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"Veronica Mars" Season 4 - Post-Viewing Thoughts and Reflections
So I waited a couple of days to write this, mostly so I had time to fully digest the story and my thoughts on it. In many ways, it was a tonal and structural continuation of the novels, but in other ways it grew past them and ended one era of the show while laying the groundwork for another.
Before I get to the spoilery stuff under the cut I will say this: I unabashedly loved this season. The story and the characters felt alive and with purpose, and the actors didn't feel like they were going through the motions of a revival cash grab like so many recent revivals. Even though I've mostly either liked or been fine with the revivals of stuff I have seen (Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development, Will & Grace - though I ended up dropping the latter), most tend to fall into the trap of trying to pander to fan expectations or correcting what they see as the "flaws" in the original story rather than progress it in any meaningful way. The fourth season of Veronica Mars pays tribute to the past without being beholden to it, and allows the characters to experience growth and exist as fully-formed beings in the year 2019.
As far as specifics go, I do have some pretty strong thoughts...
(SPOILERS for VERONICA MARS SEASON 4 under the cut)
I guess I should start with the elephant in the room: The death of Logan. I had actually been spoiled that he was going to die in the finale, but I had remained unspoiled for the details. My big fear going in was that his character would somehow be regressed or it would negate the arc his character has been on for the entirety of the franchise. Luckily, that did not happen. Logan ended his run on the show having essentially completed a massive and transformative redemption arc, and his death and the manner of it in no way diminishes his journey and the role he played in Veronica's life and the world as a whole. In fact, the nearing "completion" of the character was his main narrative thrust this season as it bumped against Veronica's arc, which alternated between her fighting for growth but regressing into her worst traits from when she was a teenager. I found this extremely compelling, and while Veronica seemed to settle on some specific direction after the time jump at the very end, it is clear her arc is not over and has essentially began anew with the events of this season.
I've seen criticism from fans that the show only finds Veronica interesting if she's miserable/experiencing trauma/sexually available, all of which I think are pretty unfounded. I understand the decision to kill off Logan as the only way to really keep him engaged with the show is to either have his relationship with Veronica become timultuous (basically a rehash of season 3, regressing both characters), Have him be a detached/unengaged presence who just sits around at home offering quips five minutes every episode (which I suspect some fans wanted, but would've been a disservice to Dohring to not give him anything to work with), or have him constantly away with the army and never show up on screen (which would've been unsatisfying from both a narrative and shipping standpoint). The idea isn't that Veronica's boring now because she's married. It's that if she's married they have to devote a significant part of her screentime to her marriage, and if it's not generating story or conflict that is a problem for the structure of the story. It's easier to brush it aside when it's a side character like Wallace, but Veronica's the main character so not addressing it isn't an option.
(Also not get too much deeper into this, but I've seen comparisons to shows like Bones, Castle, or The X-Files and I don't think those parallels hold water. Those shows are very specifically structured around the relationship between two characters. Veronica Mars is specifically structured around Veronica, not Veronica and Logan's relationship. The premise of the show does not fall apart if he is not present.)
As for Veronica, I found the backsliding and further exploration of the more unsavory elements of her character fascinating. The original series touched on this too, but I think for a lot of the audience it was masked by the fact that A) she was a teenager and all teenagers are kind of awful (seasons 1-2) and/or B) standards and practices knowing its a teen show and they can't make the audience turn on her even when she is being shitty (season 3). The movie breaks a bit from this mold as while it doesn't shy away from the seedy elements and themes of the franchise, it has all the characters operating at the height of their powers (both because it was a movie funded by fans and because there was a good chance it was going to be the franchise's swan song). By opening up her flaws and putting them under a microscope, it gives the show a place to go as it forms a path forward. It's not that Veronica doesn't deserve to be settled and happy, it's that she's either spent most of her life throwing herself into detective work and the corresponding lifestyle in order to deal with her problems (most of the time she's on screen) or actively running away from her problems and refusing to deal with them altogether (the time gap between season 3 and the movie).
I thought the mixture of the new and old characters was done well, and I found myself invested in everyone's stories to some degree. Of the returning cast, Weevil's role felt the meatiest and the most fulfilling, and he still functions as a really compelling foil for Veronica and I hope we see more of him. I really liked Keith's story though I had some issues with the neat and sudden resolution to it, and I'm interested to see where the show takes him since he doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Really, the biggest question mark I have is where the show will go from here. If there is a season 5, which I'm optimistic there will be, I think the promise of "less soap" is more an indication that from now on the show's character arcs will be structured in more succinct season-long sections rather than the more sprawling arcs more common on network shows and seen during the show's original run. I think the next season will deal directly with Veronica reeling from loss, but won't necessarily incorporate elements of her mythology from season 1 in order to make it larger in scope. Inform it, yes, play an active role in the narrative, I don't think so.
I could go on much longer, talking about how I thought Patton Oswalt was grossly phenomenal and how I hope they find ways to shoehorn Kirby Howell-Baptiste and J. K. Simmons into future seasons. But for now I'm gonna end this on the note that I loved this season and I'm really optimistic about the future of this show, and I hope some of this season's detractors and willing to give it a fair shot.
