They say that, at some point, all relationships come to an end.
Typically, when you’re involved with someone, the beginning is incredible, filled with unimaginable happiness and harmony. After a while, things may begin to stagnate and cracks may appear ““ this is really the point at which you remember why you’re involved in the first place.
Of course, there sometimes comes that difficult stage where things obviously aren’t working, you know they aren’t how they were, and you find yourself secretly wishing it would just end.
Well, this pretty much describes my relationship with “Veronica Mars” over its three seasons.
“Veronica” has followed the law of diminishing returns to a stunning degree. Its first season, which focused on Veronica trying to solve the mystery of who killed her best friend Lilly among a myriad of smaller mysteries, was one of the best seasons of television I’ve seen. Its overarching plot, the character relationships and development, and its sense of self-aware quirkiness took it to great heights.
Last year it naturally stumbled a bit, with a less-personal season-long mystery (a bus crash) and some outlandish episodes (like the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink season finale). However, the show was still better than just about everything else on TV.
The same can’t really be said about the show’s third season. Now, to be fair, the show did have to make a difficult transition ““ after all, Veronica and pals did graduate high school. But the way this transition has been handled, among other things, has seriously soured me on the show.
For one thing, the first mistake that the showrunners made was to have Veronica live at home and commute to Hearst College. The reason for this, or so they say, was to keep the dynamic intact between Veronica and her dad. While I agree that this is important to the show, I think they really missed a huge opportunity here. Having Veronica live in a college dorm, deal with crazy roommates, and interact with a myriad of wacky people 24/7 would be like Neptune High on speed. Plus, they could have kept Veronica working for her dad at his office, which would still allow for plenty of interaction.
Another mistake, however, has been an overt focus on Logan-Veronica drama. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have no trouble watching these two characters interact ““ their relationship is one of the show’s strong points. However, this season their relationship issues have been forced down our throats. Last season, this was handled subtly and masterfully, never becoming the main focus of the show and always taking a backseat to the real action ““ the mysteries.
Perhaps the biggest blunder, though, has been the ditching of a season-long mystery. Creator Rob Thomas thought that these long-running mysteries were scaring away potential viewers, so the show this season was split into three smaller story arcs. The first dealt with a serial rapist at Hearst College (a plotline carried over from last season) and the second followed the investigation into the murder of the dean of the college.
The problem is, neither mystery was all that compelling. Perhaps it was the short time devoted to developing them, or maybe it was the fact that neither really affected Veronica in a tangible way.
And this isn’t even getting into the fact that the show has done the poorest job this side of “Lost” of getting multiple characters screen time. Formerly integral characters such as Wallace have essentially disappeared this year, with way too much screen time devoted to Logan-Veronica fluff.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like things are going to get any better. Thomas recently said the show stands about a 60 percent chance of being renewed, and that if it is brought back, it will likely change up its format in a big way. Specifically, the show will ditch ongoing mysteries in favor of more episodic content to attract first-time viewers. Personally, I think this would be a huge mistake.
One of the common misperceptions people who don’t watch “Veronica” have is that it’s essentially Nancy Drew with sex and violence. While this is true to a degree, long-running mysteries have often been juxtaposed over Nancy Drew-esque stories like finding out who stole bake sale money or figuring out who ran over someone’s dog. Take away the big stories, and we’re left with Veronica solving the mystery of the week.
I’d much rather see “Veronica” get cancelled and go out in a blaze of glory, “Arrested Development”-style. Nothing would depress me more than seeing this show go out neutered and desperate.
So it pains me to say this, but I’m now openly rooting for “Veronica” to get cancelled. It’s sort of like rooting for your favorite team to tank the season so they’ll get a high draft pick.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like there’s a Greg Oden or Kevin Durant to save what was once one of my favorite shows.
Humphrey is hoping March Madness is television he can count on. E-mail him at mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.