26 posts tagged “vmars”

Logan, Veronica and Keith have dinner.

Mac's in Bakersfield. Red Herring.... or convenient plot device? Now Veronica and Parker are having a bonding moment of both having been raped.

Uh oh.... Logan is running out of money.

"Youre not showing me porn are you?" Mmmmm... boxes of financial records. Even Veronica Mars may be hard-pressed to make this compelling.

Still can't used to this new slowed down version of "We Used To Be Friends."

W00t.... it's Laura San Giacomo. New love interest and indie film veteran. "I think my husband is having an affair."

First laugh out loud of the episode... the rape info-graphic.

Uh oh... Keith and Dick Casablancas are meeting? This can't end well. "Dick... why are you here?" "You get to be the spy who loved me."

"Why rape the cow when you're swimming in free milk?" Second laugh. Oh man. Now Veronica has access to Phi Sig (or whatever it's called).

 END ACT I

Now drinking beer. Smallville... I think it's about Superman.

Keith is calling Laura, er, Harmony. She seems nice, but possibly a bit crazy. Hmm... now something is happening. Lots of silver briefcasts. In TV-land that means crime.

"Bland is the new hot."

"I'm going to traffic court" "Sexy traffic court?"

Wow, she brought a whole 16" pizza. Now it's just sitting there, to prevent the continuityi problems of actually eating the pizza. If it were a movie, they would be eating it.

Ah, now she's eating. At the end of the scene, though.

Mmmm... more pizza. Is that a clue?

Veronica looks hilarious in her puce suit. She actually looks really good with her hair like that, though.

It's cool that they have an Asian who's a total ass.  Uh oh... a protest. Hearst College is like UC Santa Cruz only with not real, and on TV.

Look at Dick-no shirt and a cocktail during the middle of the day. My hero.

"He tells that one to all the new clients." Veronica freed a lobster-an Annie Hall reference?

Aaron's Kids is actually Aaron's Kidz. Note to self: never start a company where something is pluralalized with a Z--it sounds scammy.

END ACT TWO

So far I have no clue where this episode is going.

Fabio.. how old is he? Sixty? Good God.

Wow... laundry detergent as an aphrodisiac-that's a new marketing angle.

And that guy who's living out of his Sentra. You know what would be really cool? If he blogged about his experiences. Uh, oh yeah.

Ah, the cafateria. A popular location so far this season. Now Veronica is interogating one of the generic frat buys. And the Asian chick.

"Without even trying? God I'm good." Raper... more rape-related hilarity.

Another injured hand.... interesting.

Charlie Stone? Who's that? Down the rabbit hole.... his brother? Well, well, well. There's a twist. Whatever happened to Logan's sister? She needs to make an appearance this season.

END ACT III

He teaches at a private school in San Juan Capistrano.

Now Logan is calling him and leaving a message.

Parker is one angry chick. But I guess that's understandable.

Back to the B plot. You.... remember the B plot right?

Now for the money shot.

Ah, that explains the fucked up hands. Mousetraps in the grope room.

"Hi I was wondering-" "I'm not hiring." Most hilarious convenience clerk appearance since Kevin Smith. Oh man.. that scene just made the while episode.

Now Logan is meeting Charlie the Non-Surfer. A contributing member of society. So he is a surfer. I  have a bad feeling about this plotline. Too good to be true? A trap? Veronica will find out.

Hmmm... and there we go. Charlie Stone is not Charlie Stone. But is he still a surfer?

END ACT IV (OR III?)

And now... the surfing scene. "I'm nine years old and he's regifting me a fruit basket."

That's pretty fucked up.... the pear story. Veronica

"Please take a swing... that'll make a great lead." Oh man, the fact that Logan actually hit him is sweet.

Harmony asks a lot of questions.... she doesn't seem very confident. Would Keith be attracted to that? It seems her husband wasn't actually cheating on her. Thus... ???

"A monkey who has a friend at the bank can do it."'

So the Pi Sigs are absolved. Now Parker is pissed. Veronica is defending her pursuit of the truth.

