#writing keith and logan interactions is so. hard.

[thelillykane]

he’s so bad, but he does it so well 

OR, the one where Logan’s in trouble but the kids just wanna make out. 

this is yet another excerpt from that bigger fic in which Keith becomes Logan’s legal guardian and Logan and Veronica are, you know, epic, eventually. (you may be asking yourselves why I don’t just finish and post the entire damn fic at this point and the answer is -- eat your scraps and shut up)

previous posted excerpts are here and here.  title is from wildest dreams by taylor swift. 

also keith’s name in logan’s phone is, “╭∩╮（︶︿︶）╭∩╮” which didn’t quite make it into the story, but is still very important to me that y’all know.

“Who’s the frowny face?” Veronica fiddled with the dials on Logan’s dash, blasting the AC all the way up and angling the vents towards her for good measure, the heat stifiling even as the sky was filled with city lights.

“Huh?”

“Whoever it is they’ve called you six times.” Veronica flashed the screen of Logan’s phone at him quick for proof, and then focused on tying her hair into a knot, giving some much needed relief to her neck.

“Oh, fuck.” Logan swallowed. “That’s your dad.”

Veronica banged her forehead and her knee and her elbow diving into the seat-well.

“What are you doing??” She hissed at Logan. “Get us out of here before he sees us.”

“The frowny face. It’s your dad.”

Veronica clambered up back onto the seat with as much dignity as she could muster and shot Logan a nasty look. “What did you do?”

“Me?” He chewed his thumb. “I didn’t do anything.”

“He has never called me six times in a row, so you definitely did something.”

“That’s because he likes you,” Logan groused, sitting in the car with a huff.

“That’s because I’m trustworthy,” she chirped, and then winced, shooting Logan a sheepish look. “Sorry.”

“No, I am corrupting his only daughter.”

Logan’s hand found her waist again, and he held her there, his hand with a fistful of her dress while he placed greedy little kisses along her chin and her collarbone.

“It’s too hot,” Veronica whined, but she arched towards him eagerly even as she said so, her fingers getting a good, strong grip in his hair so she could direct his attention towards her mouth, which she parted open expectantly, grinning as he was quick to give her what she wanted.

Her hair quickly unraveled again, spilling free from its confines to swing in a curtain around their heads. Logan had one hand warm and unassuming on her knee, while the other danced across her back and her face and her arm at whim, like Logan couldn’t decide which part of her he most wanted to touch, so he’d decided to try and touch everything.

Veronica pulled away once she was sure she could memorize the feel of every single one of his teeth, but she left her hands tangled up behind his neck as she took time to catch her breath and slow her heart rate down.

“We’re going to be late,” she finally said, once she remembered how to speak.

Logan kissed the palms of each of her hands and then her knuckles too. “We have a few more minutes.” 

“Nope,” Veronica slid back onto her side of the car, watching Logan pout as he lost her touch and the hyper-proximity of her body. “If you get another speeding ticket he’s going to take your keys away, and my cars still in the shop.”

“He could just tell his deputies to stop giving me tickets.”

Veronica rolled her eyes. “You could not drive 75MPH in the most obnoxiously noticeable car ever.” 

Logan shot her a look. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you all folded up like origami down there.” 

“You’re one to talk!” She smacked him in the side. “You went out the window last week because Lilly called me. She wasn’t even in the room.”

“Oh, whatever!” Logan fidgeted. “You know she has that third eye shit, I’m not fucking risking it.”

“Do you feel....bad? About not telling them?”

“Lilly? No. She can rot for all I care.”

Veronica looked down at her hands. “You can’t stay mad at her forever.”

Logan set his jaw and didn’t answer. 

//

As pre-decided, Logan pulled over a few blocks away from the house, so Veronica could walk the rest of the way.

“You’re throwing me to the wolves,” he complained.

“If we come in together he’ll take one look at us and know.” 

“He also won’t shoot me if we come in together, and I think that should be our main focus right now.”

“I thought you didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t.” Logan chewed his thumb again.

Veronica shut the door firmly. “I’ll see you at home, Logan.”

Unsurprisingly, when Veronica walked through the door a few minutes later, Keith was speaking to Logan in that low, you-are-on-the-thinnest-of-ice-voice and Logan was staring at Keith bored, with that same stubborn set to his jaw that he’d sported earlier when she tried to talk about Lilly.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Keith spared her a tired smile. “Did you have a nice time with Wallace, honey?”

“Um, yeah. You know,” she shrugged, inching past them to snag a Skist out of the refrigerator. “Did you have a good day at work?”

“Honey, why don’t you go upstairs and see if your mom’s feeling any better, she’s having one of her headaches.” 

“Headaches?” Logan repeated, with a menacing thrill to his voice. “Is that what we’re calling them now?”

Veronica glowered at Logan as she went up the stairs, but he didn’t even glance in her direction, too focused on pissing off her dad.

“Knock it off,” Keith warned. “You really don’t want to be pushing the envelope anymore with me right now, kid.”

“Pushing the envelope? Dude, I don’t know what outdated fucking parenting books you’re reading about how to talk to somebody else’s child, but they’re not getting through to me— you can stop.”

Keith snagged Logan by the arm and pulled him in close. “l’m getting pretty sick of telling you not to call me dude, and I’m getting pretty sick of your mouthing off.”

“Yeah, and I’m pretty sick of you always bitching at me, so, I guess neither of us is getting what we want.” Logan yanked his arm free. “Can I go?”

Keith took a breath and held his hand out expectantly.

“What? Do you wanna sing kumbaya or something?”

“Phone, wallet, keys — you know the drill.”

“For how long?”

“Until I see a serious attitude adjustment.”

Logan wrapped his arms around himself defensively. “This is total bullshit, you don’t punish Veronica when she tases somebody, but I defend myself and you’re all over my ass about it.”

“I’ve seen the surveillance tapes, Logan, that was not self defense. You broke the mans nose, for christ’s sake. And since you’re not mature enough to have a civilized conversation with me about it, we’re doing this instead.”

“A civilized conversation about what? I just told you it was self defense and you already don’t believe me. How the fuck do you expect us to have a conversation about it?”

“You assaulted a stranger, broke his nose, and you’ve been lying through your teeth to me about it ever since. And this morning when I told you to come home straight after school so we could talk, what did you do instead?”

“Well, I’m fucking here now, aren’t I?”

“Yes, and you’ve been belligerent and disrespectful the whole time. Keys, wallet, phone, I’m not going to tell you again.”

He threw all three onto the floor to be petty, and then wished he hadn’t when Keith fixed him with a look so stern and so unimpressed that Logan honest to god squirmed.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“Pick those up. Right now.”

Logan quickly did just that, placing each item gently onto the kitchen island this time, his heart thundering in his chest. Please let this be over, please let this be over...

“Did you get your history test back yet?”

“Oh. Um.” Logan fidgeted. “Not yet.”

Keith nodded slowly. “Your teacher emailed me and said she handed them back out today.”

Logan cringed. “I passed it.”

“I think I’ll decide that for myself.”

Logan sighed, reluctantly fishing through his backpack for the test and handing it over to Keith. “I really did pass it,” he muttered.

Keith frowned at the test, frowned up at Logan, and then frowned at the test again. “Why would you lie about this?” He asked finally. “You did good.”

“You don’t have to sound surprised.”