Before I get to the spoilery stuff under the cut I will say this: I unabashedly loved this season. The story and the characters felt alive and with purpose, and the actors didn't feel like they were going through the motions of a revival cash grab like so many recent revivals. Even though I've mostly either liked or been fine with the revivals of stuff I have seen (Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development, Will & Grace - though I ended up dropping the latter), most tend to fall into the trap of trying to pander to fan expectations or correcting what they see as the "flaws" in the original story rather than progress it in any meaningful way. The fourth season of Veronica Mars pays tribute to the past without being beholden to it, and allows the characters to experience growth and exist as fully-formed beings in the year 2019.
As far as specifics go, I do have some pretty strong thoughts...
(SPOILERS for VERONICA MARS SEASON 4 under the cut)
I guess I should start with the elephant in the room: The death of Logan. I had actually been spoiled that he was going to die in the finale, but I had remained unspoiled for the details. My big fear going in was that his character would somehow be regressed or it would negate the arc his character has been on for the entirety of the franchise. Luckily, that did not happen. Logan ended his run on the show having essentially completed a massive and transformative redemption arc, and his death and the manner of it in no way diminishes his journey and the role he played in Veronica's life and the world as a whole. In fact, the nearing "completion" of the character was his main narrative thrust this season as it bumped against Veronica's arc, which alternated between her fighting for growth but regressing into her worst traits from when she was a teenager. I found this extremely compelling, and while Veronica seemed to settle on some specific direction after the time jump at the very end, it is clear her arc is not over and has essentially began anew with the events of this season.
I've seen criticism from fans that the show only finds Veronica interesting if she's miserable/experiencing trauma/sexually available, all of which I think are pretty unfounded. I understand the decision to kill off Logan as the only way to really keep him engaged with the show is to either have his relationship with Veronica become timultuous (basically a rehash of season 3, regressing both characters), Have him be a detached/unengaged presence who just sits around at home offering quips five minutes every episode (which I suspect some fans wanted, but would've been a disservice to Dohring to not give him anything to work with), or have him constantly away with the army and never show up on screen (which would've been unsatisfying from both a narrative and shipping standpoint). The idea isn't that Veronica's boring now because she's married. It's that if she's married they have to devote a significant part of her screentime to her marriage, and if it's not generating story or conflict that is a problem for the structure of the story. It's easier to brush it aside when it's a side character like Wallace, but Veronica's the main character so not addressing it isn't an option.
(Also not get too much deeper into this, but I've seen comparisons to shows like Bones, Castle, or The X-Files and I don't think those parallels hold water. Those shows are very specifically structured around the relationship between two characters. Veronica Mars is specifically structured around Veronica, not Veronica and Logan's relationship. The premise of the show does not fall apart if he is not present.)
As for Veronica, I found the backsliding and further exploration of the more unsavory elements of her character fascinating. The original series touched on this too, but I think for a lot of the audience it was masked by the fact that A) she was a teenager and all teenagers are kind of awful (seasons 1-2) and/or B) standards and practices knowing its a teen show and they can't make the audience turn on her even when she is being shitty (season 3). The movie breaks a bit from this mold as while it doesn't shy away from the seedy elements and themes of the franchise, it has all the characters operating at the height of their powers (both because it was a movie funded by fans and because there was a good chance it was going to be the franchise's swan song). By opening up her flaws and putting them under a microscope, it gives the show a place to go as it forms a path forward. It's not that Veronica doesn't deserve to be settled and happy, it's that she's either spent most of her life throwing herself into detective work and the corresponding lifestyle in order to deal with her problems (most of the time she's on screen) or actively running away from her problems and refusing to deal with them altogether (the time gap between season 3 and the movie).
I thought the mixture of the new and old characters was done well, and I found myself invested in everyone's stories to some degree. Of the returning cast, Weevil's role felt the meatiest and the most fulfilling, and he still functions as a really compelling foil for Veronica and I hope we see more of him. I really liked Keith's story though I had some issues with the neat and sudden resolution to it, and I'm interested to see where the show takes him since he doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Really, the biggest question mark I have is where the show will go from here. If there is a season 5, which I'm optimistic there will be, I think the promise of "less soap" is more an indication that from now on the show's character arcs will be structured in more succinct season-long sections rather than the more sprawling arcs more common on network shows and seen during the show's original run. I think the next season will deal directly with Veronica reeling from loss, but won't necessarily incorporate elements of her mythology from season 1 in order to make it larger in scope. Inform it, yes, play an active role in the narrative, I don't think so.
I could go on much longer, talking about how I thought Patton Oswalt was grossly phenomenal and how I hope they find ways to shoehorn Kirby Howell-Baptiste and J. K. Simmons into future seasons. But for now I'm gonna end this on the note that I loved this season and I'm really optimistic about the future of this show, and I hope some of this season's detractors and willing to give it a fair shot.