Yay Big Lebowski references.... "In my world, the wicket don't get parting gifts."

Logan is sad. It's a tribute to the skill of Jason Dohring that you buy it, despite the endless implausibilitiers of this episode.

END EPISODE

Interesting episode. What was good: Logan, Dick Casablancas.

What was bad: the plotlines were sort of confusing and implausible. I probably need to watch it again.

What was dissapointing: Laura San Giacomo--her character was kind of annoying, and I didn't buy attraction between her and Keith. That plotline didn't really go anywhere, either--it seems like the sixth or seventh "It looks like infidelity but then it isn't" plotline on V-mars.

In general, it seems like Veronica Mars still hasn't hit its stride this season yet. The writing is sharp, but the rapist mystery is not that compelling, compared to "Who killed Lily Kane" or the bus crash.

It's official... Veronica Mars season 3 is ON! Rob Thomas emailed TV Guide to confirm. The renewal calls for 22 episodes, but it could be cut to 13 if ratings don't ramp up.

It will be really interesting to see how the show evolves in its third season. Aaron Echols, Woody Guffman and the Beav are no more. Duncan is in Australia. Logan and Veronica are back together, seemingly.

Who's going to be back

• Veronica (the show works better wither her on it)
• Keith (Head of Security at Hearst College?)
  
• Wallace (balling at Hearst College and by that I mean playing basketball witih a high degree of proficiency)
• Mac (apparently going to be signed as a regular)
• Logan (is he going to college?)
  
• Kendell Casablancas (seems like one of  the third year mysteries wil involve her)
• Sheriff Lamb (is Hearst College in his jurisdiction?)

Who's Not Coming Back

• Cassidy "The Beav" Casablancas (dead by his own hand)
• Haaron Echols (executed Sopranos-style)
• Woody Guffman (should have driven with Keith)
• Terrence Cook (seems like they exhausted the possibilities with that character, but who knows)
• Paris Hilton (God she sucks... double entendre intended)
• Lily Kane (I'm guessing the flashback in "Not Pictured" was our farewell to Neptune's Laura Palmer)
  

Fate is Unknown

• Gia (now one of many Neptune kids who's lost a parent-in fact, is there any kid in Neptune who has two parents who are still married?)
• Weevil (may end up in prison)
  
• Duncan (chillin' on the beach, but I bet he comes back in some context)
• Dick Casablancas (I (Heart) Dick)
  
• Deputy, er, Security Guard Leo
• Butters (still a student at Neptune High, but I'm sure Veronica will return there in some context)
• Wallace's mom
• Jackie (bet we'll see her at some point, with baby in tow)
• Hannah (can never have too many hot blondes)
• That Blonde Girl Wallace Dated For a While (see above)
• Meg's parents (what do you want to bet Veronica works it so they drop the kidnap charges)
• Troy Vandergraff (I actually don't mind him that much)
• Trina Echolls (more scenes with her and Kendell)
• Veronica's mom (quite absent during season 2... but I'll bet Rob Thomas can think of a good non-melodramatic pllotline involving her)
  

I've probably forgotten some people. Please share your thoughts using Comet's much vaunted "Comments" feature (soon to support styled text? One can only hope.)

Tonight i finally got to see the Veronica Mars season 2 finale Not Pictured again. So here is my review.

What I loved in this episode

i) Keith giving Veronica a pep talk after the Aaron Echolls acquittal-but then being unable to to stay away from the newspaper himself.

ii) the camera pulling back to reveal Vinny in a cell. "I'm the 60 by the way."

iii) the dream sequence. No, the dream sequence! Veronica's visit of what her life would have been like if Lily hadn't been killed. Veronica: just as witty, but more superficial. And not nearly as good a student, sinced she's going to San Diego State. And gullible. Wallace: "Oh... you're one of those." Seeing Amanda Seyfreid as Lily again. Probably for the last time, but you never know.

