These days I’m afraid she’s not even sure…

November 10th, 2006

When Veronica Mars first came on the air, I couldn’t get enough. Here was an interesting, character-driven premise with clever stories, solid dialogue, and worthy actors supporting well-written relationships. The show had a solid mix of weekly mystery plot combined with season-long Big Mystery subplot. Here was a show that could be the methadone to my Buffy habit.

Season two lost me. I am a person who watches TV in the background while working on my computer in the foreground. The second season had so many suspects and so many theories on the Big Mystery that I couldn’t keep track from week to week, halfway paying attention as I was. Fortunately, I caught up with it again on DVD a few months ago, and was converted back into a fan. I thought the second half of the season was significantly better than the first, perhaps as the production team found their legs in making the show sustainable past the first season. The show’s ratings agreed with me, growing a bit, in part helped by a new time slot. It was a minor upswing, but may have helped save the show. I was happy to see the show renewed. It was safely on my list of shows I would continue to follow.

But this third season, reinvented for the new CW, is hard to watch. I don’t mean that I think there’s been any dip in the writing quality. Nor do I object to the transition Veronica has made to college, ever-so predictably dropping her plans to attend my alma mater and instead doing as all title characters must–attending a university very close to home. Nor is it unforgivable that this season’s Big Mystery is serial rape, instead of the murder in season one or the the mass murder in season two. (Although, as Veronica pointed out in last week’s episode, rape isn’t funny. From death, we could at least expect the occasional wry, ironic chuckle.) Nor do I even cringe any more as these supposedly late-teen characters constantly make pop culture references more appropriate from, say, a mid-thirties staff writer.

No. The thing I can’t stand is this annoying pink color correction on all the background walls. The first scene with Keith in this season’s pilot hurt my eyes. It was actually painful to look at. What was the strategy? Who suggested that the show would be better if the production design involved a whole lot more sepia/pink in soft focus? Are they TRYING to make the show look like a VHS copy of a VHS copy of a VHS copy of itself? Every interior has unnaturally lit backdrops. Pink, yellow, orange–as long as it’s pastel and overly bright, let’s do it.

And then there’s the obnoxious “Aerie Tuesday” theming of CW’s Tuesday nights. Don’t get me wrong. I like a good women’s underwear ad as much as the next guy. Which is quite a bit. However, something is off here. When I heard that Gilmore Girls from WB would be paired with VM from UPN, I thought that was a smart move. Here are two shows with witty banter and strong female characters. They will probably attract a similar audience and even improve each other’s ratings. Then, I saw one of those obnoxious green billboards proclaiming that by watching GG, I was “Free to be Girlie.” Oh. It’s not about witty banter and strong female characters. It’s cuz they’re both for girls. Sigh. A male friend I was with, a series long GG fan, was crushed by the billboard. By association, I couldn’t help wondering if they would push VM the same way. But I saw VM’s billboard. “Free to be Fearless.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

But then came the bleeding pink lighting.

Before, watching VM was like hanging out in a clubhouse that happened to have a lot of girls in it. With season three and the move to CW, I feel like someone has hung a sign outside that clubhouse saying, “Girls Only.” And then covered that sign with glitter glue and sea shells. And then put some potpourri in a wicker basket on the back of the clubhouse toilet.

I’m crossing my fingers and hoping, like last year, the second half of this season will get more and more compelling, and that great writing will make me tolerate the slumber party promos of fake conversation about the shows. However, right now VM is sadly on the bubble to go off my watchlist.

Pink is the new well-written