wafblog v3.0

One of the great things about the Veronica Mars is its huge roster of recurring guest characters. Seeing the same students, teachers, and towns people over and over again helps add a sense of realism and familiarity to the show. There have been a total of 87 guest characters who have appeared on the show two or more times. That averages out to almost two returning guest stars per episode!

1) Name three of your favorite recurring characters and tell us why you like them.
1. Cindy ‘Mac’ Mackenzie. In many ways, she matches Veronica’s smarts and to me, is a pretty good friend to Veronica. Being a bit of a geek myself, I love her techno-savviness and some of the quips she has. The episode where Mac and Veronica go to see Vincent and Veronica calls her “Q” and in turn gets dubbed “Bond” really made me laugh. I also loved the development of her character through Season 2 – she’s dealt with the bombshell that Veronica discovered quite well and she seemed quite happy with Cassidy. I also like ‘no questions asked’ way she has of dealing with Veronica’s requests, it’s an interesting friendship they have and I’m glad they can count on each other.

2. Van Clemmons. It’s a very amusing sort of interaction that Veronica has with Principal Clemmons and I enjoy his exasperation when dealing with her. I was rather impressed at the way he completely manipulated Veronica into discovering her mother’s past at Neptune High and for revealing who Trina’s father is (despite the continuity issues in that storyline). Considering the number of times Veronica’s pulled one over him, it was nice to see him get the better of her. Plus, as much as he may have trouble keeping her in line, he trusts her judgement and knows that he can count on her. I’m fairly sure we won’t be seeing anymore of him in the next season though.

It was pretty difficult to decide who to pick for the third character. A couple of people come to mind: Cassidy, Casey Gant, and Meg. Considering two of them are dead it doesn’t really bode well.

3. Casey Gant. I think we only saw Casey twice? Once when Veronica investigated the cult, and again in ‘A Trip To The Dentist’. For me, I found it interesting that Veronica was able to get along so well with him once he’d given up the money and decided to stay at the collective. He was really nice to her and I think as a viewer we get the impression that whilst the 09ers can be horrid, there is hope for some that they can see the more important things in life.

2) Name the one character that you would most like to see added to the main cast.
I’m not really fussed – I like having new characters on the show, and I think the nature of the stories told require that there will constantly be new people so it’s not a big deal. Keeps it interesting though, and ensures that I have to remember lots LOL.

Explanation of the Vlogathon can be found here. I’ll be trying it out for a couple days, see how it goes. Missed the first one, but seeing my reviews of Seasons 1 and 2, I think I answered the question anyways.

Name three instances where the song selection did a particularly good job of enhancing a scene.
Hrm, in some ways it was kind of subconscious for me. One of them is “Hear the Bells”. I’m not sure if that’s cos Veronica actually draws your attention to it by saying ‘I like this song’, or just because the song is actually good.

I suppose it’s a bit of a cop out to choose the karaoke scene considering that the point is the song :P But, Kristen Bell did such a good job singing “One Way Or Another”, I couldn’t go past mentioning her performance.

And yes yes, I can’t leave out the balcony scene. The music here was totally awesome, it fits the scene and even the lyrics suit! Definitely one of the more memorable kisses in a tv series :P Plus, now whenever I listen to the soundtrack and this song comes on, I can remember how it all started!

What are some of the musicians that you have become a fan of because their songs appeared on the show?
Hum, I haven’t really investigated any of the artists beyond the songs that appear on the soundtrack. If I was to, I’d pick “The Perishers” and “Adrienne Pierce” first because they play my fave songs on the soundtrack.

Yeap… That’s right.. Veronica Mars *again*. Needless to say, the PSA still holds. Really, I probably should have put up a SPOILER ALERT for those Aussie folks who haven’t seen all of VM yet because Channel Ten keeps screwing around with the time.

Hum, this turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. Really, I’m just writing it all down because I don’t have anyone to discuss it with, and I’d like to be able to come back during Season 3 and see how I felt earlier.

So I once again have deprived myself of sleep to watch the sassy blonde solve petty crimes and other mysteries. Generally, if I like a TV show or movie I can be fairly lenient towards any obvious plot-holes, plot-devices and bad acting. I think though that I’m slowly learning to be discerning with my viewing. I have limited time so I want whatever I watch to be awesome.