iv) Woody's alias at the hunting lodge: "Mr. Underhill." That's the alias Frodo assumes when he leaves the Shire at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Rings.

v) seeing Wallace's mom again. Whatever happened to her? I liked her

vi) "Close your eyes and think of England." Might be funniest line ever on V-mars and that's saying a lot.

vii) Veronica getting cheered at graduation. "Don't keep all your passwords under your stapler."

viii) "up... chuck?" If they don't find a way to fit Dick Casablancas into next season I'm going to be very pissed.

ix) Jackie's mom. Gotta love the cliche tough brooklyn mom.

x) Logan and Aaron's heartcolding reunion.

xi) Woody watching the Dukes of Hazzard. Then throwing the staghead at Keith. Keith showing he's just as handy with the taser as Veronica-maybe more so.

xii) Veronica seeing the fatal words "Not Pictured" and her moment of dark epiphany. The use of the chain of transmission of venereal disease as a major clue. Has that been done before?

xiii) "it's liquid... it's courage... it's liquid courage"

xiv) Corky's moment of glory: "that sleazoid's going to fry... bzzzty" Another character who needs to end up at "Hearst College."

xv) Mac comforting Beaver.

xvi) Veronica and Aaron riding in the elevator together. Veronica not losing it, or even reacting, to Aaron's taunting... just looking at him in the eye.

xvii) Kristin Bell's acting during the rooftop sequence. She did a good job with a scene that was filled with both exposition and potential histrionics.

xviii) Logan stopping Veronica from shooting Beaver. "You are not a killer, Veronica." 

"My name is Cassidy." Logan using his real name for the first time. Being unable to answer why not. The song that played over that moment.

xix) Mac's look of utter devestation.

xx)  "Any more freedoming tonight and i'm going to need a wheelchair." You know, I don't actually hate Kendell Casablancas. She's kind of an epic character. Aaron's last moment on earth, spent watching a younger version of himself. A narccisist to his last. "CW?" "It's a done deal."

xxi) the little girl they found to play Veronica. Absolutely perfect.

xxii)  Kendell ending up with $8mm and change.

xxiii) Veronica's description of how Logan is taking his father's death. "I didn't know you could come out during the day." Keith being tempted by what Kendell had in the briefcast.

xxiv) the strange closing shot... Veronica getting stood up by her dad. What does that portend?  

One not-so-great thing

i) Glaring plothole; if Keith changed his plans wouldn't he have tried to call Veronica and let her know? Maybe his cel phone ran out of juice. Maybe it's part of next season's mystery. Maybe it's just a reminder that, in the end, it's a TV show written in a tremendous hurry and not everything is going to make 100% sense.

All in all, that held up to the standard set by season 2. a season that, if not quite matching up to the emotional intensity of season 1, more than matched it in plot complexity and glorious characterization.

Some more random thoughts

Last season Veronica was rescued by her father. This season it was Logan. I kind of like the fact that Veronica is not a butt-kicker. Yes, it means she's always depending on men to bail her out in the end.

Given the "CW? It's a done deal" exchange and the setting up of season 3 (which they didn't do last season) it seems like Rob Thomas is pretty confident they're coming back. Either that or he's one cocky motherfucker. We'll find out for sure on Thursday.

I don't even know where to begin with "Not Pictured." It was like a season's worth of plot in 41 minutes. I think I'm going to need to watch it at least three more time before I could say anything intelligent about it.

Hercules at Ain't It Cool News gave it five out of five stars and said the second season of Veronica Mars "will stand as one of the most successful and complex season-long stories ever to grace a cathode-ray tube."

In honor of Veronica Mars's season finale, "Not Pictured," TV Guide has an interview with V-mars show-runner Rob Thomas .

