If you are a marshmallow, who like, me, was super pumped about the new season appearing on HULU, 5 years after the movie we funded and 12 years after the abrupt and heart wrenching end of the third season but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, you may want to come back later, after you’ve seen it because there are tons of spoilers ahead but before you go, let me just say one thing:
Run!! Run for your life and don’t ever look back!! If, like me, you loved this show with an unreasonable passion that rivals any Trekkie out there who wears his pointed ears every chance he gets, forget you ever heard rumors of a fourth season of Veronica Mars. I beg of you; go watch the movie again and forget you ever heard of this new endeavor.
My sisters, daughters and nieces are all Marshmallows with me. A huge group of us went to the movie together and we loved it so much we cried. We were thrilled with the news that a fourth season of the show, featuring our favorite characters, all grown up, would be streaming this summer. More than once, we looked at each other and worried “what if they wreck it?”
We’ve lived through Star Wars. We know how badly a beloved franchise can be ruined. But I had faith. I reassured them, saying “They know why we love the show. They know what we want. They came through for us with the movie: trust Rob Thomas.”
I assumed the creator of the show understood that while we loved watching an intelligent female character with an impressive skill set solve intricate mysteries, the cases were really just a frame work for the fascinating, multi layered characters he wrote and their complicated relationships with each other, especially that of Veronica and Logan, the most painfully romantic courtship since Shakespeare coined the term ‘star crossed’.
I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG.
There was a lot about the new season I liked. A lot!! For instance, I liked seeing our friends and heroes as grownups. I loved seeing Wallace happily married, successful, a father and being a high school basketball coach seemed destined. I loved seeing Dick as an actor! A pretty face on an empty head; like Ryan Hansen himself, he seems destined for life on the B list.
Most of all, I loved the trajectory of Logan Echolls. From his teen years as an emotionally and physically traumatized, substance abusing delinquent to naval aviator to a career in military intelligence; like Wallace, it seemed written in the stars. Despite being introduced to us as a psychopath, we’ve known since episode 2 (Credit Where Credit is Due) that behind that scowl, Logan was just as smart as Veronica. He solved that case in a fraction of the time she did with nothing more to go on than an accusation and his girlfriend’s phone. We’ve known since episode 7 (the girl next door) that his sense of justice is just as finely honed as Veronica’s.
In Season 2 he gave up bimbos and in Season 3 he discarded his overindulgence in alcohol and other substances. We watched him work like a fiend to try to become someone worthy of Veronica, whom he loved with all his heart from day 1, which, incidentally is when Weevil smacked the shit out of him on the beach. To avoid getting his friends into a rumble, he didn’t even try to fight back.
Pretty sure Weevil wouldn’t last 10 seconds with him now.
I LOVED action hero Logan.
In fact, after I finished this new abomination of a season, my niece Meg asked me if I regretted preordering the season but I said No! I’m going to want to watch Logan emerging from the waves and Logan beating up a room full of hillbillies over and over again!
I liked that Logan suggested taking Veronica's name when they got married.
So yeah, there was a lot I liked in Season 4. So much so that I was willing to overlook what I didn’t like.
For instance, I don't care for the new version of the theme song and I thought the opening graphics were cheap and cheesy looking.
I was bothered a little by the early allusions to Logan’s problem with jealousy. WTF?? It was VERONICA’s unreasonable jealousy that tore them apart, not Logan’s! In fact, although Lilly alluded to Logan’s jealousy (season 1: Lord of the Bling) we know that Lilly was throwing shade on Logan to cover her own serial infidelity. Logan is the guy who told Veronica she didn’t need to tell him anything if she didn’t want to (season 1: A Trip to the Dentist) and that we’re all entitled to our romantic images! As for him beating up Piz, that wasn’t jealousy. Yes, of course he was jealous of Piz but if that was all it was, he’d have beaten Piz to a pulp the weekend Veronica hid out in Piz and Wallace’s dorm (season 3: Of Vice and Men) when he suspected Veronica of cheating on him with Radio Waif. What actually spurred his assault on Piz was more akin to PTSD due to the third lurid video of a girl he loved going viral. That epic beating took place one year after Logan committed a felony to keep the sex tape of Lilly and Aaron off line. Don’t even try to pretend jealousy was the motivating factor.
