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Veronica Mars

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Veronica Mars
File:VeronicaMars-S2-cast.jpg
The season two cast of Veronica Mars
Created byRob Thomas
StarringKristen Bell
Percy Daggs III
Jason Dohring
Francis Capra
Ryan Hansen
Michael Muhney
Tina Majorino
Chris Lowell
Julie Gonzalo
and Enrico Colantoni
Opening theme"We Used to Be Friends" by The Dandy Warhols
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes44 (to date)
Production
Executive producersRob Thomas
Joel Silver
Jennifer Gwartz
Danielle Stokdyk
Diane Ruggiero
Running time42 minutes
Original release
NetworkUPN (2004-2006)
The CW (2006-)
ReleaseSeptember 22, 2004 –
present

Veronica Mars is an American teen drama/neo-noir series currently broadcast on UPN. The show stars Kristen Bell as the titular high school student, who moonlights as a private investigator under the wing (and to the chagrin) of her detective father. Said to be a little bit Buffy and a little bit Bogart,[1] the show balances murder mystery, high school drama, and social commentary with considerable sarcasm and offbeat humour, often at the same time.

On May 16, 2006, it was confirmed that Veronica Mars will be part of the new The CW's Fall 2006–2007 lineup once The WB and UPN cease operations in fall 2006.

The third season of the show is set to premiere on October 3, 2006, at 9 pm ET on The CW.

Summary

Veronica Mars was living any teenage girl's dream life in the sunny fictional seaside town of Neptune, California in Balboa County, north of San Diego. Her life changed forever the night her best friend Lilly Kane was murdered. The town felt that the case was closed after Abel Koontz, a former employee of Lilly's father whom he had fired, confessed to the murder -- it all seemed to make sense. However, Veronica's father, local sheriff Keith Mars, suggested the actual murderer was Lilly's father, software billionaire Jake Kane.

This all started a ripple effect on Veronica's life -- she had a problem that was bad enough, and it just got worse after that. Now that Lilly was gone, Veronica had nobody. She was now ostracized by "the 09ers", Neptune High's wealthy "in-crowd" whom she was once a part of -- not because she was wealthy, but only because she was best friends with the Kane's. Days before the murder, Lilly's brother, Duncan Kane, whom Veronica had been dating, dumped her for no apparent reason. About two months later, Veronica was drugged at a party and woke up without her underwear, leading her to believe she was raped. Veronica's mother mysteriously skipped town soon afterwards, leaving her alone with her father.

Veronica's father started a private detective agency after losing his job as sheriff, and she now helps him out with his new job after school. However, she often gets a little TOO involved in the mysteries -- which upset her father, as he worries about her safety like any good father would. Striking a delicate balance between math homework and undercover stakeouts, she struggles to solve the mysteries that have plagued her life over the past year. Turning her grief into fuel, she is determined to outsmart, outmaneuver, and out-snark all those who stand in her way.

Seasons

See the List of Veronica Mars episodes for more information.

The first season centers on Veronica's mission to uncover Lilly's real murderer. However, with every mystery, about three more branch off from it. This is not a problem for Veronica. She always gets down to the bottom of everything no matter what. By the season finale, this and other mysteries surrounding her life are slowly solved. Most episodes advance solving Lilly's murder and contain other mysteries involving Neptune High and her father's cases.

By the beginning of the second season, Veronica has been able to rebuild her life and regain some normalcy. But of course, new mysteries start presenting themselves to her, and she finds it impossible to simply leave them unsolved. The season's primary mystery is what caused a bus full of Neptune High students to go over a cliff at the end of a school field trip, and a secondary one that involved a gang-related murder which her on-off 09er friend, Logan Echolls, was accused of.

In the third season, Veronica will go to college. For the season's length, there will be three self-contained running mysteries, as opposed to one season long mystery. Most episodes will still have the classic "mystery of the week" as well. Each ongoing mystery will end before the next one begins. Rerun episodes will be shown between these three separate arcs [2].

Characters and their players

Main characters

Current

  • Stosh "Piz" Piznarski (Chris Lowell) (season 3-) — Wallace's roommate at Hearst College.
  • Parker (Julie Gonzalo) (season 3-) — Mac's roommate at Hearst College.

