#veronica mars S4 reviews

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Sunday, April 7

BUFFY: Y'know, I never stopped thinking about you. RILEY: Me neither. All I had in there was this one little part of you. (Gives her bandana piece) BUFFY: It's just the scarf part of me really. RILEY: Sure it is. Just knowing you were out there...that you cared...

~~This Year's Girl~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Pieces by CoffeeHunt (Fanged Four, M)

Research by skargasm (Xander/Spike, T)

Poem: the spark by LiraelClayr007 (Buffy/Spike, T)

Untitled ("big anya problem") by scooby-group-texts (Xander/Anya, not rated, worksafe, posted as an image)

Partly Cloudly, Eclipse 1999 by Saranac (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

First Day by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy, anthology rated PG-13)

Me and My Shadow by Chelle (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Surviving Together, Ch. 17 by ionlylikebadboys (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Something Lost Something Found, Ch. 8 by Safire (Buffy/Spike, R)

Love Lives Here, Ch. 46 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Rebehold the Stars (Love from the Other Side of the Apocalypse) Ch. 11 by Asokatanos (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Wilderness Retreat OR Super Mega Happy Kill-A-Rama! Ch. 3 by Melme1325 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Gargoyle, Ch. 2 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Boyfrenemy, Ch. 5-8 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Celebrating You, Ch. 5 by DeamonQueen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Scoobies in Neptune, Ch. 30 by Buffyworldbuilder (Veronica Mars crossover, FR7)

When Ethan Rayne made Rambo, Ch. 9 by SplitEnz (Rambo crossover, Xander, FR15)

An odd Couple of grumpy old Brits, Ch. 11 by Julikobold (Giles & Spike, Buffy/Spike, G)

Forgiveness Doesn't Come Easy, Ch. 29 by Slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, R)

To All We Guard, Ch. 11 by simmony (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Perfect Clarity, Ch. 25 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, R)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Tarot card design: Andrew my little strudel Page of Cups by isevery0nehereverystoned (worksafe)

Meme: Positive reminders 🫶 by shewhosleepsalotincemeteries (Faith, probably worksafe, canon-typical manslaughter)

Giles/Jenny screencaps captioned with text posts by vampswritings (probably worksafe, somewhat nsfw text in a small font)

I tried drawing Drusilla from memory. Thoughts? by Coochie_Von_Moochie (worksafe)

Queer Buffyverse Moodboards by MadeInGold (Buffy, Dawn, Darla, G)

[Reviews & Recaps]

Fredless by evolutionleftovers

Buffy S7E2: Beneath You | Booze & Buffy

Superstar by Buffy the Vampire Straya

Pop Culture Role Call: Angel Series & Buffyverse Wrap-Up

[Recs & In Search Of]

All time favourite Spuffy fanfics recced by williamprattz

[Community Announcements]

alexsrousseau made an 18+ Buffy/Giles BtVS server

[Fandom Discussions]

People are too harsh about Kennedy from btvs by explosionshark

So Jesse’s death was supposed to be a twist right? by nicnacsnonsense

Watching the episode with Marcie... by nicnacsnonsense

I feel like ppl write the Slayer off too quickly. by theredpharaoah

I was thinking about Willow's will-be-done spell from S4... by ashmaenas

Re: favorite BTVS character arc? by breathing-and-stuff

Xander becomes such a compelling character when you imagine... by felixsfishnets

AU... where Spike is just a little more overtly bisexual than he is in canon, and Andrew gets turned... by lierdumoa

Re: If you could have given Riley a B-plot in an episode he didn't have one... by riley-summers

Riley ship opinions, pt. 3, Polyship edition by riley-summers

Tara and Riley friendship headcanons by riley-summers

Andrew - comic man-child or naive nuisance? (cont'd) by multiple people

Re: Where are people from, do they write, and has upbringing or location affected their work? by DeepBlueJoy

Which [AtS] “bad guy” character deserved another chance? by buffyangel468

willow x faith could have actually worked by Saturneinyourhead

How do the vampire origins, ubervamps, The Master, and Kakistos all work together in the Buffyverse lore? by cre8ivemind

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Join the editor team :)

[vmheadquarters]

Not many TV shows get a second act after cancellation. Even fewer get a third.

But not every TV show is "Veronica Mars," the neo-noir high school series that ran on UPN from 2004-2006, and then on CW for a third season, before its cancellation devastated its loyal fans. In 2014 the series was revived into a feature film funded by fans in a now infamous Kickstarter campaign. But Neptune, California, private investigator Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) wasn't done yet.

"Veronica" is back, for an eight-episode revival on Hulu (streaming July 26, ★★★½ out of four), part of a trend of returning hit network sitcoms and cult dramas for belated sequel seasons, which has also resurfaced shows from "Roseanne" to "Gilmore Girls" with characters who are a decade (or two) older but perhaps no wiser.

Veronica isn't any wiser, either, but thankfully she doesn't feel like a high-school  gumshoe in adult clothing. The fourth season is far superior to both the Kickstarter film (which was fun but slight) and the recent string of other revivals. With its themes of classism and systemic corruption, "Veronica" seamlessly translates into 2019. Unlike "Murphy Brown" or "Will & Grace," it isn't stuck in the past. Bell and series creator Rob Thomas also thankfully left the fan service behind and stuck to logical, smart storytelling.

One of the biggest strengths of the new season is its reckoning with the 2014 film, which leaned much further into nostalgia. In the movie, Veronica abandons her plans to seek employment at a high-profile New York City law firm – and her relationship with good-guy college sweetheart Piz (Chris Lowell) – and returns to Neptune to set up shop at her father Keith's (Enrico Colantoni) private-investigation agency. She also rekindles her relationship with sometime high-school boyfriend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring).

