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It’s been almost a year to the day since we saw the last truly great episode of Veronica Mars, and while last night’s installment still couldn’t reach those great heights (few shows can), it definitely seems to have put Ms. Mars back on track. While initially dragging my heals at the notion of the series ditching the extended mystery arcs for individual episode stories, I’ve since come around. After all, the show is at its best when the characters aren’t under a deadline to get things done [see: the first nine of this season] — it also gives us, the viewers, an opportunity to try and figure things out for ourselves.

Likewise, as this post’s title stated, Logan seemed to be back to his more carefree self, even as Veronica was trying to ruin it all (she has trust issues, but really, shouldn’t any good gumshoe?). Maybe it was just a matter of Jason Dohring not whispering all of his lines. No one likes a mumbler, Logan, no one.

It’s a damn shame that once February ends we will be put on another two-month hiatus before the season wraps. Oh CW, how you toy with us.

Not only is Monday night one of the busiest night of television for me, but it’s also one of the most uneven. Tuesday mornings when I check out my DVR, I’m usually quite reluctant about diving in. Heroes, 24, Studio 60… not exactly a crop of sure-fire crowd pleasers (How I Met Your Mother and Everybody Hates Chris* are rock solid, but they also aren’t hour-long dramas that look quite menacing while sitting in a queue).

Luckily for us, one of those shows will deliver the goods, and by “the goods” I mean, “a scene or two of unbridled awesomeness.” Either Jack Bauer will do something completely off-the-wall crazy or Hiro will do something magically adorable yet thought-provoking or Matt Albie will tell his writing staff… um… yeah, 24 and Heroes will bring something to the table! Unless, of course, they don’t. Then Monday night (or Tuesday morning) slowly morphs into this endurance challenge, where a regular Joe sits in his easy chair staring at moving pictures while his mind is completely and utterly empty.

Last night’s selections were so boring there was a point where I started to try to breakdown the individual smell components of the fabric softener sheets I used on the sweatshirt I’m currently wearing (it’s like flowers with cotton candy and wood… or something).

Jack was absent from a good portion of 24 making the single episode feel like an entire day. I ended up fast forwarding through a good chunk of the CTU/White House nonsense, and even then the episode ended with me thinking, “All this for James Cromwell?” The same could be said for Mr. George Takei on Heroes, whose brief appearance at the end of the episode was suppose to make for the fact that nothing happened during the previous 57 minutes.

Thank god Veronica Mars is on tonight.

So nice to have Veronica Mars back on the air, and it’s especially nice to have Veronica back to her old, cheery, sarcastic self. The fall arc was decent, and picked up steam toward the end, but the whole thing seemed awfully mopey (I’m blaming this, in part, on the re-cut title sequence which somehow managed to suck a lot of the excitement out of the entire show). This week’s episode, which kicked off the “Who shot Dean O’Dell” storyline, was tops just about all the way through.

Though I wish Veronica had heard the same background music we, the audience, had heard while talking to Piz. She would have then realized that he was the guy she should have ended up with, not Logan. I bet Piz was hearing the music. He’s a music guy. He’s knows that when mellow, indie-rock works its way onto the soundtrack of a teen-drama, the cast members on screen are suppose to realize their hidden love for one another. They AREN’T suppose to go back with their old boyfriends.

Alas.

Also, it should be noted that this is going to be the last multi-episode arc of the season, as the last five episodes will be stand-alones (boo). AND, The CW finally realized what year it is and started putting full episodes online. So have at it!

Tonight capped off the first nine-episode arc for Veronica Mars‘ third season. Loved it. It had, more or less, everything you could ask for. You got yer quips. You got yer red herring. You got yer set-up for the next mystery. You got yer action, suspence, and funny t-shirts worn by cast members (”Ask me about my STD”). Really, the only thing I could have asked for would have been a little more punch on the mystery itself — though you do gotta love the groundwork laid during the “prisoner/guard” episode from six or seven weeks ago.

