Seraph Watches: ‘Veronica Mars’

“You’re a marshmallow, Veronica Mars; a twinkie.”

(Trigger Warning: Veronica Mars has themes of sexual assault , murder, and abuse)

RATING: 4/5 STARS

Set in the fictional oceanside town of Neptune, Veronica Mars is a neo-noir which takes place in the years of 2005 to 2019. Initially spanning from 2005 to approximately 2009, Veronica Mars spawned a follow-up movie taking place in 2010, with the characters as adults, and eventually a fourth scene which took place in 2018. The series follows the life of its titular protagonist, Veronica Mars—portrayed by Kristen Bell. A spunky, defiant teenage girl with a heart of gold, and an apt for detective work, Veronica is considered an outcast amongst her wealthy, mostly white, bigoted classmates.

Veronica’s reputation, which is influenced by her father’s—the former sheriff— choices, the company she keeps and her inclination for meddling, is not a favorable one. Nearly each episode of Veronica Mars follows Veronica—and typically her loved ones, and formidable foes— as she solves a new crime while inching nearer and nearer to the season’s big mystery. I’ll spare you the major spoilers, but Veronica Mars is honestly a very heavy show, considering that the majority of the show’s characters are teenagers, and the show’s target audience were teenagers as well. Themes of racism, classism, homophobia, murder, and sexual assault are recurring themes.

While the show is far from perfect, and ultimately had its share of unfavorable moments—season four is ultimately ignored by much of the show’s fan base— Veronica Mars did what some shows made for teenage audiences were afraid to do; it dared to make some of its characters forgivable by abandoning the concept of ‘black or white morality’. I mean that in the sense that Veronica’s classmates—many of whom were hated at one point or another— were given the opportunity to grow and develop depth that many characters are often denied in other media. As the audience, we watched characters such as Weevil—the resident gang leader and ‘troublemaker’— prove themselves to be complex people, who, while capable of harm, were also capable of changing, and repairing damaged relationships (This isn’t to say he should have had to prove himself; it’s simply to say that the writers seemingly had a better understanding of the complex nature of ‘morality’, and justice).

Veronica, described as “a marshmallow” and “a twinkie” by her closest friend, Wallace, gave everyone she met a chance, even when she had every reason not to. This isn’t to say that Veronica is a perfect person; she absolutely isn’t, but that’s what I love about her as a character. She saved the people around her in whatever way she could, and usually didn’t expect anything in return.

I personally consider Veronica Mars to be one of the best heroines of the mid-2000s. Veronica Mars had its issues pertaining to race and the topic of sexual assault—particularly in the third season, which is also largely disliked by the show’s fan base— but the development of the characters offset a world so utterly dangerous and occasionally macabre, that the show has wormed its way into my heart even when I was watching as a child, and didn’t understand much of what was happening. I could write about this show for hours and hours, but I’ll let the show speak for itself. Maybe at the end of the day, I’m a bit like Veronica; a “marshmallow” with a heart of gold.