I particuarly liked his answer to a question about something which had bothered me-at the end of "Donut Run", it seems like Veronica and her father have had a serious falling out, but it was never followed up in the next few episodes. Displaying some very admirable humility, Rob Thomas replied:

In truth, I think we underplayed the Keith-Veronica riff in the aftermath of "Donut Run." I'm sure everyone is aware that by the time we cut together an episode, the next three episodes are already written and are prepping or shooting. I don't think I was quite prepared for how powerful that moment would be. It's the curse of working with really good actors. After we filmed the scene and cut it together, I realized that we'd kind of already blown the aftermath. I think we had a similar problem after Episode 20 ["Look Who's Stalking"] — the final Logan-/Veronica scene begged some fallout in Episode 21 that we really didn't have in the script. We live. We learn. We try to do better.

High points of this episode:

i) Aaron Echols testifying.

ii) Veronica Mars trying to study, and getting nowhere.

iii) the security guard taking out the crazy janitor guy (whose name I can't remember... but who was bout to tell Keith Woody Guffman's secret. Oh, wait his name is Lucky... thus the title of the episode.)

iv) "Nobody like a blonde in a hamster ball."

v) Keith Mars giving a not completely inaccurate description of the way email works.

vi) Jackie in pigtails.

vii) Logan's expression when he gives his dad a little wave after he refuses to lie about the sex tape.

viii) The Beav's friend-I'm not sure what was going on with him and Veronica but I still loved seeing it.

viii) Gia being on MySpace, and worrying that she now has only "nine-hundred and ninety friends."

ix) Woody Guffman: "Are you as smart as you think you are?" "It's all that squinting... it can be good for you."

x) the clymydia coming up as a major plot point.

xi) Mr. Lobo seeing a documentary about Sharks and suddenly remembering

xii) the Beav teaching algebra to Weevil-and Mac stepping in to do the job right.

xiii) "I thought it was an affectation."

xiv) Keith losing it during the trial after warning Veronica about the lawyer's getting to her.

xv) Keith being unhappy with Veronica, but then getting so caught up in solving the mystery that he forgets about it.

xvi) Wallace saying "it was worth getting taped to a pole."

xvii) Not guilty on all counts.  Veronicaa's expression.

Holy crap. What's going to happen next week? Obviously, it seems like Woody did everything. So obviously there must a twist...

In the previews we see Mac looking devestated, and Duncan on a beach. Hmmm... how will Duncan fit into all this?

Only one episode left. Maybe forever, though right now it's looking pretty good for a season three renewal.

According to UPN:

When Gia is convinced she's being stalked, Veronica takes the case despite her dad's orders not to get involved because he believes Woody (guest star Steve Guttenberg) might be up to something, but what she discovers not only shocks both girls, but leads to further questions...

Gia is a cool character we haven't seen enough this season, so I'm glad to see she's getting her moment in the splotlight.

Only three episodes left in season two!

buttocks? Not sure I understand the title, but other than that, this was yet another strong entry in the Veronica Mars canon. After wobbling around mid-season with all that Duncan/Meg/baby giznank, the show is back on track and barreling down the tracks towards its May 9th season 2 finale like a locomotive on the proverbial steroids.

What I really liked about this episode:

i) Butters returns! I don't know why, but I love this guy. It's hard being the principal's kid, and Butters handles it... not well at all. I think that's why I like him... in a normal show he would be disliked generally but then Veronica would get to know him and he would turn out to be an okay guy. In Veronicaland, though, he turns out to be an icky creep. So awesome.
ii) Kendell and the Fitzpatricks working together? I probably should have seen that coming-but I didn't.
iii) Weevil saving his old gang, and then walking away from them. That really surprised me.
iv) Veronica saving her dad's life by taking the bullets out of the gun, and the under-stated, unspoken way each acknowledged that fact. Unlike movies, TV shows are all about small moments. David Chase understands that, and so does Rob Thomas.
v) the way the episode ended. Really caught me by surprise when the credit flashes. In general this episode seemed to just zoom by.

vi) the Fitzpatricks in general. I like these guys as villains. They seem, oddly, quite realistic to me (with my very limited experience of thuggery) crafty but basically dumb.

vii) the overweight kid breaking into tears in one scene, then calmly hitting bulls-eye after bulls-eye while talking to Veronica.

viii) Mac's reaction when she realizes that Veronica sold her out to Butters. "Your wish is my shift-command." Mac flirting ever-so-subtly witih Keith to get at Veronica.

