I Did Warn You.....

YESSS!!!!! That's all I have to say......well, that's the start of what I have to say. I'm going to start with a little story. Last summer, I was interning in D.C. without very much to do or people to do it with. While working, I used to play this game where I would trade quotes from TV shows with a friend from school. It was mostly Alias, Friends, and Grey's Anatomy, but I accidentally dropped one in from this other show on UPN. The show was called Veronica Mars. My friend was surprised, b/c she didn't know I watched the show (which I didn't). So that weekend, I picked up Season 1. I finished it in 3 days. Season 2 hadn't been released yet, so I tried to download as many episodes as possible until I got the DVDs. Once I had gotten through all the DVDs, I eagerly awaited the season 3 premiere. Most of my friends made fun of me, because I, a 21-year old heterosexual male, had become obsessed (that is not an exaggeration) with a show about a teenage girl detective.

Did their mockery bother me? No. Why? Because Veronica Mars, or VM, as I affectionately call it, is about so much more than a teenage girl detective. It's about class issues, the resurrection of the 40s noir movie as a TV show, teenage sex, rape, the death of your best friend, coping with an alcoholic parent, dealing with the mean kids in school, growing up, being who you are and accepting it. In a word, VM was perfection. It was smartly written and directed and acted. The cast was pitch-perfect. At the center of all this perfection? You guessed it--Kristen Bell. I can still remember the moment in the pilot when I knew that I was hooked. It happens early on in the episode, when VM is asleep on her desk and the teacher asks her a question about some quote and what she thinks it means. Without missing a beat, Veronica replies with a smile,"Life's a bitch until you die." I can remember thinking, "Ah if only she was real." That's when I knew VM would join my pantheon of favorite shows, which is no small feat since I watch a lot of TV. I eagerly watched every episode, relishing in the snark and sympathizing with the sadness. Kristen Bell played Veronica perfectly--just the right mix of steely sarcasm with occasional vulnerability. I still cannot fathom how she or the show never received an Emmy nomination. When VM ended, I think a little part of me died with it. I checked the entertainment pages every day, hoping that somehow, someway, the CW would have a change heart and bring it back. It didn't. I wrote a nasty e-mail to Dawn Ostroff lamenting her poor, poor decision making (which still seems pretty poor given how bad Life is Wild is doing). I got no response. I took refuge in ice cream and the DVDs. It was sad.

A few months later I found out Kristen Bell would be joining the cast of Heroes. I was thrilled. After watching the episode, I still am. One thing to know though: Elle (her character on Heroes) is no Veronica. I think it's a testament to Kristen Bell's chops that she could make me forget about Veronica and focus completely on this new character. And I have to tell you, Elle is one scary girl. She's hardened and cold, with no warm fuzzy center. She can sweet talk people, just like Veronica, but she is much quicker to drop the act and get annoyed. And certainly don't annoy her, or you might wind up electrocuted and dead. Just like the poor Irish girl's brother. Elle definitely works for the company and apparently so does her "Daddy." I am intrigued and I definitely want to see what else happens. But lets be honest, I would watch an hour of Kristen Bell reading the dictionary if it meant I got to see her on TV.

A bunch of other stuff happened tonight, which I'll address in a separate update, but for now I'll go to bed knowing that all is right again in TV land, at least until the impending writing strike screws it all up again.