Second Impressions – Veronica Mars

While all the lemmings were watching yet another answerless episode of Lost, I instead was watching the premiere of what was truly the best show of last year, Veronica Mars. When we last left Ms. Mars, we found out who raped her, whether her and Duncan were related and, most importantly we learned who actually killed Lily Kane. But they did leave us with a little cliffhanger of who was at the door that Veronica was hoping to see.

The show started off with Veronica at her new job as a waitress explaining how normal became the watchword after the events of last season. This includes who in fact was behind the door. When Veronica opened the door and said her line, I swear that the silhouette looked like Duncan, but alas it turned out to be Logan. I really doubt after all that just happened that she was happy to see the son of the man who just tried to kill her and that she, like I, thought it was Duncan at the door.

After the synopsis of the summer, the episode quickly transitioned into the mystery of the week formula, this time including many varsity athletes failed their drug tests. Veronica quickly exposes the perpetrators to give time to set the main mysteries of the year. The first came early when Logan was acquitted of killing Felix. Oh and Logan also seemed to hook up with the new token hot chick/trophy wife. Big mystery number two came at the end of the show in a jaw dropping moment (I still haven’t quite recovered) when the bus that Veronica was supposed to be riding on went off the cliff. Holy (expletive deleted)! When the Lily Kane murder investigation was over I wasn’t sure how they could come up with a plot that Veronica could be equally invested in but they really set this plotline up perfectly as not only was Veronica supposed to be on that bus, and was somehow saved by Lily’s ghost, but Meg, who Veronica was trying to make up with after basically stealing her boyfriend, was killed on the bus. And had Meg had not been at odds with Veronica and Duncan; Meg would had joined Dick’s limousine party. Welcome to guilt city.

Speaking of Dick, he and his brother Beaver made it into the credits this year. I never realized how dirty their names are until Duncan asked their step-mom, “Can Dick and Beaver come out to play?” Nor did I even realize that they were related in the first place. And apparently Veronica Mars didn’t meet UPN’s minority quota, a new black girl has also joined the cast although she didn’t make an appearance last night. But we did meet two new recurring characters Cordelia Chase as the pre-for mentioned trophy wife of Dick and Beaver’s dad and Sgt. Carey Mahoney as a new mayoral candidate and owner of the baseball team. And I really doubt that it a coincidence that the candidate’s daughter was supposed to be on the bus that went over the cliff.

Of course the best part of the show is its pop culture references and there were enough last night to make Buffy jealous including West Side Story, Ordinary People, The Godfather, South Park, Bark’s Root Beer Dumass commercial, and Nelly’s spelling of Dirrty. And fore anyone who has not caught the show yet, next week is the best week to start as there will be an appearance of Kevin Smith as a convenience store clerk. No word on if he will have lines or will remain silent yet. And if you miss the first season, don’t forget to buy, rent, or borrow the DVD when it comes out October 11th.

Verdict: You should be watching this while taping Lost. Hey, you can do it the other way, but you must watch Veronica Mars, truly the best show on television today.


As for Lost, I did tape it because, I too am a lemming. I found the episode to be the most boring of the whole season so far. Michael’s flashbacks told us nothing, the scenes set at sea were equally nonsense. They even retold the descent into the hatch seen threw Locke’s eyes with very little news we couldn’t already decipher from last week aside that Kate is in the air vents. And how exactly did Jin make to shore before Michael and Sawyer and how did he not hear either of them screaming the night before when he finally came up for air? Not to mention, how does he know what the word “Others” meant? I doubt he just picked it up in conversation or that Sun put that word in his tutorial. Next week it looks like Lost will get back on track with the (re)introduction of Ana Lucia and we may finally figure out why Desmond is down the hatch and how he came across Jack years ago.