 | | Does that word start with a "D" or a "C"... |
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Only three episodes down, and UPN's new show Veronica Mars has already reeled me in like a sucker. In this murky period of TV death, where Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, and 24 are all on temporarily hiatus, conspicuous by the void left in their wake, Veronica gives me hope. And more importantly, just something to watch every damn week.
The premise is amazingly simple on the surface, yet much richer and deeper the more you delve. On the one hand, you could call it yet another melodramatic bout of Californian teen angst like so many others. Let's go through the checklist shall we; stereotypical jock arseholes, a female population made up entirely of hot blondes with bodies to die for, and last but not least, actors who are all 10 years older than the characters they portray. All very much present and correct.
Yet at the same time it seems to get away with a little more than most. Just when you think things are sinking into familiarity and cliché, it'll throw a small sprinkling of darkness in to pick things back up - tiny nuggets of gold that raise it above its peers. This is a show with edge. Heck, our title character even gets raped in the first episode.
 | | Every school has an uber prick, even in TV land |
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Veronica herself is actually my primary reason for tuning in each week - her character just shines like a jewel in this jaded, superficial world. There's a sadness to her and her life, and you just want to grab hold of all the evil fucks making things miserable for her and lay the smack down on 'em.
Her depressing back story (which I'll try not to spoil too much here), and subsequent sass create a beautifully rounded character who is as flawed as she is charming. Actress Kristen Bell, who I recognised only from an old episode of The Shield, brings this carefully crafted character to life with the kind of performance that has "future star" written all over it. In fact, if you squint your eyes you can mistake her for Sarah Michelle Gellar at times. Only hotter.
 | | Veronica's dad, played superbly by Enrico Colantoni. Remember Galaxy Quest? |
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But Veronica Mars has a whole other angle to it as a show. Outcast from her fellow students and living life as a loner, Veronica subsequently finds herself spending all her free time helping out her dad - who by the way is a private investigator.
This turns Veronica into something of a PI herself, heading off on her own little mysteries and adventures each week. Not so much a gimmick though, Veronica's need to route out the truth around her, including the disappearance of her mum and the murder of her best friend, become the central threads running through the show from week to week. This gives it an on-going puzzle for our protagonist to solve, not really seen since the days of Twin Peaks.
It's also the
one teen show where the fact that your impeccably beautiful lead is a social outcast actually makes complete sense within the context of the back-story. Veronica's complex history is revealed in small nuggets over the course of the pilot episode via flashbacks, and it starts to tie in nicely with the private investigator premise almost immediately.
 | | Percy Daggs as Wallace, Veronica's ably acted yet sadly clichéd ally |
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Naturally it's still got some progress to make before it becomes perfect. Veronica's arch nemesis and all-round cock Logan Echolls is miscast in my opinion. I also thought we were past the days of the token black comic sidekick, but evidently not.
Additionally it can be a little uneven at times, and I often wish there was more of a balance between the humour and the seriousness. Not to mention the fact that any more guest appearances by Paris Hilton are most definitely ill-advised.
Never the less, it's still a fabulous piece of weekly viewing, even at this early stage, and a heck of a lot more interesting than overrated wank like Dawson's Crack and (I'm sorry to say) The OC.
Veronica Mars takes its place alongside other recent surprise hit Lost as proof that mainstream television is, well, so much better than mainstream film right now. The best way I can describe it is Buffy without the vampires.
Oh and speaking of which, who caught our web site's cameo in Lost this week?
This review/report was created by the great team at TPSreport.co.uk:
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