#veronica mars imagine

[coquelicoq]

I KEEP FORGETTING TO SAY THIS but my ideal au is always, ALWAYS a three men and a baby au. doesn't have to be men just yknow three adults and a baby. i know i have said this before but it was only the one time and it bears repeating, it bears so much repeating because i need it so bad for everything forever.

[dcminions]

KRISTEN BELL as VERONICA MARS in VERONICA MARS S01E08

[stupidsexpotflanders]

Me whenever I remember the hardcore environmental subject,taught by one of the toughest professors at uni,then remember how RT made Logan an "environmentalist"

How the fuck one (1) guy riding a bicycle is going to do anything against air pollution? And considering how intelligent and well-educated Logan has always been(yes,always. He had plenty of problems at school,but none of them were with grades,AFAIK),he'd have realized it was merely an empty virtue signaling gesture. One would think Logan could help clean beaches and other places in Neptune(small scale,but still something with real results - making the city prettier and healthier),petition for proper disposal and treatment of residues(in all scales,not only in the industrial one),be invested in basic sanitation and water supply(those affect the poor disproportionally - see,Noir-relevant),engage in environmental education(bonus points if he gets to mentor troubled youth and take them under his wing - just like the professor did with him). Young!Logan might have plenty of flaws,but he got shit done.

Logan Echolls became what he hated the most - a virtue-signalling shithead who half-asses good deeds to stroke his own ego. Also,a State-Sanctioned Mercenary. Not very different from the vapid Hollywood he hated so much. I know the Doylist explanation was simply incompetence from RT,but can anyone think of an Watsonian one?

[horsegirlhob]

No one is watching Veronica Mars the way I am watching Veronica Mars (as a principal Clemons fan)

[normcore-tertiary-character]

Watching Veronica Mars and I think Sam's cult name was maybe a reference to s1e9 "Drinking the Kool-Aid" where Veronica is investigating the local cult, Mooncalf Collective.

[spoonstrek]

Name a single heterosexual in Veronica Mars, I dare you

[hurlumerlu]

the show jokes about Veronica being butch but all it does is make me long for a universe where she actually is

[academiaipromise]

in my defense, thesis revisions have my brain an absolute mess, so that’s the context of why the hell i’m watching season 4 of veronica mars…this season is…bleak.

[queerly-autistic]

Right, I think it's time for some positivity, and also a reality check (and I mean that in the most loving way possible) regarding the campaign to save OFMD. I've seen a lot of people saying 'it's been nearly a month, we should have been picked up by now', and whilst, yes, some cancelled shows have received very quick movement to other streamers, it's absolutely not the story for all of them. We've seen numerous shows follow different journeys from cancellation to pick-up, and there's no way of knowing what journey we might be going on.

Are we in the fast lane where we get picked up the next month (lookin' at you, Lucifer and The Expanse)? The middling lane where it takes months for a pick-up deal to be hashed out (lookin' at you, One Day At A Time, The Tourist, and Warrior)? The slow lane where we keep pushing for years and then eventually crowdfund a film (lookin' at you Veronica Mars)?

I think we have to consider the fact that OFMD being cancelled was a last minute thing that blindsided the cast and crew (and shocked people across the industry). So we're going into it in a different position to other shows that had maybe had a hint/suggestion that cancellation was coming before it happened. This is because if there are rumours of cancellation circling, it gives a chance for feelers to be put out to other networks/by other networks before the actual cancellation is confirmed. That didn't happen here. Which is important.

It's not just wham bam thank you ma'am and now you've been picked up by Netflix (or insert streamer of your choice). It's a negotiation. It's a process. It takes time. There is a very good reason that people heavily suspect that Brooklyn 99 had already been picked up before the cancellation was officially announced, and that the cancelled-to-new-home-in-24-hours thing was pretty much just a marketing stunt. No way was that all negotiated to the point of announcement within a day,

There are many reasons why any potential pick-up elsewhere might take a bit more time. For example, if David is (hopefully) juggling interest from multiple different networks, then that has to be hashed out and negotiated to make sure the best deal is reached for everyone. Also, OFMD is potentially a more complicated show to negotiate than we imagine: at a very basic level, it has a large ensemble (a large international ensemble), which would need to be discussed and negotiated, and it's filmed in New Zealand, which would need to be discussed and negotiated. That doesn't work against it in terms of 'it's more complicated, so it won't be picked up' but it could very well mean that the time needed to negotiate a pick-up is longer.

