Watching...Veronica Mars

I've mentioned before how I like good storytelling in multiple forms, not just books. So movies, television shows, and live performances all have a place at the table. The past month or two, I started watching Veronica Mars. (Finally! Sometimes I feel like the last person in the world to have watched it). In brief: loved it. Hubby even loved it too! And here are five reasons why:

1. Veronica. Sassy, smart, a little neurotic, and a lot single-minded. Loyal to her friends, hell to her enemies. Kristen Bell nails it.

2. Veronica and Keith. The closeness of this father-daughter relationship reminds me in some ways of the Lorelai/Rory dynamic. It was a little more parent-sibling than the best friend dynamic of the Gilmores, but the closesness is there. You could tell that for each of them, the relationship with each other was the most important relationship in their lives.

3. Cast of supporting characters -- good guys and bad guys. I hate to even call them supporting characters, because without Wallace, Mac, Duncan, Logan, Piz, Leo, Weevil, Sheriff Lamb, and even Vinnie, the show would fallen flat.

4. Good mysteries. So, some of the mysteries are definitely a bit more dramatic than the average person's everyday life (murder, etc.) and necessary for a good, dramatic story, but I also appreciated  the more typical teenage detective stories: missing dogs, bullying, vandalism, rapists. It's the kind of stuff you expect a high schooler/college student and her peers to deal with.

5. More than one note.  Veronica Mars is certainly a drama, but it didn't settle for being a straight-forward, serious procedural detective show. It is also hilarious, creepy, heartwarming, and sad. Kinda like life.

Bonus love: not only is there three seasons (cancelled before its time! Curse you CW)  and a crowd-funded movie, but there's also a novel and another in publication! It's on my nightstand,