“I’m surprised, because usually when somebody lies about not getting a test back, it’s because they failed it. You got a 91. Why would you lie about that?”

“I don’t know,” Logan shrugged. “But if you’re so thrilled about the test can I not be grounded?”

“Not a chance,” Keith said. “But really— good work on the test.”

Keith squeezed Logan’s shoulder fondly as he left the room, taking Logan’s stuff with him as went.

Fuck. 

Veronica was not going to be pleased.

//

“Do you need something?”

“Oh, come on,” Logan groaned. “You can’t be pissed at me, this wasn’t my fault.”

Veronica set her book aside and stared at him. “In which way was this not your fault.”

“Were you eavesdropping?”

“Why? Are you trying to figure out if you can bullshit me, and I won’t notice?”

“No!” Logan defended, hotly. “But....were you?”

Veronica crossed her arms.

“Okay,” he conceded. “It was maybe a little bit my fault, but mostly it was just your dad blowing a gasket for no reason.”

“It sounded to me like the reason was because you broke somebody’s fucking nose, Logan.”

“The guy was being a little bitch, Veronica, it’s not my fault he couldn’t fight.”

“Okay, that’s it,” Veronica rose from the bed and began herding him out of her room. “We’re done here, goodnight.”

“Waaaaiiiiit,” Logan whined, clawing at the sides of the door so she couldn’t force him out. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“And how will you do that with no car, no money, and no phone?”

“Like this.”

Logan bounced twice on his toes and then leaned down, cradling her face softly in between his hands as he kissed her lazily. Veronica rose onto her tiptoes to better accommodate him, her fingers curled into the fabric of his t-shirt as she gasped delightedly into his mouth.

They heard a noise down the hall and broke apart so fast Veronica was sure they both dislocated something. Keith poked his head in a moment later.

“Goodnight, kids.”

“Night, dad.” She smiled at him, willing herself not to touch her face, or look at Logan, or look like she was trying not to touch her face or not look at Logan.

Logan waved distractedly over his shoulder, afraid to face Keith or to even speak aloud, sure that if he did Keith would some how be able to deduce the last thing his tongue had been doing.

They both held their breath while they waited for the telltale sound of the bedroom door shutting, Veronica exhaling loudly as soon as they did. “This is getting out of hand.”

“You’re telling me,” Logan whispered. “It is a little hot though.”

“You have a death wish.”

“You and me both, sister.”

“Okay, don��t call me sister when your tongue has just been down my throat. That’s just gross.” She wrinkled her nose. “Better yet, don’t call me sister ever.”

Logan smirked. “I can make that up to you too.”

“I don’t know,” Veronica said shrugging airily. “So far I’ve been kind of unimpressed.”

“Oh?” Logan’s grin was positively sinful. “Well, let’s see what we can do about that.”

He kissed her, giddy and giggling, and Veronica kissed back demanding, her heart singing more, more, more.

[nicemom93]

In The Wreckage

Eight days. It’s been eight days since the horror of Season 4 dropped on us unexpectedly, messing up all of our plans to watch together, with personalized marshmallows (thanks, @jjmazzy) and Veronica-themed food. And while we all knew that we were going to lose someone, I don’t think anyone was ready for what we got, or how poorly it would be done. 

What I also never expected was a season that made me:

1. Wish that we’d never clamored for more Veronica Mars after MKAT;

2. Wonder if I could actually still enjoy old VM canon, since what S4 did to Veronica and her story was so awful.

I came across a Hulu forum (again, thanks, @jjmazzy ) and wrote more than I’ve been able to write in the last 8 days, explaining my unhappiness and my hope that Rob Thomas is not allowed to bring any more Veronica Mars canon to life, but it may have been too long and the damn thing won’t post. So, I’m sharing here, under the cut, to at least get this off my chest. 

Although it is inevitable that this show would have ended for good in 2007 without the steadfast support of its fans, I respect that a showrunner gets to run his show. He doesn’t have to cater to what has become disparagingly termed ‘fan service’. There are a couple of problems with that in the case of the Veronica Mars revival however. 

After the unprecedented fan response to bringing Veronica and company back for a movie, the fandom continued to keep the attention on the desire for more canon content. Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell did an admirable job continuing to mention their own wishes just often enough to keep the fans’ interest piqued. Then, last summer, a month before the formal revival announcement, the teasing began…we’re close, so close, so very close…and the fandom responded as expected, shouting our desire for more VM content from every forum available. I cannot believe that this deliberate tease and the fandom response did not help make the deal with Hulu. “Look at our built-in audience! This is a sure-fire money-maker.” For the next 11 months, we were then spoon fed the pieces and parts of the story that anyone with a brain would know was going to keep the interest high. Kristen Bell even finally declared herself ‘Team Logan’ after years of frustratingly stating that do-nothing Piz was better for her beloved character than the boyfriend who always had her back and knew exactly what she needed. What a great day that was – seeing her finally admit what the rest of us have thought all along. We should have known it was a scam to keep us on the hook, but, boy, did it work. Hulu has probably never gotten as much free advertising from a fandom as it did for Veronica Mars.

But the show we got in S4, and what is being proposed for S5, are not what we were sold. In S4, Veronica became a shell of who she has been in the past. That might be understandable given all of the trauma in her life, but when last we saw her, she was working toward understanding what she wanted out of her life and was learning to make better choices. What in the world happened to her between the end of MKAT and S4? Nothing is mentioned, but for a character to have such a significant change in outlook and behavior between chapters of a story, there really should have been some explanation. There is no question that Veronica's always been...troubled and kinda difficult, but that was earned by the circumstances of her life, and the people who cared about her still managed to ground her to a certain extent, no matter how hard she was on them.

In S4, she's hateful to everyone who has loved her, except for her dad, who she mostly ignores. Her disdain over Wallace's life choices was hard to stomach. Her treatment of Weevil was so self-righteous and horrible that I truly hated her in that last interaction...you know, the one before he saved her ass in spite of how awful she was. And her treatment of Logan was appalling. She spent most of the original series looking down on teenaged Logan because he wasn't as focused and driven and put together as she thought he should be (newsflash - she wasn't all that either), but here she's looking down on him because he’s gotten too focused, driven, and put together. I get why she had trouble with the fact that she's still a mess and he's not any longer, but the way she taunted and undermined him did not make her a character I would like to see again. Now, a Veronica who understands her own dynamic, and is trying to improve herself, that would be interesting, but there is nothing in how S4 concluded that would cause her to make this change. She now has a reason to be a shell of her former self, with no hope for anything good to ever come from her life.

Since S4 aired, we’ve heard from Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell telling us this was the only way to keep the show going. They’ve even had poor Jason Dohring out trying to sell that message, in spite of the completely disrespectful way he was treated after helping keep fan interest in this show over the long term. Not just because of the abs, although that’s the typical argument from those who want to see a fifth season of Veronica beaten down once again. No, it’s because Logan Echolls has had the best arc of character development on this entire show, and on most other television shows as well. It is difficult to fathom why no one wanted to continue to take advantage of that.   

