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Post by Zarnium on Oct 18, 2018 14:38:49 GMT -8
Logan is probably the most fascinating character on the show. I can never decide if I want to strangle him or feel sorry for him.
He's a dirtbag because he has no good role models, and I'm inclined to blame his mother for that. She could have tried to remove him from his father's abuse, but she didn't because... she didn't want to give up her extravagant lifestyle, I guess? She had over 100K in the bank in her own name, that's enough to separate from Aaron and start a middle-class lifestyle like the rest of us plebes, and actually give Logan a good home.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 18, 2018 18:52:49 GMT -8
Eh, I think you're biased when it comes to liking Logan. But yes, he is a fascinating character, my second-favorite after Veronica. (I have my issues with where his character goes later on, but we'll get to that another time.) The pilot episode sets him up as a bit too mean-spirited and vindictive, but the show wisely dialed it back once they saw how good Jason Dohring was at playing both sides of the fence. He also rivals Veronica when it comes to the show's best lines. ("Annoy, tiny blonde one! Annoy like the wind!") Incidentally, the actors playing his parents are married in real life. Which, coupled with Semi-Dark Willow, adds a whole new meta-level of twistiness to his family.
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Post by Zarnium on Oct 19, 2018 7:05:21 GMT -8
Look, I'm just glad that someone with my name gets to date Kristen Bell.
I've never ran across very many fictional Logans, the only ones I can think of are Wolverine and the one from Logan's Run.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 19, 2018 11:10:31 GMT -8
I just realized that Wolverine was first referred to as Logan in a 1976 issue of X-Men - the same year that Logan's Run came out. Also, Veronica Mars premiered right around the same time that Gilmore Girls introduced a regular character named Logan. I believe there is a conspiracy afoot.
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Post by Zarnium on Oct 20, 2018 14:35:14 GMT -8
Man, Veronica should've just stayed with Leo. He's boring, but proved he was reliable and decent. Logan had me thinking he was going to turn a new leaf, but then turned into a terorrist and kept hanging out with the Casablancas rapists.
Also, when I heard that Charisma Carpenter was on the show, I thought she was going to be a student. I was surprised to see her as a student's stepmother.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 20, 2018 16:03:59 GMT -8
"Lovely young stepmother" is the role that actresses are supposed to play when they're too old to pass for high school students and too young to pass for mothers. I think that's in the Hollywood rulebook or something.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Oct 20, 2018 17:03:53 GMT -8
"Lovely young stepmother" is the role that actresses are supposed to play when they're too old to pass for high school students and too young to pass for mothers. I think that's in the Hollywood rulebook or something. So, 26?
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Post by Zarnium on Oct 21, 2018 8:03:00 GMT -8
I forget exactly what episode it was, but the fight between Logan and Weevil where a school faculty member broke them up had me laughing. There's no way that telling these two to cool down and stop punching each other each other is going to solve the issue, these are two of the most powerful and influential people in the town. Logan is a millionaire who can purchase Weevil's house and evict him, and Weevil is a gang leader who can set Logan's house on fire without getting caught. The school has zero control over any of it, but acts like sending any of the students to detention will actually have any sort of affect, as if the school isn't the least powerful institution in the town.
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Post by Zarnium on Oct 28, 2018 19:29:44 GMT -8
Finished season 2. It was.. well, rather more mixed than season 1. Season 1's mystery worked so well because every time there was a false lead, it still meaningfully contributed to the momentum of the plot and was still relevant to overall picture, with everything fitting nicely together at the end. There weren't a lot of outright red herrings. Season 2's mystery started out great, and then just became overly complicated and went through a series of total dead ends before stumbling upon the right answer at the end by accident. The driver's suicidal depression and mystery phone call? Totally irrelevant to the crash. Terrence Woods' possession of explosives? The discovery of the life insurance policy on the Casablancas kids? Kendall's shady past? The graffiti on the bus seat? The Fitzpatricks' implication? All the same, completely irrelevant. The big reveal at the end just didn't have the same punch as season 1's did because of this; I didn't feel like it was really built up at all, and there were so many twists and turns throughout the plot that I had trouble keeping track.
