relationship. Veronica can't help being suspicious of Logan and questions everything he does. She has been hurt really badly by her friends abandonment of her, Troy's duplicity early on in the season, and not knowing who raped her in Shelly Pomroy's party adds yet another layer to her inability completely trust anyone.
Notice how she constantly keeps stuff to herself from her father, from Wallace and from Logan. She also has to find out who gave her the GHB that made her act the way she did, who raped her, and what really happened during the party she can't remember. It doesn't help, of course, that during the final episodes of the season she suspects Logan of Lilly's murder and of betraying her trust.
On the other hand, Logan's expression after being arrested and making the phone call to Veronica asking her help, after which the sheriff comments that Veronica was the one who pointed the finger at him, is also very revealing. He has been yet again betrayed and hurt by a person he has committed to and who he thought he could trust. Just as Lilly and his parents betrayed him. And then finding out that it was his father who is the murderer, though that isn't shown during S1, must have a pretty severe effect on him and on the L/V relationship, however they might try to patch it up.
Looking back, one can see that there are a lot of hints to the real person who killed Lilly Kane, but the writers also successfully divert the watcher's attention from all the clues by throwing constant suspicion on the role of the Kane family in the murder and it's cover-up.
Lilly's attempts to gain her parents' attention by rebelling against them and constantly doing things she knew would antagonise them make it obvious that in her mind an affair with Aaron Echolls and then finding that he had taped them making love would be a major coup. Unfortunately, she obviously wasn't aware of his real personality. Aaron Echolls is fairly early on shown to be a psychotic, violent personality who cheats on his wife every chance he gets. He is also shown to be quite careful about his publicity and ready to do protect his family and his public image any way he can, even through violence.
It's hard to imagine what could happen in Season 2 that would have the same kind of intensity as the major story arc of the first season, but from the spoilers I have already stumbled upon, it looks like it might be as interesting as ever, revealing yet new sides to the show's characters. Unlike with Lost, I probably will start looking for episode descriptions and spoilers for VM, starting with looking through dangermousie VM musings :-).