Bye-bye, Veronica Mars. I have no VM icons left which seems rather appropriate...

[dangermousie]

So, Veronica Mars is cancelled.

You know what's really sad? How much I don't care. When I thought there wa s apossibility it wasn't going to get renewed after S2, I was all upset (even though I liked S1 much much better), but the sad thing here? I am like 'oh, whatever, when's BSG on?' I am not even 'yay, bad show, get what you deserve' type glee which is acutally the opposite side of the coin of fandom love: you still care, even if negatively. I honestly don't care at all (if I heard it got renewed miraculously, I'd be 'oh, ok' which is same as my cancellation reaction) and that's a bit sad. But then, I haven't even watched most of this season, having given up midway through.

Actually (and this is an unpopular fandom opinion), I really don't think it's CW's fault or Rob Thomas' fault or Kristin Bell's fault or whatever. Veronica Mars was a one season show that unfortunately ran for three. It had one, single, story to tell. Once it finished it at the end of S1, it was done. (Significantly, the parts in S2 that worked the best were ones that tied back to S1 stuff, and S3 which jettisoned original story completely was barely watchable). It was never meant to be a regular show, with a story that could run for years. Here is where American TV format is so screwy. Veronica was meant to be a drama (22 episodes, perfect drama length anyway! :P) like the ones they do on Asian TV channels, or maybe a much shorter version of a Latin American telenovela. Beginning, middle, and an end. It could never find itself in a normal show format.

So, thanks for all the good times, show. You won't be missed (by me) and that is sad.

Comments

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

I agree... Veronica Mars was a one season show. It had tighter arcs and plots -- it was a novel in a way. Unfortunately as the show extended in the third season, it lost all the elements I found appealing, the noir atmosphere and the way cases used to be personal to Veronica. Also, it used to be an ensemble show despite its focus on Veronica.

According to some sites I read they are planning to retool Veronica (if they do get another season) into Veronica Mars, FBI agent.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

OMG, I cannot see VM as an FBI agent. She is about the worst fit for this job ever, not to mention with HER background check? Yeah...

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

You bring up an interesting point with the asian drama lengths... US tv should try the format more often! Lost should have been one season, I think. The problem is that in America, it's all about the cash cow and keeping something popular around for as long as possible so that networks can rake in the money. It's not about the quality of the show, in my pessimistic mind. :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's just a problem because showmakers usually run out of ideas before the show gets cancelled or it gets cancelled too soon, so you either have shows that had potential but had no time to fully develop or the ones that got goodwill and then threw it down the drain.

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

Exactly. A show's worth is dictated by its ratings and viewership, not by its objective creativity and potential. :P

[aoimidori.livejournal.com]

You know what's really sad? How much I don't care.
Same here. I would've stuck with it for sure, if it had gotten another season, but now that it hasn't, my lack of sadness or frustration about it is what depresses me -- not the cancellation itself. Huh.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's like all the rabidness I had for it (meta, fic, reading everything on it I could find) has just been replaced by a vast sea of indifference...

[jebbypal]

is there any other cw pickup/cancellation news? *bites fingers about SPN*

Honestly, I'm different from most of the fandom in that I actually liked s2 better than s1 for the most part. but season 3 has been incredibly uneven and not even that good with character continuity.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Nope, that's it. This actually makes things better for SPN as they are not likely to cancel everything so the more other things they cancel, the more likely SPN is safe.

I enjoyed parts of S2 a lot though not nearly as much as S1, but S3 has just been a waste...

[raisintorte.livejournal.com]

(it might not actually be canceled)

I agree with you, I still love it as a show, but it is not the show it started out as. The first season was amazing, and the other two just haven't compared.

I'm actually more excited about the possibility of the 4 year flash forward. Take the neat Veronica character and make it a new show. Use her history, etc.

[jammer77.livejournal.com]

I totally agree! Now that could be interesting. The Hearst stuff just isn't working.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the flashforward. It could work hypothetically, but I can't see her at the FBI at all...