In general, Season 2 didn’t live up to the same level of greatness that Season 1 achieved. There’s several reasons for this. In the first season, the Lilly Kane murder case has a deep, personal affect on Veronica and she has a vested personal interest in solving the case. In many ways, I think solving that crime is the driving force behind her going to school and helping out other people. Now that she’s solved it and despite it not being fully resolved as a story line, the first 10 or so episodes are not very engaging. The bus crash just isn’t as interesting a mystery. The only person on the bus that Veronica knew was Meg, and they weren’t exactly close friends. Besides blaming herself for it, there wasn’t really any reason for her to be interested beyond that she’s a slave to her curiousity.

Coupled with the (really poor) pregnancy storyline which I think they ‘resolved’ too early in the season, it made for some dull episodes between some very good ones. The kidnapping episode was great and I was mildly amused that they had decided to show it the way that they did. Essentially playing the viewer just as the characters were. It was touching the lengths that Veronica went to in assisting Duncan despite him having kept secrets and lied to her. I found Teddy Dunn’s acting to be slightly uh… wooden but sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s just poor dialogue or poor acting. However, I don’t think the relationship between Duncan and Veronica was built up well enough to have us believe the amount of trust the two of placed in each other. Hence, I think this ep would have had more effect if placed later in the season after the relationship had grown. Plus, what was with getting rid of two of the characters for the majority of the season? I mean, the actors were still in the credits but Wallace and Duncan had less air time than Dick Casablancas! The only other thing I wondered was whether or not Wallace was affected by the fact that Veronica lied to him as well. Considering her father’s outburst that she ‘played’ him, and that he couldn’t trust her, Wallace would have had to feel somewhat put out that she didn’t tell him either. He tried very hard to make sure that she wasn’t moping around and being depressed (but then, I’m betting she was – just for a different reason). Although, I get the impression that Wallace very much accepts that Veronica does what she believes she has to do and for her own reasons. Considering that we’ve seen it before (in ‘A Trip To The Dentist’) when she finally told him everything she’d been hiding I’m guessing he’s wise to the fact that sometimes it’s better not knowing. Then again, we see that he’s not always happy to just ‘live in her world’ and have everything ‘be about her’. Guess she’s just really lucky to have him as her best friend (:

I did find it rather odd that Duncan didn’t tell Veronica anything about Meg being pregnant. I do wonder if he knew before we see the letter. It seems logical to believe that’s the reason he kept going back to the hospital. This rings a little false for me, as Duncan claims to really love Veronica yet he keeps so much for her. It made it hard for me to believe that she would risk so much to help him. Then again, we’ve seen before the lengths she’ll go to for the people she cares about. I really kind of wish that Meg had told Veronica she was pregnant as she reverted straight back to being a 09er bitch – even if Duncan and Meg didn’t get back together at least it would have been a nicer ending.

The other episode that I think really stood out was the Magic Mountain one. I like the growing interaction between Veronica and Weevil. She doesn’t trust him, but she’s gone out on a limb for him more than a few times and as such, I’m fairly sure that he trusts her. This is despite her accusing him of murder or larceny every other episode. He is the perfect fall guy though huh. In fact, the main reason I liked this one was because she blamed him and she was right – he was just one step ahead of her! Plus, their banter is usually quite amusing.

I suppose I should at some point mention Logan :P But really, he kind of deserves a whole section to himself. I wasn’t surprised that he was the one on her porch. Neither was I surprised that she was with Duncan by the end of the summer. Why? Too much foreshadowing. She wasn’t over him, he wasn’t over her, they weren’t siblings… all good! I did like the way they threw in all these twists though, kept you guessing a bit before the end of the first ep. I did feel sorry for Logan, particularly when they reveal that Veronica broke up with him. And the reason for it. But it felt justified and fairly realistic. I will say, he’s snarky, sarcastic comments about D/V did start to get tiresome but as he says to her later in the season, “you’re so cute when you’re jealous”. I was kind of waiting for him to have some sort of breakdown but I suppose the whole sleeping with your friend’s stepmom works too. The scene where he comes to save her from the Fitzpatricks and her resulting breakdown was a great showcase of the chemistry between Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of this in the season. Having watched too many teen soaps it is often very easy to predict the romantic tangles that the characters will get into. I loved Logan’s tortured appeals to Veronica to help him prove his innocence. I loved that he was protective of her. And I really loved that she got all jealous when he was with Hannah. I did have some trouble believing that she wanted to get back together with him – considering how cut she was when Duncan left. But I think that she’s given up ever seeing Duncan again and it’s obvious that she still has some feelings for Logan. She pretty much admits that. It should be interesting to see where this goes in the next season.

