The wonder of having TiVo is that you don’t ever have to worry about missing anything. The drawback is that with so many good shows being automatically recorded, it’s easy to just not step out of that bubble and discover new shows. Veronica Mars is one of those shows that I should have been watching all along. Fortunately, it’s only been around for two seasons, I didn’t miss much, and there’s a DVD of season one out (with two on the way in August), so it’s not too hard to catch up at this point.
The show fits in very well as a successor to Buffy (it even airs on Tuesday nights), minus all the supernatural stuff. Veronica’s dad is a private investigator, so most episodes involve one or both of them working on a case, and also trying to crack the big mystery of the season. Season one’s “Who killed Lily Kane?” mystery is built up and foreshadowed well, and the final episode ends up being appropriately scary and satisfying. Also, season two stars Steve Guttenberg as the mayor, joining a very strong cast of supporting and recurring characters and playing his part with perfect, knowingly B-list Steve Guttenberg charm.
Katherine and I ripped through season one as fast as Netflix would deliver the discs to us, and we’re eager to catch up with the season two episodes we missed over the summer.