Worst of all, I didn’t like Veronica.
Her trajectory has been the opposite of Wallace and Logan’s. She seems stuck in the amber of her teen trauma, unable to move on. She hasn’t grown one step in 17 years and it doesn’t look good on her.
I didn’t like Veronica in Season 3, either. Jealous, unforgiving and mean is not a good look. We forgave her because that was a tough year: her father had an affair with a married woman and her favorite teacher turned out to be a slime ball (that’s the second time that happened. The show never addresses the fact that she’s a bad judge of character.) and she took all her frustration and disgust out on Logan. But I thought she recovered in the movie and I liked her again. One of the best things about Veronica is that she follows the evidence, can admit it when she’s wrong and even apologize on occasion, as she did to Susan Knight and Carrie Bishop (season 1: Mars vs. Mars)
In season 4, she has regressed.
First, she mocks Logan for seeing a therapist. Here’s a guy who was physically abused his entire childhood, was surrounded by murder and mayhem, took refuge in violence and chemical abuse, both parents committed suicide (officially) and was accused of murder twice before graduating from high school, lost two girl friends to murder and was accused of both and she makes fun of him for seeking help. What the fuck?
Especially given their history!! In the summer before senior year, when she dumped him (Normal is the Watchword, ep 1 season 2) she accused him of enjoying the violent situations he found himself in yet now, as a mature adult, she calls him a watered down version of himself.
"You say you want Bruce Banner," he accuses her "But you really want the big green guy."
Give that man a prize.
One morning, after angry sex, she comments on how great it was and he says "I'm glad it was good for you." To which she answers with...nothing. Because being good for Veronica is all Veronica cares about. At this point, I began to wonder if the banter in their opening scene was actually banter at all.
He asks her repeatedly to come to therapy with him and she refuses. She never seems to get an inkling that maybe something is wrong, she just belittles him and all he asks from her. I had a feeling his therapist didn't want to advise him to head for the hills without at least meeting the monster he thinks he's in love with.
She is a toxic girlfriend.
Not only does she turn down his proposal, she resents him for it, thinking he only did so to get some kind of psychological upper hand. Yes, back in the pilot, Veronica declares that she’s never getting married. She was 17 years old. It’s not a good omen when your character is emotionally stuck in the same place she was 17 years ago. Veronica is actually worse. At a dinner with Wallace and his wife and baby, she keeps her nose stuck in her phone, ignoring her best and oldest friends like a rude child. It's obvious that Logan wants the family he never had while all Veronica aspires to is the adolescence she missed out on after Lilly's death.
She's regressed professionally, too. As a teen, she was intrepid, ruthless and creative about following the evidence and digging up leads. 17 year old Veronica would have figured out the serial bombing in a day or two. 34 year old Veronica didn’t seem to care nearly as much about catching the bomber(s) as getting to hang out with the cool kids. The cool kid being the black, nose ring wearing British chick who owns a dive bar. It was painful to watch. Veronica got hammered and wasted more often in the few weeks of spring break, while ostensibly investigating a serial bomber, than she did during her entire freshman year at Hearst. For a woman who worries that she's genetically predisposed to alcoholism, this behavior does not bode well.
None of her behavior did.
What was charmingly snarky in a 17 year old girl, in a 34 year old woman is just a stubborn, self-absorbed twat.
Case in point: Her treatment of Weevil.
After getting shot in the movie, he apparently took a deal to make the whole thing go away, even though Veronica worked really hard on getting him off. There were a few novels that filled the gaps between the movie and this new season but the first was so bad I never read any more of them so I don’t know what went down exactly but now Veronica’s pissed that all her work was for nothing. Because Weevil’s life is all about how hard Veronica works, isn’t it?
Everything is all about Veronica, all the time. Again; what we can put up with from a 17 year old child is really irritating in an adult.
I knew something bad was going to happen from the less than elated reaction of my fellow marshmallows who finished the season before I did. I was fully prepared for this bitchy, stupid and slow witted Veronica to dump Logan or for him to dump her. I wanted him to dump her. Some of the best scenes in the entire show are the ones where Logan speaks Truth to Veronica. Even though, as he points out early on, that doesn't always work out well for him.
