Why I Loved Veronica Mars- A Storyteller’s Perspective

Credit image: Marsinvestigations.net

Nancy Drew meets Daria. That is how I’d describe the Veronica Mars series by Rob Thomas. Needless to say, I was hooked 5 minutes into the first episode. After all, I loved reading the Nancy Drew series. And Daria was the best thing to happen to MTV (still don’t get the hoopla over Beavis and Butthead).
So, what made me decide to write a blog post about Veronica Mars? I was watching an episode from season 1 last week. The one where Logan Echolls asks Veronica for her sleuthing skills to track down his mother. When I started thinking, man this show had some great writing. Character and plot wise, Veronica Mars was this bookworm’s dream in a television show. You had a flawed yet likeable female protagonist. Deeply entrenched in the greatest mystery of Neptune, California. Who killed Lilly Kane?

Well, like all teenage drama series, Veronica Mars, aptly named, was a coming of age story. A story about how a teenage girl had her entire life turned upside down. Veronica did not let her fate keep her down. Instead, she channeled everything to become stronger, an eye for an eye. And into solving the Lilly Kane case. Surviving high school as a social pariah with sass, wit and a lot of snark. And some cool detective gadgets.

As for plot what can be more interesting than a female teen detective? Who’s even better than the town’s police department. With a constant conflict between the have and have not’s. And a theme of police, political and economic corruption. Then, aside the main plots of the Lilly Kane case, who killed Felix and the bus bombing in season two. And the Hearst College rapist case in season three. There were the subplots of the cases from her classmates.

Each new case tested Veronica.  Forcing her to realize that she wasn’t as alone or outcast as she thought. She gained lifelong friendships with Wallace Fennel and “Mac” McKenzie. She even mended her relationship with Logan. Which eventually turned into the most epic of love relationships in teenage drama history. Right up there with Pacey and Joey from Dawson’s Creek.

There’s also the use of voiceovers and flashbacks to help propel the plot forward. By providing overlooked clues from the past to uncover the whodunit of the cases. And even some red herrings, which made the plot twists, so surprisingly sweet. But there is one plot line that I can’t just applaud in season two. Duncan Kane and Veronica getting back together. That was never fully explained as Veronica and Logan’s break up.

Veronica Mars had some great writing. Yet this avid reader wouldn’t have been a huge fan if not for one thing. Any writer would know that you have to hook your reader in the beginning. And what better beginning can there be than a teenage girl on a stakeout outside a seedy hotel?

Credit image: https://www.pinterest.com/Haileigh92/veronica-mars/