Things that weren't awesome but not bad either:

i) the whole Wallace and Jackie thing. I guess in a high school show you need plotlines like this. And you know what? It's done pretty well. It's just that in contrast to how innovative the rest of the show is, those scenes bring one back to earth and remind you that you are watching a Network Television Show. I'm kind of anticating some major bitchage from Jackie before the season is out though.

ii) not too much Logan. I've realized that there are two relatioships that really drive the show: Veronica and her dad (which provides a lot of the heart) and Veronica and Logan (which provides the tension and the well, anti-heart I guess you could say.)

It's interesting how they're raising doubts about the resolution of season 1. On the one hand, it's intriguing, but on the other... the conclusion of season 2 was so kick-ass that I hate to see it muddled now. It's really hard to understand why, if Aaron Echols didn't kill Lily, why he went apesh** on Veronica and tried to kill her. Was he really that afraid of a statuatory rape conviction? I mean, she was sixteen and the tapes clearly indicated it was consensual. Someone who can afford a good lawyer isn't going to go to jail for that. Maybe he was on speed, or something (like OJ) some state of mind where he couldn't make a rational calculation.

Right now Kendell is being built up as the possible mastermind. I'm going to have to assume that his is a red herring, given that there are three episodes left.

Only four left in season two! NeptuneSite has official UPN press release descriptions of the next three on their Veronica Mars spoilers page . As you might guess from the page title, if you don't want to get spoiled, don't look at the page. It looks like Veronica and friends are in for some interesting times in the weeks ahead as they had toward that most magical of times, senior prom. Unless...

PS I am also extremely psyched that Butters is making a return appearance. Butters is both my favorite character on South Park and on Veronica Mars.

Another ass-kicking top shelf episode. Dream sequences and flashbacks can sometimes be narrative deaths, but they worked well in this episode. It actually reminded me of one of those Sopranos episodes where Tony subconscious tries to warn him through his dreams. I think they work because instead of representing mere narrative laziness, they allowed us to (re)connect with the bus crash victims as actual people, and, like in Sopranos, the dreams served as a visual representation of Veronica's subconscious as it grinds through all of the clues and possible solutions.

Another highlight of this episode was Enrico Colontabalani's comic acting. His reactions to the women he was going on the blind dates with was priceless. It was never really revealed exaxctly why he had to go on these blind dates-something to do with finding out who was handing out bogus anxiety disorder diagnoses. It's a tribute to the wit and charm of the show that these sorts of holes only surface later when one is thinking (or blogging, which is like a web 2.0 version of thinking) about it, not while the episode is unfolding in front of you.

Another highlight was the Logan-Wallace plotline, too. I like the fact that they weave in class assignments. Does the fact that they were studying how to keep something from breaking after falling a great distance have anything to do with the bus crash? After all, Meg was carrying a baby (like an egg) and she was the one who lived.

There was so much going on in this episode I can't even begin to get into it. This recap might be helpful. Also TelevisionWithouttPity does a great job with Veronica Mars, with their recaps and forums.

Interesting sidenote: the similarity of this episode's title "I am God" and a previous one that also revealed something about the bus crash: "Rat Saw God." Who is/was the rat? As we all know from watching the Sopranos, stuffing a rat in someone's mouth after you shoot them means the person betrayed the gang. Who on the bus betrayed the Fitzpatricks? (Assuming Irish mobsters have similar customs to Italian.)

My new theory: Kendell Casablancas is behind everything. She has the motive, the means and the opportunity. Or it was her and someone else, and there was a double-cross, and that's why at the last minute the 09ers were saved. Who was she in league with? Either Haaron Echols or Woody Guffman. Or Weevil? But at the last minute, he had second thoughts about sending Veronica to her death (after all she was always cool to him in her own Old Testament way) and that's why he suddenly showed up to offer her a ride?