Veronica Mars Season 2 - Page 12

Whoa... what month is that issue of Maxim? I didn't see that at Borders when I was there yesterday.

Looks like March.

The guy who told me about it said to rush out, and I almost did. Any idea when it might come out if it's March?

I'd figure the end of the month. If you can wait the images will be available on the Web, either on the Maxim site or here: http://www.gorillamask.net/galleries.shtml

I'm telling ya, Kristen's much bustier this season.

Wait . . . you think she got implants? It's hard to tell from the shot I posted, but they look real enough from what I can see.

I was finally able to watch last week's episode. Excellent. Best in a while. Have we seen the guy who was at the table with Weevil at the beginning of the episode? He's the stoner guy from the Jack in the Box ad. "Can I GETTTTTTTT, UHHHHHHH."

I never caught the deal with Hannah's father until I read the thread. Man, you really have to watch this show like a hawk! And here I thought Logan liked her because she sort of looked like Veronica.

That's Corny. He built the bong Veronica planted in Logan's locker back in the pilot; and he asked Ronnie if she wanted to go to White Castle in Weapons of Class Destruction, right before the bomb sniffing bombs walked right by him, tipping Veronica that they were in fact bomb sniffers and not drug sniffers. Those are the two appearances that come immediately to mind, but he's been in at least as many episodes as Mac.

(Speaking of which, I can't be the only guy who'd rather see Tina Majorino in Maxim, can I?)

No, just that she's maybe a little heavier than last season.

UPN has issued press releases announcing that they will be airing VM repeats over the next three weeks.

2/15: Episode 2.6 - "Rat Saw God"
2/22: Episode 2.7 - "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner"
3/1: Episode 2.8 - "Ahoy Mateys"

I really hope this is just because of the Olympics. I know February is sweeps month so this is sort of odd. I guess UPN is also waiting for ANTM to come back with new episodes as a better lead-in for VM's new episodes.

I think the Maxim online website has pics of KB's photos. I can't access it but that's what I'm told.

Ahh, no. Not more repeats.


Okay, well that's good. I don't mind her getting a little more meat on her bones. It's just, the doc was right when he said she didn't need nothin', and that other guy she visited was wrong.


I didn't remember any of that. Having a bad memory doesn't help with this show. By the way, VM minor characters seem to get commercial work a lot. Besides Corny, I believe Butters is in the Pizza Hut ads.


Sorry, not me. Even if I was attracted to her, it couldn't be more than I am to Kristen Bell.

This is the official UPN statement about pushing back the new episodes of Veronica Mars:


I think the next new episode airs March 15 (2.14) and then they will run straight through to the season finale (2.22)some time around May 10.

Repeats suck but having the last nine episodes of the season run without any repeats at all will be nice.

Given how complicated and hard to follow VM can be over the season, I'm starting to think the "24" method of running all the episodes without repeats would be a good idea. Why can't they just do that twice a year? Run the entire season all at once and then repeat the whole thing? I guess I don't understand why it can't be done for more series when it's been working so well for 24. Doesn't 24 have more viewers now than it's ever had?

It has been quite successful for 24 but it would be a challenging way to program network wide unless they back off of 22 episodes a year.

Jan-May isn't too bad since both 24 and Alias have been able to get full seasons into the timespan. but what do you do with Sep-Dec which isn't enough to fit in a full season of a show? Even if you tried, viewing levels dip in December thanks to the holidays and that's right when the season finales of your shows would be running. Bump them up to end in November and you start most of your series in the summer when viewership is traditionally much lower too.

Plus, you've just doubled (or nearly so) the programming slate for every network which is an expensive proposition.

Ultimately the answer is probably to switch things over to what cable is doing- shorter 13 episode seasons but its going to take a major shift in network economics, including the removal of sweeps, to get there. After all, from the network standpoint, when you have a show as successful as Lost or Desperate Housewives, wouldn't you rather run 22-24 episodes a year rather than 13?

I think we'll get there but it will take some time.

I wouldn't expect that sort of scheduling for most shows, just the occasional show that has a very complicated ongoing season-long story, like both 24 and VM. And Alias, I guess, although it's not as "season-specific" as 24 and VM, with each season having a contained story arc.

Most procedural shows can go for long runs of repeats and nobody gets lost or confused. Heck, they could run episodes of most procedurals in any order and nobody would know the difference. Shows like 24 and VM are the exception on network TV, because it's much harder to attract a large audience to a show that requires they follow it from week to week. It took 24 time but it finally built up a decent audience.

Really?! Granted I only started watching last year on DVD, but I thought it was a smash hit from day one (pun intended).

