dhmac

After hearing all of the praise for the show Veronica Mars, I rented Disc 1 of the First Season of the show. Now, after seeing the first 4 episodes of the show on this disc, I'm severely underwhelmed.

Kristen Bell is good in her role as the "sassy" main character, but I don't buy the "She's an outcast" stuff the show keeps trying to float. The gang in the show is so Made-for-TV that they are about as believable as a gang as West Side Story's Jets and Sharks. And the show sunk to a low with a cameo appearance by Paris Hilton in an episode (what were they thinking with that?). The show must get better than the modern teenybopper "Nancy Drew" vibe it basically has in these first 4 episodes to earn all the praise it gets. So at what point does the show get better?

Patman

Keep watching, and don't be surprised when you can't help yourself to the next episode, and then the next episode....

LorenzoL

This is a UPN show so the budget is not there and thus the made for TV feel of the show. However, in terms of writing and acting, this show is second to none.

If you can stick with this show until the end of season 1, you won't be disappointed of the season finale.

Merkin Muffley

It really hits its stride about halfway through Season 1.

Draven

My wife and I were hooked from the first episode, so I can't really advise you on this issue. Sounds like it might not be for you.

riley_dude

If you dont like it after the first disc then I wouldn't go any farther. I was hooked from the first couple of episodes with the interesting mystery and Kristen Bell and watched it all withink two weeks.

Jimmy James

Wait for the Christmas episode. If you're not hooked by the end of that one, it may not be for you. The first few episodes were uneven even though I loved the show from episode one.

Doughboy

I disagree. I didn't get hooked probably til around halfway through Season 1. I don't think there was a particular episode that got me, but I started really getting into the writing, acting, and plotlines of the show. Alls I know is I went through the 2nd half of Season 1 a lot quicker than I did the 1st.

slop101

It's not like they cast Hilton as a sweet honor-student.

I thought she was perfectly cast as the spoiled uber-bitch that gets her much deserved cumuppance.

I don't see a problem.

fiver

I can sympathize with the OP. My wife loves the show completely. I was underwhelmed from the first episode and, whlie I got to like it more as it went on, I think the show has some problems that become more evident as the show goes on.

1) I like Veronica, Logan, Weevil, Wallace, Mac,and Veronica's dad.
2) I don't like Duncan, Lilly, Jackie (current season) at all and that dislike really dampens my enjoyment of the show since they show up pretty often and are pretty integral to the plots of their respective seasons.
3) The dialogue between Veronica and Logan, Veronica and Weevil, and Logan and Weevil is second to none...very funny. It's hard not to like the show during these interchanges.
4) I don't like plots that depend on 'hipness' that's 10 years old (purity test episode). There were a couple of these types of episodes during season 1 that were painful to sit through and I'm not sure I would want to again.
5) The season finale really didn't live up to the tension built up in preceding episodes (in my opinion).
6) While the first season packed a lot of information into each episode, it never felt strained to me and it felt like the show was eventually going to build to answers to most of the questions that were raised...in Season 2, I feel that the show is straining at the edges with new plot elements and abandoning ones that were started at the beginning of the season...hopefully it's able to answer all of them but I'm really not enjoying S2 now as much as I did at the beginning of season 2.


Of course, I don't have a whole lot of shows to catch every week: Battlestar Galactica, That '70s show (almost ready to cancel if it weren't the last season), everybody hates chris, west wing, lost, amazing race (coming back soon), and Veronica Mars so I'll probably keep watching since my wife will definitely watch it.

Michael

Ayre

"5) The season finale really didn't live up to the tension built up in preceding episodes (in my opinion)."

Wow ... I thought the first season finale far exceed any of my expectations.

The show hinges 90% on the charisma of Kristen Bell. Her father was perfectly cast. The show is at its best when they are on screen together. Weevil and Logan are great as well and really give the cast depth. Sherriff Lamb has shown marked improvment in the second season.

Unfortunately, The stories are nearly drama-less. As I never seem to care about anyone other than the mains above. The plots are often trendy, but slick. The dialog snappy and clever. Storylines are tossed around and sometimes forgotten or hastily concluded.