Remember: One Day At A Time had a much smaller cast (which wasn't an international cast) and it basically had one single studio set (being a sitcom), and that took three months to be saved.

I chatted with my friend, also a fan, who has worked in television production previously and is currently working as a screenwriter, and she confirmed just how much time, discussion and negotiation this stuff takes. She basically said: yep, this all takes time and this is very normal. And this is coming from someone who is very firmly in the 'I am refusing to get my hopes up because I can't bear to get hurt again' camp of trying to save the show.

On that note, I think it's important to address David's silence, because I've seen a few people panicking about that. There's a very good chance that if he is in negotiations right now (and I do not know if he is, he might not be!) then there would be a lot he wouldn't be able to talk about. And he knows that we dissect every single syllable of his posts, so posting anything would be risky. Negotiations are tricky things that involve juggling multiple balls (and torches and knives and chainsaws), and a lot of push-and-pull, back-and-forth, variables-upon-variables, and so going silent on social media would be absolutely what I would expect from him if that was happening.

It's eerie for us because we had a burst of activity from David, a lot of noise and a lot of confidence, and then...nothing. That's jarring, and anxiety-inducing. But I want us to think of it this way: David did a big post about being back in New York, about things looking up, and then he went uncharacteristically silent, which is what would happen if things were going on that he couldn't talk about. I have no idea what, if anything, might be going on, but it's important not to see this as a bad thing.

As someone on Twitter, who also works in the industry (they work as an actor) said the other day: in this business, no news is good news.

(also important to note: if he suddenly reappears on social media, that also doesn't mean that any negotiations have fallen through, and we should all panic; anything could be happening, and I know we're little anxiety gremlins - me included, bigly - but until we are definitively told that this is over and there's no hope, then it's not over and there is hope)

There's no way of knowing what is going on, or how long whatever is (or isn't) going on might take. This might be a sprint, but it could just as easily be a marathon. The show not being picked up immediately does not mean there is no hope, as we have seen with numerous other shows. Look at fandoms like Shadow and Bone, who are still fighting tooth and nail for their show because they refuse to give up on it. They haven't given up, and neither should we.

We need to decide if we love OFMD enough to fight for it long-term, to settle in for a long battle, and keep pushing for as long as it takes. And I think, as difficult as it might be, we all know that this show, and its cast and crew, is worth it.

[froznwater]

im so sorry this is incredibly random but if i dont write alenoah i WILL die but i cant think of anything to write. do u have any simple ideas. ignore if not

HI!!! tysm for your ask <3 i hope you can find something to write amongst all the ideas. These are a bunch of ideas have written down in my notes/google drive/tumblr posts and have not got gotten around to. I still might at some point in time but feel free to use them. I will still do my own take if I get the time/motivation. There's simply so many, why not share and inspire some fics :)

----

General ideas:

Noah knows/learns spanish. Bonus points if Alejandro isn't aware until the perfect moment.

Alejandro thinks he can get away with flirting with Noah in spanish. Noah starts shit talking in spanish. Noah learns so he can hear all the little comments Alejandro keeps making under his breath. etc. so many possibilities.

Now that the show is over and Noah's off to college, he realizes he’s missing something in his life. Maybe it’s his friends, maybe it’s a lack of ever-looming danger, OR maybe it’s Alejandro. Who fucking knows. He’s too busy trying not to be in love with Alejandro to figure it out. 

Their group project is failing, horribly. There’s one thing Noah knows for certain: Alejandro's to blame. At what point does slippery eel turn into a term of endearment?

They have never ever fallen asleep next to each other. Let alone in each other's arms. Never.

Time loop where Alejandro is stuck on the episode where Noah gets voted out and sticks himself to falling in love because he can’t let go of his pride long enough to simply let Noah stay in the game and move on.

Noah loses his contacts and starts wearing his glasses more often. Alejandro notices. Everyone notices Alejandro notices.

Alejandro and Noah team up to get their friends together (insert whatever ship you like) and end up together in the process/the other two were trying to do the same thing for them.

A commentary timeline on how Alejandro's charisma turn into exploitation, how Noah's patience turned into indifference, and how they parallel each other. (I've written a few hundred words for this one lol.)

Each thinks the other doesn't like them. Cut to third party POV that watches and witnesses them completely a mess for each other.

Noah, once voted out in I See London, learns about Alejandro's family. Who have been very vocal since the show started airing.

