(Season 2, Episodes 20-22)
Season two is over, and it would seem that quite a few people think I’ve seen all the Veronica Mars that’s worth seeing. I’m too curious, though, so I’ll be giving season three a chance.
Overall, I didn’t think that season two was quite as tight as season one. The ending was pretty good, but I questioned some of the motivations of the characters (more on that later). And really … do we need these silly, nearly pointless cliffhangers at the end of each season? The “who’s behind the door” cliffhanger from season one was just dumb, and this season’s seems to be as well….
“Look Who’s Stalking”
It was nice to see Leo back, even if it was just for Veronica to use him again. Poor guy. This was a fun episode though, heavy on Gia, which is always fun. I’m still floored at how different this character is compared with Krysten Ritter‘s character on Breaking Bad.
Well, it looks like maybe that rape plotline is going to make a comeback, with Veronica finding out that she has chlamydia. I’m surprised that she didn’t immediately think of that, instead pointing the finger at Duncan and the possibility that he was being promiscuous. She should know better; he was way too boring to woo that many women. Way too boring.
There was also a whole lot of Logan/Veronica angst in this episode, which was enjoyable. Give me some weepy tension over smoochy-face any day.
“Happy Go Lucky”
Ah, I get it. The semi washed-up actor from the ’80s is always the bad guy on this show. Last year it was Harry Hamlin, and this season it was Steve Guttenberg, as Woody Goodman. Who’s going to show up in season three? Rutger Hauer? Mark Hamill? Honestly, I think they would both make fun villains.
Back on point, though: Woody is quite the creep, isn’t he? He gets caught with an unconscious hooker and blames it on Keith, and on top of that, he’s a child molester. I had a slight feeling about this, back when he was showing some interest in Logan.
Aaron’s murder trial was almost laughable. Rob Thomas has shown that he excels at the high school aspect of this show, but between this episode and “One Angry Veronica,” he should stay away from the courtroom. I was able to get past it though, as the rest of the episode was good.
“Not Pictured”
With all of Beaver’s weird sex issues, it didn’t take a whole lot to connect the dots to Woody. I just didn’t buy Beaver as the big evil mastermind that he revealed himself to be in this episode. All through the season, he was established as “the nice guy.” Are we supposed to believe that it was all an act? Would he really be damaged enough to kill all those people? It didn’t work for me as well as season one did. Aaron made a great villain because we got to see him unravel over the course of the season — proving to be a real violent nutcase by the end of the season — but it was still surprising (at least to me) that he was the killer.
Overall, I did enjoy the end of the season though, even if Beaver wouldn’t have been my first choice for villain. Once again, the rape storyline seemed to be an aside in this episode, just a couple lines exchanged between Veronica and Cassidy. I know, it’s my same old complaint, but it still bothers me. Oh, and Duncan putting a hit on Aaron from hiding? It was a tad over the top for me.
So it’s on to season three, and to the answer to the cliffhanger: what does Kendall have up her sleeve for Keith?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Aug 11, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I can’t stand how season 2 ended, it was the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen, horrid.
I can’t even remember season 3, it’s just not memorable at all.
Trust us, if you thought S2 wasn’t up to snuff, wait until you watch S3. If you never watch S1, S2 and 3 are fine.
I will say this. I hated the ending of S2. I loved S1 because Veronica was continuously tough in bad situations. And, I even liked the vulnerability she showed at the end. Sometimes a girl just wants her daddy, especially when pushed into a burning wooden crate.
However, I really hated S2’s ending. In V’s big moment of facing her rapist who basically just verbally taunts her, she requires Logan’s help to take him down. Sure, he had that emotional hold, but, come on now, the Beaver? Come on now, doesn’t he weigh 5 lbs less than her? Hadn’t V been through enough to be able to mock him for needing to drug women? She was righteously angry with every other guy/woman she thought was her attacker, so I didn’t understand the sudden switch and felt Logan’s appearance set back that covert girl power theme.
Interesting take. Honestly, I had a big problem with the flaming refrigerator from season 1. After establishing Veronica as a strong kick ass lady through the whole season, she spent the climax having to be rescued.
In season 2, though, I think the presence of a gun really equalizes things. I don’t care how little Beaver was, he was still pointing a gun at her and obviously was prepared to use it (as proven by the exploding plane overhead).
In reflection though, it’s a tad unfortunate that she needs to be rescued at the end of each season by a man. Buffy would be so disappointed in her.
You hit on a point about season 3 too, Veronica just isn’t Veronica anymore.