There were also just some really dumb and disappointing plot developments. I thought for awhile that Meg was going to have some important information regarding the crash when she woke up and would continue being important to the story, but instead, she's just involved in a bizarre subplot to write Duncan out of the show, and then dies without anyone questioning her about the crash. (If we point to point out lazy, regressive tropes, this comes pretty close to "mystical pregnancy" and "women in refrigerators" at the same time.) Duncan's around for the first half of the season and doesn't do much, then disappears suddenly, his unmissed absence showing how he didn't really need to be a regular character in this season to begin with. Beaver goes through the whole season without any indication that he has the motive, ability, or personality to be the killer, then it's all sprung at the very end. Aaron Echolls was great as season 1's killer because even though there wasn't anything implicating him until the very end, we knew enough about him to know he was capable of doing it. With Beaver, we didn't know he was on Woody's baseball team until the very end, when Veronica or Keith should've easily uncovered that earlier, his experience with explosives isn't revealed until near the end either, and there's nothing about him to suggest he has much of a sinister streak beyond simply being spineless. The reveal that he actually did rape Veronica was pretty cheap as well, it didn't really serve any purpose but to make him look even more absurdly evil than he already did in the finale, and at the expense of retconning one of Veronica's major plotlines after it had been pretty well finished. I mean, the rap sheet Veronica was listing off for him at the end almost had me chuckling... killed everyone on the bus, raped her, and killed her father? Jesus, what didn't he do?
That said, the season was still pretty good overall. The writing and dialogue was as good as it was in season 1, and most of the characters had good personal arcs. Wallace got his own storylines and felt less dispensible. The commentary on the wealth and social class divide was as good as it ever was. On the whole, a solid season.
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Post by ThirdMan on Oct 29, 2018 4:15:56 GMT -8
Like I said, the reveal scene with Beaver was all kinds of laughable. And there's no question that it's an extremely overplotted season of television. The characters and dialogue remain strong, though, for the most part.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 29, 2018 5:39:32 GMT -8
I actually don't disagree with much of what you write. My only real point of contention is with the revelation that Beaver raped Veronica. As great as "A Trip to the Dentist" was, it provided too easy a solution for its Rashomon plot, one which doesn't have any dramatic weight beyond the idea that Veronica is Duncan's sister (which is itself quickly disproven). Factoring in Beaver's involvement, even a season later, cements that night in Veronica's (and the viewer's) mind forever.
And sure, Beaver's not the most likely villain-type in the same mold as Aaron Echolls was. But honestly, "Not Pictured" is such a masterpiece of tension-building (barring the hand-overplaying Keith fakeout) that I didn't really mind, even on second viewing.
My other complaints with S2 are similar to yours. I'll add that I didn't think Wallace was very well-served by his arc - trying to give him his own story (one which eventually led to him disappearing for several episodes) only emphasized how underwritten he was. Nice that they tried, though.
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Post by Zarnium on Oct 29, 2018 12:59:01 GMT -8
I think part of the point of "A Trip to the Dentist" was that even though no actual rape occurred, everyone who was there was implicit in putting Veronica in a situation where she believed she was raped; thematically, she was violated by the whole town and its sordid culture. Going back to that episode and saying that she actually was raped undercuts that message a bit by giving a single target to zoom in on.
(Incidentally, it kind of bugs me that there are viewers who believe Duncan raped Veronica and should have been judged as such; one, she was pretty lucid at the time and so did not appear to be drugged, and two, Duncan was also drugged without his knowledge. If anything, it's Logan and Dick who end up getting off way too easy, as well as Beaver if we're judging him by his original story, as everyone did for around two years.)
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 29, 2018 15:00:03 GMT -8
Are there viewers who believe Duncan was at fault? I mean, obviously there are because it's the Internet, but I don't think there's really a case against him.
Part of me wonders if the writers got panicky after the "Trip to the Dentist" reveal, and wanted to prove that Veronica and Duncan were on good terms. And so they ended up overcompensating by having them hastily get back together, without remembering to set up a dramatic backbone for the reconciliation.
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Post by Zarnium on Oct 29, 2018 15:27:04 GMT -8
I don't think there are a lot, but I was reading about the episode on Wikipedia and it referenced an article that made that case. Maybe it's just that one person, but I still thought it was pretty absurd.
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Post by Zarnium on Nov 14, 2018 7:58:36 GMT -8
So, going into season 3... what exactly happened between Alicia and Keith? They had a fight over Wallace's biological father, and then Alicia hasn't appeared since and nothing more has been said about how their relationship ended.
For that matter, I'm tiring of Veronica and Logan's relationship as well. They're so clearly incompatible at this point, I can't believe they haven't gotten over each other.
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