Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE EIGHT 'Ahoy, Mateys!' (2005)

Yep...sometimes Kristen Bell is dressed like this in
my dreams, too.

" Did Duncan go to bed?”
“Yes. And he wanted me to tell you to give me your undivided attention. Pretend for a moment that your dog's life is at stake.."

1) And here is where Alona Tal’s Meg officially becomes this season’s Lily Kane thanks to a pair of dreams experienced by Teddy Dunn’s Duncan.  While it’s always refreshing to have Tal back (not to mention seeing Kristen Bell tarted up as a bad girl in the first dream sequence), she doesn’t have the...enthusiasm for this role that Amanda Seyfried did.

2) During the round of interviews I did in support of Veronica Mars (One does not get the reputation as the biggest Veronica Mars fan on the block and expect not to have a slew of podcasts asking you about that movie) I referred to Francis Capra’s Weevil as Hawk to Veronica’s Parker, and here is where that transformation begins.  Spurred on by indications that the PCH’ers are doing things that are against his own code, Weevil starts his own investigation....no matter how that investigation is infused by his own outlaw instincts.

3) We’re in week three of the Wallace Drought...so thank God Tina Majorino’s Mac finally steps into the Watson role.  Mac’s high-tech, slightly mercenary attitude provides a wonderful contrast to Wallace--and given the nature of the done-in-one plot, her techy background makes her fit more than Wallace.  That being said....

Ahhh, Ms. Mackenzie....you were sorely missed....

4) You’ll notice that the done-in-ones become much more sketchy much earlier in the season.  Unlike the first season, where the overarc was allowed to develop in its own sweet time, there are so many plot threads that need developing that each episode has a diluted feel.  This season is one that has a desperate need of a focus.

5) Of course, one of the other problems with this episode is how the script by John Enbom and Cathy Belben can’t decide what the main angle of the mystery is.  Both Keith and Veronica have paths into this mystery, but they end up with different conclusion.  It’s almost as if there are two mysteries independent of each other.

6) One of the things that I think makes Kristen Bell the perfect actress to play Veronica is how she is convincing both as a bad ass and as a scared little girl....and if you don’t believe me, check out how Bell turns on a dime when she realizes she is face to face with Rod Rowland’s Liam Fitzpatrick.  Her breakdown feels so legitimate, it emphasized how scary the Fitzpatricks are...

7) Once again, we have a very, very subtle foreshadowing reference to the overarc--one that literally passes you by until we get to the last episode.  As much as this episode is lukewarm...bravo, writers.  Bravo.

When Plastic Surgeons Attack...Next Time On Jerry!

8) It nice that, just as with Season One, there are efforts to create a viable universe where characters drift in and out of the story.  In this one, Duane Daniel’s Van Clemmons’ son shows up in a slightly less minor role that dovetails into the main mystery.

9) One of the things that I always appreciated is how the series never forgets its noir roots...and it does in this episode when our bad guy is glad that he hurt the Oliveras family.  That sort of viciousness is so at odds with the usual teen drama structure.

10) Conversely, I appreciate how Keith handles what he learns about the lengths David Barrera’s Carlos will go to in regards to his court case.  This moment is also very indicative of how Rob Thomas is insistent on keeping the series anchored in a hardboiled tradition, where everything is shade of grey and not black and white.

Overall...unlike the previous episode, where the final act serves to conceal the cluttered nature of the plot, this one is all over the place and remains all over the place, tripping over all its subplots as it feels around in the dark for a direction.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE SEVEN 'Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner' (2005)

"Duncan, I know Wallace Fennel...and you are no Wallace
Fennel."

" A ten year-old boy who voluntarily washes his hands, who enjoys quiet time, and does what he's told with a smile. If he doesn't pick his nose soon, I'm looking for wires."

1) While there is some lip service given to there being a done-in-one plot, this is really Diane Ruggiero setting up a whole slew of threads for the second act of this season’s mystery.  And it’s to her credit that some of these thread set ups are very, very subtle.

2) And that done-in-one is a Trojan Horse that advances Duncan’s subplot while foreshadowing the reintroduction of Alona Tal’s Meg, and her ultimate role as this season’s Lilly Kane stand-in.  And, quite frankly, the final reveal is truly shocking.