However, this showrunner doesn’t think a married woman detective can be interesting. Rob Thomas has stated in interviews that he thinks Logan and Veronica in a perfect relationship would be boring. Umm, have you watched your own show, sir? That marriage is never going to be perfect. Watching them negotiate their new dynamic would be interesting to watch, but apparently not interesting, or maybe it's just not possible, for Mr. Thomas to write. He’s also stated that he needed Veronica to be the underdog again—that’s where she is best. I don’t disagree, but I’m not sure how more trauma piled on her translates to underdog. She’s always going to be the underdog because she takes up for the underdog. At least she used to. Her relationship status doesn’t change that. 

Mr. Thomas’s consistent message following the show’s drop has been that he wants this to be a pure mystery show, and take out the teenage soap element. He could have done that easily by not regressing Veronica back to the maturity level of a teenager. That was the only obvious aspect of teen soap that I saw in S4 and he chose to wrote her like that. He also chose to throw in the completely unnecessary love triangle tease, a ridiculous soapy twist for a character who has never been a cheater, at a fundamental core level because of what she has seen, and who has been in a reasonably stable and loving relationship for five years. We’re also told that the horrific trauma she endures at the close of the finale is what will finally get her to heal. There is no valid writing that would make that true. Over the last fifteen years, Rob Thomas has piled trauma after trauma on this character, and none of them have caused her to heal. Here, in spite of her fears, she again chooses a life with the love of her life, establishing that she does still have some hope for a better life, even when she knows so much can go wrong, and she is rewarded for this growth by being dealt the worst blow possible. What about that set-up sounds like a reason to finally choose to heal?

Our final sight of Veronica is of her again running away from what’s left of her life, including any type of support system. Mr. Thomas indicates he sees the future of this show only as Veronica traveling and solving mysteries on her own on the road. He wants a pure mystery show, although he admits, very accurately, that he doesn't do mystery that well. He also accurately assesses that humor/banter is where he excels, but where in the story of a lonely, bitter widow with no one in her life are we to find that humor? V's repartee with Keith and Logan especially are where that is easiest to find, and Logan’s dead and Keith will maybe be on the other end of a phone call. Why would we wish this dark and hopeless world on a character that we’ve loved for years in spite of her flaws (and her creator’s). As a longtime, very immersed fan, I wish I could travel back in time and let the fandom know what it’s like at the end of this time stream. If I believe in Marvel Time Travel, that still leaves us in a shattered world that we unwittingly asked for, but maybe I could at least save other versions of me and my fandom friends from the heartbreak of a Veronica Mars revival. Canon ended just fine with MKAT. I can only hope that the Hulu Powers That Be don’t continue to allow Mr. Thomas to continue to inflict his vision of more trauma porn on Veronica Mars. 

[clamydomona]

Veronica Mars Season 4 (Spoilers)

I had zero expectations going into this season, didn’t watch any interviews or trailers or look up spoilers because I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Most revivals I watched in the last years were ony so-so and most of the time when I was looking forward to something I ended up disappointed. Wth that in mind, I enjoyed a lot of what I saw.

Positive stuff:

- I loved that Veronica had a new dog that she named Pony, but I’m disappointed that he didn’t get to go on any of her snooping adventures with her like Backup in the old days.

- I’m glad that Wallace ended up married and with a cute baby and a good job and that he seems genuinely happy, that guy deserves it.

- I could listen to Cliff for hours and still enjoy his relationship with Keith and Veronica immensely. I like that he seems ridiculous but good at his job at the same time.

- Same goes for Vinnie. I can understand why the police chief is reluctant to trust PIs if most of her interactions are with Vinnie. Less so with Keith and Veronica. But at least she seems more qualified for her jobs than the Lambs ever were.

- I enjoyed what we’ve seen of Dick, but I’m glad that it wasnt more than that.

- Big Dick’s right hand man reminded me so much of Mike from Breaking Bad I sometimes confused those guys.

- The thing I enjoyed most of all was Veronica and Keith’s relationship, their teamwork and their banter. That was one aspect of the show I liked the most and I’m glad this season had so much of that.

- Logan’s character development was great as well. I loved that he ha help working through his issues to move beyond his anger and resentment that drove him so much of his life, while still being enjoyable and recognizable as a character. I also absolutely loved the scene where Logan came home with blood on his shirt, acting like nothing happened. And that Logan seemed to have very positive relationships with Keith and Wallace, after their earlier animosities.

- I also liked that scene where the murder heads were all arguing about who really killed Lily. Seems very reflective of all the True Crime culture nowadays.

- The mystery was interesting enough and not as convoluted as some of the previous mysteries.

- I also enjoyed many of the Leo-scenes, there was some pretty good banter and I liked how they snapped out of their drunkenness to draw their guns withing two seconds. Could have done without the sex dream, though I never for one second thought that thing was real.

- Nicole was a very fun character and I’m sad that her storyline ended the way it did.

So-So stuff:

- While pizza guy Penn was an interesting character, after a while he became very annoying being featured so heavily.

- Matty was interesting as a mirror of Veronica’s teenage self, though I’m not sure I would have let her be unsupervised in the office after some of the stuff she pulled beforehand.

- While earlier seasons were certainly violent enough, I could have done without so much casual beheading. Seemed way over the top for me.

- After watching Jason Dohring in iZombie, I was relieved that his head didn’t look as tiny in comparison to his very defined torso as it did in that show. For some reason that was extremely off-putting to me last year.

Negative Stuff:

- Why so little Wallace? They could have found something for him to do, it can’t be that hard. Also I’m disappointed that he was treated as so disposable by Veronica. She treated spending time with him more as an obligation than anything else. Was that the same in the show, it’s been a few years since I saw that.

- No Mac. She was missing so much.

- Why they felt the need to rob Weevil of every positive thing in his life and regress him to the character he was in season 1 I will never understand. I understand that the falling out between him and Veronica was described in the books, but without knowledge of those, their relationship this season just seemed very weird.

- Why the hell did we spend so much time in the first episode with the spring break kids before the bombing, when nothing of that seemed to matter, the scenes could have been cut out and the story would have been just as easy to follow?

- Why did none of these people, except the brother of the congressman and Matty, seem in any way trauamtized or sad that they lost their friends/family in a bombing when they instead expected to have fun partying?

- Why was Veronica belitleing Logan’s therapy so much? Didn’t their relationship fall apart numerous times because of his destructive tendencies? Shouldn’t she be happy that he sought help, even if she is incapable of getting it herself (when she, let’s face it, probably needs it more than any other character apart from Logan)? After a while I honestly didn’t understand why Logan wanted to be with her, when in earlier seasons it was mostly the other way around.

- Is Logan an addict of any kind or not? I thought he was, since he was a sponsor in the movie, but he drank (and did drugs, did I understand that “E” correctly?) with Nicole, Veronica and Dick in one episode, so I guess not?

- If for some reason the show gets another season, it’s reasonable to expect that they will drag out Duncan again, right? He’s the only ex-boyfriend they haven’t used in any of the newer incarnations of the show.

 And then the ending:

I wasn’t spoiled, but it did not exactly come as a surprise to me, because Rob Thomas so fas has been incapable of writing a relationship that survived a whole season intact (at least on Veronica Mars and iZombie, I don’t know about any other products of his. I learned not to get attached to any of Liv’s reationships, because why bother when he kils all of them off anyway?). I honestly thought there was a bomb in her car when Logan reminded her on Skype to move it and expected the bomb to detonate when she went to move it while the cartell guys were watching her apartment. I expected the other shoe to drop the whole episode, so I couldn’t even get into the wedding because it was so obvious to me that the whole thing was far from over without any explosion in the finale.

