After a long, frustrating day yesterday, I took out my frustration on the swimming pool and excercise bike in power cycling....and let me just say after that was all over, I felt much better. Physically drained, but much better.
Which made it a joy to go home, eat some dinner and then veg out watching the latest installment of the greatness that is
Veronica Mars. I'll get to this week's thoughts on what's up with Ms. Mars i in a moment, but first, I have to comment on something.
After
Veronica Mars was over, I flipped over to Comedy Central to check out this week's new
South Park. During one of the commerical breaks, there was a commercial for a Christmas-themed CD that featured some guy pretending to be Sadaam Hussain and singing his own carols. The commercial kept repeating this was a great gag gift for the holiday season or to send to an enemy which made me wonder--is this thing for real? I mean, it seems so absurd and over the top that it can't be real, right? But then I also remember that Andy Griffith sold himself singing gospel-song CDs and tapes on television, so really anything is possible.
If anyone can fill me in, I'd appreciate it.
Now, onto
Veronica Mars...
Veronica Mars: Blast From the PastSince
Lost was a repeat last night (from an episode that aired--what--a month ago?!?) I'm hoping that some of the
Lost crowd tuned over to
Veronica Mars and saw why this show is so great. (Oh, who am I kidding...the
Lost crowd was watching the episode to break it down for details and to see the logo on the shark fin if they missed it the first time!)
I do have to wonder--if you'd just tuned in to
Veronica Mars, would you be able to get up to speed on what's going on and the character dynamics easily? For this episode, I'm not sure you could necessarily do that because a whole lot is going on here.
If last week was bringing things this season to a slow simmer, this is where they begin to boil. It picks up right where last week left off with Wallace confronting his mother about the man who claims to be his father. And it never lets up from there.
If anything, this one is about the consequences of the choices various characters have made over the course of the show and how doing what you think is the right thing can come back to bite you if you're not careful.
We see it start out with Keith, who when the episode starts has a 12-point lead on Lamb in the sheriff's race. But in debate, Lamb pulls out that as a patrol-man, Keith allowed the bus driver to be followed home after being pulled over for DUI. Had Keith made a report, bus driver never gets hired and kids live...supposedly. Well, as the episode goes along, Veronica finds a student who has a message from the last moments of the bus saved in her cell phone. Hearing it, we hear explosions before the bus plunges (and let me add, damn that moment was unnerving...hearing that message..wow!). Veronica takes it to Keith to use as a weapon to win the sheriff's race and Keith refuses to do that. He wants to see the killer(s) brought to justice and so doesn't run to the media or use it to shock Lamb. Instead, he takes the message to Lamb and offers it to him...but Lamb acts like an ass, since the information comes from Keith. Makes me wonder if Keith will have to go public with this information or if he'll lost and he and Veronica will investigate this case when Lamb lets it slide. (Cause let's face it, Lamb ain't all on the up and up).
We also see that Keith follows his insticts last week in investigating Alicia and Wallace and who the mystery man is. Keith goes into Alicia's and takes Wallace's birth certificate and some other papers, which leads to a confrontation. I love how in the scene where Alicia confronts Keith on this, he offers no apologies or explanations. He just hands over the file to Alicia.
Meanwhile, Veronica is trying to do the right thing as well. She tries to help Jackie out of a jam, not knowing she's being set-up to look like a fool on local access cable. Veronica has deduced that Jackie is only in things for what Jackie can get and we see her ability to be two-faced at numerous occasions. (Such as when Jackie and Logan mock Veronica). Veronica is looking out for Wallace, who she wants to not see have his heart stomped on by this girl who is self-absorbed at best. Even after being humilated by Jackie, Veronica puts aside her wanting to get back at Jackie for Wallace's sake. She lets her own little retribution go but her anger boils over when she sees Jackie with Logan at the dance (she doesn't know that Wallace broke his date with Jackie over Jackie's treatment of Veronica). Wallace sees it and thinks Veronica is having her revenge and he leaves town with his biological father.
And then, we have Veronica trying to help Keith. She sends a paperweight to his office under the Kane Compnay letterhead which a listening device. And finds out just what kind of dirty dealings Lamb is up to. Interesting that Keith comes in and takes the device when Lamb isn't looking, having seen it earlier in Veronica's room. I will give you that this is highly illegal and wrong of Veronica to do, but in her mind, she realizes she has to fight fire with fire for her dad to win the sheriff's race. And she is only doing what she's done to protect somoene she loves. But as with Wallace, her motivation of wanting to help someone she cares about has backfired. Or she's gone about it in such a way that is not going to actually make the situation better but make it worse.
So many complex stories and so much going on in an episode..and yet it all still works. I never felt as if this was rushed or one plotline was getting the short end of the stick. My only regret was as the hour faded to black that feeling of "But I want more NOW!" and realizing we had to wait two weeks for the story to continue.
Again, if you're not watching
Veronica Mars, get the DVDs and then catch up on the premiere of season two next week. Trust me--this one is worth it.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 10/27/2005 08:24:00 AM |
|
