A Great Ending To A Fantastic Series (My 200th Review!)

It's only fitting that my 200th review (Yeah, I know, about damn time!! LOL) is on the show that I am currently addicted to like it's the only thing that's going on in my life right now. Everyone that has talked to me is probably sick of me asking, "Have you seen Veronica Mars?" because that is definitely what I have been doing lately.

The third and final season sees Ms. Mars attending Hearst College, still in Neptune, California. She wanted to go to Stanford University but it was too expensive so there went that idea. Of course, her core base of friends, which in Veronica's case, is not that many, attends the same college. Wallace is there as a star point guard for the basketball team and Logan as well, since he is dating Veronica again. Jerk-off king Dick Casablancas is here as well, to make sure to be a misogynistic pig at every opportunity he has.

It's actually quite weird to see Veronica and Logan together, especially after seeing their angst towards one another in Season One; it kinda makes me cringe inside but their fire for one another really shows and that makes for some great drama. Neither backs down from one another and this is a contentious point between them all year. To say their relationship is rocky is putting it mildly; there are so many things that Veronica doesn't trust about Logan, some that he should be blamed for, others that are just her inherent distrust in men altogether. This gets played upon a lot, perhaps a bit too much, as it seems some of the episodes turn into a bit more of the O.C., instead of a the smart, witty sleuthing show that this is. I can see how this happens though, as the season is cut two episodes short because CW took over the airing rights from UPN and subsequently, some editing had to be done with the script; alas, more stand-alone episodes to lure in new viewers.

We meet two new regular characters, Wallace's new roommate, Piz (Chris Lowell) who has his own radio show at the college and turns out to be a new love interest for Veronica near the end of the season. He is your average dude, very nice, a little dorky, and shows how madly in love he is with Veronica by taking every chance he has to be near her, even knowing that Logan is still dating her. Also, he happens to be from Beaverton, Oregon, so a little shout-out to the home of the Nike World Campus is mentioned in the first episode. (Sorry, just had to mention that!) Another is Parker Lee, (Julie Gonzalo), Mac's roommate and who shares a horrible common bond with Veronica: they both have been raped, Parker's having been done more recently, just about a week into college. This is the first mystery of the season and sets about Veronica trying to find out who did it because the perpetrator is drugging girls at parties, raping them, and shaving their heads after they pass out. It's definitely a dark way to start the season and some subsequent episodes are a bit scary and realistic to say the least on how they portray the serial rapist.

When the rape case is solved, in the same episode, a murder takes place at the college that quickly turns into more than just a simple killing. You know in the Veronica Mars world, that there is no such thing as a simple murder. I will not divulge the victim, since this takes some of the suspense out of it, but there are so many characters that can be the killer that it definitely had me guessing until the case was solved. Keith investigates it as well, which in turn, sets off another chain of events concerning his personal life. He actually is shown as somewhat of a pariah, since he starts an affair with an unhappily married woman and of course, Veronica finds out, leading to more skepticism of her trusting men. This murder case is what keeps the rest of the season going, with continual other plot lines filling in the gaps.

Veronica also happens to catch the eye of her criminology professor, Hank Landry (Patrick Fabian), as she solves an in-class assignment of a classic whodunit in record time, along with writing an excellent "How To Commit The Perfect Murder" paper. This of course, doesn't make her any friends in the class, as who likes the teacher's pet? Landry also has some tawdry issues that Veronica has to learn about later, just adding to her cynicism of men in general whom she has respect for.

Meanwhile, Wallace is struggling to keep up in his mechanical engineering class and has to make a decision on whether he wants to focus on his future or basketball as a freshman. Mac shows up more frequently this season and has a couple of romantic interludes, after having her heart crushed by Beaver Casablancas in Season Two. Also, Sheriff Don Lamb is having a hard time not dealing with the Mars team and is constantly having to fend off the inquisitive PI and his daughter. To put it mildly, Lamb is highly annoyed at both of them almost 99% of the time!

As always, the show manages to keep me intrigued and highly entertained, as I couldn't wait to watch the next episode. I recall this season having some of the funniest moments between Veronica and Keith. They have a sort of interplay between each other when they come home from work and go back and forth in witty lil' sequences that have me smiling and laughing along. You just have to watch some of Bell's gyrations when she is making fun of her dad and Colantoni's reactions back; they are priceless. I also got a kick out of the earlier episodes when Veronica has to pretend to want to be in a sorority in order to solve the rapes going on campus; her giddiness and fake smiling in order for the other girls to like her is absolutely hilarious. We also are reminded near the very end of the season that it is NOT a good idea to f**k with Ms. Mars; she WILL end your happy life as you know it and humiliate you if you do the same to her.

My one beef with this season-and it's not really the writers fault-is that it ends way too abruptly and with way too many questions left unanswered. Of course, the producers at the time didn't know if the fourth season was even going to be picked up, so I am assuming that they where going to tie up the loose ends in the next season. It just drives me crazy hypothesizing about what would or could have happened with several situations that where left to the viewer's imagination.

On the special features disc, there is a whole gamut of information that shows how the creator of the show, Rob Thomas (no, not THAT Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty fame), would have started the next season. There is about a 15-minute segment that shows Veronica starting out as a FBI agent; obviously, this is after she is out of college, so they have fast-forwarded some years in time. This was the trailer that he put together in hopes of getting the fourth season picked up; alas, the ratings were just too low. And the forever will make an Asian living in Oregon sad!

This show was an excellent display of how TV should be made; not the schlock we see on the tube today. I was constantly intrigued and entertained, with excellent characters to boot. Not seeing Kristen Bell's face in a series quite frankly makes me sad; at least she is appearing on Heroes nowadays. I just hope that another series like this will appear in the near future; alas, I may never watch another show again. Thank goodness for 24 and Heroes.....oh yeah, scratch the former; damn writer's strike!!

On a last note, I hope that there will be 200 more reviews from me to come in the future!!