I’m also kind of thrilled Veronica and Logan split. Logan is a great character, but he’s always at his best when he can be reckless. Take, for example, his well timed smashing of a cop-car so that he could be locked up with Mercer. Classic Logan. This move will not only be good for Veronica and Logan (she’s too independent, he’s too bi-polar) but it will be good for us, which in the world of television romance is always the most important thing.
When all is said and done, I’m coming out in favor of these shorter storylines. Twenty-two episodes is a tad long for one mystery. Seven to nine is just about perfect, and I look forward to catching the rest of the season during the new year, even if those episodes are going to be short one Ed Begley Jr.

Remember Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip? Remember how just about everyone who watched the show during that first month couldn’t believe what a disaster it had become since the pilot aired? Remember how pretentious, preachy, preposterous, and generally unfunny it was? Well it still is, but I’m also still watching it. After the jump I’ll tell you why…

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I’m not saying last night’s Veronica Mars was the best of the season. Hell, it probably wasn’t even the best of the month. But I think we can all agree that this season, as a whole, has been missing something. After finishing the most recent episode, I think I know what that something is: kick-ass cliffhangers AND personal storylines.

A friend of mine said, rightfully, that Veronica Mars will never be as good as it was in that first season, because the mystery will never be as personal– i.e. figuring out who killed your best friend and figuring out who drugged and raped you at a party. That’s some pretty heady stuff for a show as whimsical as this one. The serial rapist storyline this go-round has so far been pretty ‘meh.’ Sure, Veronica has taken the case because friends of hers were affected, but where was the urgency? In the grand scheme of things, your prof nailing the deans wife ranks somewhere between “who dinged my fender” and “where’s the beef” when compared to a masked rapist running amok through a college campus.

Now there’s urgency. It’s just a damn shame the arc only has a few episodes left before hiatus. Those last five minutes this week were everything Veronica Mars can be and more. Logan’s been on Prozac all season, but seeing him run to the rescue reminded me of how great he can be when he’s not sleep-walking though life. Though even better was the sense of actual danger. Veronica Mars fools you into thinking you’re watching a fun, family-friendly*, romp, but it can pull the rug out better than just about any show on television not involving a smoke-monster.

I can not wait for next week!

*Your family watches shows that make “shocker” references, right?

Why? Seriously. Why?

Say what you will about Lost this season, (I’m of the opinion that these first five episodes are leaps and bounds above the first five from last season) there is no denying the fact that the character Mr. Eko was extremely popular. This raises the always valuable question: at what point is a character unkillable? For example, you can’t kill off James Woods from Shark. The show doesn’t really work without him. See, his character’s name is in the title. Ensembles are a little harder to draw that line, especially when the character in question isn’t even an original castmember. More thoughts after clicking below…

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Since about episode five or six of this season, Showtime’s Weeds has fallen off a bit from the season’s strong start. That is until this week when Zooey Deshanel showed up as Andy’s exgirlfriend. It was a hilarious role and perfectly cast. Perhaps the best guest roll in television since Forest Whitaker completely took over The Shield. As an actress, Deshanel has always been best with flighty characters, and here playing someone who had spent the past 48 hours eating nothing but salmon and Red Bull, she was pitch perfect. It also didn’t hurt that she was incredibly funny, which is important on this show since sometimes it becomes a little overly concerned with its inconsequential plotting. Knowing that this is Showtime and that series rarely make it to a third season because they can’t afford to pay them, I’m assuming that Weeds will wrap itself up in the coming weeks. This is a shame, when such a great character is introduced so late in the game, but I guess that’s how things work out.

Veronica Mars seems tighter this season. (WHAT?!) Wow, that sounded horrible. What I meant was that the writing seems tighter. The story, whether it be the main mystery or the individual mysteries seem to constantly expanding. Everything is relevant to something else, and those few things that don’t seem to fit are probably just the formation of important things to come. Also, does anyone else secretly (or not so secretly) want Veronica and Logan to split? While I did find the end of last night’s episode to be mostly romantic, Logan is best when he’s bitter, and frankly he just doesn’t seem all that bitter when Veronica is on her good side. This is a shame as Logan’s quips rank among the highlights of previous seasons.