3) This may be the only time that Michael Muhney’s Sheriff Lamb acts like a human being.  After a healthy dollop of comic relief, Lamb actually acts like a sheriff when confronted with what Veronica and Duncan discover.  It’s a rare moment that gives this otherwise one dimensional character a little nuance.

4) While I understand that at this phase of the Kendall Casablancas’ character arc, she’s serving as the lead up to the Fitzpatrick subplot (more on this in later episodes), but too much is spent on her striving to stay a woman of leisure in light of her husband’s disappearance.  Now maybe some of this is my feeling that a little Charisma Carpenter goes a long way, but I could really do without her taking up so much running time.  On top of that, there’s that weird little grace note that seems designed to throw doubt into the Veronica/Duncan storyline that I don’t recall going anywhere.

This scene is the one that almost makes
it worthwhile.

5) Boy, Krysten Ritter is a touch broad at this phase in her career.  I gather that Gia is supposed to be a spoiled rich girl trying to hard to fit in and become part of the Cool Clique, but her forced cherriness and cluelessness seems too forced.  Even though she gets much, much better in the years following her one year tenure here but at this moment...Yikes!

6) I am still amazed at how subtle some of the clues as to the solution of the season mystery is.  There’s a single line of dialogue from the person who turns out to be the villain, and its not until you’ve seen the mystery play out that you realize he’s trying to escape the scene of the crime.

7) It strikes me that there’s what I assume to be a conscious parallel between a scene with Steve Guttenberg’s Wally Goodman an his son and the scene in season one where Logan enters The Belt Room.  What it says about Goodman speaks volumes once we realize the skeleton in his closet.

8) This is the beginning of the Dr. Thomas Griffith subplot.  Maybe it’s because Rick Peters isn’t that great of an actor; maybe it’s because I know how this storyline goes nowhere...but it turns out to be really, really awful.

Not the picture I would draw of Kristen Bell, to be honest.

9) You know, I would not have known that was supposed to be Amanda Noret’s Madison Sinclair at Gia’s pajama party landing zings against Veronica if it wasn't for the closing credits.  Given how massive an influence Madison has in Veronica Mars mythology (so much so that the movie goes out of its way to give us a scene of Veronica slugging her), making her appearance in this episode so generic is puzzling.

10) In this episode, there is an attempt to make Duncan into a Wallace Manque....and Teddy Dunn thoroughly fails to live up to the task.  His lameness in Watsoning Veronica only makes one yearn for Percy Daggs all the more.

Overall...the final third almost makes up for the scattershot nature of the rest of the episode, as the episode tries too much to cover all its bases.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE TWENTY-TWO 'A TRIP TO THE DENTIST' (2006)

This is the aftermath to the most devestating scenes of
Season One...

"What did you realize was so bad? What did you do?"

"I slept with you!"

"But it was consensual, right?"

"Yes."

"Then what about it was so wrong?"

"CAUSE YOU'RE MY SISTER! And I knew it."

1) This episode and the next effectively act as a single, long season finale. As such, this episode goes at a fairly fast clip. Just look at how many threads get touched upon or tied up in the pre-title sequence--the Missing Duncan plot, a brief reminder that Weevil is back in play as a suspect, a general tightening of tension across the cast--all to keep this Rock o' Revelation rolling down the hill.

Yes, the big solution is coming up...but that doesn't stop
Rob Thomas from continuing to keep us suspecting his
suspects...

2) ...and since this is the finale of this season (and, I suspect, the show in Rob Thomas' mind, as the ratings were iffy at best), we get to do a little tour of some of the more memorable characters of season one. Of course, it's to the credit of writer Diane Ruggerio that she chooses only those character that make sense for Veronica to approach--so we see Alona Tal's Meg, Jonathan Bennett's Casey, Sam Huntington's Luke, Leighton Meister's Carrie and...most importantly...Amanda Noret's Madison Sinclair. Sinclair and Meg will be back next season, but some of these others get fitting farewells.

3) There is a scene between Bell and Colantoni at roughly the ten minute mark that changes the tenor of the Veronica/Keith relationship...and what I like about it is how it's done in a very even, quiet way--and yet there are blows landed, blows that hurt. I have frequently praised the chemistry between these two, and this is another magnificent example.