Former

Recurring characters

Family
Residents of Neptune
Neptune High
  • Van Clemmons (Duane Daniels) — School Administrator at Neptune High. Sometimes works with Veronica, sometimes against her.
  • Vincent "Butters" Clemmons (Adam Hendershott) — Son of Van Clemmons. Student at Neptune High.
  • Corny (Jonathan Chesner) — Stoner ally of Veronica's.
  • Hector Cortez (Patrick Wolff) — P.C.H. biker, part of Weevil's gang.
  • Tommy "Lucky" Dohanic (James Jordan) — The janitor of Neptune High.
  • Gia Goodman (Krysten Ritter) — Woody Goodman's daughter, student at Neptune High.
  • Hannah Griffith (Jessy Schram) — An '09er student at Neptune High, daughter of Dr. Tom Griffith.
  • Rebecca James (Paula Marshall) — School guidance counselor.
  • Meg Manning (Alona Tal) — Veronica's last remaining '09er friend.
  • Madison Sinclair (Amanda Noret) — Dick's occasional girlfriend, resident bitch.
  • Thumper (James Molina) — P.C.H. biker, part of Weevil's gang.
  • Felix Toombs (Brad Bufanda) — Weevil's right-hand man.
  • Troy Vandegraff (Aaron Ashmore) — Attended Neptune High as an '09er and friend of Duncan's.

Episodes and airings

See List of Veronica Mars episodes

United States

Veronica Mars currently airs summer reruns of season 2 in the United States on UPN on Tuesdays at 9pm ET (next episode listed at the UPN Veronica Mars site) and will retain that time slot on the CW when the third season premieres on October 3, 2006. Because the show will now air as a lead-out following Gilmore Girls instead of various reruns of America's Next Top Model and UPN sitcoms, it is expected that the program will draw stronger ratings now that it will be following a well-established series that, like Veronica Mars, is geared toward a more intellectual audience. [citation needed]

The show is also part of UPN's weekend encore lineup (which also features Top Model) that airs on either Saturday or Sunday, depending on station. It is optional for a UPN station to take these weekend encores, so it is advised to check local listings for this second play. It is currently unknown if this weekend run will be retained under The CW, but the show will not become part of the 'Big Sunday' Sunday afternoon rerun block that is moving from The WB, as that will be filled with encores of the network's Sunday sitcom block.

During the first season the show aired Tuesdays at 9pm ET with low ratings; consistently last in its time slot behind The WB's One Tree Hill (the antithesis of Mars). However, its strong fan base, regular critical praise for its witty writing and strong female protagonist, and the fact that it fit UPN's desired young female viewer demographic, were enough to convince the network to renew the show for a second season. Veronica Mars is the only UPN drama series of the 2004–2005 season to survive into the 2005–2006 season, surviving the cancellation of higher-rated UPN series Kevin Hill and Star Trek: Enterprise.

In July 2005 - August 2005, UPN's corporate sibling CBS also aired repeats of the show on Fridays at 8pm ET, in efforts to increase exposure for the series. The series' pilot episode was originally tested at CBS and almost picked up by the television network. The ratings it scored during its summer 2005 run influenced more audience traction on its home network, and could be seen when the second season began on UPN the following September.

For season 2, the show was moved to Wednesdays at 9pm ET. Toward the end of the fifth cycle of Top Model in December 2005, the show garnered relatively high ratings, including one of its highest rated episodes of the season, "One Angry Veronica." However, the show's ratings fell because of the failure of South Beach, which ended up losing viewers and giving Veronica Mars a weak lead-in. Lost on ABC and FOX's American Idol results show were the dominant shows in the timeslot beginning in the same month, and also contributed to ratings woes for the show. Finally, several UPN stations regularly carried college and NBA basketball games in the winter which often air during the week, causing the show to be pre-empted and then moved to a timeslot by the station during the weekend that was inconvenient for viewers.