Exploration of how Alejandro tries really really hard. Yes, He's at the top of the class, but so is Noah. Noah who sleeps through classes and doesn't turn in homework and shows up late or simply not at all and is still right up there with him.

“I would kill to be like you. To just absorb all the information fed to me. If I were you I might actually- “(beat my brother) “Might actually what?” “I told you. I don’t want to talk about it, Noah.” - "Do you know how long I studied for that test? Hours. And you- You got a 96 with no effort at all." It was a 98. But this seems like a bad time to correct him.

Dialogue one-liners prompts i've written down:

"If we make it out of this alive, I'm going to kiss you."

“Why do I feel like I cant say no to you?”

"I know you don't actually care about me, but thank you for trying to pretend that you do." (Said by Noah is joking. Said by Alejandro is bitter.)

"You can't win against someone who has nothing to lose."(Alejandro OR Noah angst.)

Soulmate aus:

My big two: Telepathy/Mentally linked.(imagine this one as a wt rewrite omg) And Whatever you draw on yourself shows up on your soulmate. Matching tattoos.

First words on each other. (I've done this one already here. but feel free to do it as well!!)

Communicating through dreams. (If you know cardcaptor sakura; like that.)

General AUs:

Until dawn AU.

Gakuen Alice AU.

My Babysitters A Vampire AU. Zombie Apoc AU.

Harry Potter AU. Reality Dating Show AU.

Infinity Train AU!!!!!!

Veronica Mars AU!!!! (i wanna do this one ALOT noah is sooo veronica LMAO) OBLIGATORY IDEAS:

seven minutes in heaven.

wrong number.

trapped in a closet.

movie night. noah is sitting under alejandro and lol they are physically, platonically touching for awhile. (leads to finally getting together).

one gets injured, the other fixes them up in the nurses office :P.

short "prompt-ishs" i've started writing:

“What the hell is your problem, Alejandro?” And this time, the tone was so disgusted, so bitter, that something snapped, deep in Alejandro’s chest.

Fuck it.

“What’s my problem?” He asked, incredulous. “What’s my problem? You’ve got to be kidding me, Courtney. I almost died. I almost died, paralyzed and alone, and the only friend I thought I had didn’t give a single shit! The only person who cared was Noah, of all people. I quite literally come back to life and the only thing you can do is whine about your girlfriend problems.”

Courtney takes a step back.

“I was stuck in a robot for months, my legs barely work, my family moved on- actually, I don’t know if they ever actually even noticed,” He laughs, broken, “- and you have the audacity to ask me what my problem is?!”

Alejandro is over playing nice. He’s had enough.

-

this one is a rivals team up to get out courtney blurb

little idea about Alejandro getting into zodiacs.

moments where alejandro questions why Noah is so attractive

-

SEND MORE ASKS IF ANYONE HAS ANY QUESTIONS ON ANY OF THESE IDEAS!!! / IF THEY HAVE ANY IDEAS OR CONCEPTS TO ADD OR EXPAND ON :)))

[theturncoattournament]

The Best New Main Character Tournament (Round 4/Quarterfinal Poll)

Note: I recommend reading this blog's pinned post that explains what this tournament is about before voting

The four most voted for characters on this poll will proceed to the semifinal round; the two least voted for will be knocked out of the competition.

PROPAGANDA:

Palamedes Sextus- You'd have Palamedes and Camilla solving the mysteries of Canaan House and tracking down the murderer, you've got his emotional turmoil at being rejected by the love of his life, you have his sheer bafflement at his good friend Protesilaus taking up a vow of silence and repeatedly attacking this other huge, silent weirdo who showed up. It would also be the best detective novel ending, in that he'd give his solution speech about who the culprit was and how they did it, then immediately explodes. Book over.

Descole- He's the antagonist of the prequel trilogy of games and often helps add to the mysteries to solve. I would love to see his perspective of all he did throughout those games.

