Throwback Thursday - A look back on the 'Veronica Mars' Pilot

So for my first Throwback Thursday, I wanted to talk about a show that has always been near and dear to my heart: Veronica Mars. It is my favorite show pretty much of all time, well sorta, it's tied with Gilmore Girls. Yeah, Tuesdays in 2006-2007 were pretty much my favorite days since they aired back to back. I'm going to try my hardest not to make this whole thing just me gushing over how good the show was, but I apologize in advance if that is what it turns into. I was going to go through the whole series and point out key parts that made the show amazing, but I think focusing primarily on the Pilot will give the same effect, and if you have seen it then you know it's true... unless you're one of those people that only watch a show only for a relationship, then the Pilot probably isn't the best for you and your favorite episode is more than likely 'Weapons of Class Destruction' ... you know why...

Veronica Mars gets you right from the Pilot, which honestly if it didn't grab you from the start I don't think you would ever actually enjoy the show because the Pilot is seriously one of the best episodes of the series and really tells you right away what the show is about and the feel of it. We find out that Veronica's best friend was murdered and she and her father (Keith) are trying to figure out who really did it because nothing makes sense about who was arrested for doing it. The Pilot showed us that this isn't your average high school drama, it is dark and very noir, it may be set primarily at a high school but that isn't what the show is really about, it is just the backdrop of it all, a place for Veronica to easily interact with some of the other main characters and where she can get some extra cases to help her out financially.

Now speaking of the noir tone of the show, the directing in the first season is phenomenal in giving us that noir feel. There are some great angles and colors being used, a lot of natural light which you don't usually get from TV shows because it doesn't always work with scheduling, but thanks to how the show isn't predominantly set during the day or night it makes filming easier for getting that natural feel to it all. Honestly, the first season of the show has some of the best directing of any show I have seen, but once we got into Season 2 you can easily see that they went to artificial light and the show started to lose its noir feel. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing since season 1 was all about who killed Lily Kane which is in itself a big noir trope, and when we moved into Season 2 it was about the bus crash and who caused it, which keeps the investigation side of the show still running but season 2 was more about the characters rather than keeping with the noir feel that season 1 brought us. I know that that is a big reason as to why many people didn't like Season 2 as much as Season 1, personally I enjoyed Season 2 a bit more than Season 1 because I enjoyed the character development enough to outweigh the loss of the heavy noir tone.

What Veronica Mars does right off that bat, and I love to praise it for this,  is introduce us to a strong female heroine that tells us right away that she is never going to be the girl that wants to get married or be ~that girl.

"I’m never getting married. You want an absolute? Well, there it is. Veronica Mars, spinster. I mean, what’s the point? Sure, there’s the initial primal drive. Ride it out. Better yet? Ignore it. Sooner or later, the people you love let you down."

This may seem jaded of her, but it's her character, she has seen the downfall of love and hatchet just because you are married it doesn't save you from your spouse hurting you, if anything it increases those chances and she doesn't want to go through that. Now this doesn't mean that she wont date, she just isn't buying into a fairy tale romance, she is too level headed for that. In fact throughout the show she has dated 4 different guys, all of which has given more to her character development rather than just be a love interest, which isn't something I can say about a lot of shows out there right now.

Veronica all at once introduces us to her city and her school, letting us know that there is no middle class, just the haves and the have-nots which becomes such an important theme to the show. We got a look at her cynical side while she was outside of the Camelot, but then she comes and cuts Wallace down from the flagpole without having met him before, she has a softer side and does care for others deep down.

"The only reason I was allowed past the velvet ropes was Duncan Kane"

Veronica takes us back to before her life was turned upside down, when she was still a popular girl. She was dating the most popular guy at school and was in with everybody. She acknowledges that it was only because she was dating Duncan, but lets us know that before anything went down with Lily, he had broken up with her without giving her a reason why. This is also a small moment that turns out the play a LARGE role in the next two seasons.

"Every school has an obligatory psychotic jackass. He's ours."

This is a strong statement that will be very much reprimanded later on in the season when Logan is given more depth and story to his character. In the Pilot, Logan is set up as one of Veronica's biggest antagonists, but if you continue with the show you know that he soon becomes one of her biggest loves. I don't want to really get into that because that will be used at a later date when I really want to get into their relationship. For now, let’s just say that they have a lot of growing to do from the Pilot to get to where they need to be.

We see that Veronica is still hurt from losing her friends and Duncan... but then Wallace enters into the picture. She is very apprehensive at first, not even wanting him to sit by her, she then realizes that she wouldn't want someone to treat her that way and lets him know that he can sit with her. This is the beginning of one of the best tv friendships, there is never any sexual tension, no lingering lust, just a grade A platonic friendship... and honestly, what more do you need? They could have went the route of having him pine for her, or vice-versa, and have the cliché 'will this ruin our friendship' storyline, but no, they chose the better road and made them the worlds cutest BFFs.

Weevil comes up to Wallace and starts harassing him, and Veronica warns Weevil to leave her new... friend? No, not friend just yet, but potential friend, alone.

"So it's big huh?"
"Legendary."
"Let’s see it. I mean if it's as big as you say, I'll be your girlfriend. We can go to Prom together!"