As wonderful as it was to see Veronica return to Neptune and the beloved characters  – including sometimes criminal Weevil (Francis Capra), Veronica's best friend Wallace (Percy Daggs III) and carefree party boy Dick Casablancas (Ryan Hansen) – the casual way she threw away her New York life was jarring. But the new season doesn't shy away from the enormity of Veronica's choice to abandon her legal career (just think of the student loans!) to establish her as the kind of down-and-out detective who populates pulpy dime-store novels that inspired the series.

The new mystery  revolves around a series of bombings during Neptune's lucrative spring-break season, which may be part of a conspiracy to kill the tourist industry and free up high-priced real estate. Mars Investigations is hired by a wealthy congressman, whose brother's fiancé dies in the first explosion, to investigate what happened.

It takes a couple episodes for the bombing mystery to really take off. As in her high-school years, it's full of twists, weird evidence and red herrings, but those take a backseat to the relationships. Considering the Kickstarter film had a scant two hours to deal with a couple as complicated as Veronica and Logan – with their breakups and traumas – the new episodes take their  sweet, necessary time painting both as adults.

Logan – once the perennial screw-up with a snarky retort for every conversation – is now far more emotionally evolved than Veronica, attending therapy and excelling in a military career. Veronica, who was so mature in high school that she showed up many of Neptune's adults, has regressed, shying from commitment and responsibility. But they're trying to make it work, in their very damaged way. It's a perfect example of how stories about committed couples can still be engaging, long after the will-they-won't-they drama has ended.

The season adds new faces, including J.K. Simmons as a gleeful ex-con working for Dick's father and real-estate mogul Big Dick Casablancas (David Starzyk) and a hilarious Patton Oswalt as a sad-sack pizza guy who's injured in a bombing and tries his hand at an amateur investigation. Veronica also gets a harsh look in the mirror from teen Matty (Izabela Vidovic), who loses her father to a bomb and has more than a little Veronica Mars in her.

Writers' willingness to add new characters and leave old ones who've outlived their usefulness behind (sorry, Wallace), is another strength of the new season. "Veronica" doesn't pretend it's still 2004. She's a thirty-something woman who still works her high-school job, and there's no pretending it's glamorous. And for this genre, and this character, the themes of wasted potential and existential angst fit perfectly. It's darker than the movie and even (sometimes) the original series, but Veronica was never going to sail off happily into the sunset, anyway.

Why not tell some good stories while she struggles?

[amillioninprizes]

Some thoughts on Veronica Mars, fan service, and noir

I’ve been on winter break and at home with a nasty combo cold-ear infection-stomach virus the past couple of weeks, and as so often happens when I don’t have much going on, my thoughts have turned to ruminating over the steaming pile of excrement that was season 4 of Veronica Mars. Why yes, almost six months and one cancellation notice later and I’m still complaining about it--as I told someone on Twitter, it was so stupid that it’s going to take years to unpack.

This particular rant is brought to you by a common refrain seen in both professional critics’ and S4 supporters’ reviews of S4: the movie was schlocky fan service, while S4 is TRUE NOIR. I’m here to argue that neither of those things are true, and that in the grand scheme of things trying to definitively call Veronica Mars noir or not isn’t the best qualitative judgement of the series.

A note on “fanservice”

Something that’s been very strange to me in the critical discussion around S4 is that the fan-funded movie has been retconned as a fanservicey failure. This is weird because it did get a positive Rotten Tomatoes score, actually turned a profit despite the unorthodox distribution model, and was overall well-received by fans except for maybe the 5 Piz lovers out there (he absolutely did not deserve better you guys; he works at This American Life and lives in Brooklyn, he’ll be fine).

A lot of the things pointed to in the movie as fan service actually weren’t. In every interview about the movie and S4, RT and KB always talk about how they started with the image of Veronica punching Madison at the high school reunion and worked from there. The problem is that almost no one had been asking for that. If they had bothered to read any online discourse about the show (and we know RT definitely does), they would know that fans are actually somewhat sympathetic to Madison--after all, she was the intended recipient of the drugged drink Veronica received at Shelly Pomeroy’s party, plus growing up in a family that she wasn’t meant to be a member of must have negatively impacted her. When the preview scene of Veronica encountering Madison at the reunion welcome table was released, Veronica didn’t come off sympathetically. In a similar vein, as much as I liked Corny as a side character in the original series, I didn’t need him to come back for that random scene at the reunion. Nor was anyone asking for an out-of-nowhere James Franco cameo (which given what we know about him now is super gross in hindsight).

So why was the movie well-received by fans? Veronica was in character after an unevenly written and performed S3, and she was back in Neptune, doing what (and who; Ay-yo!) she was meant to do. So while the mystery was subpar (and what Rob Thomas mystery isn’t?), the character side of the story made sense and was satisfying. I wouldn’t call that fan service so much as good writing. Plus, what is even the point of wasting time, money, and effort on making a tv show or movie if it’s going to actively alienate the audience?

S4: more trauma porn than true noir

Admittedly, I’m not exactly the world’s foremost scholar on film noir (in my opinion, the height of cinema is teen romcoms c. 1995-2005), but I do feel I have enough pop cultural knowledge to have a working understanding of what film noir is, and as internet folk would say, S4 ain’t it chief. Sure, S4 was bleak subject matter wise, but that does not automatically equal noir. HappilyShanghaied, who does have a film studies background, wrote a pretty excellent post about why that is shortly after S4 dropped that I could not improve upon, so I will just leave it here. 

In addition to this analysis, I would also point out that S4 was lacking in a unique visual style common to noir films, especially compared to the original television series and the movie. The original series made use of green, blue, and yellow filters to fulfill a high school version of the noir aesthetic (quick shoutout to Cheshirecatstrut’s color theory posts for more on what we thought this meant before it turned out that Rob Thomas did not actually intend to imbue meaning into any of this), while the movie adopted a more mature muted blue-grey palette. S4, however, was more or less shot like a conventional drama and was brightly lit, perhaps signifying Rob Thomas’s apparent plans to turn the show into a conventional procedural.