I wasn’t surprised that the bomb went off, though I am surprised that the show seriously went there and appearantly killed off one of the main reasons people still want to watch the show. After watching so many supernatural shows (and a few soaps), I remain highly sceptical that he’s actually dead without showing the explosion itself, the body, the funeral or anyone mourning at all. Especially after they did something similar in season 2 but didn’t kill off Keith.

But after catching glimpses of interviews going around, I am stunned that the death at least seems to be intended to be permanent and I don’t get that argument at all. Why the hell is it necessary to kill of one of the main attractions of the show in order to “save” it? Who wants to tune into a show that killed off one half of a couple that became an essential part of that show? Seemed to me more like he wanted to make sure he would absolutely not get another season, and providing extremely shitty closure in the process. It just didn’t seem like the show to me. In previous finales, while Veronica went through harrowing experiences, the show still managed to end on a somewhat positive note (which might arguably be the case with Keith getting healthier and Veronica willing to see Logan’s therapist, but all of that seemed extremely hollow to me). Plus, the death was so tagged onto the case storyline, not intrinsic to it at all, but just added after the resolution. Random deaths might be true to real life, here it just seems to be shock for shock’s sake, but not necessarily good storytelling. Furthermore it’s just depressing to pile on more and more trauma onto Veronica without any of the relief of healing.

Also, I completely disagree that the show would not be interesting anymore with a married Veronica. Why couldn’t the conflict and drama come from the cases itself, while her private life was stable for once? I’ve really grown to hate this notion that couples are not interesting once they are in committed relationships, so they have to do will they/won’t they, cheating and love triangles. I’ve read tons of fanfiction that somehow managed it, why are so many showrunners incapable of seeing any appeal in that at all? Honestly, the show would have been more innovative if it had let Veronica be married and at least a little attempting to overcome her trauma. But I guess a happy Veronica is not an inspiring Veronica to the showrunner.

I honestly think Rob Thomas overestimates Veronca’s appeal as a character without any of the other elements. No Neptune, not Keith, no friends, no Logan, just Veronica going around solving cases does not sound appealing at all to me. If he wants something like that, it would probably be better to create a whole new show based on that kind of premise, or write this season like that to begin with. Just kill off Logan off screen in a war and start Veronica as a lonely and depressed PI somewhere other than Neptune if that’s what Rob Thomas wants to write so much.

I really have to thank the absolutely terrible finale of HIMYM. After completely screwing over my favorite couple, I just stopped being invested in any couple to the degree I was before. I never assume anymore that the story will go in the direction I expect it to go, no matter how obvious that outcome seems to me, because who knows how differently the showrunner envisions their work and what they see as “good storytelling” (which somehow often means killing someone off right before the end, how fun!). I am kind of surprised by how angry I am about Logan’s death despite my low expectations and diminished investment in the couple since I first saw the show. At least here I can ignore the ending much more easily than in HIMYM.

[katiehepburns]

this Marshmallow still hasn’t fully recovered from her s4 binge watch. my very disjointed and rushed feelings below.

last night, I was a hysterical mess.  now, I am just cussing angry. so so angry.

Overall, I really liked season 4.  The tone and vibe was so s1 VM and the season long mystery arc was well done - it held my interest and engaging.  I enjoyed that it was dark (violent wise - wow, didn’t realize that there would be so many headings) and the humor was fun.   I had many issues with the resolution of the arc though.

The chemistry between Keith and Veronica was perfect.  Their sassy banter and so many feelings.  I always loved their relationship on the show and with Keith’s health scare, the emotional gut punch was platable.   Also loved how Keith was supportive of Logan and was there to cut through Veronica’s BS when it especially when it came to him.

I’ve always loved Logan and Veronica.  They were are always my couple on this show.   There were so many parts of their relationship that I loved in s4 - they were snarky, sweet and domestic with each other.  They had their issues but they were in an adult relationship and worked through their shit together. 

Oh Logan.  I loved how he had evolved so much of the course of the first 3 seasons and the movie.   His character development was amazing.  I love the Logan that we saw in s4.  So I had a lot of issues with Veronica’s treatment of him in s4.  Her constant comments and dismissal of Logan going to therapy and she was borderline cruel to him.  Here he was trying to better himself, work through his many issues, and become a strong and mature version.  Yet, Veronica pushes him to become violent and angry, needling him because she didn’t like this different Logan.  It was so unhealthy and I absolutely hate that Veronica was trying so hard to erode his hard work and push him to react that way.     Wasn’t she the same person who always told him that he needed to grow up and not respond with violence and anger?

Veronica.  She was wonderful flawed, jaded with a wicked sense of humor.  I get that she has alot of issues.  The girl has been through a lot and always been strong and gotten through it.  Still, 15 years later, she’s pretty the same person, just older.  Her character development is stagnant and she’s just middling in neutral.  I really dislike how she treated Logan in so many ways or she was so cruelly dismissive of Weevil without caring about him or trying to understand his feelings.   Also, I feel like with her friendship with Wallace, was almost burdensome to her - where was that wonderful bond?  (Granted, having Percy as pretty much a background player in this season didn’t help).

I f-in hated how the ended this season.  I was bawling hysterically at the end.  Now I am so so angry.  I hate how suddenly this ending is supposed to “save” the show, according to Rob Thomas.  BULLSHIT.

A character with beautiful character development was thrown away to keep with the noir theme of the show? BS.

I mostly hate the message this show is conveying.  That a strong, independent woman who dealt with so many tragedy and pain, who managed to move past it and get a law degree and become a smart PI can’t be happy?  What does that take away from her story?  Her love and (weeps) marriage to Logan was such another layer to a complicated and unique individual.  It was such a opportunity to see her grow and mature and make her three dimensional.  All her relationships on this show (Keith, Wallace, Mac, and Logan, even Lily) helped shaped Veronica and especially give her love and support that she craved and wanted after so much pain.  Being a wife doesn’t detract from who she was.   Why can’t we see her be a fully developed character who still is a badass PI, who works with her dad and fights against the darkness of Neptune, and also be happy with her husband? 

Also, Logan had so much potential outside of being Veronica’s husband.   He could have made a wonderful third (somewhat) unwittingly partner in the PI business.  He was a naval intelligence officer.   Look at his inclusion as being the head of security for Senator Maloof (how awesome was that side storyline?).  Logan being his own realized individual character helped complimented Veronica and also gave an opportunity for the both of them to be their own person and still be happily married as well.

So, the only way that this show can continue and prosper is to kill off Logan, one of it’s most popular characters?  How does this help evolve Veronica’s development? Oh right, because this is “noir,” and keeps with the tone of the show.

It’s stupid.  I am so unbelievably ragey about it that I can’t even write down all my f-in thoughts.

so a few last thoughts:

Cliff and Vinnie were so much fun.  So happy that they came back.

Loved loved Kirby as Nicole.   She was a fabulous character and had a wonderful introduction.  

I have so many mixed feelings with Leo.  (I love Max).  He had fun moments with Veronica (the pizza call back and especially with the whole Logan interaction with him) but the love scene and those vibes with Veronica were just unnecessary.

Dick.  OH DICK. LMAO.

Matty.  Not really sure how to feel about her.  She was fun but do we need another carbon copy of Veronica?