Garrus Vakarian- None submitted

Eli 'Weevil' Navarro- Francis Capra is a fantastic and immensely underrated actor and he deserves his own show. Weevil is truly the best character and the under-utilised potential of the parts of his life that should have been relevant and weren't will haunt me until I die (worse because he was a major character/series regular). Please, I am begging you, force Rob Thomas to put his money where his mouth is in actually reckoning with the class (+race) inequality the show is always nominally condemning and then reinforcing every time they give racist millionaire characters a giant narrative spotlight and a seventeenth chance instead of paying attention to their POC regulars with so much more potential

Vee- There is just so much potential! It could be a cute cartoon about an awkward little shapeshifter trying to behave like a human. From time to time, a backstory episode about her past as a basilisk and her escape out of the Boiling Isles. Their closest friend is Masha, who slowly discovers their secret, and becomes their confident, like MoringMark Comics from 2022-10-20. (And of course, romance). With the return of Luz in the the human realm, it could be more psychological, exploring complex feeling toward her (envy, but also affection). But yeah, imagine a cute slice-of-life cartoon with the cutest character of the show! Completely in the mood found family, "weirdos staying together" and "being understood"!

Kim Kitsuragi- None submitted

[thegreatmelodrama]

I really want a Nancy Drew movie with the CW cast. Like one final mystery and a chance to better wrap up these characters and have them reunite (which was not the fault of the writers, but that of the CW bc I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to have to completely rework season 4 during the middle of writing bc you found out you were getting cancelled). If Veronica Mars fans could do it, then I think Nancy Drew fans could rally together to do it (if people also want to see this).

[12lifetimes]

every time i read about it i’m like— this is just so crazy. i can’t imagine veronica mars not ending with loVe together (yeah, i know about logan but they sort of still end up with one another, ‘cause they were gonna spend their lives together and no one else was in the picture anymore). glad the writers went that way; can you imagine how wasted it would’ve been to not have them together at all?

x

[autistic-crypt1d]

Show Rankings: Crime Edition

These are just the crime shows that I've watched (or that I can remember at least). If you have any show recommendations based on this pleeeeeaaaase comment them.

I'll be explaining my reasonings below the cut!

Psych - my favorite crime show ever, it's nostalgic, funny, well written, intriguing, and it balances serious with funny so well.

Sherlock - I mean, this show is incredible on all fronts. It's my favorite kind of show, one that you cannot look away from or get distracted from for even a second without missing something. I was on the edge of my seat absolutely enthralled every second. Incredible show.

Veronica Mars - this one is very different from any others on this list and honestly any other crime show I've ever seen. It's amazing and riveting and so interesting, I love it. I ignore the final season existing like everyone else though, screw that.

Bones - great show, super interesting, love the sciency stuff a ton and the unique way of solving crime vs the others on this list. I hate what they did to Booth and Brennan's relationship finally progressing though, and there are definitely flat points I end up scrolling on my phone through.

Castle - really fun show, but there's a lot of stuff I don't care for in it like oversexualization. It also drags on a bit so thats why it gets some points off. The goofy crime solving mixed with serious plot lines and really fun character dynamics keep it above B for me.

The Mentalist - really fun, love Jane's character endlessly, he reminds me of Shawn Spencer in a lot of ways (Psych mentions The Mentalist a few times too). I love how his trauma is included even while he's covering it up with humor. Ending felt a bit weird for me but I like the show a lot and I like how it's dark while still managing to be lighthearted and fun to watch. Plus the amount of times he goats people into hitting him is amazing.

Monk - I relate to Monk a lot with my contamination OCD, the show is really fun, the team is really fun together, plus it goes on for a while in a great way.

White Collar - I love Peter and Neal's dynamic so much, that's honestly the main reason this is high up. It gets a bit boring and repetitive and drawn out sometimes, but I just love how Peter adopted this suave nuisance and actually gets anything done.

Only Murders in the Building - good show, honestly not super memorable yet but I intend to watch the next season. I think the concept is great and the dynamics of the main 3 are really fun and I like it a lot so far.

So Help Me Todd - fun show, Todd makes me laugh, I think his ever developing and growing partnership with his mom is hilarious. That family is honestly so chaotic and I love it, but the show has some lacking parts I don't quite know how to describe. I found myself forgetting to watch the next episodes.

Brooklyn 99 - please don't hate me for this being at B, it's a great and really funny show, I just really didn't connect with it much. I honestly think it's just because I already loved Psych so much and it's so similar in so many ways. I really do like it though.

Tracker - this show is super new and I like it so far. Something about the way it's filmed or the audio or acting is just super off though. I can't put my finger on exactly what's wrong but it just feels so weird. Other than that, I love the concept, it's completely unique from any other ones I've watched so far and I like it a lot. I'm excited to see where it goes.

Rizzoli and Isles - I like this one, but it just didn't grab me like a lot of the others. I love Moira so much though. Plus it really does have a lot of interesting plot lines.