The movie: more than fan service 

If anything, the movie was more noir than S4. Take Gia’s storyline for instance. While Veronica was off obtaining elite degrees, Gia spent 9 years in a virtual cage being forced into a sexual relationship without her total consent (because that’s the only storyline women can have on this show), and then set herself up to be murdered at the very moment she could potentially break free. That’s pretty fucking grim.

Then there is the whole police corruption storyline, which is a hallmark of noir fiction. The glimpses we get of the Neptune sheriff’s department point to a larger conspiracy at play than just crooked cops; Sachs lost his life trying to expose it and Keith was gravely injured. This was the story I was excited for future installments of Veronica Mars to address, especially given its relevance to today’s politics. Unfortunately, this thread was entirely dropped in S4, where the police department (because, as Rob Thomas revealed in interviews but not onscreen, Neptune has incorporated) is merely overwhelmed by the scope of the bombing case rather than outright corrupt. (Side note but Marcia Langdon was also a more complex and morally grey character when introduced in the second book than she was on screen in S4. Another wasted opportunity).

Noir is also marked by a sense of inevitability or doom as a result of greater forces at play. An example of this in the movie is Weevil’s storyline. After building a life and family for himself, he ultimately ends up rejoining the PCHer gang he left as a teenager due to a misunderstanding based on his race and appearance and the assumptions authority figures make about him because of those things. No matter what he does, he is still limited by an unjust and racist society. Contrast this with the final explosion in S4; it’s not inevitable, just based on Veronica’s incompetence. Rob Thomas claims that he tried to create a sense of doom to LoVe’s relationship between the OOC Leo storyline and the last minute barriers before the wedding, but those aspects just served to make the story unnecessarily convoluted.

What is noir anyway? Was Veronica Mars ever noir? Does it matter?

But this is all assuming there is a set template for noir anyway. This New Yorker essay points out that trying to definitively establish a set of rules for noir is difficult and that the classic noir films were more a product of midcentury artistic and political movements than a defined genre. The noir filmmakers working at the time would not have described their work as such. The kicker of this essay is the final sentence: “But the film noir is historically determined by particular circumstances; that’s why latter-day attempts at film noir, or so-called neo-noirs, almost all feel like exercises in nostalgia.” I found this particularly amusing because as Rob Thomas infamously proclaimed in his S4 era interviews, he wanted to completely dispense with nostalgia going forward. Rob Thomas and S4 supporters have said that Logan needed to die because noir protagonists can’t have stable relationships; but, if there isn’t a defined set of rules other than “an element of crime”, then was it strictly necessary? Hell, writing a hardboiled detective who does have a stable relationship and maybe even a family could have been an interesting subversion of genre expectations. Unfortunately, Rob Thomas isn’t that imaginative.

There’s also the issue that noir and hardboiled detective fiction aren’t interchangeable genres. This article lays out that idea that they aren’t the same because noir is ultimately about doomed losers; in contrast, detective fiction, while dark, contains a moral center and has an ending where a sense of justice is achieved. An interview with author Megan Abbott makes a similar argument; she states that in hardboiled detective fiction, “At the end, everything is a mess, people have died, but the hero has done the right thing or close to it, and order has, to a certain extent, been restored.” Based on the descriptions laid out here, I would argue that in its original format Veronica Mars far better fit the detective fiction model; while she wasn’t always right, she was never a loser, and she solved the mystery. S1-3 all had relatively hopeful, if not totally happy, endings, but you never see anyone complaining that they weren’t noir enough; if anything, they were more emotionally complex than the ending of S4, where Logan’s death is essentially meaningless. One could make the argument that S4 did push Veronica towards a more noir characterization by the definition of these articles by making her more incompetent and meaner than she was in previous installments, but that is a fundamental change in character, which is not coherent writing.

And that is ultimately why S4 was so poorly received by longtime fans and why there will be no more installments of Veronica Mars anytime soon (at least on Hulu). Even if S4 had been noir (or at least shot like one), the serious issues with plotting, characterization, and lack of adherence to prior canon that this season exhibited would still exist. Defending the poor writing choices made in S4 with “it’s noir!” does not mask them or automatically heighten the quality of the product. Perhaps ironically, in ineptly trying to be noir in S4, Rob Thomas likely prematurely ended Veronica Mars by failing his creation and fans with lazy storytelling.

[allthevmff]

Spanning Years, Continents

Author: Takada Saiko Veronica Mars English, Rated: T Romance/Drama Characters: [Veronica, Logan] Chapters: 1, Words: 1,765, Reviews: 0, Rated: T, In-Progress

A series of LoVe-centered one shots set between the end of the movie and the beginning of S4. Story @ https://ift.tt/301EelF

[noxstellacaelum]

Filtering Female Characters Through the Male Gaze

Female characters filtered through the male gaze:  A (way) too long post about why we need a more diverse and inclusive approach to staffing showrunners, writers, directors, crew – heck, all roles -- in TV and movies.  

Yes, I know I am not the first person here on this.  

And note that while I have included a few tags b/c I talk about my frustration with Shadowhunters, Veronica Mars, the Irishman, Richard Jewell, and a few other recent shows/movies, I don’t get to this stuff until the very end,  I appreciate that fans may not want to wade through the entire essay, which (again), is a bit of personal catharsis.

I recently had a random one-off exchange with a TV writer on twitter.  The writer said that she had enjoyed the movie Bombshell much more than its Rotten Tomatoes rating would have suggested.  She wondered if the disconnect between her experience/perception of the movie and that of mainstream reviewers might have been shaped by gender: Specifically, she observed that Bombshell is a movie about women, but most reviewers are male.  

I have complicated feelings about Bombshell.  On one hand, yes, there was and is a toxic culture at Fox News.  Yes, Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly were victims of that toxic culture.  But no, these women were not mere bystanders:  They traded in the racism, misogyny, and xenophobia (for starters) that still characterize Fox News today.  Why should these wealthy, privileged white women – both of whom spent many years as willing foot soldiers in the Fox News army -- get a glossy, Hollywood-approved redemption/vindication arc?  On the other hand, I am glad that the movie makers made a film about sexual harassment, and that the movie presented Kelly, in particular, as an at least somewhat complicated character.  This would not be the first time that a movie about women – especially complicated, and not always likeable women – has proven to be polarizing.

