Veronica Mars (Season 1)
UPN
Rating:


The greatest mystery of the television season wasn't on Wisteria Lane, it was in Neptune High, and the best examination of the sociopolitics of high school is no longer "The O.C.," it's "Veronica Mars."

For the uninitiated, creator Rob Thomas' "Veronica Mars" may seem like just another blonde-haired heroine for fanboys to fawn over like the dearly departed "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." "Buffy" rightfully gets name-checked a great deal in connection to "Veronica Mars." Geek pop-god Joss Whedon used his demon slayer as a jumping off point for examining the harsh realm of young adulthood. Likewise, "Veronica Mars'" first season was propelled by three mysteries, all of which simply opened the door for sensitive ruminations on what friends, family and sex mean to teenagers.

Nothing less than the greatest teen noir ever told, the first season of "Veronica Mars" follows the title character (Kristen Bell) as she sets out to solve who killed her best friend Lily Kane (Amanda Seyfried), why her mother Lianne (Corinne Bohrer) has disappeared and who drugged and raped her at a party last year. The average series would use any of these plot points over the course of a season as a callous bid for high ratings while only shallowly exploring their ripple effects. These events have already begun to take their emotional toll on Veronica by the time the series begins, and the after effects include her ostracization from her boyfriend and Lily's brother Duncan (Teddy Dunn) and Lily's former boyfriend Logan (Jason Dohring), but more than anything she has used the tragedies of her life as a furnace to become a stronger woman.

That's not to say that Veronica is hard. As embodied by the talented Bell, Veronica is akin to "Dracula's" Mina Harker, a woman with the mind of a man and the compassion of a woman, especially when it comes to her private investigator father Keith (Enrico Colantoni) and her best friend Wallace (Percy Daggs III).

Veronica spends the season solving minor cases with surprising solutions and collecting small clues about Lilly's killer that implicate Duncan, his wealthy father Jake (Kyle Secor), gang member Weevil (Francis Capra), Logan and his actor father Aaron (Harry Hamlin). Like the investigation into Laura Palmer's murder on "Twin Peaks," every new piece of the puzzle proves how little Veronica new about her best friend. Revelations that Lily was cheating on Logan with Weevil and Aaron are refreshingly handled with an absence of judgment on Veronica's part. It turns out that Aaron killed Lily because he was afraid she would ruin his career after she stole his hidden sex tapes. Aaron was brought to justice by Veronica and her father during what was not only the most thrilling hour of television this year, but one of the best thrillers in any medium.

Perhaps by design, the most devastating revelations came from more real world mysteries. Veronica finally found her mother — an alcoholic whose affair with Jake Kane may mean Veronica is Duncan's sister (more on that in a moment) — only to force her to leave so that she can never hurt the family again with her drinking and deceit. More overwhelmingly, Veronica discovered the identity of her rapist: Duncan. The night of the fateful party, Veronica and Duncan were both drugged and Duncan mistakenly believed that Veronica wanted to have sex. Duncan fled because his parents believed Veronica was Duncan's sister. There is no other show on television so daring that it can acknowledge the flaws of the nuclear family and the ambiguity of sexuality — Veronica and her father may very well be better off without Lianne and Duncan is distraught when Veronica tells him that their unspoken night together was rape.

For all the fear and trembling, the emotional high point of the season came when Veronica eagerly signed away all claims to the Kane family fortune. Keith then burst into tears and told Veronica that a DNA proves that she's a Mars. The only sobbing heavier than Keith's and Veronica's was that of fans.

Though many mysteries have been solved, more have been left open. Logan, who has fallen in love with Veronica and changed his ways, appeared close to jumping off a bridge after Veronica accused him of killing Lilly. His plunge was interrupted by the arrival of Weevil's gang out to kill Logan for murdering Lilly. There's still the matter of what will become of Veronica's mother. And the last scene featured a smiling Veronica opening the door to an unseen visitor. Thankfully UPN has renewed the unjustly low-rated show for another season, ensuring that Veronica will have another year to solve that most enigmatic of mysteries: life as a teenager.

Posted Sunday, July 3, 2005

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/tv/veronica.mars.season1