NCIS - ok, this show is super old so you can imagine what that means content wise. There's quite a few jokes and comments that are straight up fucked and that's one of the big reasons it's low. The other reason is how downhill it went after Ziva left, I completely stopped watching after Bishop left too.

Limitless - concept was cool but the writing left a lot to be desired for and of course the fact that it got canceled. The main cop woman also felt really wishywashy as a character to me which is not great for a lead.

[george-weasleys-girl]

GWG Ramblings

The Tommy Westphall Universe

Within the Harry Potter Fandom, there is a theory that the entire series was nothing more than the escapist imaginings of a severely abused Harry locked in a cupboard under the stairs. It's a theory that Rowling, when asked about it, neither confirmed it nor denied it:

"I think that’s a fabulous point, and that speaks so perfectly to the truth to the books, because I had it suggested to me more than once that Harry actually did go mad in the cupboard, and that everything that happened subsequently was some sort of fantasy life he developed to save himself."

It's a hotly contested theory among HP fans and understandably so.

And while we could argue this theory all day, there's only person who'd really know.

Tommy Westphall.

~•~

Tommy Westphall was an autistic character in the 80s medical drama, St. Elsewhere. He was a minor character, appearing in only 15 episodes.

The show centered around St. Eligius, a teaching hospital in Boston. It was a much loved and highly lauded show, running for six seasons and winning a dozen Emmys. But none of that matters. The only thing anyone cares about anymore is the final scene of the final episode.

In the scene, the medical director, Dr. Donald Westphall and his father (another doctor from the series) enter the living room where Tommy is sitting and holding a snow globe. Donald has just arrived home from work and is wearing construction-worker gear. He and his dad watch Tommy for a few moments, then Donald turns to his father and says, "I don't understand this autism thing, Pop. Here's my son. I talk to him, I don't even know if he can hear me. He sits there all day long, in his own world, staring at that toy. What's he thinking about?"

The camera then zooms into the snow globe, and inside, we see a tiny version of St. Eligius Hospital, implying that the entire series was a figment of Tommy's imagination.

Pretty wild, huh?

Well, it gets wilder.

A doctor from St. Elsewhere, Dr. Roxanne Turner was in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street.

Not a big deal. Crossovers happen all the time. Except...

If Dr. Turner was made up by Tommy, does that mean he dreamed up Homicide too?

Then, on top of that, Detective John Munch, one of the main characters on Homicide moved to Law and Order after Homicide ended. Detective Munch went on to appear in episodes of The X-Files, Arrested Development, and The Wire.

All of which took place in the mind of one child.

But it doesn't stop there. In one episode, the doctors of St. Elsewhere went out for drinks at a local bar in Boston. The bar in question was Cheers. The Cheers. Making Cheers also one of Tommy's daydreams.

Then Cheers spun off Fraiser, which crossed over with Caroline in the City, which crossed over with Mad About You, which crossed over with Seinfeld. Further expanding Tommy's vast imaginary universe.

Now, at this point, I'm sure you're wondering how Harry Potter fits into all this.

It all has to do with the show Supernatural.

So, remember how Detective Munch from Homicide also appeared in X-Files, thus placing the infamous sci-fi show into the Tommy Westphall's ever-expanding universe?

Well, in X-Files, there is a Lariat car rental company. Later, in Supernatural's episode, "Time is On My Side," we see Lariat Car Rentals, (which btw, is also featured in Breaking Bad and Veronica Mars).

Then, in the Supernatural episode, "Regarding Dean", Rowena MacLeod, a witch, suggests using the Obliviate spell to help Dean with his memory.

The Obliviate spell, of course, comes from Harry Potter, thus indicating that the entire HP universe is just another one of Tommy's countless daydreams.

(Btw, in addition to this connection, there are two others that I haven't yet had time to research.)

- In the show Galavant, which has been linked to Tommy's universe, one of the characters, Xanax, mentions the Petrificus Totalus spell from The Philosopher's Stone.

- Then, in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie trilogy, a montage features The New York Star, the newspaper that Carrie Bradshaw worked for in Sex and the City (also a figment of Tommy's imagination.)

But that's not all. Three other newspapers are in the same montage, The New York Chronicle, The New York Gazette, and The New York Clarion.

Each of these papers has been featured in other shows and movies linked to Tommy's universe, such as:

-The Twilight Zone

-Beverly Hills 90210

-I Love Lucy

-Citizen Kane

-Growing Pains

-The Pride of the Yankees

-Felicity

-The Untouchables

...just to name a few.