My ambivalence about Bombshell notwithstanding, the writer with whom I exchanged tweets is (not surprisingly, since she is in the industry and I am not) on to something when it comes to gender, character development and critical reception. It’s not just that Bombshell was about women, but reviewed largely by men; it’s that stories about female characters (real or fictional) often are filtered through the male gaze in Hollywood:  On many projects – even those focused on female characters – creators/ head writers are male, directors are male, showrunners are male, and producers are male.  This matters, because preferencing the male gaze impacts what stories about women get told, who gets to tell them, and how these stories are received inside and outside Hollywood.  

First, though, the caveats. I do not mean to suggest that men can never tell great stories about women.  Of course they can.   I also don’t mean to suggest that being female exempts creators, writers, directors, showrunners, etc. from sexism or misogyny (or any other forms of bigotry, as my discussion of Bombshell suggests).   There are plenty of women who prop up the patriarchy.  Rebecca Traister’s work speaks to this issue, as does the work of Cornell philosopher Kate Manne.  There is an important literature on the concept of misogynoir (misogyny directed at black women, involving both gender and race), a term coined by black queer feminist Moya Bailey, as well.  Intersectionality matters in understanding what stories are told, who gets to speak, and how stories are received in and outside Hollywood.  I also don’t mean to suggest that there are no powerful women in Hollywood.   Shonda Rhimes; Ava DuVernay, Reese Witherspoon (increasingly, given her role as a producer of projects like Big Little Lies), Greta Gerwig’s work in Lady Bird and Little Women, and others come to mind.  As I am not in the entertainment industry, I am sure others could put together a far more complete and accurate list of female Hollywood power brokers.  And, finally, I appreciate that Hollywood is a business, and people fund and make movies that they think their target audiences want to see.  So long as young, male viewers are a coveted demographic, we are going to see projects with women who appeal to this demographic onscreen.

Given these caveats, why do I think that the filtering of female characters through the male gaze is an issue? For me, it has to do with a project’s “center of gravity” -- that place, at the core of the project’s storytelling, where the characters’ agency and autonomy comes from.  It’s where I look to understand the characters’ choices and their narrative arcs.  When a character’s center of gravity is missing or unstable or unreliable, the character’s choices don’t make sense, and their narrative arc lacks emotional logic. Center of gravity is not about whether a character is likeable.  It’s about whether a character – and the project’s overall storytelling and narrative voice – make sense.  

When female characters are filtered through a male gaze, a project’s center of gravity can shift, even if unintentionally, away from the characters’ agency and point of view:  So, instead of charting her own course through a story, a female character starts to become defined by her proximity to other characters and stories.  She becomes half of a “ship” . . . or a driver of other characters’ growth (often through victimization, suffering, or self-sacrifice) . . . or mostly an object of sexual desire (whether requited or not).   Eventually, she can lose her voice entirely.  When that happens, instead of a “living, breathing” (yes, fictional, I know) character, we are left with a mirror/ mouthpiece who advances the plot, and the stories, of everyone else.

What are some recent examples of this? The two that I have mentioned recently here are Shadowhunters and Veronica Mars S4.  

- With SHTV, I will always wonder what might have been if the show – which is based on books written by a woman, intentionally as a “girl power” story – had female showrunners. Would an empowered female showrunner have left Clary, THE PROTAGONIST OF A 6 BOOK SERIES – alone on an NYC street in a skimpy party dress, in November, with no money, no ID, no mother, no father figure and no love of her life, stripped of her memories, her magic, and chosen vocation, as punishment, after she saved the world?  Would a female showrunner have sidelined Clary’s love Jace, and left him grieving and suicidal, while his family lived their best lives and told him to move on?  Would a female showrunner have said, in press coverage of the series finale, that the future of the Clary and Jace characters was a matter for fan fiction?  After spending precious time in the series finale wrapping up narrative arcs for non-canon and/or ancillary characters.  And to my twitter correspondent’s point, I guess I am not surprised that mainstream entertainment media outlets didn’t call out the showrunners’ mistreatment of Clary, and by extension, Jace, and the obliteration of their narrative arcs -- and yes, I am looking at you, Andy Swift of TV line (who called the above-mentioned memory wipe “actually perfect”).

- Likewise, with Veronica Mars, would a more diverse and inclusive writers room have made S4 Veronica less insightful and less competent than her high school self, or quite so riven with self-loathing, or quite so careless and cruel with the people in her life who love her?  Would a more inclusive creative team have made S4 Veronica less aware of the class and race dynamics of Neptune, yet more casually racist, in her mid-30s, than she was in high school?

- There are so many other examples from 2019.  Clint Eastwood falsely suggesting that a female reporter (who is now deceased and thus unable to defend herself) traded sex for tips from an FBI agent in Richard Jewell. Game of Thrones treatment/resolution of the Ceresi and Daenerys characters – where to even start.  Martin Scorsese’s decision to give Oscar winner Anna Paquin’s character a total of 7 lines in the 3-plus hour movie the Irishman.

- And, in real life, I wonder whether a Hollywood that empowered and supported female creators would make sure that people like Mira Sorvino and Annabella Sciorra got a bunch of work while also making sure that Harvey Weinstein never again is in a position of power or influence.   Same with female comics targeted by Louis C.K. Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose … the list is long, and Kate Manne’s work on what she calls “himpathy” is useful here.

