I know — I still haven’t watched all of Veronica Mars yet. I still have a little over half the final season to see before I graduate from being a Veronica Mars virgin. However, I think I can still talk about how the show handled their mysteries and MacGuffins. The writers employed a very interesting model, and I think, for the most part, they succeeded.
Like many of the other shows that I’ve discussed in this series (Buffy and Desperate Housewives come to mind), Veronica Mars focused on one over-arcing mystery in each of the first two seasons. I think I’ve beaten to death the pluses and minuses with this model, so I won’t go into too much depth. It is worth mentioning, however, that in writing my virgin diary on the show, it seems like most viewers think that season one was far superior to season two. Even though I wasn’t super psyched about how season two ended, I don’t think it was drastically worse than the first season.
Veronica Mars did something that I think is pretty unique. It was able to continue to carry over some of the action from each mystery into the next season. Aaron was caught at the end of the first season, but he didn’t disappear from the show completely. Instead, he made several appearances, including his trial.
The mystery of Veronica’s rape was also carried over into the second season. Debbie was a big fan of this plot twist, as she mentioned in the comments of my last season two diary entry. I thought it was a clever turn for the show, and the writers showed that they weren’t just locked into wrapping everything up into a neat little package at the end of a season.
Now I’m part-way through the third season, and some previous story elements are still working their way into the story. Things remain open-ended with the Fitzpatrick clan. I’m not sure if their story line will ever wrap up, but by overlapping some of these plot lines, it really makes an effective overall narrative without frustrating the audience with a lack of answers.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Aug 17, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