--
H

Okay, I might be remembering it wrong, but I thought 24 did just "okay" in its first season and it's a much bigger hit now than it was then.

I definitely remember reading early on about how the average viewer has the attention span of a gnat and 24 requires more commitment than that, so that's why the ratings weren't as high as they could have been. (But I think Alias started the same year, so maybe I'm confusing the two shows.) I was telling everyone how great 24 was that first year and a lot of people said they couldn't watch b/c they didn't see it from the beginning.

Now we're getting off topic . . . so anyway, VM does require more commitment from a viewer and I know it's lost some casual fans because it's been so complicated and hard to follow. Sometimes even the MOTW is complicated and hard to follow, especially lately. I hate to say it, but maybe a little "dumbing down" would help the show. The ratings have been utterly abysmal the past few weeks.

If I recall correctly, 24 did good in its first two seasons but had a significant drop-off in the 3rd. It started got some of it's best ratings last year when it moved to the non-stop season format.

24 did decently out of the gate but certainly was no smash hit. 24 was probably the first series to really see a nice bump in audience size thanks to Fox's pioneering decision to release the DVD set before the beginning of the next season. Then it did stall a bit again in Season 3, but the decision to run it uninerrupted in S4 provided a nice boost. Now, in S5, it's enjoying its biggest audience yet.

For all of the whining that Fox gets at how it has handled many series, they've really done a bang up job building an audience with 24.

Ouch, let's not go down that road.

BTW, I don't agree that 24 is hard to follow at all. As heavily serialized as it is, it's not very complex, and one could easily jump in in the middle of a season and still have one hell of a ride. Events do not have lasting consequences on the series, not because it is poorly written, but because the brakeneck pace and constanly changing situations quickly put the characters outside of the sphere of influence of the events in questions. The rules of the games changes so often that by the middle of the season, one can hardly remember how it begun. And how it all begun is often quite irrelevant (with perhaps the exception of S1, which is still the best written season). Heck, what happened 6 episodes ago is irrelevant. There isn't much of a big picture. All that matters is the current threat, and how Bauer is dealing with it. That's why methinks 24 lends itself to new viewers very well.

VM of course is a completely different animal. Episodes are so complex and move so friggin fast, yeah it is sometimes hard to keep up. This last one was definitely up there, I am not sure I understood the whole copier thing and how it relates to the theft - if it did at all.

The voice over is a big part of the reason things go so fast - it takes 5 seconds to express feelings, rather than an entire scene to show them.

--
H

.

I think the copier was just a mistake Veronica was able to catch by chance. The guy was cheating to beat Veronica, and he messed up by leaving the paper on the copier. I would not be a bit surprised if the teacher was helping him out of dislike for Veronica.

The thing I didn't fully understand was the paddle with the license plate numbers.

Thanks Greg, yeah, WTF was up with the paddle? And the reference to the episode where some teacher's car was "wrapped around" a pole???!!!

--
H

There was an episode last season where Logan and Weevil "speared" a teacher's car, and Veronica remembered that and figured out that Weevil had a way into the shop. That and the thing about the writing on the money seemed a little contrived to me, even though I thought it was a great episode overall.

Holadem: Did you not see the first season? That episode (referred to be Greg above) is 1.7, "The Girl Next Door." It's one of the weaker eps imho, but the Logan/Weevil detention subplot is hilarious and is the first time they reached a sort of detente. But it didn't last long.

The paddle is supposed to be mysterious, and I'm sure Veronica will be following up on that clue in upcoming eps. It looked like license plate numbers to me, and I'm guessing it's all involved with the drug dealing and the Fitzpatricks. Everything seems to point back at them.

The other "mystery" from this last episode that still hangs out there is Beaver's reference to "Sally" right before Dick was going to punch him. That was a WTF moment for me and I hope they follow up on that. Beaver is holding something over Dick's head and I think Beaver is smarter and craftier than anyone gives him credit for.

Cheryl, Greg, I've watched every single episode of the series and definitely remember the car and the pole. I understand how my wording could have led you to believe otherwise. I just didn't follow the connection with the last episode when I was watching.

--
H

Damn! If you're confused, the rest of us are sunk! Seriously, I figure if I miss something, I'll find out what it was from one of your posts. The only explanation can be that this was something new being introduced.

I went on a Kristen Bell Maxim magazine hunt at lunchtime today but unfortunately Barnes & Noble still had the February issue on the shelf.

Here's hoping that when the dvd of season 2 is eventually released, they release it before season 3, so more people have the opportunity to watch the show as it happens.

About Maxim (I also haven't seen it), Kristen was shown the cover on Access Hollywood last week. She looked at it and said "Those aren't my boobs!!!". Funny interview.