I completely understand why Tina had no interest in returning.  They did Wallace and Weevil dirty in this season.  Also, I like Patton, but Rob overdid it with his character especially when it meant sidelining more of the main characters.

[itstimetowatch]

Normal is the Watchword

So Veronica is working a normal, almost certainly less potentially lethal job. Makes sense. If my last job had me almost burned alive or killed via smoke inhalation, I probably wouldn’t want to do that job anymore either. However, it was made pretty clear during Season One that Veronica was a fairly vital part of Mars Investigations, that she would often handle a lot of work for her dad while he was out running down bail jumpers. How is Keith managing to either do all of this himself or pay all the bills with a reduced workload? Veronica’s minimum wage plus tip sharing almost certainly isn’t offsetting the work she was doing at Mars Investigations, especially given that Keith ended last season in the hospital.

It feels strange to see Veronica turn down a case. I mean, I can only assume it’s just a tease, but it’s still weird.

So in addition to losing his Nancy Drew, Keith has also spent time away from his detective work writing a book? Like that’s some easy thing to do in one’s spare time? The spare time that a hard working PI obviously has a lot of? Sure, the advance would have potentially been huge (A-list celebrity murderer, sex scandal, institutional incompetence… y’know, all the things that made it a compelling season of television). It would have been huge, that is, if Keith was in any way an established writer, which he wasn’t. Once again, Hollywood writers don’t understand how money works.

Also, there’s no way something like that gets written, edited, and published over the course of a summer.

Does Julie Chen as Herself on a fictionalized episode of her show count as me recognizing a guest star from something else? Feels like a cheat to me.

So it wasn’t Wallace at the door. Why on Earth is Logan not at the hospital?

Did we finally get a name for the bike gang? Did he say PCHers? As in like Pacific Coast Highway? Or does it stand for something else?

Okay, fleeing the scene of a murder? Well, that would certainly be a reason not to go to the hospital but going directly to your girlfriend’s house isn’t the best place to hide. So this is the new season-long mystery, I assume?

Wallace is back to his Afro. I think it’s a better look for him, anyway. And a conspiracy of failed drug tests is the mystery for the episode.

Dick and Beaver are in the main credits? Ugh! You guys could have warned me.

As is Tessa Thompson (from Dear White People and Creed and Westworld and soon to be Thor: Ragnarok), apparently.

So how is Jake allowed to leave town while under indictment? Oh, wait, of course, he’s a billionaire. Nevermind.

So I think Veronica’s being a little self-centered there, thinking she’s the sole reason for Duncan and Logan’s strife. I feel like Logan’s father murdering Duncan’s sister probably plays a slightly larger part in their beef.

So Veronica has given up her life of crime-solving but she still carries around her enormous PI camera, what, just in case?

WHAT? Veronica and Meg are feuding? Over Duncan? *Sigh*

Glad Keith and Alicia are still going strong, though.

Um, nosey-ass Veronica doesn’t know that Clemmons has a son who’s a classmate of hers? That seems unlikely. I mean, I guess he’s an underclassman, a sophomore to Veronica’s senior, but still, he would have been at Neptune last year. Last season, she seemed to know (or at least know of) almost everyone at the school.

“I avoid knowing freshmen” seems fairly arbitrary, but I guess she didn’t know anything about Justin in “Meet John Smith” last year either, so arbitrary or not, it is at least consistent. 

I wouldn’t necessarily expect Veronica to know this but a dose of a drug so small that you never feel the effects of the drug would almost certainly not show up on a drug test.

So is Shelley Pomroy named after a family member of one of the writers or the crew? I only ask because they seem to love mentioning her name without ever actually making her an actual character on the show. I think she’s had one scene during the flashbacks in “A Trip to the Dentist” and she was a non-speaking extra.

This is really early in the episode to have figured out the mystery. Okay, the connection is circumstantial right now, but this isn’t a procedural show, it’s a mystery show. Once the mystery is solved, then you have a limited amount of time that you can continue the story before it becomes tedious. Are we going to spend fifteen minutes of episode working on the season-long mystery? And if Logan’s already cleared, isn’t it a job for Sheriff Shithead?

So, Class Warfare has now turned into Actual Warfare over the summer? Well, that’s… terrifying.

That is Charisma Carpenter as (one assumes) Dick and Beaver’s step-mom? Or their dad’s girlfriend or something?

Okay, so they played the pronoun game with Veronica’s love life to avoid revealing that Veronica is back with Duncan rather than Logan, okay fine, but now that previous scene with Veronica and Wallace seems a lot harsher in hindsight. Duncan missed the first day of school to go visit his father (who’s presumably in some white collar jail because his lawyers negotiated him a sweetheart deal). Veronica and Wallace said they didn’t understand why he would want to do that, because they were trying to imply that they were talking about Logan and his dad, who slept with and then murdered his girlfriend, as opposed to Duncan and his father, who attempted to cover up said murder because he thought he was protecting his son from prison or an institution. See the difference?

And it’s Krysten Ritter! From Breaking Bad and Jessica Jones.

Why is Logan getting defensive about the fact that someone has already been killed in this clash of classes? It wasn’t an 09er who died.

What has this bus trip got to do with anything? Did they forget they were an hour long show and suddenly write a half hour worth of material? They’ve worked out the mystery. The bad guys have been caught. What’s going on?

Steve Guttenberg? Where on Earth did they find him?

Where was this field trip to? Last season Neptune was right outside of San Diego which (at the time) had the Padres, an MLB team which was name-checked often last season. Now they’re visiting a team called The Sharks at what appears to be a really nice stadium. This is no minor league team… especially not in the immediate suburbs of the major league club’s hometown.

So is this meant to be, like, LA? But then Guttenberg is running for mayor of Neptune? This all makes no sense.

And what does any of this have to do with anything?

Also, Krysten Ritter as the vapid, girly girl? HA!

A fortune cookie? That’s what wins Veronica over?

And they have to stop for gas? In a school bus? That is designed to drive all over town, making frequent stops? Where the hell is this baseball stadium and how does the team owner get to run for mayor of Neptune if he doesn’t live or work in Neptune? I mean, I guess technically he doesn’t have to live near the stadium to own the team, but in most cases, the owner is expected to be a frequent fixture at team’s home games.

Um, Lilly’s ghost? Okay, first of all, they wrapped her story up at the end of the last episode. Is she going to keep showing up?

Ah, Weevil’s not too pissed at her. You’re still a good man, Eli.

Um, holy shit!

Okay, so that’s was the point of the bus trip. It still had nothing to do with anything else in the episode. 

I don’t know about Veronica’s comment that nothing happens by accident in Neptune. I mean, just off the top of my head it’s a lucky accident for Aaron that the Kanes thought Duncan killed Lilly and covered up Aaron’s murder for him. I take the comment to mean that this is also going to be an ongoing investigation this season.

This episode is very poorly constructed. Like they should have established the field trip much sooner, and honestly, it really should have been the entire plot this episode (or at least the frame on which to hang all of the flashbacks) and then save the Wallace’s Failed Drug Test plot next episode that way you get at least episode out of the “I’m not a detective anymore” storyline, instead of having her give in immediately. 

As is there are two distinct parts to this episode and they are completely at odds tonally and content-wise. It’s really jarring and after having finished it, the first two-thirds of the episode now feels almost completely irrelevant… which, generally speaking, is a bad thing, especially for season premieres.

