Veronica Mars rewatch?
September 10, 2017 6:50 AM - Subscribe

I've been watching Veronica Mars for the first time. The first few episodes felt a little like "Buffy, part 2, but with detectives instead of vampires" (and I loves me some Buffy), but as the first season has developed, it really strikes me as much more evolved than Buffy in a lot of ways. FanFare had a ball with its Buffy rewatch, and I was surprised to see that it hasn't had much of a presence on MeFi yet. It's been only spottily available on streaming from what I can tell. Now it's up on a free service called "Go90."

What does Buffy have over Veronica? Supernatural monsters as a metaphor for teenage angst (something that sputters out by season 5) and the ability to do fantasy plots and musicals. What does Veronica have over Buffy? No fake "nice guy" feminism (I'm looking at you, Xander Harris, and Joss Whedon)--"bad boys" are called out on their bad boy behavior. Mystery plots without ALL THE TIME MURDER AND SEX CRIME. What they both have? Alyson Hannigan.

It's by no means a perfect show. The lifestyles of the rich an famous (though seen as corrupt) get a lot more play than the cast members of color (oh, yeah, Buffy didn't have much diversity either). It's definitely a CW show. But I'd love to hash out the points of what works and what doesn't and why with y'all.

Anyone interested?
posted by rikschell (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I love me some VMars and there's a reasonable following for iZombie here on FanFare, so I'd think this could get some traction. Availability by streaming would be a must for me, though. A lot of my viewing time, especially for re-watch stuff, has to be by mobile.
posted by terilou at 6:58 AM on September 10, 2017


I'd be in, I love VM.
posted by supercrayon at 5:35 PM on September 10, 2017


It's been a long time since I watched it. Would be blast to revisit young Majorino and Bell. I recall Enrico Colantoni being a blast.
posted by porpoise at 6:37 PM on September 11, 2017


Oh, I'd love this.

And in a similar vein, you guys might enjoy the VM podcast that John Ramos and Sarah D Bunting* do, titled Go Pirates. It's a good time.

(*Television Without Pity's Couch Baron and Sars, respectively.)
posted by pseudonymph at 6:36 AM on September 12, 2017


So, is one a week the right pace? Or two? I run through them fast myself, because I have a lot of knitting to do. But it's senseless to throw them all up at once. Opinions? I'd lean toward posting two episodes a week (Monday and Thursday?) unless people think that's too fast.
posted by rikschell at 5:35 PM on September 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Veronica Mars is one of my all-time favourite shows and I haven't re-watched in ages so I would be up for this. Especially as the last season of iZombie was really going to town on the VM alumni guest stars (my husband has never watched any Veronica Mars (more fool him) but could tell when they showed up due to my immediate excited reaction).
posted by *becca* at 5:01 AM on September 14, 2017


rikschell - your proposal for Monday/Thursday is great!

Just re-watching the pilot right now - it's a nearly perfect exercise in being a pilot of a great show (in case anyone is ambivalent on re-watching).

Complex but smart about it, funny but doesn't pander, progressive social-commentary-ing while woke before "woke" was a thing, and seriously being serious without preaching or being sanctimonious.

Some of the camera work/angles reminded of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. Some of the colour palettes might have inspired them, too - but this show might have taken some tips from (the original) Twin Peaks.

Rand Paul (the politician) currently sports the identical haircut of the douche-in-chief early villain (Logan?) of this point of the show.
posted by porpoise at 7:28 PM on September 19, 2017


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