Veronica Mars - season two

[lathany]

Turns out that season two is almost as good as season one.

The format has not changed much from season one, there's still a couple of season plots (Felix's murder and the crash). I found the individual plots slightly less compelling than in one, but perhaps because they had already done the 20-odd season one plots.

All the old regulars are back. Duncan was a trial to watch - I found the character very unsympathetic and wooden. I take chrestomancy's point that Duncan is very difficult to play as he's supposed to be very unemotional, but it left me wondering what Veronica saw in him. Also he seemed to constantly keep secrets from the people closest to him (in contrast with Logan telling him everything - such as Veronica's investigation - last season) and some of them seem pointless (like not telling Veronica that his mother was in town).

Dick and Beaver are upgraded to regulars (on both counts good - I liked Beaver a lot and I liked to sneer at Dick a lot). A new character Jackie (played by Tessa Thompson who is Rebecca "Invisible Becky" Taylor in Heroes - the third of the VM regulars to also be in Heroes) is added who I was less sure about. The trouble with Jackie was that she never really had a role on the show as such. She's linked to Wallace and indirectly to the crash but that's about it. It would have been better to upgrade Mac to regular status. Also nice to see Charisma Carpenter as well as a return visit from Alyson Hannigan. In contrast, however, Steve Guttenberg was disappointing; not an easy character to play, but even so.

I think both the season plots were good ones. I liked that they are not both left to the end this time (although the one that finishes first still runs a fair part of the season). I thought that the answers to both were good and the resulting plots did involve far more of the main cast than Veronica. However I disliked Veronica's own complete lack of interest in the murder and her on-off interest in the crash.

With the individual episodes:

• Rat Saw God is great for the Veronica - Clarence Wiedman stuff.
• My Mother, the Fiend is worth it for the punchline motive.
• The Rapes of Graff was the darkest episode, has an unsolved mystery (for season 3 from the looks of it) and brought back Troy who, much to my surprise, I was pleased to see (I felt similarly surprised at being pleased over the returns of Riley is season 6 Buffy and Connor in season 5 Angel).
• I hated Happy Go Lucky because of the trial.
• Not Pictured was awesome because of the graduation.

The crash plot had the right person responsible - awesome choice which I didn't guess. I felt that was handled well on the whole, although there was an almost Bond-level of exposition involved.

Another break before season 3.

Comments

[triskellian]

Oooh, we just watched s1 and we're planning to acquire and watch s2, so I'm glad to hear it's nearly as good as the first.

(And special, predictable, "yay!"s for Alyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter! I was sad there wasn't more of AH in s1.)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Being a bit of a completist, I knew it was a safe bet to buy all three seasons at once.

Alyson Hannigan appears only once or twice in two, although I thought her storyline - and portrayal of Trina - were better than in one. Charisma Carpenter has a bigger role, which improves as the season goes on.

[splendorsine.livejournal.com]

I liked S2 almost as much as S1. S3 is, let's be diplomatic about this, not nearly as good as S2.

With hindsight S2 is a bit of a retread of S1 - "we've got a hit on our hands! Let's do it all over again!" S3 they have to branch out into new territory, BtVS S4 style, and sadly I think the general consensus is it doesn't work. I still would have liked to see another change of tack in a further season - perhaps involving Veronica going to work for the FBI - but I doubt we will at this stage.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

With hindsight S2 is a bit of a retread of S1

It is a bit, although I really like the "mystery of the week" format. Also the two bigger plots are handled somewhat differently - particularly Felix's death.

S3 is, let's be diplomatic about this, not nearly as good as S2.

So far everyone but one has said this. He liked S3 better than S2 - I'm looking forward to finding out why.

I think it was series 3 when I lost enthusiasm

[a-llusive.livejournal.com]

on the other hand I think I missed some of it and had trouble getting hold of episodes at the time. Glad you seem to have enjoyed the first two series as much as I did.