I have mixed feelings about the season finale. I did not like the chlamydia revelation. Maybe because I actually MISSED the revelation as the file I had cut out a few minutes from the beginning of the ep where that was revealed. Apparently this happened to a few people ): But yes, I didn’t like that revelation… and once it was revealed that Woody had the clap, then it was really just trying to work out how it got to Veronica. I didn’t like the way they used the STD revelation in the trial either, but it was obvious from the get-go that Aaron Echolls was going to be acquitted. There’s no drama otherwise. It’s a shame they didn’t keep him around to stir up more trouble, but he sure went out in style.

The graduation ceremony was alright. I liked that the other students did cheer when Veronica walked across the stage. I hope it goes some way to helping her realise that not everyone hates her. She does have friends. Clemmons’ short farewell to her was a nice touch as well – I’m guessing we won’t really be seeing him again. I should say at this point, that I found the scene (from the previous ep) where Wallace says he’s glad he got taped to the flagpole somewhat flat. I mean, it was a nice scene as we haven’t seen enough Wallace/Veronica friendship-building this season but more that she doesn’t say anything to him and it makes it seem like they’re going to walk out of school and never speak to each other again. Considering they’re best friends this seems rather unbelievable. Maybe I read it wrong?

Anyways, I really wanted to get to the point of the season finale where we find out who caused the bus crash. I must say the episode was good in that it delivered what we wanted to know, tied up quite a few threads, and left enough teasers to keep us guessing till next season. (Lucky for me, I’ll only be waiting three weeks for it :P). I do believe the execution was not the best though. Some of things that happened could have been done better. The next part is a big big spoiler, so I really suggest anybody who hasn’t seen it stop reading now.

I was pretty surprised that it was Cassidy. He’s been a bit creepy lately, and some hints were dropped about him but I actually thought it would be something to do with Kendall and the Fitzpatricks. I’m not sure if that was a red herring or more foreshadowing in regards to Weevil. Anyways, Veronica’s discovery of Cassidy’s secret and her attempts to warn Mac seemed a little out of character. We’ve seen her worm her way in and out of some rather difficult situations and yet she just gave up after asking the hotel reception. I really believe she could have done a better job. Even worse, she then believes the SMS that “Mac” sends and goes up to the roof. Now the kick-ass daughter of a PI should know better than to go to somewhere so isolated, BY HERSELF without telling anyone. The following showdown however, was both intense, shocking and absolutely heart-wrenching to watch. I need to watch it again to see exactly how she kept her favourite gadget on her. This was especially useful of course in getting Logan to the roof. I found *this* hard to believe as well as we see Logan’s phone display a number not an address book entry labelled “Veronica”. Considering the amount of trouble Logan’s been in lately with the Fitzpatricks, the PCHers and life in general… it also seems a rather stupid idea for him to go to the roof alone. But moving right along, they needed some way for both of them to go to roof huh. I was reading at TWoP that quite a few fans couldn’t believe that Veronica survived three shocks from the taser and still managed to tackle Cassidy. Initially, I thought this as well. However, I remember in the dog-napping episode, the girl (I forget her name and she wasn’t memorable anyways :P) tasered Hans quite a few times and he was still able to yell out that the dog wasn’t dead. Really, it would depend on how long the taser is applied for and perhaps the voltage. I’ll give the writers the benefit of the doubt. Plus, she’s pretty emotionally traumatised at this time. Having worked out that she was actually raped (more on this later) AND having just seen Cassidy blow up a plane she thinks was carrying her father… her anger must’ve been channelled somewhere. I did like that it was ‘Logan to the rescue’ again. I think this was a nice throwback to the “Weapons of Class Destruction” episode. It was also a nice mirror to the beginning of season where Veronica was cradling a very beaten up Logan.

