Yes, I
like Veronica and Logan – so sue me.
Their relationship, whatever the permutation, is never what you’d call
functional, and it sometimes unfortunately magnifies Veronica’s control-freak
tendencies and Logan’s emo-ness, especially in season 3. However, when they’re on, they’re really on and bring a lot to the show. (Some spoilers for the evolution of Veronica
and Logan’s relationship.)
Since
Veronica-Logan changes a lot, we’ll start at the outset of the series, which
finds them nemeses. She’s the hard-edged
adolescent P.I. with a chip on her shoulder, a tazer in her backpack, and an extremely
good reason to hate the rich “09ers” who rule the school. He’s the reckless, inventively jerkish son of
a movie star with a seemingly charmed life.
He goes out of his way to rile or humiliate her, and when she gets her
own back, his retribution is swift and unpredictable. No wonder he’s so often the chief suspect in
her cases; even if he didn’t usually act shifty and amoral, everything about
him begs for a righteous onslaught of karmic justice.
Although
Veronica tells us this state of affairs wasn’t always the norm, it’s startling
to them as friends in the flashbacks.
Not besties, granted – each dated the other’s best friend and were more
connected by association than anything else.
Still, they hung out together and enjoyed one another’s company well
enough, and both were deeply shaken by the tragedy that forms the central focus
of the first season. Because of this,
the shots they fire at one another have real sting, and their mutual vendetta
takes on a different tone when we see how entwined their lives once were.
This
shared history gives us another phase of the Veronica-Logan relationship: shaky allies.
Whether Logan is just trying to exonerate himself or hiring Veronica to
investigate something of his, he occasionally teams up with Veronica, and a
delightfully-snarky, frenemy sleuthing duo is formed. She’s all caginess and competence, while he’s
a quippy enforcer with poor impulse control.
They’re vastly entertaining together and form a surprisingly effective
team, and I think they see one another best as people in this iteration, which
makes it my favorite of them all.
But of
course, this being television, they were never going to be just nemeses or former friends or reluctant allies. Naturally, things turn romantic, and once
they do, that wave rises and falls throughout the remainder of the series; no
matter what dynamic they return to in various interims, the fact that they’ve
been together is a constant presence. I’m
of two minds about this side of it all.
On one hand, I like that they challenge one another and that having a
boyfriend doesn’t stop Veronica from being who she is. I like the way it’s hard for her to believe
in it and the way he falls so hard and fast.
I like how they make each other crazy, and it’s next to impossible to
deny Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring’s ridiculously great chemistry.
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