Veronica Mars

I first remember hearing about Veronica Mars on TVLine’s renewal scorecard page. The show popped up on my radar a few other times over the next months. I noticed it on the resume of several Whedonverse alums, particularly Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia on Buffy and Angel) and Alyson Hannigan (Willow on Buffy and Lily on How I Met Your Mother).

But it wasn’t until I read somewhere that the humor and dialogue on the show was very similar to Buffy that I knew I had to try it out. I had just completed my goal of watching every episode of every Joss Whedon show, and I needed something to fill that particularly quirky niche. And I was delighted to find out that Netflix had all three seasons of Veronica Mars on watch instantly. (Unfortunately that's no longer the case, but you can buy the DVDs from Amazon at a reasonable price.)

The sassy nature of the show captured my interest immediately. But then the show continued to unfold new layers, and I knew I’d stumbled across something special.

On the surface, it’s a show about a saucy blonde going to high school in southern California (ditto for Buffy).

On an episodic level, Veronica’s dad is a private investigator, she helps him out with cases, and she finds some of her own (modern take on Nancy Drew).

Then the show delves into her character backstory. Less than a year before the show’s start, Veronica was dating Duncan Kane and was a part of his group of friends. Now she’s forced to keep seeing them at school, and they alternately ignore or belittle her. This ties into the show’s theme song, “We Used to be Friends.”

And then we find out Duncan’s sister Lilly, Veronica’s best friend, was murdered the previous October. At the time, Veronica’s father was sheriff, and pursued Duncan and Lily’s father as his chief suspect. Mr. Kane – rich, powerful, and beloved in the community – told the media and Keith Mars was ousted as sheriff. Veronica’s mom left town.

If that wasn’t enough, we find out that things don’t add up with Lilly’s murder. And Veronica’s mother may have had an ulterior motive for leaving town.

And that was only five episodes into the show!

Kristen Bell does an excellent job playing the various facets of Veronica. She can switch from pensive to spunky to flirty and back again easily. And while Veronica has plenty of Buffy-like sass, she also has Willow’s brains. Percy Daggs III plays Wallace, a Xander-like companion I hope the writers will give more to do in future episodes. Teddy Dunn plays the brooding Duncan Kane well, and keeps reminding me of a young Shane West.

There’s a special feeling of sadness you get when you watch the last episode of a favorite show you already know has been canceled. It’s heightened when it’s been several years since the cancellation and you know there’s no chance of another network picking it up, and when it’s not just a rookie show but you’ve had several seasons to fall in love with the characters. Veronica Mars has both.

Of course, I willingly began watching the show knowing it had been canceled before its time. But I figured the third season would have to be not so great for them the CW to cancel it, and I would be glad the show hadn’t fallen into complete mediocrity before saying goodbye. But season three was great. Perhaps not as gripping as the first two, but that was the fault of exchanging season-long story arcs for shorter ones.

I personally blame the third season intro credits. Instead of sassy and fun with poignant undertones like the previous ones, they stripped down the theme song into an echo of its former self and kept only the poignantness with sepia tones and serious looks.

Since I watched the entire show in less than three weeks, the untimely end hit especially hard. After new, witty, endearing episodes an average of three times a day for weeks straight, it’s depressing to think that I will never again watch a new episode of Veronica Mars.

Now does anyone know of another show that matches this one with crisp dialogue and complexity? I could use something new and awesome to get me over these canceled show blues. In the meantime, I wonder if there’s any Veronica Mars fan fiction. Or comics.