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The Movie: One of the most critically acclaimed shows of the last couple of years, "Veronica Mars" managed to build upon solid reviews and a growing fanbase in order to continue past its first season - something that's getting rarer for new shows to do these days. While the series was on UPN, it will be one of the shows that leads the way for the new merged network of UPN and WB (the CW) when it debuts this Fall. The series stars Kirsten Bell as Veronica Mars, a high school student in Neptune, CA and daughter of sheriff-turned-detective Keith Mars (Enrico Colatoni, terrific on "Just Shoot Me" and elsewhere.) The first season of the series had Veronica solving the murder of her best friend. The second season opens with an episode that starts with Veronica trying to get to the bottom of her friend's positive drug test and ends with Veronica missing her field trip bus ride, only to later find the accident scene where the bus went over a cliff. The horrific finale of the opening episode is the set-up for this season's main mystery. There's also a series of smaller cases that Veronica must confront along the way and the series continues to explore the class conflicts that exist in the town. The series continues to show its strengths in the second round, offering intelligent writing, multi-layered storylines, great dialogue and memorable characters. The show never gets condescending and expects the audience to follow along. The performances are utterly terrific, with Colatoni providing a warm, charming performance as a father who can be his daughter's pal and be a caring parent who looks after his daughter. The actor trades one-liners with Bell as well as he did with David Spade on "Just Shoot Me". Bell is the real core of the series and gives a smart, quick-witted performance that can be either exceptionally funny or quite moving. Among many superb supporting efforts on the show, Percy Daggs III is a terrific match against Bell as her pal. Also look for guest spots from Kevin Smith (director of "Clerks") and Joss Whedon (most recently, director of "Serenity") Overall, "Veronica Mars" remains one of network TV's strongest offerings, as the writing is dense and sharp, the performances are a lot of fun and the series manages to move between incredibly funny bits, emotional moments and tense mystery. Hopefully its move to the CW will allow it to find a wider audience than it did on UPN. 23 Normal is the Watchword 9/28/2005 24 Driver Ed 10/5/2005 2T7202 25 Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang 10/12/2005 26 Green-Eyed Monster 10/19/2005 27 Blast From the Past 10/26/2005 28 Rat Saw God 11/9/2005 29 Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner 11/16/2005 30 Ahoy, Mateys! 11/23/2005 31 My Mother, the Fiend 11/30/2005 32 One Angry Veronica 12/7/2005 33 Donut Run 1/25/2006 34 Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle 2/1/2006 35 Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough 2/8/2006 36 Versatile Toppings 3/15/2006 37 The Quick and the Wed 3/22/2006 38 The Rapes of Graff 3/29/2006 39 Plan B 4/5/2006 40 I Am God 4/11/2006 41 Nevermind the Buttocks 4/18/2006 42 Look Who's Stalking 4/25/2006 43 Happy Go Lucky 5/2/2006 44 Not Pictured 5/9/2006 The DVD VIDEO: Veronica Mars is presented by Warner Brothers in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen for these second season episodes. A beautiful series with a great visual style, the show thankfully looks terrific throughout these episodes. Sharpness and detail are often stellar, although there are a few low-light scenes that look rather soft in comparison. As for flaws, some slight artifacting is infrequently seen, but otherwise, the picture looked crisp and clear. Colors were rich, bold and well-saturated, with no smearing or other issues. SOUND: The show's stereo soundtrack remained crisp, with clear dialogue, music and effects. EXTRAS: Two featurettes: "A Day on the Set With Veronica Mars" and "Veronica Mars: Not Your Average Teen Detective" are pretty standard stuff, each consisting of a few minutes of interview and behind-the-scenes footage. Also included are a fun gag reel and deleted scenes. Final Thoughts: While "Veronica Mars" has gotten critical acclaim in its first two seasons and gathered a devoted following, the series will hopefully get stronger ratings and attract additional fans as a showcase series on the new CW. The DVD set for the second season offers solid audio/video quality, but the amount of supplemental features is still rather low. Recommended for fans; those who are new to the series would best be advised to start with the first season. |