“Overambitious.”
That single word has always best described Veronica Mars, the CW drama about a high school teenager turned amateur detective. Right from the start, the series had been advertised as “part Nancy Drew, part Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and its inaugural season did indeed live up to that billing with inventive sleuthing and witty quipping while likewise venturing into both dark noir and coming-of-age innocence.
Season two builds upon that initial groundwork – for both better and worse – and even throws in some bad karaoke for good measure. But since season one had some mediocre lip-synching of its own, that particular shortcoming can be overlooked.
Season one also had a specific focus – former member of the in-crowd, now outcast, Veronica Mars is determined to track down the murderer of best friend Lily Kane. Even the side story arcs (why did her mother leave? who is her real father? which boy did she most crush after?) all had ties to that central mystery. And since each episode also centered on a separate mystery-of-the-week, it was a serialized drama one could enjoy even if you missed an episode or two.
While season two likewise has a focus – who caused a bus crash that killed six students, a high school teacher and the bus driver – instead of being the engine that drives the season, it is really just a sliver of a larger picture.
It turns out that Neptune, California, is a tale of two cities. There’s the rich, who enjoy all the perks of their class, and then the middle-class-to-poor who have little-to-no perks. Thus the true focus of season two is the polarization and friction between the haves and the have-nots, a battle of the classes with Veronica Mars thrust in the middle.
The crash itself reflects this fact. The kids from wealthy families called “daddy” to send a limousine instead of taking the supplied transportation back from a field trip, so while the bus should have had a cross-section of Neptune High students, it was only those from the wrong-side-of-the-tracks who perished.
It doesn’t stop there, however. Almost everything about season two focuses on this polarization and friction, from the mundane (the senior prom is cancelled, but the wealthy kids throw their own), to the serious (rich boy Logan is accused of killing poor biker Felix). The mayor even has plans to incorporate Neptune in a way that would legally divide the city based on economic class.
With so much going on, it’s almost as if the series wanted to out-O.C. the O.C. by becoming more soap than serial drama. And in some ways, this paradigm shift makes season two superior to season one, because it comes off as more consistent compared to the ups-and-downs a first season show often experiences while finding its footing.
This consistency is also what separates Veronica Mars from shows like The O.C., for while The O.C. had the potential to produce some truly spectacular episodes, they often came few and far-between. Veronica Mars, meanwhile, has a writing staff (especially Rob Thomas, Diane Ruggiero and John Enbom) that continually churns out dialogue as snappy and witty as well as anyone.
But what ultimately makes Veronica Mars so enjoyable are the characters. Although much has been written about how Veronica and her father, Keith Mars, have the best father-daughter relationship on television, the supporting players are equally the best in their respective roles. Wallace Fennel, for instance, although given more (as well as less) to do in season two, is still the finest “Dr. Watson” sidekick any teenage sleuth could ever hope to have.
Even the not-so-likeable characters are likeable. Logan Echolls has such a sweet smarm about him that one can’t help rooting for the resident bad boy to ultimately win Veronica’s heart. Head biker Weevil, as well as “not-very-complicated” Dick – whose name says it all – likewise have agreeable qualities that save them from being clichéd afterthoughts. Even Sheriff Lamb, the inept lawman and Veronica nemesis constantly outwitted by the teen-detective, has moments where we see more than an arrogant, self-centered stereotype.
In some ways, Veronica Mars manages to give its characters more depth than even Lost, without the benefit of flashbacks, and Sheriff Lamb could very well be Exhibit A. In the episode “Nobody Puts Baby In a Corner,” for instance, Veronica investigates a case of suspected child abuse. When Veronica and boyfriend Duncan are caught breaking into the parents’ house, Lamb ignores their explanation, handcuffs the two and puts them in his squad car.
But Lamb, under the pretext of taking a statement, then re-enters the house to investigate. As the abusive father protests, Lamb simply utters, “Funny, I heard my father give that exact speech once.” With that one sentence, coupled with the sheriff’s silent release of Veronica and Duncan a few blocks away, Lamb is transformed from a mere caricature into a deeper, even sympathetic, character.
Despite all these positives, however, there are still two minor missteps in season two. The first is too many multi-episode mini-arcs that have nothing to do with the main season long story – Wallace finding his biological father, the departure from the show of Duncan, baseball great Terrence Cook’s gambling problems, and anything having to do with his daughter, Jackie.
Although none of these storylines are necessarily bad, they do act as distracting detours. And when the show does eventually re-focuses on the bus crash late in the season, so many potential suspects fly by so fast that the plot becomes muddled and convoluted, leaving one to wonder if the writers know how to bring the season to a satisfactory conclusion.
But what a conclusion it is! The final ten minutes of the finale is a rollercoaster of a ride, with the rooftop confrontation-with-the-culprit scene an emotionally brilliant display of writing, filming and acting. Although what then follows may seem a little rushed, the jaw-dropping, plot-twisting, rapid-fire scene-after-scene could very well be the greatest adrenaline-inducing experience any television series has ever produced.
Those final ten minutes also sum up all that is right, and all that’s not so right, with season two of Veronica Mars – emotionally charged storytelling at its finest, but ultimately too much crammed into too small a space.
Or, in a word, “overambitious.”
Anthony Letizia