To date, 419 shows have been traced back to Tommy Westphall.

And that doesn't count movie connections, which, btw, includes the entire MC Universe and the Aliens Franchise.

Let's start with the MC Universe.

In Avengers: Infinity War, we discover that Tobias Funke is part of the Collector's collection. Tobias Funke was a character from Arrested Development, which crossed over with Homicide which crossed over with St. Elsewhere.

As far as Aliens goes, it gets a little more complicated.

In St. Elsewhere, the character Dr. Mark Craig mentions that B.J. Hunicutt from the series M.A.S.H. was a former colleague.

Then, as mentioned earlier, the doctors of St. Eligius went to Cheers. One of the characters in Cheers is Fraiser, the titular character of the show Fraiser.

During his radio show, Fraiser receives a call from John Hemingway, a character from the John Laroquette Show.

The bus stop in front of the office in the John Laroquette show was built by Yoyodyne.

Yoyodyne is a client of Wolfram and Hart, a law firm featured in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (as well as Angel, The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai, Star Trek, Firefly, Red Dwarf, Dollhouse and Bones).

Another client of Wolfram and Hart is Weyland-Yutani, which built weapons and ships in Aliens.

So, that means M.A.S.H., Aliens, Buffy and all the aforementioned shows and movies exist within the same universe. Tommy Westphall's universe.

So, yeah...

To quote one reddit user:

"Forget the Matrix. We're all living in Tommy Westphall's mind."

If you're curious, here is a masterlist of all the TV shows that have been traced back to Tommy Westphall.

@milivanili99 @fancy-pantaloons @turvi @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy @georgie-weasley @kaysau2510 @hanne-montana @rhunew @greenapplegrass @loca4moony @whotfskai @sierraluvzz @lillisummers

[hollygl125]

On the end of CSI: Vegas:

*Please be warned: This is not in fact a post for fans of (the non-GSR portions of) CSI: Vegas. This is (shocking, I know!) a post for fans of Sara Sidle + Gil Grissom.*

I’d like to pour one out for CSI: Vegas. 🥂

I didn’t watch the series finale of CSI: Vegas, which aired this past Sunday, even though I’d told myself I might, just for the heck of it. I didn’t watch any of last season’s episodes with Greg Sanders, even though I’d told myself I would, though maybe someday I will if I get around to it.

I only watched the first ten episodes of CSI: Vegas—the GSR: The Epilogue episodes—but for those ten episodes I am awfully, terribly, tremendously grateful.

I mean, let’s be real, getting to see the two characters from a long-running TV will-they/won’t they couple come back and be so beautiful together is a one-in-a “I can’t remember seeing it before in my several decades of TV-watching” opportunity.

I’m going to start by quoting what I said on Twitter (for as long as I can stop my iPhone from updating the app it’s still a blue bird and I can use it) a few days after the CSI: Vegas cancellation was announced:

I’m so grateful to CSI: Vegas. By letting us see Sara + Grissom be as beautiful + perfect + magical as I’d have imagined them to be when finally allowed just to be (happy) together, it made the #GSR love story of the original CSI even more satisfying (to me, at least). 💕💕💕

I’m incredibly leery of revivals, which have the ability to wreak so much havoc. On this topic, I’d recommend checking out the story of the 2019 revival of Veronica Mars + the resulting death (murder) of that show’s fandom, if you’re not familiar with it.

Maybe it’s because I read an angstier (for GSR) earlier script for the CSIV pilot. But victories are all too rare, and I can’t call getting to see my two favourite science nerds be happy + gorgeous together anything but a win. Thanks always to JF + WP for being so magical. 💕💕💕

For those not familiar with the murder of the Veronica Mars fandom, I’m going to summarize it, because (in my mind, at least) it forms a kind of interesting parallel with CSI (specifically, the GSR of it all), despite being a three-season (and a movie and a fourth season) cult show, as opposed to the fifteen-season, most-watched scripted show of the millennium.

At the end of the second season (2/3 of the way through the original three seasons, which I’ll roughly line up with “Way to Go” (CSI, 09x10)), Ms. Mars and her beloved were happily reunited. But, by the time the show was cancelled a year later, TPTB had split the couple up. A movie was needed to reunite them and give everyone the happily-ever-after the show’s creator knew the fans craved. (I mean, does that not sound familiar? In the case of Veronica Mars, the movie was a Kickstarter-funded theatre release that came out in 2014, seven years after the show’s cancellation, but still; there’s a parallel to be made.)

