April 20, 2006
veronica mars season 1
After my comps, my committee and I decided I could use a little break from books. So I went from books to television: I decided to watch the entire first season of Veronica Mars. It took me a week, but I finished the last episode (of 22 total) last night.
Why Veronica Mars? Because I'm a total Veronica Marsian. That was one television program that I couldn't miss, even when I was reading ten hours a day for my comps. (I also found that, with so much reading, I was watching MORE television, because when I went brain-dead from too much reading, generally in the evening, television was one of the things I could do).
It was my housemate Sarah--aged 18 and hooked on Veronica from the very start--who got me watching. I started watching to watch Sarah, since she (and another Marsian friend of hers) would be so engaged in the show while watching it: yelling at the television and other Rocky-Horror like fan interactions, discussing plot points and character motivation (only during commercials!), and then going directly to the online discussion groups after the show.
Now I watch the show for the show on the screen. The show is very well written (by Rob Thomas and, no doubt, a staff), with weekly mysteries that get solved in that episode, embedded in a longer season-long mystery that gets solved at the end of the season. There are very few implausibilities in the plot, though I certainly keep watching for them, media critic that I am. If there are any mis-steps in the story, the fans make their opinions known online and sometimes changes are made after the writers see the comments.
The characters are also well-drawn, multidimensional, and engaging. These are lives you want to observe, and participate in vicariously. Their dialogue is witty, but real. My favorite characters are Veronica, Wallace (her best friend), Keith (her father, a private investigator), and "Weevil," a latino thug with a deep sense of grievance and justice (Sarah says, speaking in Veronica discussion group royal we, that "WE" love badboy and sometime boyfriend LOGAN best, but I can't include myself in that "WE." Though I like him a lot more after seeing the entire season 1).
I really enjoyed my marathoning of Veronica season 1. It's more immersive, and more enjoyable, seen that way, if you have the time (though maybe it was a little too much: I started dreaming about watching Veronica Mars). It was certainly nice not having to watch the commercials, my main problem with commercial television. Though the "previously on Veronica Mars" segment (non-menu-ed, so you can't pop past it) at the beginning of each show got to be a little annoying.
Now what's a Veronica junkie supposed to do? Season 2 is not yet out on DVD. Maybe I should go on to another marathon. One of my housemates has three or four seasons of The Sopranos, but I don't think that'll work for me. I need to find another show to immerse myself in, or a series of films. Not the Lord of the Rings (done the marathon), or the Matrix films (didn't like 1 or 2; skipped 3).
Any suggestions, email me (since I have comments turned off):
josa33@yahoo.com
Posted by jeb at April 20, 2006 3:07 PM | TrackBack