Why So Blu?

Brandon’s Blu-ray Wishlist – March 13, 2014

This week’s is our first pick that isn’t of the film medium, but comes from that of television.  And if you pay attention to anything at all in the goings on of film and TV, this pick is going to be super duper obvious.

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Veronica Mars – Entire Series (2004-2007)

This weekend brings another small screen legend to a much larger screen.  Veronica Mars and her loyal fanbase have made a dream (or wish) a reality by using Kickstarter to get the film version of the series made.  It made a crazy amount of money in such a short amount of time.  The fans were super determined.  And this weekend, they get to see what it is they funded.  And as a thoughtful way of doing things, fans have a option to see it on the big screen or the ability to watch it from the comfort of their own living room via Video On Demand.  For some reason, the VOD option fits right with just how one would remember watching the series during its run.

Veronica Mars began as a show on the UPN network, populating their airwaves for its first two seasons.  Then that big thing happened where the WB Network and UPN joined forces to create what we now know as the CW.  Veronica Mars was one of the few shows lucky enough to make the jump.  But, it was never truly out of the woods, as it was very much a bubble show and the one that the network always seemed to have its sights on getting rid of.  As a result, what ended up being its final season wound up being a soft reboot that tried to bring in as many newcomers as it could.  And the ratings did pretty solid (for CW, and ratings they’d kill for right now), but during this time the CW seemed to have its standards set a little bit too high for what was more realistic expectation.

There was even a behind the scenes effort to once again reboot the series as a sort of “Veronica Mars: FBI” in a last ditch effort to sway the network (that pilot notably starred Walton Goggins who we all know very well as “Boyd Crowder” on Justified).  Taking a page from the Jericho playbook, Mars fans decided to try and flood the CW offices with Mars candy bars upon its cancellation.  But to no avail, the show was indeed canceled.  There were always murmurs from Rob Thomas or Kristen Bell about a movie, but it always just seemed like false hope or small talk.  I think Veronica Mars’ revenge best could be served by the fact that no show that “replaced” it ever did the numbers in ratings that Veronica did when she was canceled.  Reaper, Gossip Girl, 90210, etc all have fared far worse, but were kept alive much longer (not in the case of Reaper, damn you CW!).  For those shows, CW decided to keep them around due to DVD sales rather than ratings.  Veronica Mars was never given that dynamic.

The show itself was pretty terrific and likely a top 10 all time show for me, even in such a short run.  In its first season, it provided an incredibly great mystery arc with so many fun characters, red herrings and potential suspects.  It wasn’t ever afraid to hold back on big topics either.  The second season was still quite good and managed to tread the water of greatness set by season 1.  As I mentioned, the final season was sort of a reboot, and its quality dipped a little bit as it tried to pander to some new stuff and had 3 separate mysteries instead of a season long one.  It also seemed too interested in Veronica’s love life, or it least became more of a distraction than in the previous 2 seasons, than her professional one (which I was always far more interested in).  But the best thing about all three seasons is it gave us what might be the best parent-child/father-daughter relationships ever witnessed on television.  Kristen Bell and Enrico Colantoni had a crazy good chemistry and shared quips like no one else.  It’s the backbone and strength of the show and I’m glad they never went away from it.  The show also had some great careers it pulled form obscurity that turned in grand performances like Harry Hamlin, Lisa Rinna, Steve Guttenberg and Richard Grieco.

Kristen Bell has the title role and she’s absolutely spectacular.  The best comparison would be that she’s a next-gen Sarah Michelle Gellar, but she’s very much her own and in many ways better.  That’s not to degrade Gellar, its just that Veronica Mars is carried on her shoulders far more than Buffy ever was for Gellar.  Bell is razor sharp with the witty dialogue and is incredibly goofy and charming.  She’s also able to run that gamut with emotions quite believably.  And with all the complexities with her and her life, you never feel that sort of “woah is me” pandering.  Veronica holds strong and carries a strong set of shoulders with her from problem to problem, case to case.

I’m not as big a collector of television shows on Blu-ray as I was with DVD.  Part of it is the classic shows I do go back and watch that I would collect are not available (Buffy, Seinfeld, Quantum Leap, etc).  Veronica Mars IS indeed one of those shows.  And its not like we’d be pining for 6-10 seasons of a show to be released.  Just a mere three seasons.  It would also be nice, as the transfers on the DVDs are pretty subpar and much much much less than they were of their HD broadcast counterparts.  Neptune needs to have more color saturation and boldness.  The video just kinda screams that it was sort of slapped on there and not properly restored or preserved.  Also, who doesn’t want to hear the Dandy Warhols’ “We Used To Be Friends” pumping out of your surround sound in all its uncompressed audio glory!  Bring Veronica Mars, the entire series, to Blu-ray please!  And do it right now while the iron is hot and relevant!

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