Michael Scott

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Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season (2019)


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Movie: :4stars:
Video: :4stars:
Audio: :4stars:
Extras: :1star:
Final Score: :3.5stars:




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Movie

I’m actually scratching my head looking at the marketing for this latest incarnation of Veronica Mars. I mean, we first had the 3 seasons that aired from 2004-2007, then the movie that came 7 years later in 2014, THEN we finally got word that it was coming back for a 4th season after literally YEARS of begging from fans. However it’s almost as if the marketing gurus wanted to confuse people. The HULU based fourth season is labeled as Veronica Mars: Season 4 from the streaming company, yet Warner has labeled it as Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season on the DVD (and Blu-ray coming from the Warner Archive MOD collection) . I know that sometimes revival shows can be relabeled so as not to be confused with the previous seasons of a show (such as Will & Grace: The Revival), but with Hulu labeling it as the 4th season, and the show picking up directly after the incidents of the movie and continuing the show’s continuity, it seems strange to label it as season one without even a mention of being a revival or continuing on the show. As such I’ve titled this Veronica Mars: The Complete Fourth Season simply because it makes more sense to fans and clues people in that I’m NOT reviewing the old 2004 season, so lets just roll with it.

The show picks up directly after the events of Veronica Mars The Movie and Veronica’s (Kristen Bell) father Keith (Enrico Colantoni) is still limping around after his injury. Sadly he’s started to suffer memory loss and increased mental fatigue as a result and is seeking treatment, while Veronica runs most of the detective agency. The city is undergoing some attempts at corporate “reconstruction” thanks to sleazy big Dick Casablancas (David Starzyk), and Veronica is now facing the frightening realization that her long time ON again (as of the movie) boyfriend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) wants to marry her (the horror). However, all of this is just side drama as a bomb goes off in the Seasprite motel, killing the daughter of a congressman and the son of a Mexican cartel leader.

This naturally spirals out of control quickly, as the bomber isn’t done. What seems like a quick case of finding a lone murderer turns into an all out hunt to stop a mad bomber as more and more people start dying from randomly planted bombs. This means Veronica has to put on her thinking cap and figure it out like usual, and the list of suspects are staggering. It could be a group of amateur detectives headed up by a pizza delivery guy named Penn Epner (Patton Oswalt), it could be Big Dick himself, it could be an ex con named Clyde Picket (J.K. Simmons), and then there’s the issue of trying to work out her relationship with Logan, make sure her father isn’t going insane with his medical issues, AND come out of this alive.

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The 4th season of Veronica Mars is a bit moodier, darker and more adult than the UPN/The CW show that aired some 15 years ago, but it still is Veronica Mars to the core. The detective has aged a bit since her best friend was murdered in the original 1st season, and she’s really come into her own as a full on private investigator, instead of the more mature Nancy Drew knockoff the series originally billed her as. But no matter how much she’s aged, and no matter how much she’s changed, Kristen Bell is still the perfect Veronica, and with the inclusion of most everyone from the main cast returning to the show 15 years later, we get a fantastic sense of continuity. Everything picks up right where the show and movie left off, and continues on as if nothing has happened . The tone is still dark and gritty, and the mature aspects of the show don’t change it into something it’s not, even though the added leeway of being on HULU gives the show runners more flexibility with making the language more adult, as well as a few adult situations.

The main plot of this season is great, giving us a full on murder investigation, complete with mad bombers, drug cartel sicarios, and a romantic plot that finally wraps up the Logan/Veronica romance issue that has tuck with the show throughout it’s life time. The show runners including creator Rob Thomas haven’t officially announced a 5th season to the show, but supposedly the numbers looked good for them and discussions are under way for the possibility to bring back fan favorite show as a regular recurring season. Also, cutting it down to eight 50 minute episodes (give or take a couple of minutes either direction) allows the show to be taught and bloat free, which is a major benefit as the series lives and dies on the fans bringing it back from the dead, so without unnecessary network TV episode padding it has a better chance of coming back being that the story is so tight and cohesive.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video: :4stars:
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Warner’s DVD set puts the show on two double layer DVD-9’s, with episodes per disc. This gives us just about 3.5 hours of content per disc which is actually not that bad compression wise. I did notice that the show suffers from banding in low light shots, but the series is pretty naturally graded and looks mostly artifact free otherwise. There’s a few strangely lit scenes like the teal blue/green of the jail cells, or the yellowish lighting of the boardwalk bars and night lit shops. Daylight shots are extremely clean and crisp with only some mild softness permeating the general ambiance of the series.








Audio: :4stars:
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The 5.1 Dolby Digital track is solid and pretty much exactly what we’ve gotten for the previous three seasons of the show on DVD. This is a dialog heavy mystery show, so the front end of the room is going to get the bulk of the heavy lifting in the mix. Dialog is crisp and clean, and the hubbub of Neptune, California comes through nicely. The surrounds light up when a bomb goes off, or the rumbling of cars and yelling of a crowded bar movies the sound to the rear of the room, but this is still a pretty front heavy mix. LFE is tight and punchy, but never really hot and heavy, laying low for the most part except to accentuate the score, and add some low end bump to the action sequences.








Extras: :1star:
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• Veronica Mars at Comic-Con 2019













Final Score: :3.5stars:


I’ve never seen a show as highly lauded by fans even though it was canceled years ago due to The CW not liking the ratings. Fans have literally been begging for YEARS for something to wrap the show up, and the movie was just a taste test. The ability for streaming services like HULU, Netflix, and Amazon Prime to produce their own shows that the networks won’t touch has breathed life in several shows over the years, and kept some shows from BEING canceled (Longmire comes to mind). This 4th season is a breath of fresh air, as it continues the long running adult nature of Veronica Mars and her friends, while maturing it ever so slightly and changing it to match the older audiences who have stuck with the show since the beginning. I’m seriously hoping for a 5th season if the powers that be allow it, but this 4th season was absolutely fantastic and a great addition to the series. Highly Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, Patton Oswald, J.K. Simmons, Clifton Collins Jr.
Created by: Rob Thomas
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: NR
Runtime: 411 Minutes
DVD Release Date: October 22nd, 2019
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Recommendation: Highly Recommended

 
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tripplej

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Thanks for the review. I saw the early episodes prior to the cancellation and then never saw it again. I may have to revisit this.. Also, by the way, she is great in "The Good Place"..
 
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