I invite fellow Veronica Mars fans Scott Widney and Lisa LaValle to discuss the season finale with me.
I am in such despair over the cancellation of Veronica Mars, that I couldn’t possibly blog by myself. So I invited my fellow- VM enthusiasts, Scott and Lisa, to join me.
Scott: Not really sure what to think about last night [the series finale]. I liked the symmetry it had with the pilot and they way it FINALLY took Keith and Veronica down a peg, but as a finale, it was a far cry from seasons 1 and 2. I guess it was cool to see Jake Kane and Clarence back in the mix, but it felt sort of tacked-on, like a bone they felt they had to throw the two or three of us who've watched from the beginning.
I'm sure I don't have to guess what your favorite part was...
Karen: What was my favorite part? There was no V and L. I don’t get it. Why did V vote for Vinnie? I can't tell you how disappointed I was. I thought it was awful.
Scott: Did she? I wasn't looking closely, though I assumed she voted for her dad. If she voted for Vinnie, I'm guessing it's because, like the rest of us, she likes Keith the P.I. a lot more than Keith the sheriff.
I would have liked last night's eps a lot more if they had come at the beginning of a season instead of the end. It was definitely a let down. Though I figured you would have gotten some enjoyment out of seeing Logan go all Terminator on Piz and that guy at the end - his crazed, smiling reply of "Someday" was pretty cool.
Karen: Fighting isn’t a turn on. I thought Logan was sort of pathetic.
Lisa: I agree about the first two season finales being so much better - I mean, Veronica's life was barely threatened and nobody died or was trapped in a box. I thought Jake Kane and Widmore would pan out to something bigger. Also - I think she voted for Vinnie because she felt guilty about Keith covering for her so many times. If he's a plain old PI, his rep/career won't be on the line if/when she takes the law into her own hands.
I'm glad Logan and Parker broke up because they seemed weird to me. Logan is one crazy mofo.
Karen: Ok, I've been reading the Televisionwithout pity boards, and people seem to think this was a good ep. That the V and L thing WAS wrapped up: his beating up the guy was how he showed that he loved her because he did what she wanted to do but couldn’t. And supposedly she gave him this loving look, like "I can’t believe you did that for me" after he beat the guy up. I don’t know...I like subtlety, but not THAT subtle.
Scott: Talk about a missed opportunity with the stolen hard drive - that's when I was sure they had one shocker left on Lily's murder, but no, just a bunch of unexciting secrets about people we don't care about. So Jake batted for the other team at boarding school - big whoop. And that picture of Duncan just reminded me of how horribly horribly HORRIBLY everything having to do with his character was handled in season two (particularly the baby thing, which for me is where the show veered into wild implausibility and never fully recovered). I'm certain they had someone/something else in mind for Lily's murder before they realized they'd written themselves into a corner with Duncan's hit on Aaron last year.
Parker was a waste of space from the start and represented the show's biggest problem post-season 1: the piling on of boring new characters to the point where the characters we liked so much in the first place (Weevil, Mac, Wallace, Sheriff Lamb, etc.) would be MIA for five, six, seven ep stretches.
RE: Logan, you have to admit his beatdowns (which I found highly entertaining, turn-on or no) were completely consistent with his character, as that's how he ALWAYS reacts when the women in his life are threatened. Whether it's his mom (remember when he told his dad he'd kill him if he said another word to her?), his sister, Lily, or Veronica, he doesn't waste time talking it out. Veronica gets that, and that's what the look was about.
Lisa: I thought she was confused too though - like wow I thought I semi-hated this guy but he just did a crazy yet noble thing for me, I'm not sure how I feel about him after all. It all comes back to that "epic" thing. I like your thoughts about Logan and the women in his life, Scott - I hadn't thought about it that way, but it makes sense.
Scott: The look is her realizing that for better or worse, Logan is in her life, and he's in it for the long haul whether she wants that or not. She probably doesn't know exactly what to think about it, but at least part of her is glad to have him around.
I think people liked the ep because in a lot of ways, it brought things right back to where they were in the pilot: Veronica the outcast, humiliated but undaunted; Keith ruined professionally in the eyes of the town but once again a hero to his daughter; and Logan returning to his unpredictable, violent, wounded self. Heck, you even had Wallace tied up and naked. But as a finale, it's frustrating because it feels so much more like a beginning than an end, which maybe is exactly what the writers intended, but it's frustrating nonetheless.
Karen: Exactly. It felt like a beginning. Which would have been awesome if this show was coming back. Since it's not, and RT surely knew that, it feels like he let us down. It felt like a big **** You to The CW.
Scott: To be a fair, it was a no-win situation. I think they saw the writing on the wall, didn't want to end on a cliffhanger, and didn't think they could possibly wrap up all the loose ends to everyone's satisfaction. So they decided to try something different, which I have to admire even if I don't think it was entirely successful. If they'd gone the other way, we'd be bitching about how pat and happily ever after everything turned out - well, maybe not Karen, but the rest of us.
Karen: Yes, I like pat, happy endings. The kind you only get on TV and in the movies. Can we have a movie of the week? A podcast? A post from Rob Thomas? I'll take anything.
Scott: I can already see the YouTube clip: acting out your own season 4 with a stuffed animal cast...
Lisa: Shhh... don't give me any ideas.
