The best damn show on TV
I know I don’t do much in the way of TV here, but I just finished something that I think I need to tell everyone I know about.
It’s “Veronica Mars.”
Watch it, starting from the beginning. Cause that’s basically all I did this weekend, and it was amazing.
My brother Jay has been trying to get me to watch “Veronica Mars” for probably a year. When I asked him for tapes of episodes of “24” or “The Amazing Race” that I missed, he tended to stick one of the first-season episodes on there. I basically ignored him. I told him I had no need or interest for another TV addiction. The aforementioned two series took up enough time between the two of them. I should have paid more attention to my little extras.
“Veronica Mars” is basically the best-written show on TV. The acting isn’t too far behind, either. I think writing for high school shows might be one of the hardest gigs, because everyone who is writing them has usually been out of high school for 5+ years. Doesn’t seem like a long time, but things change. I feel like the VM team hit the nail on the head. They got the priorities right. And the dialogue! It’s so hard to hit current slang and lingo without it sounding painfully forced, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t do it. Give credit to the cast for that one as well.
In fact, give all kinds of credit to the cast. Led by Kristen Bell, who makes Veronica Mars everything Buffy Summers was – but way cooler – they are the most convincing group of high schoolers I’ve ever seen out of a bunch of twentysomethings. And I’ll be damned if they didn’t nail their characters. Keep an eye on Jason Dohring. I expect him to be the first to take off, besides maybe Ms. Bell herself. Dohring hammers his sarcastic material so perfectly; if you hate him in the first batch of episodes… well, good. It makes his character that much more amazing by the end. The adults are good as well, but Enrico Colatoni stands out as Keith Mars. The chemistry between the two of them is perfectly set. Not quite father-daughter, because theirs is not the typical relationship. It just works so perfectly.
But lots of shows have great dialogue and great acting. What blew me away here was the pacing. I’ve heard so much about “Lost,” but the most common complain I’ve heard is that the middle episodes drag, because there’s almost nothing to further the central plot. This is never a problem with VM. In almost every episode, there is an amazing blend of story arcs; almost every hour has a story that spans just that hour, one that continues for 3-5 episodes, and of course the Lily Kane arc that hangs over the entire first season. The integration is almost seamless. This was another show, like “24,” that I put into my DVD player intending to watch an episode, and then realize I’m still there 6 hours later.
I got on a train Thursday morning at 9:45 AM. I had watched the first 2 episodes. By the time I left to catch my train back to Boston today at 1 PM, I had just finished the season finale. 20 hours of “Veronica Mars” in roughly 60 hours. I loved it. I may force this on my friends as a marathon, just to see what they think.
It’s a little bit “Buffy,” but so much darker… a little bit “CSI”, but without the boring procedural standards… other than that, I don’t have much I can compare it to. It is the most interesting teen drama to come out since the first season of “Buffy,” that’s for sure. Give it a shot, either on Netflix or at one of the links below. I promise you, you won’t regret it. Critics love the show, and I seriously don’t understand why the general public is not. Help it out; I don’t want to see WB can this one.
“Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season”: Buy it on Amazon.com or buy it at DeepDiscountDVD.com
It’s “Veronica Mars.”
Watch it, starting from the beginning. Cause that’s basically all I did this weekend, and it was amazing.
My brother Jay has been trying to get me to watch “Veronica Mars” for probably a year. When I asked him for tapes of episodes of “24” or “The Amazing Race” that I missed, he tended to stick one of the first-season episodes on there. I basically ignored him. I told him I had no need or interest for another TV addiction. The aforementioned two series took up enough time between the two of them. I should have paid more attention to my little extras.
“Veronica Mars” is basically the best-written show on TV. The acting isn’t too far behind, either. I think writing for high school shows might be one of the hardest gigs, because everyone who is writing them has usually been out of high school for 5+ years. Doesn’t seem like a long time, but things change. I feel like the VM team hit the nail on the head. They got the priorities right. And the dialogue! It’s so hard to hit current slang and lingo without it sounding painfully forced, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t do it. Give credit to the cast for that one as well.
In fact, give all kinds of credit to the cast. Led by Kristen Bell, who makes Veronica Mars everything Buffy Summers was – but way cooler – they are the most convincing group of high schoolers I’ve ever seen out of a bunch of twentysomethings. And I’ll be damned if they didn’t nail their characters. Keep an eye on Jason Dohring. I expect him to be the first to take off, besides maybe Ms. Bell herself. Dohring hammers his sarcastic material so perfectly; if you hate him in the first batch of episodes… well, good. It makes his character that much more amazing by the end. The adults are good as well, but Enrico Colatoni stands out as Keith Mars. The chemistry between the two of them is perfectly set. Not quite father-daughter, because theirs is not the typical relationship. It just works so perfectly.
But lots of shows have great dialogue and great acting. What blew me away here was the pacing. I’ve heard so much about “Lost,” but the most common complain I’ve heard is that the middle episodes drag, because there’s almost nothing to further the central plot. This is never a problem with VM. In almost every episode, there is an amazing blend of story arcs; almost every hour has a story that spans just that hour, one that continues for 3-5 episodes, and of course the Lily Kane arc that hangs over the entire first season. The integration is almost seamless. This was another show, like “24,” that I put into my DVD player intending to watch an episode, and then realize I’m still there 6 hours later.
I got on a train Thursday morning at 9:45 AM. I had watched the first 2 episodes. By the time I left to catch my train back to Boston today at 1 PM, I had just finished the season finale. 20 hours of “Veronica Mars” in roughly 60 hours. I loved it. I may force this on my friends as a marathon, just to see what they think.
It’s a little bit “Buffy,” but so much darker… a little bit “CSI”, but without the boring procedural standards… other than that, I don’t have much I can compare it to. It is the most interesting teen drama to come out since the first season of “Buffy,” that’s for sure. Give it a shot, either on Netflix or at one of the links below. I promise you, you won’t regret it. Critics love the show, and I seriously don’t understand why the general public is not. Help it out; I don’t want to see WB can this one.
“Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season”: Buy it on Amazon.com or buy it at DeepDiscountDVD.com
posted by Matt S. at
4:26 AM
|
3 comments