Oreo: Can you elaborate? I’m one of those people that doesn’t think that Season 3 is the 8th sign of the apocolypse, and my main reasoning behind that is that the characters are still the characters. I don’t remember some big shift in personality (or at least one that doesn’t fit with transitioning from HS to College).
I’ve actually been catching up on it streaming on the WB’s website, in anticipation of them putting up S1 at the end of this month (My DVDs are all in storage, or I could just jump right into it).
To me the characters next season are all over the map just to fit into some lame storyline. Veronica went from a girl that could be by herself and take care of herself to some whiny bitchy character that needs a man.
I see what you’re saying, but I also think that that was a by-product of opening herself up to more people (Which was a by-product of moving past some of the personal issues she had been working through the last two years), and thus being more vulnerable.
Wallace, to me, hadn’t been a solid character since the first season, but his interactions with others, specifically Logan, were decent enough in S3.
More Mac = Good. Piz was tolerable, though I hated him and Veronica getting together this “early” in the grand scheme of things. Parker also grew on me because she had more of “in-crowd” thing going on, without the bitchiness of the ‘ladies’ of Neptune High.
Hmm, Ivey, I think I’m going to have to agree with the delicious double-stuff cookie. For Hollywood, a woman opening herself up emotionally inexplicably equals physical vulnerability. But, I disagree. Verbal communication shouldn’t translate into the utter inability to maintain self-defense. After all, shouldn’t the same happen for Logan and his inability to handle Beaver holding the gun?
Dorv. I’ll say this. I started watching VM in S3 and thought it was awesome until I saw S1 and then utterly revised my opinion :)
“A nice guy” did describe Beaver before Not Pictured, but “A nice guy” is often how a serial killer’s neighbor describe the guy before they learned he had hookers buried in the cellar.
Also it was nice to see Duncan do something useful for once. Having Aaron killed actually made not hate him a little. Now on season 3 where he is replaced with a guy named Piz.
That’s what I was trying to get across with my title ;o)
I didn’t hate the ending, but Beaver as the bad guy seemed a tad manufactured to me. Like the writers just wanted to go for shock value and have someone do a complete 180 on the audience. It just wasn’t as tight as the end of season one.
I think it would have worked for me if Dick were somehow involved too, doing beaver’s dirty work, because let’s face it, that guy is pretty much a sociopath… in a fun way.
And just want said this : even in real life some “nice guy” can be actually the worst sociopath, psychopath killer (Ted Bundy anyone ??) So for me i can believe in the Beaver revelation.
Season 3 : WORST THING EVER = Piz !! The guy is definitly not in the same league as Veronica, it’s painful to watch…
When I watched Season 2 the first time, I didn’t believe it was Beaver. And after watching it again to look for clues, I still didn’t see any forshadowing or anything leading up to it. I mean there was the obvious “no one pays attention to me” and “sexual issues” stuff, but that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong, I loved season 2 and enjoyed the season finale, but something about it just didn’t work. I do think they did it for shock value. Too many red herrings in season 2, that was the big problem for me. The Fitzpatricks didn’t fit into the end result like I had thought they would, I still don’t really understand their involvement in season 2.
Season 3 is still worth watching. I was hesitant to watch it myself, because I starting watching it late and I heard it wasn’t that great. I’m still not going to say it’s great, but it’s not horrible (or equal to Rocky V “it doesn’t exist” territory…for me at least). It’s still the same witty dialogue. I didn’t like the direction they took for Veronica’s character, I think she became a little bitchier than necessary. I especially didn’t like Logan being relegated to nothing besides the boyfriend role (even though I love Logan & Veronica together), and he eventually became a shell of his former self (until the end of the series, thank GOD). But episode for episode, season 3 is enjoyable. For me I think it actually helped having the bad expectations. I wasn’t expecting much, and when I didn’t think it totally sucked, I considered it a good thing. That being said, the episodes in which Piz does NOT appear are among my favorites. Duncan reincarnated isn’t good for anybody. Believe it or not, Dick became one of my favorite characters in season 3. He just had that way of making me laugh in otherwise not-so-great episodes.
Now, I felt that Beaver being the baddie in S2 was very predictable. I guessed it pretty early on and was a little disappointed that I was right. However, the rape thing made it awesome for me b/c VM did what no show has ever done before (to my knowledge) and that was to wrap up a storyline that was for all intents and purposes wrapped in S1, in the next season. I think it is so cool that they went back to it and elaborated on it like they did.