Veronica Mars season 3

[frelling_tralk]

Hmm I'm really at a loss as to why they made Mac, Parker, and Lamb regulars, some of those characters didn't appear for like 6 episodes in a row! And Wallace was also missing a lot. I was actually looking forward to Mac being a regular in season 3 and being the best friend to assist Veronica, but then in the end neither Wallace or Mac were used all that much. And I liked Parker's character fine but it just didn't seem like they had much of a plan for her character either

Really I suppose I was disappointed that we didn't see more of the ensembles as characters and getting interesting arcs, season 3 felt very focused on Veronica working with just the guest stars of the week, as opposed to previous seasons when usually Wallace and others were more involved and working with her. Veronica's interactions with anyone outside of her father and Logan felt very lacking this season

Dick kind of grew on me this season though actually, after I spend much of season 2 not caring about him one way or the other. It was especially nice to seem him get some depth in the first episode when he cried on Logan's shoulder, although it was disappointing that any mention of his family tragedy seemed to be dropped after that. Well and it felt a bit too rushed when his Dad suddenly came back and they just had a few scenes bringing up Cassidy again. They could have got a really interesting arc out of that if they'd spend a bit more time on it, ditto with Mac coming to terms with everything that had happened with Cassidy could have been an interesting storyline, but they barely mentioned it most of the time and a lot of the supporting cast felt like afterthoughts much of the time

And I feel mean for saying this, but Weevil was REALLY distracting me in certain shots because the actor had put on a lot of weight and seemed to have pretty bad acne as well, I'm not sure what happened there with the actor but it was very noticeable to me in the first couple of episodes especially and I just kept wondering what was up with that


And I'm still at a bit of a loss as to why people started disliking Veronica in season 3 :/ There was an extra on the DVD discussing what fans had disliked about Veronica's behaviour in season 3, and she didn't come off as especially mean to me in any of the clips they mentioned fans having real problems with :shrugs: The one thing that did bother me, and wasn't mentioned, was Veronica's attitude to Maddison. I really didn't like her telling Logan that Maddison roofied Veronica, umm no she didn't, she spit in Veronica's drink! I'm not saying that wasn't a mean thing to do but for Veronica to act like Maddison roofied her on purpose doesn't seem very fair when Maddison was the one being set up to be raped in the first place by Dick drugging her drink, she had no idea of the contents when she passed the drink on to Veronica.

Oh and after the DVD extras being kind of crappy for both seasons 1 and 2 it was nice to get a lot more extras for season 3, including all the in-depth commentary discussing the season and the look at the FBI pilot. Urgh I'm annoyed that the show left us hanging so much though, when VM was airing I remember people predicting every year that the terrible ratings might lead to it being cancelled, so you'd think they would have tried to give the fans at least some closure in season 3...

Comments

[silverusagi]

I started disliking the plot in S3. Though I can't tell you what, specifically, because it's been so long since I watched it. I do remember not liking how some characters weren't around as much.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I didnt understand why they didnt leave mac and lamb as recurring because they werent really treated as regulars any differently from previous seasons

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

And I really didn't hate the third season as much as I'd been preparing for, so maybe that made a difference in how I took it? Butt I thought the self-contained arcs were probably a good idea as it would have been tough to sustain interest for another seasonal arc when you're talking 22 episodes. (I think it's a show that worked have worked well on cable actually with something like a 13-15 episode season). Although there was definitely more that bothered me this year, but t the same time I didn't find it awful or anything idk. The standalones at the end of the season did get a bit anti-climatic and I think they should have tried for another mini-arc there, but I thought the season started off fairly well at least

[lovepollution.livejournal.com]

Francis Capra (Weevil) had a leg injury that meant he had to take steroids IIR, that's why he got bad acne and his weight ballooned.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Ah okay thanks, I did wonder if there was a medical reason as the weight gain was so noticeable

[caitie.livejournal.com]

I remember being super bummed because Rob Thomas had planned for Weevil to stay on at Mars Investigations instead of having to be let go, but once Francis Capra was injured he had to rewrite the end of the episode and basically cancel all the plans for his arc, boo.

when VM was airing I remember people predicting every year that the terrible ratings might lead to it being cancelled, so you'd think they would have tried to give the fans at least some closure in season 3...

