Confessions Of A Remote Hog: She\'s A Marshmallow

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You know that the Fall season is pretty much a dud when one of the best new shows is on UPN.

Well, maybe I’m being a harsh. I guess there are plenty of people out there who love UPN, especially if you one of those odd eclectic people who enjoy urban comedies and shows with the header: Star Trek. I’ve never really been a huge UPN fan. The last show on UPN that I was a fan of was a one year wonder from the mini-network’s premiere season called Nowhere Man, staring Bruce Greenwood. Since then the Paramount owned network and me have seldom crossed paths.

So for the life of me, I can’t figure out why I decided to set my DVR to record the newest UPN Drama last week called Veronica Mars. Maybe something in my head slipped and I thought this was the newest in the Star Trek series about a beautiful young women stuck having to negotiate her life while living on a Martian Settlement Colony. Sort of like a Felicity: A Space Odyssey. (Note to network producers: This is MY IDEA, don’t steal it!!!)

Yet, unfortunately it’s has no sci-fi overtones outside of the main characters surname. The story is pretty straight forward. Veronica Mars lives in Neptune California, a town where you are either a millionaire or one of their employees. Veronica was once a member of the in crowd, rich kid clique, until she chooses to stick by her town Sheriff father (Just Shoot Me’s Enrico Colantoni) after he accuses local big man Jake Kane (Homicide’s Kyle Secor) of killing his daughter, who just happened to be Veronica’s best friend and sister of her former boyfriend Duncan Kane.

Now, Veronica and her father are both disgraced, her from her former high school buddies and him from his job. To make matters even worse and to add to her ever growing sense of teen angst, mother isn’t as loyal as daughter and decides to take off when the going gets rough. Now, dad and daughter are living in a run down crap hole of a motel and working as Private Investigators and bounty hunters.

While the show had may intriguing elements it also contains a lot of the things I hate about modern TV.
–An obviously non-teenaged actress, 24 year old Kristen Bell, playing the role of a high school student. Check.
–A case of Dawson Creek syndrome with teenagers acting and talking in ways I haven’t ever seen teenagers act in reality. Check
–A loving father who has no problem putting his daughter in extremely dangerous situations (following unfaithful spouses, investigating the local motorcycle gang.) Check.
–Extremely Stereotypical characters (snooty rich kids, Hispanic gang members) acting in extremely characteristic ways. Check.
–An incredibly hot social outcast. Check.
–Incredibly corrupt or incompetent local cops. Check.
–Paris Hilton in a guest role. Check.

Yet, the show sucked me in. I don’t know at what point in the pilot I went from skeptical observer to interested party, but I did. Kristen Davis’s Veronica is an instantly likable character. She is spunky and witty and full of guff, whatever the hell that is. As with most good teenage tales, the trials and tribulations surrounding her turned her character from a mildly annoying sorority type chick to a highly likable down trodden social pariah. Her father is also likable, despite his incredibly bad choices as a father. One of the best gags of the show is when her dad tells her if she is going to tale the potentially philandering Jake Kane, she better bring Backup. Later we discover that their lovable but intimidating dog is named Backup.

While on the surface the show is another basic PI show, with a Nancy Drew in high school as your lead, there are plenty of secrets simmering below that surface. Veronica, after her disgrace attempts to keep her head held high and showed up at one of the rich kids parties. Someone hands her a drink, which of course contains more than just alcohol. She wakes up a few hours later dizzy and obviously violated. Which of the local rich boy elite’s where responsible for this act? And who was really responsible for the death of her best friend, Jake Kane, or his disgruntled employee who the blame eventually fell on? Lastly, where exactly is Veronica’s mother and what was the real reason she took off?

So yeah, the show sucked me in. I’ll admit it. Maybe I am just desperate for something, anything new in this putridly dull new fall season. Beyond the premiere of Lost, which is easily the best new show of the seasons and Jack and Bobby, we’ve been dazzled with duds. The Clubhouse premiere struck out, LAX needs to be diverted and CSI: New York is just the same old, same old, with a new color scheme. So, Why I was pleasantly surprised by this premiere. Maybe it was just a case of finding a nickel in a jar full of pennies, or maybe this is actually as decent as it seems.

So maybe the show is a bit mushy, but in the words of the main character. “Veronica Mars, she’s a Marshmallow.” OK, that was corny.

Veronica Mars is currently on UPN, Tuesdays at 8PM.

My Grade: B