4) Here's something, though, that I find kind of funny...even though, as we'll see, Thomas and co. were assuming this was the show's one and only season, that doesn't stop Ruggerio from planting seeds that will grow into the central mystery of Season Two...that conversation between Veronica and Cassidy may just be another rung of the ladder to solving one of the two major mysteries of this season now, but wait until next year's revelations, where this scene is put into an entirely new light.

5) It is interesting how, even though the episode's flashback more or less create a linear narrative, Ruggerio still creates a sort of Teen Beat version of Rashoman with some of the fiddly bits--but then, an argument could be made that one of the discrepencies shores up my theory that Thomas had the ultimate role one of the characters takes in Season Two in mind right from his inception, and this little lie in his account is an indicator that he is Someone Not To Be Trusted.



Lo, look upon the Face of Vengenace and despair...



6) And the big narrative flashback chain comes down to this brutal scene--Veronica outside Duncan's house, confronting him and having to deal with the horrible truth...that it wasn't rape, it wasn't a crime, but the extenuating circumstances have turned it into a godawful memory for the both of them. If you took this scene out of sunny San Diego and plunked them down in some black-and-white film from the 40's, you'd have prime film noir, and both Bell and Dunn rise to the occasion. It's one of my favorite scene in this season for just how gut-wrenchingly nasty it gets.

7) And from that we go to this sweet, nice little scene that drives home the friendship between Veronica and Wallace...and sets up one of the big cliffhangers down the road. There is a sense of Wallace's character arc reaching some sort of closure (after all, the next episode is pretty much a three hander) and allows Percy Dagg to shine for a moment.

8) I find it fascinating how, even as we close in on the Big Revelation of Lily's Killer, Ruggerio manages to plant a little seed of misdirection, giving Duncan a big spazz-out moment to remind us why he's been a suspect all season.

9) The sequence where Veronica discovers the secret recording set-up is truly creepy, taking advantage of the multiple viewpoints and switch from film-look video to the cheap, grainier video of the VCR to drive home the ickiness of the discovery.

10) And here's the one development that I think falls a bit flat--namely, the final scene appearance of Lianne Mars as the cliffhanger. After all the high emotional scenes and the whirlwind race to resolve the rape storyline, having Corrine Bohrer pop up just seems...anticlimatic.

Overall...a cliffhanger that falls flat aside, there are some truly amazing scenes which show the supporting cast for the top notch thespians they are...and this is just the beginning of the high-powered suspense we're about to get into.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE EIGHTTEEN 'Weapons of Class Destruction' (2006)

Yes, yes, this is the one..you can calm down now.

"Dear Seventeen Magazine, how can I tell if the super-cute boy in my class likes me? No, scratch that....Dear Seventeen, how can I tell if the super-cute boy in my class killed his own sister?"

1) This and the next couple of episodes, in keeping with the tying up loose ends before the climax idea, comprise a little mini-arc involving Keith's dating of Wallace's mom (a returning Erica Gimpel), and the return of Lianne Mars. This is the strength of this very, very weak--dare I call it bad--episode.

2) Joey Lauren Adams, she of the lil' girl voice in the early Kevin Smith movies, suddenly makes her only appearance as Geena Stafford, the new faculty advisor of the school newspaper. This is pretty much a clear indication that Sydney Tamiia Portier was not coming back, as her character is never mentioned again. And after this episode, neither is Adams'.

3) I've sung the praises of Duane Daniels' Mr. Clemmons before, and I'm going to again--while he may be an impediment to Veronica in the A plot, the beauty of Jed Seidel's script is that there's a grain of truth in what he's saying...namely, he does have an obligation to protect the student body that Veronica and Ms. Stafford interfered with. Daniels continues to add more and more nuance to what could have been a cardboard character, a process that will culminate in an excellent episode down the line.

"And I learned this trick from watching Jackie Chan movies."

4) What's not excellent is the performance of Jonathan Taylor Thomas. He is thoroughly unconvincing throughout--the man seems to feel the best way to sound sinister is to channel his inner Christian Slater channeling his inner Jack Nicholson--and because the effectiveness of the A Plot rests on him, the A Plot fails.

5) And its doubly aggravating because it takes away from the performance of Theo Rossi as Norris. Rossi manages to create a very three dimensional character from what could have been a stereotypical thug. He allows us to see a bit of his inner life, and his true nature during his interactions with Veronica.