To be clear, I am not saying that stories involving “ships” of whatever flavor, stories of suffering and self-sacrifice, and stories of finding (or losing) intimate relationships are “bad” or “wrong” or inherently exploitive of female characters.  I don’t think that at all.  I also don’t think that female characters have to be perfectly well-adjusted, virtuous, or free from bias, or that they should never be make bad choices or mistakes.  I want female characters who are flawed, nuanced.  I don’t mind lives that are messy, or romantic entanglements that are complicated.  Finally, I don’t think that that faulty, reductive, or unfair portrayals of female characters is a new thing.  Mary Magdalene was almost certainly not a prostitute, after all.  And classicist Emily Wilson – the first woman to translate the Odyssey into English – has brought a hugely important perspective (including an awareness of how gender matters in translation) and voice to the translation and study of canonical characters and works.

At the end of the day, I just want female characters to be able to speak with their own voices, from their perspectives.  I want them to have their own, chosen, narrative arcs.  I want them to speak, act, see, and feel as autonomous individuals, with agency, and not just in reference to others.  And, I think that more a more diverse and inclusive approach to staffing writers rooms and in choosing show runners, directors, and key positions in storytelling would help.  

[superfluffycool]

How you know you f*cked up: Veronica Mars Edition

Endings are tough. A bad one can destroy everything that came before it. Game of Thrones is the most recent, high-profile example of a crash landing, but check this out:

What?! Wow. What’s with the discrepancy between critics and audiences? Let’s unpack after the jump:

S4 SPOILERS GALORE LoVe is dead. In an uneven season that had Veronica shirking from committing to Logan, it ended with them getting married, but immediately after, while both are still dressed for their wedding, Logan is blown up by a bomb. His death happens off-screen, then the show jumps forward by a year, skipping the funeral and Veronica’s grieving process. The season ends with Veronica leaving Neptune while listening to a recording of Logan telling his therapist how strong Veronica is and how he wants their children to have all her qualities.

Ugh.

Veronica, at the age of 16, had plenty of trauma to deal with - her best friend was murdered, her father lost his job and was nearly run out of town, her mother ran out on the family, and then she was raped. She didn’t need any more trauma to be the kind of cynical private eye that noir mysteries are made of. The show’s creator, Rob Thomas, said that it’s hard to write “a badass detective and her boyfriend’ so he decided to get rid of Logan, and everything that tied back to the original series:

“I know there’s a shot that Veronica Mars fans hate me for killing Logan, and what they loved about the show was not the mystery, it was her friends and romantic relationships. If that’s the case, then I placed the wrong bet. But the truth is, for the show I would like to do moving forward, I would’ve been reluctant to keep doing …”

After S1, the mysteries never resonated in quite the same way. The stakes were so high and life altering for Veronica that no other case could ever mean as much. That’s why the mystery is the weakest element of Veronica Mars, and the weakest thing to lean on. Celebrated mystery novelist, Tana French said in an interview that all her novels have different detective protagonists because it’s impossible for a detective to have more than one or two life-altering cases in their careers. Veronica Mars is no exception.

By sabotaging Veronica’s marriage, RT has saddled an already traumatized heroine with yet more trauma, and regressed the story, putting the character back at square one. Had Logan not died, the focus on her romantic life and who she was dating would have taken a back seat to the mystery. Now that she is alone, pairing her with the next romantic interest will be a focus of new episodes, should they come to fruition. Most critics gave S4 positive reviews, but many of the same major publications questioned the decision to kill Logan and said that it cast a sourness over the whole season (thanks for the compilation @marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer !)

What is also interesting is that Veronica was pretty awful throughout S4 and marriage isn’t going to dissolve those issues. She mocks Logan for going to therapy, and tells him she prefers his rough edges (i.e jealousy, violence, and self-destruction). She gets turned on after he destroys one of their kitchen cabinets and they have sex while his kunckles are still bleeding. Her snarky lines and leather jacket are the armor she uses to keep the world out, but she’s unable to take them off, even around those she’s closest to. Logan wants to move forward and marriage isn’t a bad way to progress their relationship, but man, it’s not going to be smooth sailing and I’d have liked to see how that plays out. There’s so much drama to be mined from wanting connection, a family, and peace while being surrounded with reminders of how fragile all those things are. Logan’s job as a naval intelligence officer similarly forces him to deal with the worst of the world (as if the trauma of his family life wasn’t enough). There’s PLENTY of material past “I do” but most writers fail to see it (hi, Outlander writers!) Imagine both of them, shell-shocked from their jobs while having to take a LoVe child to a kiddie birthday party and pretend everything is all right. Interesting, right? 

There’s was one critic that liked Veronica’s regression and stagnation, and I agree with her on every point except the part where she believe Veronica needs to hit rock bottom. I personally don’t want to see Veronica turn into Jessica Jones (no offense to JJ) because that’s not the show I fell in love with. We’ve all seen the grizzled detective who is alone and self-destructive. That protagonist is ubiquitous in film and literature. Shows like Broadchurch gave us one such noir hero in DI Alec Hardy, (played by David Tennant), but smartly paired him with plucky DI Ellie Miller (played by Olivia Coleman) to give us a fresh take that becomes all the more resonant at the conclusion of S1 (also it’s best season and Miller’s career-altering case. S2 would be Hardy’s).

TL; DR Killing Logan was a mistake, especially knowing that a S5 has not been greenlit. S4 could potentially be THE END of Veronica Mars. Given how negatively audiences reacted to this decision, I don’t predict the same fervent desire for the series to continue. I know RT said Logan is really dead, but I think they could play off the last 5 minutes of S4 as a dream sequence. 

[marshmellowbobcat]

Since Rotten Tomatoes has decided to hide my review (similar to how KB and RT plan on hiding from fans) here it is in all of its unedited, written at 1am glory:

When did Veronica become an asshole?Okay, sure she can be thoughtless and manipulative at times, but an outright asshole? Somehow she’s regressed… except worse because she was better than this in high school. Now, she barely pays attention to her friends, mocks her boyfriend’s journey towards mental health, and seems to have lost the innate softness that fascinates when it peeks through.

Veronica herself says she doesn’t have a “keen sense of mercy,” however, the show’s previous strength was in highlighting the occasions where she does display it, the moments she chooses to bend. Now we’re to believe the softness is gone, replaced by a jaded individual in desperate need of the therapy she so often mocks.