Also, you can add the line, “Larry, you’re entering a world of pain” to the long list of Big Lebowski homages. And let’s not forget the seemingly late arrival of Weevil to the Hearst campus. It was actually probably a good idea to wait a couple episodes so that his joining the school’s custodial staff didn’t seem quite so forced. Now we have all the major players perfectly aligned for some sort of horrible future conflict. But first, perhaps we should figure out who’s the rapist?

There are few pleasures in the television world that bring me as much joy as watching a new episode of Veronica Mars, the UPN holdover with the rabid fan base that simply can not get their friends to tune in. Part of the tragic excitement each episode brings is the feeling you’re watching something special, and that most of America is completely missing out. Of course, there gets to be a point where you have to just take a step back and say, “Look, America. I’ve done what I can. The ball is in your court.” Though if you’re thinking about jumping into the series, now is the time to do it.

I look at this season (the third) as being a bit of a relaunch. New network, new timeslot, new viewers? Wishful thinking. Knowing this, the premiere’s cold-open was pitch perfect. All you need to know about the character Veronica Mars was explained in those first three minutes: she solves crimes, and does so with gusto.

As a whole the episode was about par for the course, but just being able to see these characters again made the hour curiously comforting. We were introduced to some new characters, were visited by a lot of the old ones, and by the last five minutes the first big arch was set into motion (there’s a rapist going around Hearst College and the Fitzpatricks are up to their old murderous ways). General splendidness all around. Click below for some more thoughts on the episode…

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All right kids. This is the week we’ve been waiting for. It is what all those boring summer hours of reruns and high-quality premium-cable dramatic series have brought us. Over the next two days we get the premiere episodes of two of network television’s most thoroughly entertaining series. To commemorate this, let me throw a couple links your way.

Alan Sepinwall of the Star-Ledger interviews Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas* about how he maps out the show’s mysteries. Needless to say, it sounds daunting. (NOTE: if you haven’t seen Veronica Mars but would someday like to check it out, skip this article because it goes into great detail about how the previous seasons ended. Though now that I’m thinking about it some more, my site is suppose to serve primarily as a way for me to get people to watch the shows that I enjoy watching, and since I’d like everyone to start tuning in for V-Mars, you might as well read the article and maybe — hopefully — it’ll make you want to dial it up tonight and enjoy the bliss that is a teenage private-eye and her mystery-solving antics. So disregard this note.)

As for Lost, some of you may have heard about the interactive web-game The Lost Experience, which was suppose to add a whole other level of storytelling to the Lost universe. Well, BuddyTV went to the great effort of summarizing the whole damn thing for those of us who aren’t quite as die hard. Sounds like the conclusion was the whole thing seemed to be a bit of a bust. I’m for innovation, but sometimes a TV show can be maddening on its own.

Veronica Mars 9:00pm ET Tuesdays on CW | Lost 9:00 Wednesdays on ABC

*Not that Rob Thomas

Last night I’m watching the second season premiere of the CW’s Everybody Hates Chris. I’ve only seen a handful of the show’s episodes from last season and probably won’t become a regular viewer this season either. This isn’t to say I don’t like the show — it’s quite good — but you have to draw the line somewhere when you’re logging at least 25 hours of televised goodness a week (wow, typing that was a little more depressing than I thought it was going to be). In any case, as I’m watching I think to myself that if I ever had children (god forbid) I could see watching this show with them. Its funny, tells good stories, and follows both the kids and the parents. Then I sat for a minute before realizing that Everybody Hates Chris might be the only show I’d watch with these fictional kids.

This is troubling, not so much for me and my carefree, childless lifestyle, but for the millions of families in America who’d like to sit down together every now and then and watch something. The problem is there just aren’t that many shows (read: two shows) designed for kids and parents to watch together. Look at the network schedule and try to find something you wouldn’t mind watching with an eight-year-old. Keep reading by clicking below…

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