6) There is a scene at roughly the twenty-one minute mark between Veronica and Duncan that acts as a showcase for Teddy Dunn; he goes through a number of emotions, and what's even more amazing is what his body language tells us he's really thinking.

Mr. Taylor Thomas, you're sending this episode down that
toilet....

7) But you don't want to know about all this stuff...you want to know about The Kiss. Yes, what Rob Thomas and his room of writers have been leading up to finally goes off with Logan and Veronica's first kiss. I remember how shocked I was at seeing this moment when I viewed the episode for the first time, and it continues to have a sort of impulsiveness even now after five years. But then, pulling the trigger on their relationship is vital to getting Veronica in position in the coming episodes to put the pieces together.

8) The one thing that puzzles me about the A Plot--besides why we had to put up with Jonathan Taylor Thomas' cliched performance--is that it's established very clearly that Norris' bullying stopped around Junior High School. We never quite learn why, however, which is doubly puzzling given that the ultimate reason why Norris was set up ties in with his history of bullying. I suspect that Seidel's reference to Norris' father giving him an incentive to keep up his grades with a tour of Japan has something to do with it, but it's only a fleeting reference. Usually I'm not that worried about dangling plot threads, but here it bugs me.

9) I sort of wish the tension between Veronica and Wallace over their parents' romance had extended beyond a couple of act. It just seems like there was a wealth of quipping and interactions that goes to waste after they get all chummy again....

10) As corny as it is, I still rather like how Veronica takes up the just fired Ms. Stafford's mantle in the moments after she exits the journalism room.

Overall...the real good moments in the overarc aside, this is a pretty poor A plot built around an atrocious performance by a failed child actor. Try to suffer through the bull and focus on the few good moments...and try not to realize that an even worse episode is coming up next time.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE TEN 'An Ecchols Family Christmas' (2004)

This may be a Christmas episode--but it's not one fulla cheer....

"Annoy, tiny blonde one. Annoy like the wind."

1) How can you not love an episode (and I love this episode--it's one of my all-time favorites, and arguably my favorite of the first season) that begins with a riff on my favorite number from my favorite Christmas Special, The Year Without A Santa Claus? Keith Mars loves the Miser Brothers, thus he is empirically proven to be a good guy.

2) Diane Ruggerio's script cleverly gives Veronica multiple incentives to take on this week's case-within-the-episode..and also gives her reason to interact with many of the supporting cast to a degree she hasn't before. This is a good thing because....

3) Francis Capra, Teddy Dunn and Jason Dohring are waaaay at the top of their game. They've got the rhythm of the show down dead, and engage in these great back-and-forths full of wonderful lines. Hell, the line I use as the header, which is Dohring's, ranks as one of my favorite lines in the series ever.

There's a good reason these 09'ers ultimately opted out of
rushing for Weevil's budding fraternity....

4) This is prolly the most we see of Lisa Rinna as Lynn Ecchols...and she's actually extremely good. I like how, even before she kinda, sorta apologizes to Keith for not staying in touch, you get the sense that this woman, of all the '09'er parents, is the one person who didn't resent him for doing what he did, who genuinely liked him and still does. Pity she's not much longer for this series.

5) Compare Lynn's interaction with Keith to the way Harry Hamlin's Aaron deals with him...yes, on the surface Aaron is just as warm and friendly as his wife...and yet, there's a sense of panic to the way he guides him to the door, a strange undercurrent of discomfort in his voice. Ladies and gentlemen, you have encountered your first clue in the overarc...and I doubt any of you realize that it was presented to you.

6) Emmanuelle Vaugier is in this as one of the women who is suspected of being Aaron's stalker. As always, she's not that great an actress, but...Emmanuelle Vaugier.

Yes.  I think she's hot.  Deal.

7) Since Veronica's case is more of a standard drawing room mystery, I love how Ruggerio ends up revealing the solution in her version of an Agatha Christie last act, with our heroine bearding the (not very convincing) villain in the scene of the crime. And since the Ecchols Family Christmas Party is going on at the same time....