Back to my 90% Kristen Bell. If you don not enjoy watching Veronica, then you probably will not like Veronica Mars. Without her the show is one hit song away from being the One Tree Hill Detective Agency.

onebyone

I agree with this. For many reasons, it blew me away, but the main reason is because we got to see intricate storytelling actually play out. So many shows with mysteries go on and on and on and we come to doubt that they even know what they are on about. Not here. Suddenly, odd things that annoyed me earlier in the season made perfect sense and I was so happy they hadn't jerked me around like so many other shows.

It took me about eight episodes to be completely sold on the show. It was about then that it hit me that these writers might really know what they are doing. When I trusted them, then I really let myself be hooked in.

Season 2 and I are a bit more iffy though, but we will see how it works out.

rmick

I remember reading the hype when the show came out, watching the first two episodes, and giving up. It just felt so contrived, and the episodic nature of the compact mysteries were just not holding an interest for me.

Then, when the show came to DVD there was that second wave of hype, and I decided to just give it another chance. I was not disappointed. I think the show is definitely slow to begin, and I agree that I don't know exactly when I was hooked, but when I was I couldn't stop watching. I'd stay up late into the night just to finish another disc and finally solve the mystery of who murdered Lily Kane. The episodic nature of the show actually begins to serve as one of its strong points, because while there's the overarching mystery, in which everything amazingly falls into place by the end, there's something satisfying about a conclusion in each episode.

wmansir

Regarding the West Side Story gang, I agree with you there. Although I like the dialog with Weevil, I don't buy the tough guy act, either individually or from the gang. I think it's partially due to miscasting the actor and the writer letting us see his soft inside too quickly to develop a true tough guy character.

To their credit, in season 2 the introduce a rival gang with a scene that definitely lets you know they are badasses. Of course it helps that they aren't made up of high school students, their leader is over 5'3'', and they don't wear matching "gang jackets". Although I do have to deduct a point from their choreographed dance score for that last one.

kitkat

I was also underwhelmed by the first episode, but I was hooked by the end of the first disc.

fiver

Regarding my statement about the season 1 finale of VM, (SPOILERS MAJOR):



Without the chemistry of the actors playing Veronica, Weevil, Logan, and VM's dad this show wouldn't be nearly as talked about. These four are just great together.

Michael

Josh-da-man

Yeah, I agree that the show doesn't really start to pick up until the middle of the first season, though I can't pinpoint an episode where it happens. It's mostly just a slow build toward the revelation about the truth of Lily's murder.

Regarding the season finale, I was a bit underwhelmed (I won't name the killer here, but will discuss generalities about it)

Rypro 525

actually the big hint i got (by mistake , i found out who the killer was before i saw it on dvd, so this little "hint" gives away the ending.


i also read online somewhere that the producers did have a backup plan if somehow the reveal of the killer was leaked before the episode aired.

wmansir

Josh,

Jimmy James

Anyone who didn't like the VM resolution should find a fan of Nip/Tuck and ask them to explain the mystery and its resolution. You'd soon learn you have little to complain about.

LorenzoL

Yes, it was revealed that the backup plan was to have be Lily's killer.
For me, this would have been too obvious and an easy way out.

I kind of like the fact that I didn't think that it came from left field at all.

Flave

How do you do that googly eyed thing? Can someone please edit my post and put a couple of thousand of them here please?

If you didn't get hooked after the first episode, this show is not for you. Mail back your DVD and never watch again. Really.

Ayre

"I didn't think that it came from left field at all."

I actually guessed it when Veronica and Logan were on the beach arguing. I think it was the episode previous to the finale. It just popped into my head and was totally unrelated to scene. But something about the video tape scene bothered me and during that scene *ding* it all made sense.

Easy

Strong agreement. I watched the first disc again last night and enjoyed it all over again. If you don't like the first disc forget it and move on.

dhmac

I continued to rent the discs from NetFlix and have found the point when I think the show really starts to take off: Episode #5 "You Think You Know Somebody" (i.e. the episode with the stolen car with the pinata). The mystery of the episode was good, and it was great to see how Veronica ended things with her new boyfriend.

Although I still don't care for her friend Wallace (and his annoying mom in the episode with her didn't help improve that view), I've definitely warmed up to the character of Weevil. So I've finished the 2nd disc and the episodes I've liked best of the show, so far, are the purity test one ("Like A Virgin") and the Xmas episode ("An Echolls Family Christmas").

(As for the 1st 4 episodes, I'm sure they are better on repeat viewing after being already familar with the show and its characters. But as the initial introduction to the show, they are definitely underwhelming.)