Also, the thing where Lilly’s ghost saved Veronica’s life? Veronica had several interactions with Lilly’s ghost last season but it was always either a dream or it was a fairly obvious manifestation of her subconscious. It’s never provided her information she didn’t already know, so this is weird and inconsistent. I mean, she could have just looked out the window, seen Weevil for herself, and then decided to go talk to him.

Then there’s the whole Veronica/Meg thing. I loathe with the power of a thousand blazing suns the tired cliche of female friends fighting over a boy. First of all, I don’t buy it from Meg. She started dating Duncan when he was Veronica’s ex without so much as an “Are you okay with this?” and now I’m supposed to think that she’s going to pull this on Veronica? Secondly, I don’t really buy Veronica trying this hard to make things okay between them again. That’s not really her thing. This all feels like out of character behavior to create forced drama just as an excuse to keep Meg on the bus... because apparently, Veronica can’t have female friends. (I mean, seriously, Dick and Beaver are fulltime but not Mac?)

Is Tessa Thompson going to be the next version of Miss Dent? The black woman whose name is in the credits but almost never actually appears in the show?

[marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer]

MTVS Epic Rewatch  #155

VM 3x04 Charlie Don’t Surf

1) Let’s be real, this episode is kind of a drag, and it’s only worth a watch for all the Logan angsty feels okay? Because of that, this should be ranty.

2) 

VERONICA: This is a bad idea. KEITH: No, it's not. VERONICA: You only thinks it's not 'cause you came up with it. KEITH: Ergo, how could it be bad? Math, sweetie. Me plus idea equals good.

Hm, what could this “idea” they’re talking about be...?

FYI, Logan is never a bad idea, okay?

3) Veronica is totally freaking out, and tbh, we can’t blame her considering one of the last times Keith and Logan were at the Mars’ home together this happened...

Keith certainly wasn’t - and to this day kind of isn’t - a member of the Logan Echolls Fan Club (I’ll get to the Keith/Logan stuff later) but Veronica had been dating Logan for a few months now, they were going steady, and didn’t Veronica want the two leading men in her life to get together and get along? Oh right. I totally forgot about Veronica’s need to compartmentalize. Never mind.

Anyway, it’s so cute to watch her freaking out and then to watch Logan tease her a bit... 

LOGAN: Can I mention that my eyes adored you? I got it. No calling you bobcat, no talk of milky thighs.

...but then he sincerely reassures her...

LOGAN: Veronica? I won't say anything bad.

And not only does this calm her down, but it also makes her hold her hand out to him (a striking parallel to Logan holding his hand out to her when arriving at his house in A Trip to the Dentist...) in a “we’re doing this together, we’re a team” sort of way. I’m here for this shit, Rob Thomas. 100% in.

Also, this whole scene is a nice reversal of the “meet the parents” typical scene. It’s usually the person meeting their significant other’s parent the one on freak-out mode, not the other way around. But it makes sense that Logan is the collected one here (although I’m 100% he wasn’t all that collected on the inside...). Logan might be a jackass occasionally, and he certainly was a smartass to Keith on more than one occasion. But he’s not stupid. And more importantly, he loves Veronica and he knows how important her dad is to her, so he’s certainly not going to do anything to ruin the evening for either of them. At least, not on purpose...

4) Of course, that reassurance didn’t last long... 

Keith was rather amicable - though not exactly friendly or warm - and he was asking the standard “father-meets-boyfriend” questions. The thing is, Keith and Logan have a shared history. He wasn’t really meeting his daughter’s “new” boyfriend. Keith had had an idea of Logan built in his head for years now, some of it based on fact, some of it based on prejudice and a definite transfer of guilt because of Aaron’s actions. It’s both OOC and IC for Keith, though. On the one hand, I don’t think we ever see him hold on to his preconceived notions of a person as hard as he does regarding his perception of Logan. On the other hand, it kind of makes sense that he’s always on guard regarding Logan because he can tell how much Veronica cares for him, and therefore he understands that Logan - knowingly or not - has the power to hurt Veronica like nobody else. Oddly enough, he seems to believe Veronica is blind to Logan’s flaws, while Veronica - just like Keith - holds Logan to higher standards than any other of her boyfriends. Like father, like daughter, I guess. 

So yeah, Keith is amicable enough, and he’s not really asking any tough questions. And even though Veronica seems to be overreacting at first, I get it. Because there’s something in the way Keith regards Logan and the tone of his voice that is kind of telling you he’s setting Logan up to take the bait and prove how much of a screwup he is and how wrong he is for Veronica. 

Regardless, Logan was doing quite well. He was answering Keith’s questions sincerely and respectfully while still being Logan.

VERONICA: Where is this going? KEITH: My end game is to find out what classes Logan is taking. LOGAN: Just core stuff, you know, sociology, freshman comp. Mass com, which is kinda coming in handy. You know, apparently being the offspring of a murderer doesn't get old. I'm getting all these interview requests. Larry King wants me to come on with O.J.'s kids. KEITH: Oh, you thinking about it? LOGAN: No. KEITH: Why's that?

5) We all die a little bit inside as Logan looks back and forth between Keith and Veronica when they’re lovingly bantering right? I mean, he’s so happy to see the two of them interact in that way because that’s exactly the kind of relationship he wished he’d had with his parents or with any family member, which is the whole point of this episode. Correction. It’s one of Logan’s traits as a character. Throughout the series and the movie, Logan is desperately looking for familial relationships, for that kind of love. It’s really sad, actually. Here’s this boy who is always wearing his heart on his sleeve for the world to see, who falls for the mildest show of affection because he’s so desperate to be loved, and time and again he’s deceived and used. But that doesn’t deter him. (I think that’s why he held on to Carrie, she was the closest thing to family he ever had. So, can Logan have a family, please? Outside of Veronica, I mean.)

Anyway, a lot of feels about this whole opening scene, okay?

6) It’s nice to see Veronica trying to mend fences with Parker. At first, I thought Parker’s beef with Veronica was a bit exaggerated. But then again, Parker didn’t know who had raped her but she still needed someone to blame, which is totally valid even if her blame was misplaced on Veronica. Anyway, it’s good to see Veronica opening up about her past and to promise Parker she wants to help her. More of this, always.

7) “Do you remember me by any chance?” 

Uh, duh? Raise your hand if you watched “Just Shoot Me” and shipped these two...

8) Dick going to Veronica’s is priceless...

EITH: Can I help you? DICK: Do you know which one of these is Veronica's? Oh, guess so. This is so freaky. I've totally been to this complex before. We had to pick up our maid here once. Is Veronica home? KEITH: Honey? DICK: Ah, it's like a little kitchen area, huh? Oh, it's so awesome. VERONICA: If you're not gonna shoo it out with a newspaper, I'm stepping on it. DICK: Hey, buddy. Hope it's not weird me just showing up. I can't believe I've known you forever and you've never had me over. VERONICA: You left a flaming bag of dog poo in front of our door one time. That was kind of a play date.

9) See? This is the kind of thing that bothers me... if you’re going to have a character have her head shaved, then you gotta have her be bald and/or wear a wig. A decent wig, if possible. After all, she’s out wearing it. But man did they give up quickly on the wig thing...

