Relationship Spotlight: Logan Echolls & Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)

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.

Yet, when they’re together, their relationship plots tend to eclipse the other excellent threads of the series.  It’s interesting how sweet Logan is when he’s in love, but the pendulum swings too far and he feels defanged.  Veronica’s stubbornness, lone-wolf mindset, and distrustfulness overwhelm her and generally position her as the greatest obstacle to her happiness.  So, while I like Veronica and Logan as a couple, I don’t think it’s their most successful state of being, and I don’t like the way other versions of their relationships are swept aside in favor of it.

Relationship Spotlight: Veronica Mars & Wallace Fennel (Veronica Mars)

 

On Veronica Mars, everyone’s favorite adolescent P.I. has a ton of great, fascinating relationships.  There’s the close you-and-me-against-the-world dynamic she has with her dad Keith, the mutual pull of noir-ish attraction with volatile wildcard Logan, the Bond-and-Q friendship/partnership with techie Mac, and the frenemies tit-for-tat with gang leader Weevil.  In the midst of all that, her relationship with her best friend Wallace might feel a little pedestrian, but he anchors her chaotic, dangerous life in a way that she really needs.

 

The beginning of this beautiful friendship, in traditional Veronica Mars fashion, is rooted in intrigue.  Wallace begins his life at Neptune High duct-taped naked to the flag pole – a vindictive gift from the local biker gang – and Veronica is the one to cut him down while their fellow students gawk and snicker.  This is enough for the friendly, upbeat Wallace to breech Veronica’s usual defenses.  He ignores the unflattering rumors about Veronica that run rampant around the school and is persistent despite her attempts to rebuff him.  Slowly, the caustic, guarded Veronica gains a friend.

 

Of course, Veronica spends most of her time up to her elbows in crime and mystery, and her end of the friendship can be a bit mercenary.  She’s eager to reap the benefits of Wallace’s office aid position, enlisting him to pull student files as needed, and he soon becomes her go-to assistant for assorted schemes and traps.  Whether she needs a lookout, a drop-off man, a decoy, or someone to get her out of a jam, she can convince Wallace that he fits the bill.  “I need a favor,” trips off her lips often enough that Wallace can recite it with her in stereo, and though this sometimes causes friction between them, Wallace is generally willing to help with no more than a little good-natured grumbling.

 

But, like I said, friction:  virtually all serious arguments these two have stem from a sense that Wallace does all the giving and Veronica does all the taking in the relationship.  When she asks too much of him, when she’s embroiled in vendettas and he becomes collateral damage, or when he needs help and she doesn’t step up, Wallace stands up for himself and demands not to be taken for granted.  To her credit, Veronica is usually quick to make amends.  She has a habit of getting wrapped up in her own drama, and while it’s true that most of Wallace’s problems are less extreme and far-reaching than hers, that doesn’t mean they’re not important to him, and she sometimes needs to be reminded of that.

 

And when you come down to it, Veronica cares deeply about Wallace.  She shares secrets with him, tries to console him when he’s upset, and makes an effort with the things he cares about – she couldn’t care less about school spirit, for example, but she goes to basketball games so she can cheer Wallace on.  When these two are separated by circumstances or disagreements, you can really feel it.  When Veronica falls out with other characters, she tends to stay stubborn, or at least forced-indifferent, longer, whereas with Wallace, she immediately knows that she’s off-kilter without him and wants to make it right.  He’s such a presence of good in her life – of help, of encouragement, and even just of fun – that she knows how much she needs him.

Veronica Mars (2014, PG-13)

 

Though I was sure to see this movie as soon as it came out, I never got around to reviewing it.  Obviously, this is a shameful misstep that needs to be remedied; please accept this humble post in restitution.

 

Quick rundown for those who aren’t fans:  Veronica Mars was originally a show on the WB/CW about a teenage girl who worked as a private eye, and believe me – it’s so much more awesome than it sounds.  Get any Nancy Drew images out of your head right now, because Veronica is a tough, shrewd heroine who’s not afraid to bend the law and has a jaded wisecrack for every occasion.  Her series is essentially a film noir set in a SoCal high school, and it ran for three seasons starting in 2004.  Its fans are few but devoted, and the show’s cancelation was deeply felt.

 

But another day, another post.  Today’s review is of Veronica Mars the movie, the first TV-show-turned-feature-film ever funded by fans through a Kickstarter campaign (I told you they’re devoted.)  The film sees our heroine returning to her hometown – the corrupt, class-obsessed Neptune, California – during her 10-year high school reunion.  Not to attend it, mind, but to do a favor for an old flame.  Logan Echolls is rich and charismatic, but trouble sticks to him like fly-paper, and he’s just been accused of murdering his girlfriend.  Veronica has put her P.I. days behind her, but she’s recently passed the bar and agrees to give Logan a legal consultation.

 

Naturally, the siren song of investigation starts crooning the second Veronica gets home.  The circumstances of the girlfriend’s death are fishy, and it isn’t long before Veronica is flirting with her old life (and Logan) again.  It’s clear that she’s a little rusty after her time away – her usual knack for improvising her way out of sticky confrontations doesn’t serve her as well as it used to, and a grown woman can’t project above-suspicion the way a teenage girl can – but it’s equally evident that sleuthing is in her blood.  She’s drawn to Neptune with its secrets and seediness, and my fannish heart jumps with glee to see Veronica back in the game.

 

The actual mystery is a bit thin, but I can’t really complain.  Everyone takes to their old roles as if they never left.  Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring are particularly great as Veronica and Logan – the two have grown and changed in the intervening years, but in entirely believable ways, and the new dynamic is terrific.  The major players are all here, and the film is packed with cameos from recurring characters.  The dialogue is as smart and sly as always, there are plenty of genuine surprises, and despite a shoestring budget, the film never looks or feels cheap.

 

I haven’t heard whether there’s definitely going to be a second film, or another method of continuing the story, but the movie strikes a good balance with the ending.  It leaves a natural opening for more Mars, but if it’s not to be, there’s enough closure that the fans won’t need to gnash their teeth too much.  I sure hope we get some more – Veronica Mars was one of those magic shows, and seeing these characters onscreen again just feels right.

 

Warnings

 

Sexual content, some profanity, scenes of violence, and drug references.