As Neptune Turns

I've been chattering with Catherine all morning about last night's super duper awesome episode of Veronica Mars. It also inspired me to read the TWOP write up, but as it wasn't ready yet, I stared reading last week's. It hit a certain nail directly on its head, so I thought I'd share it here, for any Mars-o-philes in my readership. Mainly bc. I don't know the HTML for a block quote to respond on UN.

I have to say, however, that Veronica's expressing a desire to get out of Neptune (which restates what she said in "One Angry Veronica" about wanting to have the car packed and running at graduation) makes me realize what's been wrong with Veronica's characterization this season. It's not that she's different; that was inevitable. It's that the only things she's wanted this entire season are to be with Duncan and to get out of Neptune, and for that matter, both of those wants have seemed tepid at best. Not that there's anything wrong with any person not having strong driving desires at any moment in time, but Veronica is a character, not a person, and a lead character with no strong wants is boring television and screenwriting death. I thought that, as the season went along, Veronica would develop some new passion, but she doesn't even particularly seem to want to solve her cases. It's not that she even has to be completely aware of her wants, but they have to exist. If her real wish is to get out of Neptune, then fine, but that isn't the most riveting dramatic choice I've ever seen, nor does it bode well for Season 3. The thing that's kept the show going, in my opinion -- other than crisp dialogue and great acting (and that will always make the show enjoyable for me) -- is that Logan, while often reprehensible, has enough driving desire for just about everyone on the show. But the show ain't called Logan Echolls, so as I said a while ago: Veronica, start caring -- it almost doesn't matter about what.

Thank you! The past two episodes have really both been excellent, and started to recapture some of that Season 1 je ne sais quoi. But I think that this observation is brilliant and precisely the cause of some of this season's malaise. But VM, with or without the malaise, still beats the pants off of about 95% of the other shows out there.

And, the dance scene... sigh! I sort of kind of searched YouTube for VM videos in hopes to be able to watch my favorite tv couple's intense dance scene repeatedly throughout thep day, and happily found several clips dedicated to Logan and Veronica. Yeah, it's rivaling my Buffy and Angel obsession circa 1998. If you're as losery as I am, you may enjoy these.

UPDATE: Bingo! Found the dance clip. Other completely lame people, enjoy.