[fivil.livejournal.com]

It sucks to lose interest on a former fandom like that. Do you own/think you'll ever go back to S1, look back on the good show it was back then? I've cooled off on some fandoms so much I'm a bit worried I'll even ever go back and revisit what I once enjoyed so much about it.

The drama format indeed would be great for some shows. In Western TV we have "mini-series" but that's too short and a multiple seasons is too much for many stories. And they drag out so many shows... I'm worried for my current American TV faves, Bones and Heroes. Heroes is going to try a "comic book approach" so that each season has a different set of problems for the characters to tackle, mysteries to be discovered etc. Bones OTOH has an UST pairing whose getting together could make or break the show. So yeah, I worry a lot.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I really wish it would be a mix and match. I don't care for sitcoms but a lot of people do and they could run ad nauseam. But a lot of shows would benefit from a pre-determined relatively short run time.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The tail end there, I think, explains why a lot of us are drawn to doramas and anime...because they end, and usually, they're PLANNED to end at about that time. Ditto for manga, where usually, once the mangaka is finished with their story, the series ends(then there are ones where they just have the idea and run with it as long as they can, but as long as they don't have a core story that they lose in the process, I'm usually OK with that)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Agreed with every word. This is a huge part of the reason why I love dramas/anime/manga. It usually doesn't get dragged out just for the sake of it (even within that, I prefer relatively short ones that have a relatively tight plot). Otherwise you get this mess.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Like...Angel I could have seen continueing rather indefinately, but Buffy, IMO, should have ended after season 3 or 5(heck, both had perfect series enders...so did 2, really) The thing is, when you're telling a personal story(as anime, manga and doramas tend to do) it needs to END at some point. Buffy and VM are both personal stories, while Angel is more an idea series. Mangas, animes and doramas do sometimes extend their originally intended life, but usually they don't get driven into the ground. A good example is Samurai Deeper Kyo, which seemed to be getting ready to wrap up around its second larger storyarc then ended up being longer...there, it read like "YES!!! Now I get to do all those other things I wanted to do but didn't think I'd get to!" A bad example is InuYasha(which I do still like and get for the characters) where it will clearly NEVER end until Takahashi has to end it. Then there's animes, where they add stories because the series is popular. A good example is Saiyuki, one of the rare occassions where I think the anime is actually BETTER than the manga it's based on(only other one off the top of my head is Peacemaker) and the flipside is Rurouni Kenshin, where the original stories were largely good, but nowhere near as good as the source material(with a few exceptions) and by completely diverging from the manga plotline they got cancelled(or whatever) before they could tell the final and most important story, the one that gives EVERYTHING context and closure(and I don't count the OVAs, though I'm very fond of them, because they only tell part of the story and are lacking the crucial Kenshin elements of hope and desire for peace that, to me, are what define Kenshin himself and tell us why Kaoru and her life are so important to him because they don't convey that,even before he met her, SHE was what he was looking for all those years, and the idea that he would keep on wandering off and coming back is absurd because the whole point is that she gives him peace and a home, and that's all he's really wanted. And...yeah...ramble there...the OVAs really are very good, it's just a different take on it)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Kenshin OVAs make me see red. Hate them because I think they get the main concept wrong (for the reasons you enumerated). I've seen the anime eps of the first and second arc but not the stuff post-Kyoto arc. Pity they got cancelled before they did the final and (IMO) best act, but I suppose they had to do something to kill time as the manga wasn't done yet.

Definitely agreed on Buffy. I thought S3 (or 5) would have been perfect. Oh well.

And yay, another Peacemaker fan!