To be honest, I don’t think many viewers would have believed that Keith died. It was an interesting twist, and Kristen Bell’s acting was superb here so I can’t really fault it. I also like that she’s back with Logan. As I said before… excellent chemistry :P

So, the last thing to discuss really is the whole rape revelation. I really really disliked this. Sure, after re-watching “A Trip To The Dentist” I can now read into Cassidy’s scenes a bit more and maybe construe that he was lying. But having already dealt with this issue in what I consider to be one of, if not, THE best episode really kind of ruined it for me. It’s kind of ironic to note that Cassidy *is* both a murderer and a rapist. I do hope that we see more of Veronica dealing with this news in the next season then, if they’ve made such a point of returning to the storyline to drop a bombshell. I kind of preferred that she wasn’t raped and that she slept with Duncan willingly and yet couldn’t remember it. It was a nice reminder that as much as she’d like to be, Veronica isn’t in control of everything in her life. That sometimes she’s wrong. And sometimes she just can’t get revenge. Particularly the revenge thing cos it’s been touched on more than once that she has some sort of fixation on ‘making people pay’.

It’s a shame we won’t be seeing more of Cassidy. I liked him as a character, probably because he seemed like such a nice guy for an 09er. Maybe we should be pinning our hopes on Dick instead *cough*. I am wondering what will happen with the Phoenix Land Trust. Did Cassidy actually mean for it to be left to Kendall considering how much he disliked her? Seems like a bit of an oversight but we know there’s more to that story in the next season.

I’ve written a whole essay on this. Scary. Guess I’ll be getting back to my regular blogging program.

PSA: This entry is mainly a discussion of ‘Veronica Mars’, so I suggest you skip it if you’re not interested in hearing my rambles on teen soaps.

OMG. Weekend was rather uneventful. I didn’t go out at all. Not even for an afternoon jog. Instead, because I couldn’t sleep on Friday night, I ended up watching Veronica Mars Season 1 until about 7am on Saturday morning. I woke up at 2pm. *oops*. I ended up doing the same on Saturday night… and going to sleep at like 7am Sunday morning -_- Yes, it was kind of stupid to watch something so engaging that in the end I had trouble sleeping after watching it cos I had all these questions in my head LOL.

So yes, Veronica Mars is an awesome TV show, and if you haven’t seen it yet I suggest you go out and do this. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an intelligent show, and this is one of the best. Admittedly, you have to suspend disbelief a little to allow yourself to believe that say, she knows THAT much stuff, and THAT much ‘crime’ goes on in the town of Neptune, but besides that it’s pretty good going. I think Kristen Bell is outstanding as Veronica, showing just the right amount of bitchiness to make her character tough whilst also having a rather vulnerable side considering the things she’s had to endure in her life. The over-arching storyline with the mystery of Lilly Kane’s death was well played out, and I liked that the clues given over the entire season had you guessing the entire time. Plus the fact that the murderer was someone I hadn’t suspected but I’m sure if I watched the first season again I’d see more clues. My fave ep was definitely “A Trip To The Dentist” with Veronica finally discovering who ‘raped’ her. Teddy Dunn was brilliant as Duncan and the exchange between him an Veronica at the episode’s climax was really intense. The ep pretty much went at a breakneck pace, but was well placed within the season to pack a powerful punch. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a good TV ep, and the only other comparable experience I can think of would be the two-parter from Grey’s Anatomy Season 2.

I’m not even half-way through the second season yet, but I’m definitely hooked. As far as I can see, shows like “The O.C” just aren’t of the same calibre although it’s arguable as to whether or not they’re even the same genre. I’ve admitted more than once that I’m a great fan of teen soaps, so this is no exception. It’s good to have a bit of a twist to it though and VM does a great job of it.