By early February, the damage done by all of these factors (mostly South Beach, which continued in a ratings free-fall) forced UPN to take drastic action in order to save Veronica Mars. On February 15, the scheduled new episode was "Versatile Toppings". Two days before, this new episode was substituted with a rerun, and shortly after it was announced that the show would go on hiatus until the beginning of Top Model's new cycle in mid-March. This development met with mixed reactions, with some afraid the show would lose momentum being pulled through February sweeps, and others thankful because the rest of the second season would air uninterrupted and with a much more solid lead-in. The show resumed new episodes on March 15, but still had some ratings struggles because of the domination of the American Idol results show.

UPN had tested reruns on Tuesday night at 9pm ET for a few weeks before the show resumed new Wednesday episodes to see if ratings were stable in that slot. The former Mars timeslot had been a disaster for the network since fall, with both Sex, Love & Secrets and Get This Party Started undeniable failures; both shows ended up dead last in the Nielsen season ratings chart for the 2005-2006 season [3]. Knowing the show might continue to have problems on Wednesday nights, it was decided the series would return to its former Tuesday timeslot on April 11th, 2006 to move away from the Lost/American Idol juggernaut. Ratings then stabilized. A slight improvement overall in ratings led to the show's renewal for a third season.

The show would rank 147th overall out of 155th in the season ratings chart, however the fan base, prestige, and acclaim the show had outweighed the numbers and led to the show's renewal. Individual ratings for original episode broadcasts for season 2 can be found on the individual episode pages.

MTV had an encore run of the series through the first half of the first season, usually on an eight-day delay, airing Wednesdays at 7pm ET.

International

Since Canada's CTV began airing the series in June 2005 and Britain's LivingTV in October 2005, the show has expanded internationally to over thirteen other countries who have joined them. Ratings on CTV were not good after the first season finished, most likely due to poor scheduling on CTV's part. [citation needed] On June 12, 2006, it was announced that Toronto station Sun TV had picked up the rights from CTV to air the series in Canada. The second season premiered on July 18 and July 19, both at 8pm, and will continue to air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at that time. The third season will premiere in simulcast with the CW in the fall (i.e. the third season premiere will likely be on October 3, 2006).

The second season is now showing in the United Kingdom on LivingTV on Thursday nights at 8pm followed by a repeat on Sunday billed as the Veronica Mars Catch-up. There is also a Living TV+1 channel.

The show premiered in Australia on Channel Ten in 2005, at the start of the summer off-season (November 28), initially airing on Monday nights at 7:30pm, before being switched to 7:30pm on Friday nights. After 10 episodes had been aired, Ten advertised the 11th (as opposed to the 22nd) as the season finale, and the show was cancelled, due to consistently low ratings. However, after many pleas and critical praise, the show returned to Friday nights at 9.30pm on June 16th, 2006. According to TV Week magazine, Ten are planning on finishing the first season before continuing on with the second.

The first season of the show has been aired in New Zealand on TV2 (TVNZ) at 7:30pm on Friday Nights. The first season finale screened on December 9, 2005. Television New Zealand has promised to play the second season sometime during 2006, most likely during the winter season of June-October.

The second season is currently re-running in Latin America on TNT Latin America on Tuesdays at 6:00 pm.

The second season is currently airing in the Philippines on ETC Entertainment Central on Wednesdays at 8:00 pm.

The second season is currently airing in Italy on Italia1 on weekdays at 8:15 pm. The first episode premiered on April 12, 2006.

The first season is currently airing in Germany on ZDF on Saturdays at 2:00 pm. The pilot premiered on April 1, 2006.

The first season is currently airing in Austria on ATVplus. The pilot premiered on March 2, 2006.

The first season has been aired from April 7 to May 10, 2006, in Switzerland on SF zwei.

The first season of the show aired in Spain early 2006 on TVE 2.

The first season of the show aired on Israel's cable channel Xtra HOT starting on January 1, 2005 and rerun on Israel's Channel 10 starting in January 2006. The second season started airing on Xtra HOT in March 2006.

The first season is currently airing in South Africa on M-Net on Wednesdays at 7:00 pm.

The second season airs in Sweden on SVT1 or SVT2.

In Ireland the pilot episode premiered on July 10, 2006 and the first season is being shown on RTÉ One on weekdays at 2:30 pm. Unusually it is counterprogrammed against the usual more "youth oriented" afternoon schedule on RTÉ Two and before ER_(TV_Series) deliberately aiming the show at a much wider general audience as opposed to a teen audience.

