Veronica Mars 3.16 - "Un-American Graffiti"
Airdate: May 1st, 2007

It's good to be back, isn't it? For how much longer, we don't know. Word is Veronica might join the establishment after all and become an FBI agent all grown up. Do you think she'll be more like Scully or Clarice? Well, since neither of those women had much of a sense of humor, I'm hoping for a whole new type of character - part Sydney Bristow, part C.J. Craig, part snarkmonster.

This episode was so packed with references to previous episodes and storylines that it really rewarded the loyal viewer. When Max asked Mac, "Did my friends hire you?" only fans laughed. And how nice was it to remember back to when Mac devised the sex survey, sold Neptune high schoolers results for $10, and then drove to school in a brand new car a week later? Also plentiful one-liners ("Non-alcoholic beer. All the pain, none of the fun."), rich sexual innuendo ("We'll spend half-time in my private box."), a Bon Jovi reference, and a Big Lebowski quote made for classic Mars moments.

Evidently the plan for the rest of the season is to work without a larger mystery, focusing only on the episode-length ones. In a way this is so far from what VM was in its first season, that I can understand why the diehards are complaining so much. Nice that Rob Thomas is listening to viewers who thought the bus crash was too convoluted, but now he's gone to the extreme in the other direction.

We're left with a lame-o mystery involving an oh-so-noble Middle Eastern couple, a wacko redneck, and a creepy devout Muslim whom Veronica calls hot? Pleeease. So trite. We know terrorism is the trigger-hot subject of the day. But the VM tendency to flip the liberal sympathy to the unexpected (Televangelist, good! Feminist, bad!) didn't work here. Instead the writers followed the expected path, full of stereotypes (but it was nice to see Veronica shoot the stoners with the paint gun).

And let's not forget romance. Some in the fanosphere draw parallels to cheesefests like Dawson's Creek when the Logan-Veronica tango heats up, but with Veronica in play, it's so much more. I said before that Veronica would eat Piz alive, and I don't doubt that she might still slurp him up with a straw, but something about his earnestness was so purely appealing this week. A friend recently referred to Wallace ("We don't all look alike, Sheriff Mars.") as the moral center of the show. And boy was he when he grabbed Veronica by the arm and nearly shook the sense into her - how bad did you feel for Piz when his baby steps toward dating were so grandly squashed by his Royal Crush (almost) whispering the words he wanted to hear in his ear ("pretend to be my boyfriend!").

Piz is the anti-Logan, fersure. And, fine, if that's what the Big V needs right now, she can have it. Logan has Parker, who is ultra-sweet. She's discovered the corny dial hidden in Logan's back, evidently, and turned it up to 10. The LOVE dynamic continues to swirl, though, because how hard did it hit your gut when the elevator door opened and Logan was standing there watching V kiss the pizizzness out of that dear boy? But don't feel bad for Logan, he was probably down in the lobby cheating on Parker with pastry chef who glazed his face onto her birthday cake. It's good to be back, indeed.

iTunes Links

Veronica Mars - Series
Veronica Mars - Season 3
This Episode - "Un-American Graffiti"