Veronica Mars Review/Recap

Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough
First of all, my weekly rant at UPN30--your decision to wait and air Veronica Mars on Saturday instead of pre-empting a repeat of The Simpsons or Andy Griffith makes no sense. But then, to show how truely unimaginitive your programming people must be, the same episode of Veronica Mars airs back-to-back on Saturday evening. Someone down in the programming department must have been out to lunch or just not paying attention when that decision was made!

Thankfully, I won't have to gripe this week, since we're skipping the basketball coverage for new Veronica Mars goodness.

Can I get an "amen" from the crowd?

(Update: Looks like I spoke too soon...seems the idiots at UPN 30 are delaying Veronica Mars yet again this week. Guys--this s*** needs to stop. )

At least the episode this week proved to be worth the wait.

And it was a deceptive little episode. "Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough" was one of those episodes in which not a lot happened from the standpoint of moving the plot forward. Instead, it was an episode that was built on all the characters and what we've come to know and love or hate about all of them this year. It seemed like every supporting character outside of the Mayor, his daughter and Sheriff Lamb made an on-screen appearance in this one. Now, you'd think that in a show that hits as many characters as this one does, that it would seem a bit convoluted or even like the show was juggling too much.

But damn if Rob Thomas isn't good. I mean, we're talking Joss Whedon-type good in putting charaters in play and then sitting back and watching the reactions by all of them. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

In a lot of ways, this reminded me a bit of this week's Battlestar Galactica. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

The premise is simple one. It's winter carnival time and the seniors are raising money for the senior trip. Veronica is asked to watch the cash box with close to $12,000 in it. In the two minutes she watches it, it vanishes. Veronica is not a prime suspect but there are a ton of potential suspects out there. As it turns out, there were quite a few culprits with their hands in the cash drawer and all of them had a reason for doing what they did. And it all made sense. I love it when a good mystery comes together in such a satifsying way. Veronica Mars made all the tangents flow together effortlessly over the course of the hour. And for a show that set us up to not like Jackie to start with, it's creating some ambivilant feelings now. Suddenly Jackie's in the same boat Veronica was and seeing how she responds is interesting. Also, to see Veronica and Jackie form some kind of unusual bond was a nice touch. And let's give it up for Wallace for showing some class in the one scene he was in.

I loved seeing Veronica turn the tables on the snooty teacher who kept insulting she and Jackie. And then we come to see how Weevil uses the situation to his advantage as well, also putting his hand in the cookie jar as it were. Brilliant move. It's interesting to see Weevil now as a rogue player in the drama that is unfolding. He's been cast out by his group and can now go after both sides, which should be interesting.

And meanwhile, Terrance Cook hires Keith to help clear his name. Watching Keith slowly work the confession he wanted out of cook was nicely done. To hear that Terrance Cook threw a game of the ALCS was an interesting twist (and was anyone else reminded of the Pete Rose still used on Friday's Arrested Development when this came up?). Interesting to see how Cook is wiling to confess all of his sins but this is the one that he's most hesistant to bring up. He wants to protect his legacy and get into the Hall of Fame. But yet, he wouldn't kill a busload of students. I still say the new mayor is somehow behind it--his having Terrance there the day of the crash to be a patsy makes more and more sense. I'm willing to bet it has something to do with the plan to incorporate Neptune. How and why are still out there, but it feels like that's the direction the show is moving.