8) The scene toward the end where Veronica confronts Jake Kane is something else--just as much for Kyle Secor's acting as for Bell's. There's obvious confusion in the way both of these people are interacting, and the way they get even more frustrated in the mass of accusations is magnificent. It's to Secor's credit that when he practically screams 'I don't know,' you believe him...and it's to Bell's credit that when she retorts 'I don't believe you'...you suspect she might believe him a little as well. This, and the little exchange with Celeste that follows, is another indication that Jake Kane is far from a one-dimensional monster....

The beautiful thing about this scene is that things end up
bloody and unpleasant for all three of these people given time...

9) There is a sense of profane beauty to the way the Stalker storyline resolves...but a beauty that is intentionally artifical. And the fact that the stalker turns out to be literally a nobody, someone who walks on at the last minute to stab Aaron...well, let's say we've just been handed another clue we won't even know we had until the end of this season.

10) If there is one sour note, it is the overtly affected performance by Kevin Sheridan as Sean Friedrich. It's so arch, so mannered that it's hard not to think he's the villain in Veronica's subplot.

Overall...as I said, this is one of my favorite episode--not just because it is fun and exciting, not just because it shows most of the cast at the top of their game, but because during this forty-some-odd minutes we learn a lot about a lot of these characters in their behavior and interaction with each other....and in the course of these interaction, learn some things we don't realize we learn until the resolution of this season's mystery has shaken out.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE THREE 'Meet John Smith' (2004)

One of the moments that truly define this as A Show That Will
Be Whatever It Wants To Be, Damnit

 

1) Even though there is a mystery to solve here, the real focus of this episode is Duncan Kane, Veronica's ex and his flirtation with not taking his anti-depressants. Teddy Dunn is usually an average actor--but here he rises to the occasion, peeling away layers of Duncan until we see the boy Veronica used to see. It's a great performance.

2) Another introduction here--namely, Paula Marshall's Rebecca James. Rebecca is the first of a number of attempts to give Keith Mars something of a romantic interest, and Marshall is her usual girl-next-door hot self. Sadly, she's only around for a few episodes...as she does seem to have a nice chemistry with Enrico Colantoni. Oh...and her presence here should act as proof that she is not an automatic series-killer.

3) Another reason I'm absolutely in love with Kristen Bell, and why it galls me so much that she's stuck in Rom-Com Hell? Her body language. Take a look at this episode, and how she conveys so much with a smile, a tilt of the head, a sudden pull back. She's so in command of how to commicate non-verbally that it makes the moment where director Harry Winer uses some optical tricks to convey a moment of Veronica emo-ness feel forced.

"Wait, wait...in this episode I'm playing WHAT, exactly?"

4) I wonder what Melissa Leo feels when she looks back at this episode given how the fact she was cast as Julia Smith reflects on her.

5) You know...every time Veronica shows up in what I like to call her 'work clothes,' it makes me even more convinced that she would be the perfect inheritor of Anne Francis' mantle whenever a reboot of Honey West is proposed.

6) Once more, Rob Thomas shows how much he understands the film noir meme with which he is working. The mystery here is one that is uncovered as the results of another investigation...and manages to shed new light on our heroine and her emotional state.

7) And here, at the 32:39 minute mark, Jed Seidel's script pulls Veronica Mars away from being just another teen mystery series and situates itself firmly in the crossroads between suspense, horror and fantasy. Amanda Seyfried, from this moment on, steps out of the flashbacks to become something that's one part ghost, one part muse...and could very well be just some weird consensual hallucination. But she lives the part, and makes sure we're never quite comfortable when we visit Neptune from now on.

When Bell puts on this outfit....the gloves are coming off...

8) And speaking of Seyfried--the fact that she spends her life on the show with her skull cracked in, blood running down the side of her head once more drives home the point that this is not Safe Television.

9) The choice that Duncan eventually makes is devastating....not because of the why, but because by making this decision, he may be shutting off memories that may be painful, but also make him a more vital person.

10) The biggest sour note of this episode lies in its final sequence. Yes, it's important as it plants the seeds for one of the big plot hooks that will lead us into the second half of this season, but it rings false--especially given how the simple exchange between Veronica and her 'client' concerning what they've learned and their feelings about their missing parents more than makes the point that needs to be made.

Overall...an important episode in the season's development that fleshes out our characters more and finally positions this series as an eclectic mix of the suspense and fantasy unique onto itself.

"Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's the mansion you remember, or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild."