Marathon #2: Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is the new love of my life. Not since Sydney Bristow have I found a female character written so well. I tend to think most of the girls on television are annoying/not cool/emotionally psychotic. Veronica certainly has her flaws, but they don't overpower all of the qualities that make her so admirable.

It's impossible to talk about this show without discussing the amazing relationship between Veronica and her dad. Their banter is hilarious and much like the way that Lorelai and Rory talk to each, except slower. (One of my favorite scenes is when Veronica walks in and her dad is sitting on the couch. She says something about how she comes home after a hard day's work to find him eating bonbons and reading Harper's Bazaar. When he fails to offer a witty quip in response, saying he's not in the mood, she says, "Amuse me, dammit! Amuse me now!") Their mutual love and respect is constant and evident by everything that they do. I'm not ashamed to admit- there were tears streaming down my face when Aaron Echolls had her locked in that box and her dad comes to rescue her. Aaron has poured gasoline all over the place, he and Keith fight each other, and Aaron sets the deck on fire. Veronica's screaming and crying, and her dad doesn't even hesitate: he walks through the flames to free her before collapsing. Even in the normal, everyday things like making dinner for each other, they are completely adorable.

I can't even talk about the ending without getting upset. It's one of the great injustices of the world (in the perspective of my t.v.-dominated life, of course) that Veronica Mars got canceled. It certainly hadn't run its course yet, and Rob Thomas/Kristen Bell/everyone else involved deserved so much better than the ending they had to make. I don't know what it would have been like if Season 4 were about Veronica in her first year at the F.B.I. with no more Wallace, Logan, et al, but I do know that I would have been willing to follow that show anywhere.

Favorite episodes include "Donut Run," "Mars, Bars," "My Mother, the Fiend," and "The Wrath of Con."


A great scene from Season 2