After a long and eventful hiatus, the fourth season of Veronica Mars was terrific. I say that so you know this is a rave not a pan, because I am going to talk about the bad stuff first.
A running undercurrent of the entire Veronica Mars series has been juvenile snark about class warfare. Everything bad that happens has its origin in the rich and privileged doing awful, uncaring things at the expense of the poor and oppressed. The bad guys are easy to pick out that way for sure, especially because they behave like cartoon villains for the most part. The downtrodden do awful things too, but they are forgiven or understood or have even been forced to do them by the rich and powerful. And the wokeyness is so pervasive that if a non-white comes under suspicion you know it will be a red herring because the show wouldn't have non-whites as bad guys. The show is still wonderful, but it's like the one friend you have who's great in real life, but who keeps flooding your facebook feed with inane political memes.
The rest of the show is just flat out great. If you have read any reviews I have written before you know I am an aficionado of the dark art of pacing. I feel comfortable in saying no show has ever been better paced than Veronica Mars. With all my years of watching TV I am a fine tuned instrument for figuring out when I can allow my attention to wander, use the loo, grab my iPad, without missing anything of value. I don't believe there was a single moment in the eight episodes of this season where I felt comfortable doing that. That's a remarkable achievement. What little exposition occurs is short and couched in humour and/or wicked sharp dialogue. That is high craftsmanship. It also highlights the benefit of the short intense seasons that come along with Premium and streaming TV. Back in seasons 1-3, on broadcast, they had to go deep in the well to come up 20+ episodes a season. You can only have so many good ideas, better to condense them into a short, perfectly-honed season, rather than try to dribble them out evenly such that every episode ends up compromised.
The core characters, in contrast to most of the peripherals, are very well drawn, and they are, well, characters -- entertaining personalities, flawlessly cast; people you can invest in. So much of this was a joy to watch.
It is not Pantheon material. (Pantheon = Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Halt and Catch Fire) It doesn't shine a light on a facet of human experience, like eternal art does. It is not ruthlessly character driven. It is more the sort of thing you would put on a "favorite" list rather than a "greatest" list. Which is perfectly fine with me, I am happy with it as is, and would gleefully watch many more seasons.
It could go in the Pantheon direction, and there were hints that it might, especially during the last episode. How could it happen? 1) Dial back the political juvenalia. 2) Veronica (and maybe others) need a deep and relatable arc that is serious and personal. Something beyond being a tough feminist icon who never gives up -- that's the stuff of bad pop music and self-help books.
One possibility: Veronica is a narcissist. She ducked out on many opportunities so she could be a big fish in the small pond of Neptune. She views everyone as a supporting-character to her main narrative. She gets morally indignant at others but excuses all her own trespasses. She bugs the office of a friend and then excuses it as a necessity of the job. She encourages a young girl to use an awkward boy's affection for her to get him to do some hacking. She regularly misrepresents her plans and intentions to manipulate people, even to her friends . She even belittles her boyfriend's attempts to resolve his personal issues because it is not in line with her expectations of him. All this is classic narcissism. A Pantheon worthy story arc would be tracking her development into a genuinely empathetic person along with background on how she got so self-absorbed to begin with. (Could Keith have played a role? -- that would be some good conflict for him.) A more negative version would be her ending up suffering for her inability to make that change. That is personal and eternal.
Part of me, even most of me, doesn't want that. Just keep it entertaining and high quality and I'll be fine. I'll be happy to track Veronica's snappy patter with her father and see them matching wits with Neptune's finest indefinitely.
It may be tough, but if you are new to this, you should probably start at the beginning and plow through the broadcast episodes from long ago. (Looks to be Hulu only.) Season 1 and 2 are top notch. Season 3 a slight step down. Even with a few duds it was one of the highest quality broadcast TV shows in history -- it'll be worth it. You'll need to watch the movie, too.
