Veronica Mars is smarter than me

In the first few seasons of Veronica Mars I would have agreed with that quote but in the 3rd (and final) season not so much. Which brings us to today's TV topic:

Day 11 - A show that disappointed you

Yep, Veronica Mars is my choice for disappointing show. Sure I could have picked something like Battlestar Galactica which had an immensely disappointing resolution to its brilliantly written show and fascinating mythology. But, to be honest, I'm still too bitter about how it ended to write clearly, whereas I remain disappointed in Veronica Mars.



When Veronica Mars emerged on the scene I was very excited! Here was a show with a strong female protagonist, who without superpowers could consistently save the day. As well as being a beautifully shot, noir style show especially in its practically perfect first season, it had genuinely intriguing and surprising mysteries and an excellent cast. Veronica (Kristen Bell), her dad (Enrico Colantoni), Wallace (Percy Daggs III) and Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) were particular standouts. An intelligent show with an intelligent heroine - I was hooked!

While the second season wasn't as brilliant as the first, I still enjoyed it. However, it wasn't until the third season when the wheels came off, spun out of control and destroyed the show. There are a number of things that frustrated me:

- the general decline in quality and intelligence of storylines and writing
- the minimal amount of screen time for characters like Wallace and Mac
- how boring much of the Logan/Veronica tension became (and I like them as a pairing)
- how in general things didn’t seem to come together

BUT the worst for me was the whole rape storyline. I didn't object to them having Veronica investigate a serial rapist, it’s how the story played out. First of all they had women ("feminists") fake as least one rape! Which contributed to the already crappy portrayal of feminists on the show that season. In previous seasons it could have been argued that Veronica was a feminist (who just never identified as one) but in the third season she was actively opposed to the so-called feminists on the show.



I also don't think it’s okay for a network TV show, that’s being directed towards young people be suggesting that there’s women who lie about being raped. In a time when women still have difficulty being believed when they say they were raped, it’s not okay to be having female characters lie about it.

Having Veronica say to the "feminists" on the show that what they’re doing “doesn’t help the cause,” doesn’t make the storyline better. Because, by that point, Veronica Mars wasn't helping the cause.

I continue to be disappointed in the show and refuse to own the third season on DVD, although I do own the first two.

Tomorrow I will be talking about: An episode you've watched more than 5 times