Veronica Mars: Series Finale - PopMatters Television Review:
Down These Teen Streets, a Girl Must Go

Want to know how I lost my virginity? So do I.
—Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), Pilot

"Best. Show. Ever. Seriously, I’ve never gotten more wrapped up in a show I wasn’t making, and maybe even more than those. Crazy crisp dialogue. Incredibly tight plotting. Big emotion, I mean BIG, and charismatic actors and I was just DYING from the mystery and the relationships and PAIN… These guys know what they’re doing on a level that intimidates me. It’s the Harry Potter of shows.”
--Joss Whedon boosts Veronica Mars on his blog (12 August 2005)
well I suppose I take that as a recommendation of Harry Potter (but I still am not drawn to read any) and of Joss Whedon (but I still d n really like Buffy).

Joss Whedon had it right. The first season of VM was utterly compelling, Film Noir meets Beverly Hills 90210, and then some. The plot, which spanned the entire season, was rooted deep in moral ambiguity, sexual tension, and murder. The storytelling was supported by a potent combination of voiceover and flashback, and the whole was delivered in a stunning visual style. One favourite technique was the short-lens shot, both to emphasize the distance between Veronica and her peers and to focus our attention on the isolated protagonist. At times, VM came dangerously close to Art.

part way through the pilot I was about committed to ordering season 1. and maybe season 2 at the same time. and now, beginning of 2nd episode, a girl at the party looks like Paris Hilton! and is Paris Hilton.
huh coincident, for me: today Paris H is all over the news - went to court (I read this morning in newspaper at Salonica that she was being called) - judge sentenced her to go back to finish her sentence in jail (I read this evening NYT link via my sbc page, wh I logged into after long away bcs cleaning up my three email account there & also my hotmail). this page was among hits when I went to investigate - ggl veronica mars paris hilton:

the show’s second episode featured Paris Hilton—imaginatively cast as a stupid, spoilt whore

__________
Veronica Mars entered our living rooms as a petite girl with an enormous backstory.
Kristen Bell pulled it off. Previously she had been a cheerleader with ruptured breast implants (Everwood) and a sociopathic whore (Deadwood) huh I'd like to see her in that. plus hear how great Deadwood is, how lovely the writing, is it just compared to Shakespeare or is there some tighter relationship there?. She’d also auditioned for the role of Chloe Sullivan in Smallville before winning the best new role for a teenage actress on TV. Yes, she was actually 24 huh , but she looked young enough yeah I find her fine as a HS juniorand gave the best voiceovers in town.
the best new role for a teenage actress on tv? what was the best old one?
I was thinking this is the best teenage girl character Ever on tv.
(and hard to top in movies. or even books, though there at least there would be others. a lot of others. different bcs there, in what I read, it's all voice. so smart & introspective girls in ComplicatedKindness, BrokenAsThingsAre. but that's poetry. so, outside of poetry, best teen girl character ever?)
who else is even good? rory is a dip. paris (on gilmore girls not hilton!) is cool, ok, but it doesn't compare (it's just the same kind of full realistic character). and of course, no one on 90210 compares. dawsons creek dips. party of five dips (neve campb less than jlhewitt but both).
ok: Clare on SixFeetUnder compares. I like the actress. and the character is developed well and has depth and is more & less likeable. not as likeable as Veronica.
and: Tyra Collette on FridayNightLights. ok she is a great character. I like her a lot. and the actress does a great job. so she's up there. but, you know, it's not her show to carry. so it's different.
Anne of Green Gables in the movie, which I think was a tv movie. that might be a good comparison. I thought she was well played by ~ megan someone? still, even her I don't think I like as much, but that maybe largely bcs not contemporary, and can't therefore be tough in the same way ('sassy').
oh - and Buffy.(the obvious comparison, progenitor, girl people liked in similar way). I think of that as a show I hardly saw but in fact after Dimit's wedding at the house on the beach I spend a morning watching thru thefull set of dvds that were there. maybe I'd have liked the show if it was a different actress? I don't think she's bad ~ she's probably good. I think I may just not like sarahmgellar. again, has ~ dippy to me. is that what I call a certain feminine ness? it's not just being small. I liked thora birch as liz murray in tv movie'homeless to harvard' and she was tiny. and veronica is petite as said above.

I like Kristen Bell. I figure out who she looks like to me (more when hair down, in flashbacks, and then when put hair in head in braids to be a 'nerd hag' at college party, 4th epis) - natalie portman. kind of a lot!
but I like k bell better. she has a bit a kirsten dunst, the blond hair and maybe a bit of something in her face - her chin? or maybe just that I tend to like dunst more than her rivals so I think of her. the natalie portman resemblance is what is striking. and surprising, to me, when I realized it.

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Veronica Mars was always much more than just Buffy P.I.. Approaching issues such as race and class with the same wry intelligence she brought to bear on rape, murder, and missing monkeys, Veronica tracked her teen noir lineage all the way back to Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia and Winona Ryder in Heathers. eh never much enjoy Winona (a bit dippy I guess. the girls interrupted character moved me when I read the book but Winona in the movie I d n care for). now, who is this Veronica Lake? sure sounds familiar. was that based on a book also?

rest of the article of int to me (re final episodes, mainly):
The second season was less outstanding, but it was still one of the best things on TV.
Sadly, Veronica’s third season was her weakest by far. Other than V herself, of all the “teenage” characters only ex-con Eli “Weevil” Navarro (Francis Capra) seemed to make the leap intact, landing a job as a college janitor. Despite the always strong Bell, Colantoni, and Capra, the choice of guest stars frequently provoked more conversation than the plots.
Two episodes closed the series on 22 May. “Weevils Wobble But They Don’t Go Down” featured politics in the workplace, politics in the community, and the little man getting shafted in both. Not to mention recurring scenes and themes from previous seasons, a nod to Paris Hilton’s many sex tapes, V’s Bad Boy Ex beating the crap out of her Rebound Nice Guy, rich students setting up ex-con janitors to take the fall for their capers, and a series of inexplicable references to The Office.
The final episode, “The Bitch Is Back” took us all the way back to the heart of Veronica Mars. When Best Friend Forever Wallace was testing his engineering course project, a remote control plane, it was a clear reference to the pilot, when he flew a remote control plane on the Neptune beach. Similarly, in the pilot, BBX was beaten up by Weevil and forced to apologize to Veronica for vandalizing her car. Now, he was the one beating an apology out of the student responsible for the Veronica Mars Sex Tape. In both cases, Veronica’s reply was the same: “I don’t want his apology.” She’s not interested in apologies. She’s driven by a nihilistic need for action and payback.
Once more cast as the town slut, Veronica was scorned by her peers both because of the sex tape and because her father, sheriff again, was having trouble keeping his job, again. This time, however, Keith wasn’t just being forced from office by Neptune’s corrupt powerbrokers. ..VM was all about Veronica and Keith. And beyond that, about parents, children, and the myriad ways they can fuck each other up.
It’s possible Thomas may take some of these ideas and run with them in movie form, following Whedon’s Firefly-Serenity model. There’s also been talk of sending Veronica off to the FBI Academy. I wouldn’t hold my breath for either. Having proved herself TV’s Voiceover Queen, Bell will be back on the CW later this year, narrating Gossip Girl, an adaptation of Cecily von Ziegesar’s books that will turn out to be The O.C. meets the Gilmore Girls in Manhattan. hmm.