The scene on the beach at the end of season one, where Logan tells Keith “She’s all yours”. (talk about prophetic)
The scene at the alterna-prom where he delivers the Epic speech.
The scene at Hearst when he dumps her, having gotten fed up with her treating him like a criminal.
Yeah, I was ready for Logan to dump Veronica. In fact, a small part of me was bracing for him not to show at the courthouse when they got married. I figured, Logan and Veronica were made to fall apart and fall together, ad infinitum.
I was NOT ready for the ultimate, slap in the face, big middle finger that we Marshmallows actually got from Rob Thomas.
Logan dies.
HE DIES.
THE WHOLE REASON WE FUNDED THE MOVIE AND SUPPORTED THIS SHOW FOR FIFTEEN YEARS GETS ERASED IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE.
WHAT THE FUCK????
To add insult to injury, Logan doesn’t even get a heroic death.
The guy who turned himself in to get Weevil back in school, the guy who beat up an ATF agent to rescue Veronica from a suspected abductor, the guy who, unarmed, faced down Beaver on the roof of the Neptune Grand, the guy who vandalized a squad car so he could beat Mercer to a pulp in the holding cell, the guy who got in a shouting match with Keith without betraying Veronica's confidence, the guy who pulled a gun on Liam Fitzpatrick to get Veronica out of the River Styx in one piece dies alone in the street trying to avoid a parking ticket.
Just writing that stoked my anger back into the full flame of rage.
Could we Marshmallows have gotten a bigger “FUCK YOU!” from Rob Thomas?
I don’t see how.
Then, the finale scene features one of Veronica’s voiceovers in which she complains about losing her rent controlled seaside apartment 'cause apparently she really wanted to stay IN THE PLACE BESIDE WHICH HER HUSBAND WAS BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS.
Bits of his DNA would be floating in the air of that alley for years but I guess you’ll put up with a lot for cheap beach front, am I right?
And that LAME voice message from Logan was such transparent pandering to the whole #metoo movement it set my teeth on edge. Not only was it nowhere near the standards of the boy who delivered the Epic speech while drunk, it was unremittingly STUPID.
Guess what, Hollywood? The real world thinks it’s weird to want to marry someone you DON’T RESPECT.
I’m so angry.
I’m also puzzled. What kind of an idiot thinks it’s a good idea to kill off his most interesting and far and away most popular character?
I’ve heard some explanations. I’ve heard that RT(a curse upon his head) said he didn’t know what else he could do with Logan. Then hire someone on your writing staff with a broader scope of imagination than you.
I’ve heard that RT (a curse upon his head) doesn’t think there’s an audience for a female character who is both good at her job and happy in her personal life. Wow. Misogyny much?
I’ve heard that RT (a curse upon his head) needed to kill Logan so the show could morph into something new. Killing Keith would’ve done that without ripping the still beating hearts out of your fan base.
I read one interview where RT (a curse upon his head) actually said he needed to kill Logan to save the show.
YOU DON'T KILL THE BABY TO SAVE THE BATHWATER!!!
He didn’t need to kill Logan. He could have sent him overseas and had him declared missing, presumed dead. That would have appropriately traumatized both Veronica and the fans without ending all hope and pissing all over the legacy of the character.
If Rob Thomas (a curse upon his head) wanted to write a different show, he should have written a different show. I would have watched it. I watched every episode of iZombie and Party Down. But instead, his exploited those of us who loved this show enough to crowd fund his movie and then he utterly betrayed us.
If he doesn’t know what to do with Logan, I do.
Did Season 4 wreck the show?
It’s not just wrecked, it’s totaled.
How am I supposed to enjoy the first three seasons and the movie ever again, knowing Logan ends as a pink mist in a back alley?
As for a season 5…
I’m not interested in watching the sloppy sleuthing of an arrogant, nasty, self-centered, emotionally stunted daddy’s girl who got her awesome, romantic, deeply layered, multi-faceted, action hero husband killed because she was too stupid to check her car after driving a serial bomber around in it all day.
So no.
I mean, if you ate a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings and then were told the gravy was made with dirty toilet water, would you stick around for dessert?