The first season is currently airing in Belgium on Kanaal Twee on weekdays at 5:40 pm. The pilot premiered on July 14, 2006.

DVD releases

DVD Name Release Date Additional Information Photo
Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season October 11 2005 The six-disc set includes all 22 episodes including an extended version of the Pilot Episode with an unaired opening sequence and over 20 minutes of unaired scenes. File:VM S1 DVD.jpg
Veronica Mars: The Complete Second Season August 22 2006 The six disc set is expected to include all 22 episodes, two behind-the-scenes featurettes, gag reel and deleted scenes. File:VM S2 DVD.jpg

Critical opinion

"In this smart, engaging series about a former popular girl turned crime-solving high school outcast, the hard-boiled dialogue comes from its teen protagonist's mouth in a way that stabs any potential cutesiness in the heart with an ice pick" [4]
"Her character, a witty, jaded and vulnerable 17-year-old, has been through the 21st century high school social wringer, and she's done it on a show that offers more wit and style than the usual run of teen TV drama"[citation needed]
"On Veronica Mars, wholesome is out; gritty reality is in. The show never soft-pedals the timeless, fundamental truth that high school is hell" Weiser, Paige (2005, March 29). Reasons to Love Mrs. Mars. Chicago Sun-Times.
"Veronica Mars is a character study masquerading as a high-school drama" [5]
"Veronica Mars is a sharp teen noir in the making. Tinged with class resentment and nostalgia for Veronica's lost innocence, this series pulses with promise"[citation needed]
"Equal parts intrigue, drama, and humor, Veronica Mars is also a lesson book for the disenfranchised. Few tv series aim so high; even fewer succeed so well"[citation needed]
"Veronica Mars blends the prosaic details of high school pecking orders with a solitary detective's quest for justice and revenge. Whether doing her math homework while on surveillance duty outside a cheap motel or facing down thugs, Veronica is an amateur sleuth who is closer in spirit to Philip Marlowe than to Nancy Drew"[citation needed]
"One of the 6 best dramas on TV" [6]
"Best. Show. Ever." [7]
"[Veronica Mars] is, hands-down, the best show on television right now, and proof that TV can be far better than cinema."[8]

Fan campaigns

Veronica Mars has attracted an extremely loyal and devoted fanbase that is continuing to grow. Communities of Veronica Mars fans have developed all over the internet. Many of them have taken place in minor and major campaigns to bring more viewers and publicity to Veronica Mars in an effort to ensure the show's success.

A group of especially devoted fans on LiveJournal who call themselves Cloud Watchers have been dedicated to this effort since the spring of 2006 in light of the approaching merger of UPN and The WB into The CW. On May 9, 2006, the group hired a plane to fly between the UPN offices in Los Angeles and the future site of The CW headquarters in Burbank, pulling a banner that read "RENEW VERONICA MARS! CW 2006!" to get the attention of network executives, the press, and anyone else in the Los Angeles area. They had previously sent future CW executives, those in charge at the new network's parent companies, and influential people in the entertainment media care packages including binoculars, information regarding the plane's flight plan, and Veronica Mars-inspired gifts.[9]

Veronica Mars was officially renewed for a third season on May 18, 2006, to air on The CW Tuesdays at 9pm ET starting on October 3, 2006,[10] but the fans have not stopped campaigning for their favorite show. The Cloud Watchers have started a new campaign, this one to bring a larger viewership to Veronica Mars by donating DVD sets of the first season of the show to libraries all over the United States, with a goal of reaching the top 100 Nielsen markets, and each of the fifty states. As of June 30 they have donated over $18,300 worth of DVDs to libraries while reaching all 50 states and 79 of the top 100 Nielsen markets. More than 300 sets have been donated.[11]

Music

The theme song for the show is "We Used to Be Friends" by The Dandy Warhols. The composer for the show, Josh Kramon ([12]) writes the original music heard in the background of most of the show. The sound, different from typical television scores, is constructed to convey the film noir theme the show centers on, highly reminiscent of Air and Zero 7.[citation needed]

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