This is a great start to some classic badass Veronica Mars lines. A normal person would fear a biker gang, whereas Veronica could care less who they are, she gives them a snarky comment and doesn't care what they say they will do, she knows that she may not be physically stronger than them, but she can out smart them any day of the week.

Wallace works at a local convenience store called the Sak N Pak. It's there that we find out that Wallace was tied up to the flagpole because he pressed the silent alarm on some PCHers that stole a couple bottles of beer. This wouldn't have been a bad thing should Sheriff Lamb not have called Wallace out of the store in front of the entire gang and asked them if they actually stole the beer. Wallace denies it and we get the first look at how much of an asshole Lamb is (I don't know, I still love the guy) when he tells Wallace to go see The Wizard and ask for some backbone. This is sort of a prelude to a run-in Veronica has with Lamb later in the episode.

We get to see Veronica at her dad's PI office and it is more than overly implied that Veronica helps him with his cases when he is out of town catching Bail Jumpers. This is also the first appearance of Cliff, a public defender that will often go to Mars Investigations for help, and in turn will also help them out. It's a very win-win situation, plus Cliff is the most adorable human ever.

Celeste Kane is a word that ~looks like 'cute' but the 't' is in the wrong place and the 'e' should be an 'n' and ... well never mind. Celeste is just horrible, and not in a Julie Cooper kind of fun bitchy horrible way... she is just horrible. She is written well, that isn't a problem at all, her character is just not really redeemable and is all around vile. So her first scene in the Pilot is only kind of fitting as we come to find out that she is shadier than the Interior Illusions Lounge on Ru Pauls Drag Race. We find out that Keith had accused Jake Kane (Celeste Kane's husband) of killing their daughter and that is, according to Veronica, why Celeste is such a bitch to the Mar's family. We find out the real reason later of course, and it is pretty juicy, but she still has no excuse for the amount of bitch she is. I'm gonna be honest, I could have probably done without this paragraph, but I just wanted a spot to say how horrible she is. I apologize.

So getting back on track, we are getting our first glimpse of the father/daughter relationship between Keith and Veronica. We already know that they aren't the normal family; I mean his daughter is on a stakeout at 3am, but Keith likes to try and pretend that they still are kind of normal. It isn't in a 'LETS ALL WEAR HAPPY FACES IN PUBLIC SO PEOPLE THINK WE ARE NORMAL' way, but a jesting and loving manner.

"Sexual appetite?"
*Keith Pauses*
"Gone."

Without saying a word, we find out from Keith that his daughter is growing up much faster than he would like. This is a large factor in why he wants to at least try to be a normal family, he doesn't want to see his daughter grow up so fast, he wants her to enjoy life and not have to worry about these things. Deep down he knows that that won't happen, he knows that too much has already happened and that he won't ever be able to really fix it. As he is leaving he tells her not to go after the Kane’s, but then a minute later, knowing that no matter what he says, she will go after them, he tells her that when she does go after Jake Kane, to take backup. He loves his daughter above all else and knows that she will do what she wants to do no matter what he says, so the best he can do is advise her on how to do it safely.

"You want to know how I lost my virginity? So do I."

Aaaaaaand BAM! Lets add even more turmoil into this young girls life. Not only did her best friend die, and her friends abandon her, we find out that a little while after Lily was murdered, Veronica was both ruffied and raped. Veronica did NOT have an easy sophomore year to say the least. They set this scene up so perfectly as well, they dressed Veronica in a white dress to symbolize her purity, and when she wakes up the next morning after everything had happened, and her dress is torn and disheveled. I know the symbolism is pretty blatant, but it works so well with the direction and the lighting.

Oh was that not enough? Well her mother also left her after her father went after Jake Kane as the #1 suspect for the murder of Lily Kane. She left Veronica a note saying that she would be back some day, but Veronica isn't buying it and throws away the music box her mom gave her. This girl has some SERIOUS walls up, and while having all of this stuff happen to Veronica could seem like Rob Thomas is just adding more and more to give this girl issues, it all comes together and works. With how defensive, sarcastic, and how driven she is to find Lily's real killer, Rob Thomas was able to create a well balanced character. Sure Veronica has gone through some serious events, but her drive and determination keep her locked onto Lily and finding out what really happened. If she gave up, it would be like turning her back not only on Lily, but on her father who would never leave her side. Veronica is not a selfish person, not directly anyway, she wants to clear her father’s name and bring the real killer to justice.

Well she has Wallace now, right? Right. Wallace lets Veronica know that he knows about her reputation around school. Veronica's first reaction is defensive, asking him why he is sitting with her if he believes them. He lets her know that it doesn't matter if any of it is true or not, that she helped him down instead of watching him stuck up there, so he can believe those people that didn't do a damn thing, or the one girl who stood out and cut him down. There is a level of trust between the two that is born from this very moment and is probably the real moment where they became best friends. Veronica takes his outstretched hand and decides to help Wallace out with his PCHer problem. 

"Who's your daddy?"
"I hate it when you say that."