And maybe that would have been interesting, if they bothered to explore how she got there. There’s no bridge between the righteous woman at the end of The Movie and S4 Veronica, whose “fight” now seems like hubris.

So fine, start us off with a “darker” Veronica. Show us her struggle against being the “defective gene” in her relationships. Except… One of the biggest sins of this season is that any emotional development on her part seems abrupt and is told to us, and not shown.

Instead of exploring her personal character, choices, and the emotional depth of her long term relationship, the “marshmallow of it all” if you will, those things are given little screen time in favor of what, quite frankly, is a lackluster mystery with 5,000 red herrings.

If you don’t figure out whodunnit by episode 1, there’s an error in episode 2 that gives it away. Hint: the guy you think dunnit, dunnit. Gone are the days when you felt this clever woman was smarter than everyone around her. There’s a woeful lack of outsmarting and “I know what happened” moments.

And you would think that not expending too much thought power in the mystery would give the show an opportunity to focus on Veronica’s relationship dynamics with Neptune’s complex and compelling cast of characters. Well, you would be wrong. Veronica’s personal “progression” is rushed, crammed in between long bouts of barking up the wrong tree. It’s incredibly frustrating.

She turns down a marriage proposal, spends a few episodes being self-righteous, borderline cheats on her boyfriend, and has an epiphany (accepting the proposal) all in rapid succession. The time that could have been used to examine her feelings (she could, for example, have spoken to her married, “family man” best friend Wallace about the proposal) is spent proving how “edgy” and “adult” this iteration of Veronica Mars is. It feels choppy, disjointed, and cheapens her journey.

(Side note: watching a 35 year old woman drop E on a random Tuesday with a stranger, a guy who has a history of attempted date rape, and her boyfriend who has been in rehab 2x for substance abuse isn’t “edgy,” it’s terrifying.)

And STILL, that would be fine. I probably would have clamored for a season five in hopes that it would be less problematic… if they didn’t torpedo what little progression she did make with the most lazy, unnecessary end to a favorite character. An end that felt like an afterthought. An end that was unworthy of 15 years and fan fueled franchise resurgence.

SPOILER:

I guess“Shock Value” is the watchword of 2019, and begs the question … is it shocking if no one is shocked? It’s getting old.

Veronica becomes a widow within hours of her wedding ceremony, effectively resetting her back to Season 1 Veronica. A woman who needs a catalyst for strength. A woman who needs trauma (not, you know, mental health care) to make her a force to be reckoned with.

The show glorifies her pain, it tells victims that nothing is within their control, and it underscores it with a (bullshit) voicemail from her deceased husband waxing poetic about how “strong” she is. As if to tell the audience: she’s over it, she rose above it, you should be too. There’s not even a mourning process for our protagonist, a year time jump skips over all those messy feelings she may have had.

This, too, feels lazy and rushed. It’s a disservice to everyone involved, but especially the viewers who tuned in for a cool mystery and interesting character dynamics and instead got an uninspired whodunnit and a heroine that is often hard to root for.

TLDR; #FormerMarshmallow

[sterek]

what did you think of s4 of veronica mars?

I read all the spoilers and a lot of reviews, decided I didn’t need it in my life to ruin my love for the show and never watched it lol

[mdwatchestv]

Everything I’m Going to Watch in August: LIFE IS CHAOS

My life is in shambles and I have not finished literally ANYTHING from July. I have seen exactly four Stranger Things and four Veronica Mars - I am not ready to discuss! I started taking a writing class so I can, you know, actually be better at this and give you people the QUALITY PROSE you DESERVE. But now I’m so busy I barely have time to watch anything. In attempting to bestow one gift upon you, I am inadvertently robbing you of another. Such is life.  Veronica Mars is so far so good, I’m sure nothing too bad will happen and Stranger Things has been predictably numbingly enjoyable. Several people I trust have given good reviews to The Boys, and Antoni’s Instagram thirst traps are as far as I’ve gotten into the new Queer Eye season. But none of that matters now because there is MORE NEWER stuff to watch in August!!!!!!! Now excuse me while I scream into my panic pillow.

In the interest of time I am going to highlight in depth the THREE SHOWS I am actually going to make a concentrated effort to watch, followed by a rapid fire list of shows YOU may want to watch. Here we go- 

Friday, August 9th -

GLOW Season 3 (Netflix)

The second season of GLOW found a way to improve even further upon their first season. Season 2 had deeply moving episodes that investigated female friendship, race and social class, and even found a poignant twist on the now-popular #metoo storyline. It also had an anti-kidnapping PSA singalong in a glorious full-length episode of the show-within-the-show. I love GLOW, it brings me joy, glitter goals, and actresses doing special skills ( I LOVE when actors have to do special skills). With the ladies moving to a floor show in fabulous Las Vegas, I can’t imagine this season being anything less than a..... total knock out.  (See, this is why I need the writing class!!)

Monday, August 12th 

The Terror: Infamy (9pm on AMC)

The second season of AMC’s horror anthology series- like the first season The Terror: Infamy merges the supernatural with real-life historical horrors, but that is where the similarities end. Season 2 follows a Japanese-American family who face internment during WW2 in the US. As if being shockingly betrayed by the country where they have made their home isn’t enough, the family is also being actively haunted by a vengeful, murderous ghost. When it rains it pours I guess. But in all seriousness, what I am most excited about in this show is the cast which is made up almost entirely of actors of Japanese descent (from literally all over the world.) Casting anyone non-white in a period piece is rare enough, but to be able to refocus the lens of history onto stories of the past that are often overlooked by media feels especially exciting. It’s important to tell these stories so we can make sure atrocities like this never happen in America ever ever again......oh wait.

Friday, August 16th

Mindhunter Season 2 (Netflix)

Five thousand years later Mindhunter season 2 is finally ready for consumption. David Fincher does hundreds of takes okay, it takes him a while to make a show. That was probably the 60th take of that shot in the gif, but look at it, its perfect! This whole show is perfect!  Cameron Britton! Serial killers! JONATHAN GROFF! The 70s! Son of Sam! Conflicts of masculinity! Cars! Anna Torv! Behavioral sciences! Sepia colors! TENSION! 

