‘Veronica Mars’: High School Really is Hell

I’m late, of course, to the party. Just as I watched “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” two decades after the show was made, more or less, I’m 15 year behind the time with another show about a compact woman child who packs a punch—in this case, summer 2022 was the summer my wife and I binge watched the three TV seasons of “Veronica Mars.”

And then got the movie and watched it, too.

Movie image from IMDB.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees some parallels between Veronica and Buffy. Both are attractive blondes who are often under-estimated by their adversaries. Both are quick-tongued—flash back to Buffy: Professor Walsh: “We though you were a myth.” Buffy: “Well, you were myth-taken.”

And both shows begin in high school, which is a bit of hell in both universes.

Wikimedia Common image of Kristen Bell in 2007 on set of TV show "Veronica Mars."

Did I like “Veronica Mars?” Heck yes, for many of the reasons I liked Buffy. Both Sarah Michelle Geller and Kristen Bell have the chops to be leading characters, and both are fun to watch. Both shows feature ensemble casts—indeed, there is a bit of crossover between them, with several actors from Buffy having roles in Veronica.

And I enjoyed both takes on American education. They weren’t either entirely real or realistic, and oddly enough, I found Buffy’s universe in some ways more relatable. It was just a random town, and if Sunnydale still existed in the same universe as LA, it wasn’t like Neptune, a village partly populated by media elite.

Season 3 TV cast of "Veronica Mars." The season ends abruptly mid-story, so it was nice to have a movie to wrap things up a bit. But kid, seriously, you can do better than Logan.

Buffy was a cleaner character, more ethical, in many ways. Veronica was never above bending the rules nor breaking the law to achieve revenge, for example. Buffy could get mean to save the universe, but not so often to offer payback.

That, to me, was the main weakness of Veronica Mars. Too often, it was a revenge fantasy, which left me a bit cold. Fortunately, that wasn’t the main arc of the show, and it was fun to see a feisty female with the smarts to figure it out. When Veronica said, “I know what happened,” she usually did.

Other parallels:

• Both Buffy Summers and Veronica Mars aren’t lucky in love. Buffy’s serious relationships include two vampires, an ex-soldier who loses his way and various high school boys who either betray her or turn out to be seriously unsuitable, for some reason. Veronica Mars has a very screwed up love life—to me, one of the main weaknesses of the show is that I never warmed up to her longest and most serious relationship, that weird rascal Logan. She would be better off without him.

• Law enforcement is best not trusted in either universe. The Sunnydale police, at least for a  season, are controlled by a demonic mayor. Keith, Veronica’s dad, gets to be sheriff now and then, but when he’s not, the local deputies are often a disreputable bunch.

• High School, and college, are populated by awful people doing awful things. In Veronica Mars, Hearst College and Neptune High School are both terrible places. Even worse that Sunnydale High School or UC-Sunnydale.

• Nerds make the best friends. Whether it’s Willow or Mac, it pays to have a gal pal who knows her way around computers (or witchcraft, in Willow’s case—the equivalent for Mac might be a talent for shady business deals).

Anyway, tonight we watched the 2014 movie “Veronica Mars.” It was fun to see to see the cast run through their paces again, and it did have the attractive flavor of the TV show, warts and all. But seriously, did she have to end up with Logan? Meh.