I just love that exchange between the two. We get another Keith and Veronica scene, which are probably the best scenes in the show. Keith catches the guy and insists that they celebrate with some steaks like the lower middle class that they are. Veronica lets Keith know that she followed Jake Kane and wasn't able to get a money shot but got a license plate that he can run through the system. She hands him the photo of the license plate and his face goes blank, you can tell that there is something not good about the license plate and since Keith acted that way without running it through the system first, he has to know more than he is letting on, which we will get to momentarily. Keith warns Veronica to stay away from Jake Kane, that they are dropping the case, which is kind of stupid on his part since he should know that if he tells her no, that she will go after him 10x's harder.

Veronica kills two birds with one stone. She gets Logan in trouble (who has been nothing but an asshole to her) by planting a bong in his locker, which gets taken to the evidence room at the Sheriff's Office, where she is able to trigger the device inside of it that turns the bong into a smoke bomb. She uses her in with the Fire Department to get the surveillance tape from the Sak N Pak out of that room. She is a crafty one, that Mars girl.

After getting the tape back, Veronica goes to work on her own case of solving who exactly the license plate belongs to. She uses a voice disguised as the ever wonderful Inga who works at the Sheriff's Office to have an officer at another station run the plates for her. But who oh who do they belong to? None other than Lianne Mars, Veronica's mother. So let’s add even more to the already thick plot, it turns out that Jake Kane was visiting Lianne at the Camelot motel for God knows what. She is in town but she hasn't said a thing to Veronica, and instead is meeting up with the guy that both Keith and Veronica believe killed Lily Kane. Keith also knew the plate automatically but hid it from Veronica. He knows more than she does and is trying to protect his daughter’s heart by not letting her know that her mother, who hasn't tried to contact her, is back in town. Veronica asks Keith again why they are dropping the Kane case and he lies to her again, saying that it is corporate espionage. He doesn't want her to bring it up anymore, he just wants his daughter to not be hurt.

It turns out that Veronica went to the Sheriff’s Office to report her rape. When she gets there, Lamb is right off the bat talking down to her and calling her a liar. He asks her if she wants to blame someone that is rich and famous, basically saying that she is just doing this for some sort of press. He tells her to grow a backbone and to get over it. It's still not okay, but Veronica does get back at him by showing that his department is known for picking up prostitutes in exchange for keeping a bars liquor license that is known for serving underage kids. I honestly do hate how much I love Sheriff Lamb, but it isn't in a 'OMG HE IS SO PERFECT AND KIND AND AMAZING' kind of way, I just really like the character and the actor is 12 shades of hot. I'm shallow; sue me.

"You're a marshmallow Veronica Mars."

Again, Wallace and Veronica are one of the best set of BFFs in the history of BFFs. He knows that she isn't as hard shelled as she would like people to think that she is, he can see past that and see the girl that once was, the one that laughed and had friends, the girl that was once happy. It's not just all on him though, she lets that side through for him, and really only him (besides her father of course), she has a level of trust with him that she hasn't shared with someone in a while. It's just perfect, okay? If you can't accept that, then I am sorry you have a horrible life, but reading this blog isn't going to fix that and you just need to accept that they are amazing.

While at the beach with Wallace, he notices that Logan and a group of guys are surrounding her car. Logan is of course standing in front of the car looking as menacing as a surfer boy can while holding a crowbar. He goes on about his #WhiteBoy problems while destroying her car with the crowbar, when Weevil and the other PCHers show up. Weevil takes the crowbar from Logan and starts beating up one of the white boy’s car, and then demands that Logan apologize to Veronica. Even after some persuading, Logan won't do it, but its okay, Veronica doesn't want or need his apology. Weevil wanted to help Veronica out after she helped out his boys. Sometimes people will surprise you Veronica... Buuut, Veronica isn't done just yet, she makes Weevil apologize to Wallace and lets Weevil know that Wallace has the only tape of the surveillance and with that move secured Wallace's safety from the PCH Gang.

"If there's something I've learned in this business, it's that the people you love let you down."

Veronica waits outside of her father’s office to watch him leave so that she can go through his safe to find out what he exactly knows about her mother. Though as she starts to go through the files in his safe, she starts uncovering more and more about the Lily Kane murder and that her mother may somehow be linked to it all. Veronica knows that her dad lied to her about her mother, but at the same time she is old enough to understand that he is her dad and his job is to try and protect her and she can't help but love him for that. He may have let her down in one way, but it doesn't cancel out everything that he has done for her.

Veronica now has too many questions to let anything go, if she ever would have, and wants to find some answers. Keith isn't ready to give them to her just yet so she has to seek them out herself. This has all set up for an AMAZING season of television. Even if you didn't like Season 2 or 3, you cannot deny that Season 1 was some amazing master craft of a television show.

That turned out a lot longer than I was going for, but I think I got my point across. Veronica Mars is a show with so many layers, and twists, and well built characters, it had a cult following but like most cult shows, got little in the ratings department. It only lasted 3 years when it should have honestly gotten more than that. With how the CW is doing now, they have to be kicking themselves for getting rid of a show with so much more potential. I guess they just had to make room for that amazing remake '90210' ... yeah that was such a smart idea...