As promised a lot of other stuff premieres this month that I would be remiss not to remind you about. So in the spirit of giving,  here is a quick rundown of things I have absolutely zero intention of watching but maybe you will want to for various reasons:

Dear White People S3 (Netflix) - I’m just too behind, but maybe you are better at keeping up on your Netflix queue than me. 

Preacher S4 (AMC) - I consciously uncoupled from this show which I would describe as a medium -to- moderate mess. It’s the final season though, and maybe ya’ll like mess.

BH90210 (Fox)  - Maybe Beverly Hills 90210 was very important to you at one time.

Succession  S2 (HBO) - I don’t understand what the tone is. 

Lodge 49 S2 (AMC)  -I don’t understand what the tone is.

The Affair (Showtime) - I assume some people are still watching this? 

On Becoming A God in Central Florida (Showtime) - Kirsten Dunst and Alexander Skarsgard make themselves ugly. Maybe you’re into that!

Carnival Row (Amazon Prime) -  I could not endorse a show whose main characters are named “Rycroft Philostrate” and “Vignette Stonemoss”. I simply must draw a line somewhere. But I am duty bound to tell you that Orlando Bloom is appearing on television in a waistcoat. 

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Netflix) - Maybe The Dark Crystal was very important to you at one time.

Alright I gotta go watch TV or make TV or something, DEUCES 

XO MD

[anthony-kate]

I think more Marshmallows need to reach out to Hulu to explain their dissatisfaction and not the Veronica Mars creative team, because they seem perfectly OK with the reaction and just think the people upset in the fanbase are a minority of shippers

Well, I mean, I am not a network exec but like I said before... the outcry and dissatisfaction with season 4 did not just revolve around 3 unhappy LoVe fans over at Twitter. There are quite some reviews from big media outlets that called out the mess---which is going far beyond the Logan killing. And again, I am sure the Hulu exec see that and/or get notified of that. Again, if it would just be 3 unhappy fans and otherwise everyone would be all !!! and the overall reviews are bomb than I am sure nobody would care. But that is so not the case here.

Besides, as I said before, Hulu is still a quite small streaming service and the spoilers regarding the ending surfaced SUPER quickly and ppl knew about them before those few Hulu streamers even had a chance to stream it and who immediately went: No, thank you. Like on f.e. Netflix it would have been a different case but here... yeah well.

Again, it wouldn’t hurt to let Hulu and the Hulu CS know how much of a mess s4 is and that they lost like 90% of its core fanbase but I somehow also believe that despite the arrogant behavior of a certain Rob Thomas, they kinda might have gotten a bit of the memo already.

[evilprincesskeri]

Veronica Mars

I finished watching the new S4 of Veronica Mars on Hulu.

I have *feelings* about it. I'll probably write a review of the season in the near future...

In the meantime, while I'm processing, I'm doing a full rewatch of the previous seasons.

I'm about halfway through S1 and here are some things that have struck me as interesting:

Logan's casual-yet-weaponized racism.

How tiny eveyone is. And I mean EVERYONE

Except Keith Mars. He LOOKS THE SAME

The major difference between S1 and S4 is that S1 has a "case of the week" distracting Veronica from the overarching case - Lilly's death while S4 is laser focused on tbe overarching case.

The adult versions of all the characters are super interesting.

The introduction of Leo in S4 as an FBI agent makes me have thinky-thoughts.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Sunday, January 15

ANYA: We have to bring presents, right? Birth is a present thing?

~~Family~~

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

How To Obtain A Demon Wife (Buffy/Spike, E) by desicat

Same Voice, Different Words (Buffy/Riley, M) by Emmeebee

Grieving (Giles, T) by Dynapink

How To Obtain A Demon Wife (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Desicat

[Chaptered Fiction]

Love Unseen, Chapter 3 (Willow/Tara, E) by queermagic12

It must be Tuesday, Chapter 1 (Crossover with Wednesday, M) by Chlo88

Bring Him Home, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, R) by acb6293

Razing the Veil, Chapter 11 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Eurydice

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Randy + Joan: As Long As You Love Me, Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, R) by BewitchedXx

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I Violently Dislike You, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by scratchmeout

Wallflower, Chapter 17 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Girlytek

Across Ages, Chapter 23 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Isabeau

Best Wishes, Chapter 28 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by Kanita

The Odd Couple, Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by honeygirl51885

Break Even, Chapter 15 (Buffy/Spike, PG) by violettathepiratequeen

Scoobies in Neptune, Chapter 22 (Crossover with Veronica Mars, FR7) by Buffyworldbuilder

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[ATS S4 Review] by doggirlbuffysummers

Buffy S03E20: The Prom by the-watchpost

Buffy S03E21/S03E22: Graduation Day Part 1/Part 2 by the-watchpost

Buffy Season 3 Top Five Episodes by the-watchpost

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CAME BACK WRONG??? - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reaction - 6x09 - Smashed by TheLexiCrowd

Every BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Episode RANKED (SEASONS 1-4)! by Elie Moses

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[Community Announcements]

James Marsters to Attend Kameha Con in Allen, TX 12-14 May via dontkillspike

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[Fandom Discussions]

[On bringing Angel back to S3] by silvermars

[Willow warning sign] by herinsectreflection

[If vampires absorbed traits from prey] by hedge-bones

Question Spike & Buffy––sibling or romantic? cont. by multiple authors

Which is Hotter Encounter by multiple authors

A TARA PREQUEL written by Ashley Poston, out on August by Individual-Task-4586

I still don’t understand why Kendra lost the fight against Drusilla, was it due plot or does it have to do with the way Kendra fights? by multiple authors

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Why did Xander go from a somewhat capable vampire fighter (around season 2/3) to a complete buffoon at fighting in the later seasons? by multiple authors

Just how powerful is Gunn in the Buffyverse? And what was the point of the Initiative if a regular guy can fight demons/vamps on their own without drugs and magic? by multiple authors

Rewatched the s4 freaky Friday episode and I’m so impressed with both SMG and Eliza Dushku’s acting by multiple authors

Yes or no - Was Principal Robin Wood a positive addition to Buffy's final season? by multiple authors

how is only one slayer active at a time by multiple authors

Southern California setting by multiple authors

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Xander and Cordellia by multiple authors

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[vmheadquarters]

Basically: Veronica Mars Season 4 is the grown and sexy continuation of the incredible teen sleuth drama so many came to love in the mid-aughties.

