Thursday, March 16, 2006

Neptune Beach

First of all, I am shocked -- shocked -- to learn that Melissa got the boot last night on "Idol." Except, not really. Enjoy your time in Julia D'Amato-ville. Nor am I super-surprised that Ace and Lisa were the other members of the bottom two. Say it with me: on "Idol," it's better to blow chunks (Kellie, Kevin) than to be mediocre.

Meanwhile, "Veronica Mars" didn't exactly blow my doors off in its first episode back from that unplanned hiatus. The bus crash and Felix arcs got nudged forward, but the Mysteries of the Week didn't do much for me, other than Corny's Drew Carey in "The Aristocrats"-style snap at his "master bait" joke. This is the second time Rob's been forced to accomodate a reality show blonde with minimal acting skills, and while Kristin was a slight improvement on Paris Hilton, that's like saying the stomach flu is a slight improvement over botulism.

This year's big arcs still lack the simplicity that made Lily's murder and the rape such involving mysteries, and the Felix arc in particular seems to be running out of story. Barring a rug-pulling twist, we already know the how, what and why, so all that's left is Logan clearing his name. As for the bus crash, I'm now hoping it's not Woody Goodman, because the clues are so blatant (warns his daughter off the bus, and the explosives were found in one of his airplane hangars, even though Veronica forgot that little detail) that it won't be remotely surprising if it's him.

3 comments:

velvetcannibal said...

RE: VM. It has been hard to stay as involved in the mysteries this season. I agree, it's not the same as the simple and personally devastating storylines Veronica dealt with last year. But even with this week's lukewarm episode, it's still the most well-written, continuity obsessed show on tv right now.

I miss Amanda Seyfried. I miss flashbacks. I miss Meg. And there was no VMVO again this week! No Wallace! No Weevil either, though it was a nice red herring for me when Kelly the baseball player's rims got stolen. I was sure we'd see Weevil when that happened. Crazy continuity there, of course.

I also hope it's not Woody Goodman. The clues are way too blatant. I'm hoping I've missed something and Rob Thomas has us totally fooled.

Might as well introduce myself. I've been lurking your blog after stumbling across it. I'm from Jefferson Township, NJ. Live in NYC, work in film/tv production. I wrote a couple articles for The Daily Record way back when they started their MCTV section. Anyway, I enjoy your blog.

Anonymous said...

Unplanned hiatus? What happened--was UPN having second thoughts about VM?

Alan Sepinwall said...

Pete, the combination of no America's Next Top Model rerun and competition from two-hour American Idol episodes was just killing the Veronica ratings. Rather than fight City Hall, UPN decided to bench it until Top Model was going to be back.

I also wouldn't be stunned to see Veronica move to Tuesdays at 9 before the season's out, both to get it away from the Idol results show and to see how it might do in its rumored CW timeslot (Tuesdays post-Gilmore Girls).

And welcome aboard, velvetcannibal. Always good to get comments, even when the Blogger software seems buggy (I wouldn't have even realized these comments were here if Pete hadn't e-mailed me.)