Then roughly five years later an eight-episode revival was announced. Veronica Mars + Logan Echolls (“LoVe”) are one of my all-time favourite fictional couples. So was I excited? No, I was terrified. We’d left them happily together and in love. Why f*** with that? I tried to convince myself everything would be okay.

It wasn’t. The show’s creator sh*t on the fans in the worst way possible, and his justifications for it were positively insulting, just, you know, to women as a whole. (Luckily the season dropped earlier than scheduled on Hulu, and I was spoiled and spared the agony of actually watching it.)

So, as I noted on Twitter, I am incredibly leery of revivals. Sometimes we need the chance to give a proper ending to a beloved story (as in the case of the Veronica Mars and CSI (“Immortality”) movies). But sometimes a story needs an actual ending—it needs actually to end—so it has meaning and finality. And that is impossible when things keep getting revived.

My threshold then, for a revival, the bar by which I measure it, is simply that I need it not to f*** up what came before it. The Veronica Mars revival failed horribly (to put it mildly) in that respect. Whereas CSI: Vegas . . . well, to my mind, it made the GSR storyline of the original CSI even better and more satisfying, by letting us see how perfect and beautiful and happy and luminescent (and I could go on . . .) Sara and Grissom would be together if finally allowed to be just that.

I usually like to respond to what I would consider to be negative “bad takes” simply by making my own more positive point(s). But I am going to break that rule here for just a minute. On Twitter (yes, I know, my own fault!) sometimes I still see GSR fans complaining about CSI: Vegas: the “cut kiss” or GSR not getting enough screen time or GSR not seeming married enough (I think because they never got naked—I don’t know—I don’t really get that take myself—they were so divinely married!) or . . . again I don’t know. And it makes me kind of sad, and it drives me kind of ’round the bend. I really think that, if a GSR fan cannot appreciate the beauty WP and JF gave us in CSI: Vegas, they are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. (I think they tend to be young, and I want to tell them: “Life is hard enough!!! Don’t set up roadblocks for yourself!”)

Aside from the GSR of it all, CSI: Vegas admittedly wasn’t really my cup of TV tea. Tonally it felt like it existed in a somewhat different universe; it reminded me more of Bones than of the OG CSI. Now, I watched all of Bones, more than once, so this isn’t meant to be an insult to Bones; it’s just not what I would be looking for from CSI.

But, the truth is, I wasn’t looking for more CSI. All I needed was for CSI: Vegas not to f*** things up for Sara and Grissom, and on that score it didn’t just meet but exceeded expectations.

I also love that CSI: Vegas put together such a diverse cast; they deserve an A+ for that. Although I didn’t watch either of them, I’m really unimpressed that CSI canned two women-led procedurals. (An obvious response here is that I should have been watching them, but I watch very, very little new TV these days and don’t live in the U.S., anyway, and honestly I just can’t with NCIS anymore.) Progress is achieved in fits and starts, I guess.

(I also will mention that literally hundreds of people work on these shows—Zuiker says 400 in his “Immortality” commentary. So, while it’s the nature of the industry, it’s always rough for those hundreds of people who had presumably-coveted network drama jobs suddenly to be in search of work, so I find it pretty insensitive to be revelling in the cancellation of a show, no matter how much you personally may not have liked it. That’s aside from the fact that, even if you didn’t like it, presumably some other people did.)

I guess that’s all I needed to say, for now.

Whoops, no, one more kind of important point for me: I watched CSI as it originally aired, and Sara + Grissom together were my favourite part of it, but I was not in any sense down the rabbit hole for them. I watched “Immortality,” I was incredibly grateful they were reunited, I wished they had kissed, and . . . I thought of them no more. For some reason OG CSI repeats have never been available where I live? So I thought of them no more—until CSI: Vegas started. We were in the midst of a pandemic, and I shelled out $100 to iTunes so I could rewatch CSI as love story. My CSI rewatch and CSI: Vegas reignited the spark, the disastrous path my mental health was on provided the lighter fuel, and I wound up down this rabbit hole with all of you. . . .

If you’re interested in that angstier earlier script for the CSI: Vegas pilot . . . well, I’ll save that for another day!

But, for now, won’t you join me in pouring one out for CSI: Vegas? 🥂