There are few things I hold on to tighter than the idea that in life, you should never let anyone find you in the place they left you. In that time, you should take time to learn, improve, grow and whenever you can, flex on ��em.

Kristen Bell, fresh from box office and critical hits such as Disney’s Frozen and NBC’s The Good Place reprises her role as Veronica Mars, the one that made her famous nearly a decade and a half ago and let me tell you, this is a flex. Not like a showing-up-to-a-cookout-dripping-in-Gucci flex. No, this is a brown sandals/towel over the shoulder/I’m-about-to-put-in-work-on-this-grill flex. She, along with series creator Rob Thomas and joined by the majority of the original cast, have come together to bring the adventures of Veronica back and this time, to Hulu and let me tell you, while they may all still be residents of the fictional town of Neptune, they’re absolutely not in the same place where we left them.

I’ve been slowly re-watching the first season of Veronica Mars and so much stood out.* One, just how smartly written this show always was. In Veronica, we were given a protagonist we knew had watched an episode or two of Daria and rolled eyes at Charlie’s Angels. Two, we were given a diverse cast who operated in a world built on the wide shoulders of classism, sexism and capitalism. Questions regarding these weren’t neatly answered as they would’ve been in 80’s television but they were, at the very least, addressed knowing there should be a conversation about them. Three, oh, my God…the flip phones, frosted tips, men’s beaded chokers and why were our clothes so baggy then?!?

In Season 4, we find Veronica back in Neptune, having returned in a film version I have yet to see, helping her father, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) keep their detective agency, Mars Investigations afloat. These days, the bulk of her business is spent installing cameras for bored rich housewives in the hope that they’ll yield footage of significant others banging someone who’s not them, on the marble kitchen islands no one ever cooks on, so they can successfully win divorce settlements. It’s not ideal or exciting but hey, it pays the bills. At this point in time, things are quiet for Veronica and she seems to like it. The work is fairly steady, she has someone in her life who loves her and a new dog. (RIP Back-Up, you’ll forever be a good boy.) Life is good. Until it isn’t.

Neptune, a town that thrives on tourist dollars, is rocked by a hotel bombing that sends shockwaves, with Veronica and those close to her thrown into the middle of a potential war that will send shockwaves through the halls of Congress and one of Mexico’s largest drug empires.

To say that I enjoyed this season is somewhat of an understatement. I absolutely am not in the same place where this series left me but to see Kristen Bell, the cast and the writer’s room which includes NBA legend and former Bruce Lee opponent, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, slide so seamlessly back into the creation of this seminal series is amazing. The pacing is as quick and agile as ever. The writing and acting are as top notch as anything and my God, I truly was drawn back into the lives of the characters of Neptune. As much as I cared for them then, the work everyone involved put into this fourth season left me invested in these characters more than I could’ve in my younger days when time felt like a thing we all had in abundance. To be more succinct, Veronica Mars Season 4 thanks you for being there for it all along. It welcomes you in and lets you enjoy your time with it. It is the strongest yet softest of flexes. It is a fresh look at an early adopter of appointment television and is a very welcoming place for viewers, new, old and lucky who will someday, I hope, find it.

In the End: Veronica Mars Season 4 doesn’t disappoint. It’s as strong, if not stronger than the seasons before. I quietly shook my head in disbelief at how easily I fell back into the world of Neptune. I’m so glad we get to see Kristen Bell and company bring it back to life.

[jimmyaquino]

Comic News Insider Episode 977 - More TV Reviews: The Boys/Agents of SHIELD/Infinity Train/iZombie/Krypton/Legion/Steven Universe/Veronica Mars!

Comic News Insider: Episode 977 is now available for free download! Click on the link or get it through iTunes! Sponsored by Dynamic Forces. 

Reviews: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. s6 finale, The Boys s1, iZombie series finale, Infinity Train mini-series, Krypton s2 finale, Legion series finale, Steven Universe: The Movie, Veronica Mars s4

We missed a bunch of season and series finales so thought we would cover them here! As usual, Jimmy recruits some of his favorite audio reviewers to help out. Thanks to Emily, Melissa, Ashley, Steph, Corey, and Jon! Jimmy did a few of them solo and gives his thoughts on the rest as well. Did the iZombie and Legion series finales go out with a bang or whimper? What did just about everyone think of The Boys? How well did AOS wrap up s6 and set up for s7? Tune in to find out! Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us!

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[allthevmff]

Never Enough Honeymoon

Author: Trogdor19 Veronica Mars English, Rated: M Romance/Humor Characters: [Veronica, Logan] Chapters: 1, Words: 3,462, Reviews: 0, Rated: M, In-Progress

I send Veronica and Logan on the honeymoon the show never gave them...and hijinks ensue as they enjoy each other and amuse themselves by playing tricks on their fellow tourists. Steam, fluff and laughter aplenty! [Part 6 of New and Improved S4] Story @ https://ift.tt/35oGyo1

[jenryland]

Taking a break from an author

Taking a break from an author

Is there an author whose books you absolutely loved … until you didn’t? Let’s talk about taking a break from an author!

I was recently writing this reviewfor two books by an author whose books I stopped reading for years after the very unexpected death of a major character. (Interestingly, the situation was VERY similar to what happened to Logan in Veronica Mars S4. And the story was probably…