A Long Time Ago, We Used to Be Friends

Veronica Mars is a student at Neptune High School who's best friend, Lilly Kane, was murdered, her mom has jumped town, she has been raped, her boyfriend has abruptly broke up with her, and she's an outcast because her father wrongly (maybe) accused her dead best friend’s dad with being the murderer. And that's just what we learn from the first episode. The next twenty-one episode revolve around Veronica trying to find out why her mom left and where she went to, who raped her, and who killed Lilly. The later of which could have been almost anyone who came into contact with the youngest Kane, and Veronica just happen to have a file on every one of them.

When Veronica's not looking for her mom or Lilly's killer, Veronica works for her dad who is a private investigator. This leads to the mystery of the week, this is what gave the show its comparisons to The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer except all the monsters in Neptune are real people. Some of the better side stories include Veronica thwarting a group of computer nerd who extort money through the internet (The Wrath of Con), she hunts down the person who is posting fake purity tests of other students including herself (Live a Virgin), she tries to catch the students who set her up for making fake ID's (Clash of the Tritons), she find a student accused of making bomb threats (Weapons of Class Destruction), and she tries to keep a student from posting an explicit video of his ex-girlfriend on the internet (M.A.D.).

Along with the great storylines, the show is also has a great cast. Kristen Bell shines as Veronica, who can hit each smart-alic line with ease but can also nail all the emotional scenes that Sarah Michelle Gellar couldn't quite hit as Buffy. And where Jennifer Garner always comes off as slutty in her many undercover costumes, Bell pulls off all her costumes with a cute as button touch to them (which is why Bell is the leading candidate to replace Portman in my top 5). Supporting Bell are Enrico Colantoni, best known as the balding photographer on Just Shoot Me, as papa Mars and a bunch of young actors in the first major roles. Percy Daggs III as Wallace and Francis Capra as Weevil do the best with their roles but I don't think Teddy Dunn pulled off the complexity of Duncan Kane as the season wore on.

The show was sprinkled with the multitude of familiar faces with Alyson Hannigan (Buffy), Joey Lauren Adams (Mallrats), Anthony Anderson (Barbershop), Lisa Rinna (Melrose Place), Paula Marshall (Cupid), Paris Hilton (One Night in Paris), and a double shot of the Home Improvement Boys Zachary Ty Bryan and Jonathan Taylor Tomas all making a cameo or two. Other stars making recurring appearances included Harry Hamlin (L.A. Law) as a movie star/abusive father, Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls) as the most popular girl in school turned murder victim Lilly Kane, and being rescued from the crap that was Napoleon Dynamite was Tina Majorino who played Mac, the computer whiz who helped Veronica on all her digital cases.

Unlike other big shows of this season (*couch* Lost *cough*), Veronica Mars answered all the big questions posed this season: who raped Veronica, where did Veronica mom go, and most importantly, not to mention most shocking, who killed Lilly Kane. Although there are some important questions that will be answered next season like who was Veronica glad to see (my guess - Wallace) and what did Weevil and his boys do to Logan (my guess - he ends up next to his dad). And a question that may not be answered quickly, is Lynn Echolls really dead.

If you happened to miss Veronica Mars, be sure to catch it this summer from the beginning starting Tuesday, June 14 at 9 PM, and then move to its new timeslot the next day on Wednesday, June 15 at 9 PM. Or you can pick up the DVD which is supposed to come out around the start of season two.

Veronica Mars 1x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. It also won three STA's.