Of course, no discussion of TV shows would be complete without a small mention of shipping. It’s been ages since I’ve watched a show where I’ve not had a clear-cut shipping preference. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever been like that. So I’m quite stumped at Veronica Mars. It’s obvious she’s not over Duncan, and it seems like they were good together. But I like her chemistry with Logan and of course, the fact that he’s a bad boy only adds to the appeal. It’s difficult only because you can see that Duncan’s still in love with her and I think he’s good for her and will protect her. Yet Logan has so much potential and when they were together she very much prioritised him in her life. I didn’t like her with Leo (what a puppy dog -_-) and the episode with her and … darn what’s his name? The bomber dude… that was hilarious. So, if I had to pick… probably Logan/Veronica because it’s a more interesting pairing but I’ll be happy if she ends up with Duncan. Naturally, this’ll all change in a few episodes because there’s really no drama on that front if they don’t mix it up a bit eh. The only pairing I would really object to is Wallace/Veronica. They work so much better as best friends and I’d rather they didn’t taint that with any silly ‘awkward feelings’ stuff. It’s good to see Veronica have a close male friend that she can count on and doesn’t ‘like’ her in that way.

All in all, I think this has restored my faith that there are excellent TV shows out there. I just hope that it doesn’t get canned for some unknown reason as so many good shows seem to do. I do suspect that this show won’t have a long life only because there’s only so many storylines that they can explore. Kudos to the producers though if they can continue to do so. I plan to finish all of the second season before I go overseas, which I’m fairly sure I can do even if I’m watching like one episode a night. So I should be all caught up before Season 3 starts.

is not that interesting. I’ve only been out of uni for a week and it’s not that interesting. I guess though, I don’t feel finished because I haven’t gotten my results back and I’m enough of a pessimist to not be relieved until I know for certain that I’ve passed everything. So it’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment.

I’m currently working full time for the trains again. It’s not bad, bit busy these couple of weeks (probably the whole month) because it’s end of financial year and there’s all this stuff to be fixed up and reports to be created. It’s good to be busy though and I do enjoy what I’m doing most of the time.

I’ve not blogged much lately because I’ve either been out or watching Grey’s Anatomy. It’s a really great show, been a while since I’ve been so sucked in to a show. My love of The O.C is waning because it’s getting tiresome this break up, get back together, break up, get back together thing. It’s kind of the same for One Tree Hill. And I just haven’t felt like watching Lost because I got the feeling they were just dragging everything out for too long. So yeah, Grey’s has been a bit of fresh air. It’s funny, but not comedy, has a lot of drama but enough soap to not feel like it’s overly anything really. I can’t wait for the third season. I get this feeling though, that you can only be obsessed or fanatic about so many things at once. Like, there’s only so much time and effort I can spend on things I want to be fanatic about. I’ve become more into Grey’s and I’ve noticed I’m less into HP at the moment. Although that may be because I’ve gotten sick of reading fanfic. Or at least, it’s been hard to find fanfic that’s really drawn me in and is multi-chapter and not cliche. So I’m taking a bit of a break for a while. Sort of.

Now that I’ve finished uni I’ve got some time to do the things that I’ve wanted to do. I joined the gym near my workplace, and I’m intending to go 2-3 times a week. We’ll see how it goes. I can be really lazy sometimes, but at the same time, I want to get fit. I feel really lazy and unhealthy. I want to be be in better shape before I go to Europe because I’ll be on my feet all the time and I want to make sure I can survive. The only problem is that whilst I am exercising a lot more, I’m not changing my diet. And anyone who knows me knows that foods like chicken and chips, kebabs, fried rice and other such foods are a staple in my diet. I find it hard to change what I eat. I’m trying to eat more fruit, and drink more milk but it’s not really happening at the moment. Hopefully just doing more exercise will be helpful as it is. The gym is rather expensive though so that’s a decent enough incentive to ensure that I keep going. I must must must get more sleep though.

Other than that, not much to talk about. Seen a few movies, been out a bit with friends and with parents. Doing a lot of prelim planning for my trip and will start cleaning up my room soon. Also need to reformat Tichondrius. I’ve got the Windows Vista Beta 2 which I hope to have time to install before I go away. I really want to check out what it’s like to see if I need to save for a new computer next year. I might even pick up some parts when I go to HK. We’ll see.