Beginning of 3x02

End of 3x02

Beginning of 3x04 

Clearly, that’s Julie’s hair, but at least they kind of made it look like a wig? A super real wig? Very unlike the one she was previously wearing?

Middle of 3x04

All pretense is dropped and Parker looks as if her head had never been shaved at all? 

10) I do love the lobster anecdote Keith told Harmony, but I also get Veronica’s reaction: why does this woman I’ve just met know this very personal anecdote about me that barely anyone knows about? Of course, she knows why. 

HARMONY: Veronica, the liberator of lobsters? LOGAN: Awe, I never knew. VERONICA: A single lobster, once, from the Chart House when I was seven. He tells that one to all the new clients.

I deeply enjoy Logan’s reactions throughout this whole exchange...

11) So I get that this exchange and Dick’s shady attitude and reply...

VERONICA: What happened to your hand?

DICK: Window fell on it. Whatever.  (...)

VERONICA: Logan said you showed up at his place the night of Parker's rape, all wrecked, saying you screwed up.

...were in order to set up Dick as a suspect, but tbh who really bought Dick as a red herring this season? I mean, what were the odds of a second Casablancas being the season’s Big Bad? That would’ve been lazy writing. At the same time, if Dick hadn’t been set up as a red herring at the beginning of the season, there really wouldn’t have any purpose for him in the show...

12) 

VERONICA: I need to talk to you. I followed the trust money all the way down the rabbit hole. The payments are going to a person named Charlie Stone. Do you know who that is? LOGAN: No, should I? VERONICA: Yeah, probably. Charlie Stone is your brother.

13) 

VERONICA: Here's his number.

LOGAN: Yeah, and what am I supposed to do?

He didn’t even think about it, he was that desperate for some sort of family connection. Poor baby. 

14) 

NANCY: They set up this boo room so they could fondle girls as they went through. So, we dressed up as rats and strategically put rat traps on all of our gropable parts.

15) Disclaimer: I’m this guy.

16) And then, “Charlie”...

Gotta hand it to him, though, he did his job well. I mean, he knew exactly how to get to Logan, he read him really well and he knew what kind of things to say to make him open up. So he’s a douchebag, but a smart douchebag. 

It’s really sad, though, that Logan falls so easily for his act. 

LOGAN: You surf? CHARLIE: As often and as long as I can. LOGAN: Man, we are brothers.

17) 

VERONICA VOICEOVER: I have options. I could be excited for Logan. Thrilled even that his new brother is such a keeper. Or, I can be me.

Don’t hate me for what I’m about to say, but... I think on some level Veronica was happy she was right. There’s something about the way she decides to let Norman know she caught him that makes me wonder if she ever considered Logan’s feelings when confronting him. Like, she was reveling in confronting Norman and  uncovering his true identity, showing off how smart she was (or how much smarter than him she was...) Regardless of how it would affect Logan, she loves being right, and the P.I. in her was telling her something was off about this Charlie guy, so she followed her instinct. Now, I’m not saying she wouldn’t have felt relieved if she had been wrong. But a part of her would’ve been disappointed her instincts failed her. Does this make any sense? 

18) Of course, just before everything goes to shit, we get this scene...

LOGAN: So, it's Christmas, right? The entire family unit is around... Which was rare. And I'm, I don't know, I'm nine and Aaron hands me a gift, but he notices the box has been re-wrapped, you know, so he knows I peeked. I'm nine years old; he's re-gifting me a fruit basket. He starts shouting about how I've ruined Christmas. CHARLIE: Oh, my God. LOGAN: Yeah. And he, uh, he tells me I'm not opening another gift until I eat all twelve pears in the box. CHARLIE: Damn, man, the scissors incident, the drained swimming pool episode, now the box of pears. LOGAN: Yeah. So, I'm eating the pears and taking my time, taking these dainty bites...the man comes unhinged. Takes these pears and just starts shoving them down my throat one after another. And then...and I'm choking but he doesn't stop until my mom holds a cheese knife to his throat. To this day, I puke if I smell a pear.

In a couple of days, Logan had opened up to “Charlie” about his entire history of abuse by his dad. Like, this is the most private thing about Logan, and he’s completely honest about everything, probably more honest than he’s ever been with anyone before - Veronica included. And we get to hear this, and we’ve seen some things before and heard comments about others (just like here we hear about the scissors incident and the drained swimming pool episode, both of which I’m equally interested and not interested in learning about...) but it’s like seeing the tip of an iceberg of shit (a shitberg?), you know? There’s so much more shit below it, and we will never really know everything about Logan’s childhood. 

Also, this sort of explaines why we always see Logan eating apples, right?

19) Of course, after their heart-to-heart, there’s a tiny blonde waiting to rain on their parade... 

VERONICA: Hi, Logan. Hi, Norman Phipps.

LOGAN: What did you call him?

VERONICA: His name. Norman Phipps. At least, that's the name of the guy who rented his rental car and a quick google check reveals that Norman Phipps is a contributor to Vanity Fair. Thank God for mobile wireless, huh? So, Norman, how's your story coming.

NORMAN: It's great. In fact, I'm almost there. Just one thing, Logan. That fruit basket? Was it from Harry and David? God is in the details. Ah, please take a swing. It'd make a great lead.

Btw, Logan punching Norman in the face is twice as rewarding for me because I hated Gilmore Girls’ Logan. #notsorry

20) And then this...

VERONICA: I'm so sorry. I should've just left it alone.

A) What does she mean by that, though? That she shouldn’t have followed the money trail and found out about Logan having a brother? Or that she shouldn’t have continued digging after Logan met “Charlie”? B) There’s something about the way he looks at her as if he doesn’t truly believe she’s sorry? Or as if this is a very Veronica thing to do? Both, probably.

21) I can’t help but find this speech about “looking for the truth” a bit ironic coming from Veronica herself...

VERONICA: I was looking for the truth and I found it. You wanna nail someone to the wall, just to have someone nailed there, or do you want the person responsible to pay?

I mean, ultimately, yes, Veronica does look for the truth. But she also makes the mistake, on numerous occasions, of nailing someone to the wall just to have someone nailed there. I would love to say this is Veronica growing up and learning from her mistakes, but I think the rest of this season will prove otherwise, so...

22) He literally had just met the guy and he gave him his grandfather's watch? Like, we know how much his grandpa meant to Logan (remember the lighter?). It breaks my heart that he was so gullible...

LOGAN: I was hoping you could bust some of it out again and help me find Norman Phipps.

VERONICA: Why?

LOGAN: Well, I gave him a pocket watch that belonged to my grandfather, the only decent member of my family. 'Course, he died when I was five, so who knows. Still, kinda burns thinking of Norman having it.

23) I’m fine, I’m fine...

VERONICA: The reporter acted alone. He was tapping Charlie's line when you called. Your real half-brother is innocent.

LOGAN: And I was so quick to believe that guy. And, you know, I look at you and your dad, you know, that thing that you have. I never had that.

VERONICA: You couldn't have known.

LOGAN: No, I'm sure that won't matter to him.

24) And of course, Logan being Logan, he has to try again...

ANSWER MACHINE: Hi, this is Charlie. Please leave a message. LOGAN: Hey, Charlie, it's Logan again. Uh. Listen, I'm sorry about all the messages... Yeah, I guess I thought I'd give it another shot. Fourth time's a charm, right?