Btw, I just posted on Damo :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I saw the Kenshin OVAs long before I saw the anime and while(for me) the manga was still mid-Kyoto arc in US releases, so I have a far less vehement opinion on them than other fans. The first set got the story right, but didn't convey that the life he was living wasn't what he wanted and that he was killing because he wanted there to be less deaths. Reflections completely missed the point of Kaoru because the entire point of the series was that what gave him peace and happiness was living at the dojo, keeping Kaoru and Yahiko from killing each other and wondering what trouble Sano would get into next. He wasn't going to keep wandering off looking for something because he FOUND what he was looking for. I do give Reflections some slack, though, for Sano and grown up Yahiko *doesn't have a thing for any and all versions of adult Yahiko or want a Yahiko sequel to RK or anything*

Oddly, most who are manga/anime fans hate the OVAs, and most who saw the OVAs first hate the anime and manga...both see the other as missing the whole point and ruining the story, BECAUSE the messages are so different. On their own(as I try to view them) the OVAs are actually really good...they just miss the point of the source material.

Most of the post-Kyoto stuff(with the exception of a horrible out of character Kaoru in one ep) is still good, just not as good. Sadly, they obviously MEANT to do the last arc, because one of the end credits shows Tomoe.

Peacemaker got seriously screwed in the manga release dept...they put out the SECOND Peacemaker manga at the same time they put out the anime, but not the first manga, so it made no sense at all(and was the main reason I didn't check out the anime for a long time) I think Tokyopop has licernsed the first series, though. If so, I'll likely give it another chance.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The thing that boggles me about people who prefer the second OVAs to everything else is that like it or not, the manga is the source material. It is the point. So no way can it miss the point of the story as it's the one making it in the first place.

Leaving everything else aside, OVAs piled it on so much in the woe-is-me department that it ceased being sad and became sort of funny. I kept expecting for Kenshin to get a dog so someone would kill it :P

Yahiko is very much not my fictional type (Aoshi, now, is another matter :D) but a Yahiko sequel is not a bad thing :)

Yeah, I tried reading the PMK manga and it made no sense until I figured the confusion out...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The thing is, a lot of people don't realize the manga and anime came first...I think part of it is marketting implying such w/ the OVA release. But yeah, it is silly, but it's true.

And hey, when they pile on too much woe is me and angst for YOU, you know it has to be bad.

I think grown up Yahiko is closer to your fictional type than kid Yahiko...he's very different, but not in a "are you sure this is the same guy?" way, in a "you grew up" way.

Yeah, they really screwed PMK over when it came out, but I'll give it another chance.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, put that way Yahiko sounds interesting.

Re: PMK. It made NO sense! Leaving aside the anime issue, the manga started in the middle of the story!

And hey, when they pile on too much woe is me and angst for YOU, you know it has to be bad.

LOL. But I was seriously rolling my eyes :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Grown up Yahiko is is a less prickly more responsibility oriented Sano with Kenshin's sensibilities and methods and Saito's unphasable demeanor(the last I attribute to a defense mechanism resulting from being raised by Kaoru) And he's doing the EXACT same thing with the girl at the Akebeko that Kenshin did with Kaoru for most of the series.

Did you read the manga that came out over here, or scanslations? Because the one that came out over here was the SECOND manga, and there were more events in the first manga that take place AFTER the anime ends. It's a huge mess...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I tried reading the second manga, yes.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

ADV has the most messedup manga program ever. It's barely even an afterthought to them(worst company ever about hiatuses and dropped books)

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

ohhh they canceled veronica mars, well i have to agree it was kinda over after season 1 and i have to say yeah theres a lot of shows that if we had the asian drama formats would fit into it... also do you watch smallville because thats a show i said goodbye to due to their crappy storyline, the only ones that was worth watching had the justice league..

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I liked some Smallville (Lex!!!) but yeah, that show should have stopped running a long time ago....

[bennet-7.livejournal.com]

I have been hoping that they would cancel Veronica Mars. It's just sad to see the show in this state after a perfect first season. I really hope they don't bring the show back with that ridiculous FBI agent plot (Veronica working for the FBI? HELL FREAKING NO! She would be the worst person for that job) - let it limp off with what remains of its dignity.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I cannot possibly see V as an FBI agent. Are you kidding me? She is incapable of working with others and of any self-discipline required. UGH. Die, show!