Yeah, that was a really strange thing for Rob Thomas to do in retrospect. At the time, it didn't really irk me though? I don't know, maybe I was just relieved there wasn't a HEA for Veronica/Logan. I think I always just rolled with the (sort of) canon that Veronica ended up at the FBI, and in my head canon she'd wash out after a few years and become a PI like her dad.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Ah that's a shame, I remember feeling bad for Weevil when he was obviously so into working with Keith but after punching the guy that was it, even though he seemed good at the job... It seemed to me at the time that giving him a warning that if it ever happens again you're out if here would have been fairer, although I could understand where Keith was coming from I guess

And it wasn't so much the cliffhanger I suppose as it really doesn't leave you hanging quite as much as say seasons 1 and 2 when you are waiting for a more immediate answer, it just didn't feel like a finale episode to me which was what was really frustrating. I suppose I'm used to show runners who try and give the fans *some* closure just in case, or even write two alternative endings, but this didn't feel like there was ANY awareness that there most likely wasn't going to be a fourth season. And if they were planning for the FBI thing and a massive leap forward in time then why not end the third season on a more definitive note in preparation for that, which would then have worked just as well as a show finale if the FBI plan didn't get renewed (and honestly I liked the pitch okay,, but it didn't feel much like a CW show, so I'm not surprised it wasn't picked up)

[caitie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess maybe it was arrogance or wishful thinking on RT's part. VM had been near cancellation so many times and avoided it. It also might have been frustration. Budget cuts, surprise firings, shorter mystery arcs... the show changed so much based on what the network wanted and to try and hold onto ratings that there may have been some apathy within the production about its fate, like there was in fandom. Anyway, now it's coming back to me. I remember RT said they weren't gonna make it easy for the network to cancel the show by tying it all up with a bow, that they were ending on a cliffhanger...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Honestly though, before I was watching VM, I used to see people on my flist marvelling that it even got picked up for seasons 2 and 3 when it was apparently the lowest-rated show ever to get picked up at that time or something and it was very lucky to get as many seasons as it did? So when I saw all of the outrage at the CW back then I couldn't really understand why, feeling sad sure, but blaming the network for cancelling a show that wasn't bringing in ratings or money after three seasons seems a bit unreasonable when three seasons is more chances that a lot of shows got.

At a certain point I feel like, for the fans if nothing else, Rob Thomas should have been willing to accept that they had a good run but were likely not coming back and need to wrap things up a little more just in case. Again, from what I remember of my flist at that time, it seemed that most people were aware that VM was likely over and the FBI pitch was a real long shot. But then I guess it's easy for me to say that with the show not being my baby :P It seems that either way things would have been left hanging though if the plans for the 4th season were for such a huge jump forward in time

I can understand his frustration if there was a lot of network interference though, do you know who the surprise firings were? Was it Duncan?

[caitie.livejournal.com]

I think VM was sort of like Chuck or Community, you know. It had such a large online fanbase that was so dedicated. I actually don't remember much anger at the network when it was finally cancelled.

But yeah, I guess RT should have wrapped things up just in case, but for whatever reason I guess he was just in denial about it or hoping for the best. He and Kristen Bell wanted to bankroll a movie that probably would have been straight to DVD or an extremely limited release, but a.) that's stupid, and b.) they could never get the rights from the WB or whoever owns the show.

I can understand his frustration if there was a lot of network interference though, do you know who the surprise firings were? Was it Duncan?

Duncan leaving was actually the result of the budget being slashed. RT could only have most of the cast on for about half the episodes, so he front-loaded Teddy Dunn's episode count and wrote him off. The surprise firing was actually Michael Muhney (sp?) who played Sheriff Lamb. Apparently he came to set and found out he was getting killed off, no heads up from RT or anything. It was really weird and he was offended enough to complain about it publicly afterwards.

At that point it really just felt like the show was starting to fall apart at the seams, like it started to seem like a troubled production with actors complaining, supposedly disliking each other (Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring), this weird spinoff/backdoor pilot thing, Francis Capra being injured, and obviously the ratings just got worse and worse.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Heh you've got me interested in all the BtS gossip now, I always thought that Jason was supposed to speak very highly of Kristen?

And I was surprised at how abrupt Lamb's was actually, it felt like it was mostly there to get him out of the way and manoeuvre Keith back in as Sheriff, but they could have given that character more of a send-off. To be a regular and not be informed that his character was being killed off is pretty crappy :/

And a movie probably wouldn't be very realistic I agree, but still I would happily support a straight to DVD effort if it meant a better ending for the show :sighs:

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

There was a video kicking the around the internet, a sort of pilot for the FBI season, with Veronica at the FBI.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I did watch that on my DVD! It was pretty short so it was hard to get a good overview of how it would have been as an actual 4th season, but it seemed like it could have been okay

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

I didn't have a problem with Veronica's season 3 behavior. I wasn't a fan of Mac. Reminded me too much of Willow.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Mac did remind me of early season Willow, but I really liked her character and thought t was a shame how underused most of the cast were in season 3