:(

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1179

Monday, September 11, 2017

 Took my brand new tackle box and assortment of lures to the lake this morning to try and catch some fish. I had a blast. I landed a bunch and missed another bunch. Having barbless hooks mean fish can escape easier and it takes more skill and patience to get them in the boat.

 Secret Empire #1 - Nick Spencer (writer) Steve McNiven (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #2, 3 - Nick Spencer (writer) Andrea Sorrentino with Rod Reis (art) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #4 - Nick Spencer (writer) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Sunny Gho (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #5 - Nick Spencer (writer) Andrea Sorrentino with Rod Reis, Joshua Cassara & Rachelle Rosenberg (art) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #6 - Nick Spencer (writer) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan with Leinil Francis Yu (inks) Rod Reis, Joshua Cassara & Rachelle Rosenberg (additional art) Sunny Gho with Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #7 - Nick Spencer (writer) Andrea Sorrentino (art) Rod Reis, Joshua Cassara & Rachelle Rosenberg (additional art) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #8 - Nick Spencer (writer) Daniel Acuna (art) Rod Reis, Sean Izaakse & Java Tartaglia (additional art) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #9 - Nick Spencer (writer) Leinil Francis Yu with Joe Bennett (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan with Leinil Francis Yu & Joe Pimentel (inks) Rod Reis (additional art) Sunny Gho with Dono Sanchez Almara (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Secret Empire #10 - Nick Spencer (writer) Steve McNiven (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) Matthew Wilson (colours) Rod Reis, David Marquez, Peco Medina, Juan Vlasco & Jesus Aburtov, Ron Lim (additional art) VC's Travis Lanham (letters).

 Thanks to long time customer and friend Doug Stafford for lending his copies of this Marvel event for me to read. I didn't read them as they hit the racks because I was tired of these big multi-crossover stories that ultimately don't mean much. I realised as soon as I found out that evil Captain America was created by a sentient Cosmic Cube named Kobik, who appears as a little girl, that everything would be back to "normal" at the end and I was right. I've read a lot of good versus evil stories and I needed something different to keep me engaged and there wasn't much here that did that. Yes, I read the whole thing but that's the completist in me. I cannot put aside something that I start without finishing it and so I stuck with this to find out how evil Steve was defeated. My favourite character was Ant-Man and I think I would enjoy a solo Ant-Man book written by Nick Spencer. The art in issue #1 was nice but it looked like Steve McNiven (pencils) and Jay Leisten (inks) were tired doing issue #10. The in between issues had art that varied from acceptable to hard on my eyes. This is worth reading if you like to spot Marvel heroes and villains but otherwise it's not that important in the grand scheme of things in the Marvel U.

 Champions #12 - Mark Waid (writer) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This is a good old fashioned super heroes versus super villain fight as Psycho-Man pays a visit from the Microverse. He's got a simple power so there's no need to explain everything about him to new fans who have never heard of the Micronauts. What Mark does to make these stories far more interesting is how he lets us see these heroes interact as friends and team mates. I love this young heroes book.

 Jessica Jones #12 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Michael Gaydos & Javier Pulido (art) Matt Hollingsworth & Javier Pulido (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Jessica closes the case for Maria Hill and the person who put out the hit on Maria is revealed. It's not just good enough to find out who the bad guy is but Brian lets us in on why Maria was targeted and it's a really good twist. The on deck villain will make the next story arc super tense.

 Generations: Iron Man & Ironheart #1 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Marco Rudy, Szymon Kudranski & Nico Leon (pencils) Szymon Kudranski, Will Sliney, Scott Koblish & Nico Leon (inks) Marco Rudy, Dean White & Paul Mounts (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). It's Riri Williams' turn to have an adventure with her progenitor to warm up potential new fans for her comic book. There are teasers in this story that may sway fans to give the Invincible Iron Man series a try. The stable of artists used in this one shot may not appeal to some but the writing is solid.

 Dastardly & Muttley #1 - Garth Ennis (writer) Mauricet (art) John Kalisz (colours) Rob Steen (letters). The art in this new 6-issue mini is really good for this updated comic book adaptation of an old Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon show. I bet you a lot of folks will not have a clue about the two aviators and I barely twigged to the title until I started reading. I can still hear Muttley's muffled laugh in my head but here he has a voice. It's nice to see Garth's humorous side back on the racks in a book that isn't only for mature readers. If you liked the Flintstones comic book, you'll like this too.

 Kingsman: The Red Diamond #1 - Rob Williams (writer) Simon Fraser (art) Gary Caldwell (colours) Peter Doherty (letters). There's a new Kingsman movie coming out later this month and this new 6-issue mini should get you primed for it. We are introduced to Eggsy, the young British super spy and the new villain the Red Diamond. I liked the recent Nick Fury mini and this one is just as good. Pick it up for some over the top escapism.

 Star Wars: Captain Phasma #1 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Marco Checchetto (art) Andres Mossa (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). I don't get why this Storm Trooper is getting a 4-issue mini since she was only in The Force Awakens briefly. Maybe there's more to her story and they'll reveal it here before The Last Jedi hits the screens. I'm not a big fan of faceless characters, Darth Vader notwithstanding, and her chasing a traitor to the Empire isn't enough to keep me reading, but I'm sure true blue Star Wars fans will like this a lot.

 Batman #30 - Tom King (writer) Clay Mann (pencils) Seth Mann (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). It's part 2 of "The Ballad of Kite Man". It's a really depressing song but it shows us how "The War of Jokes and Riddles" is going.

 Lark's Killer #2 - Bill Willingham (writer) Mark Dos Santos (art) Salvatore Aiala (colours) Thomas Mauer (letters). I don't need Bill's plea to spread the word to old Fables fans to buy his new book because I like it so much I would gladly recommend it to anyone. It's a cool mix of modern and medieval. Lark provides the modern and the land of Hyperborea is the sword and sorcery setting. Please give this a try.

 Spider-Man/Deadpool #21 - Elliott Kalan (writer) Todd Nauck (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Here we go again with a Murderworld story as Spidey and Deadpool try to outsmart Arcade and not get killed. Elektra managed to beat the bad guy and I know these buddies will too. It's fun to see what kind of death traps creative teams come up with.

 Superman #30 - Keith Champagne (writer) Ed Benes, Tyler Kirkman & Philip Tan (art) Danei Ribeiro, Tomeu Morey & Sunny Gho (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). The 2-parter with Sinestro and Parallax concludes with the bad guys losing once again. This one had a nice message to it.

 Astonishing X-Men #3 - Charles Soule (writer) Ed McGuinness (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Jason Keith (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). I liked the Wolverine evolution cover because it features prominently in this issue. The team's sojourn into the astral plane to defeat the Shadow King continues with this Old Man Logan solo adventure. I think the good guys just made a big mistake.

 Star Wars: Darth Vader #5 - Charles Soule (writer) Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils) Cam Smith (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I didn't know what a Kyber crystal was until now. There's a very well done sequence that made me think that Vader's path was going to change course, but alas it was not to be. An interesting premise though.

 Spider-Man #20 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Nico Leon (art) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). We got a new regular customer at Comet Comics who is a big Miles Morales fan and the two of us geek out over how much we love reading this title when he comes in to pick up the latest issue off the racks. That infectious joy is why I love my job. Miles makes a big life change starting this issue and lands in hot water right from the get go. This book is never boring.