I love Veronica Mars
Jan. 13th, 2006 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verushka70Ok, before I freaked out about upcoming nursing classes, I did enjoy my new (used) copy of Veronica Mars Season 1 which I bought at Disc Xchange for $30, not a scratch, barely used. I proceeded to, 'til this past Wednesday, watch VM S1 nonstop (except for sleeping) until I'd finished the entire season -- then watched more favorite eps and parts again! (Then I went on Limewire at my friend's house (where he has DSL) and tried to download all the Season 2 eps -- all of which I have *seen*, but I feel the need to see again and again, holiday hiatus reruns and bad VHS recordings off our local UHF UPN station not being good enough dammit!)
Having now seen Season 1, I say: "Guh, what a fantastic SoCal noir show, which somehow manages to capture the get-tough-or-get-trampled dog-eat-dog social world of high school in a poignant and cynical way, yet without making the characters whiny or annoying!" To which I can only add: "Guh. Logan and Weevil... are so meant to be slashed...!"
(SPOILERS!!)
Now, no question, Logan's an asshole for much of Season 1. And Duncan's inexplicable treatment and brush-off of Veronica is explained. But the Weevil-and-Logan-in-detention-together scenes... holy shit. It was meant for slashing!
Come on... [Episode 1.07 The Girl Next Door]
Weevil: "You like playin' wit' yourself?"
Logan: "Huh?"
Weevil: "Unless you'd like to make it more interesting."
Logan: "What did you have in mind?"
(with a little tiny quirk of a smile at the corner of his lip, which you could only notice if you'd watched that part multiple times, zoomed it 2x and 4x, and spent entirely too much time with the DVD in slomo-forward. Oh! The slashiness.
Then there's also:
[Episode 1.10 An Echolls Family Christmas]
[Weevil steps on Logan's books while Logan kneels at his locker]
Logan: "If you're asking me to the prom again, the answer is still no."
I've heard people complain (or agree with the complaint) before (on a DS list... strangely, these people were Starsky and Hutch fans as well) that when writers intentionally put slashy dialogue or action into shows, it "ruins" the slash for them. This was the argument made that the DS "buddy breathing" between Kowalski and Fraser "wasn't slashy."
Huh?! I mean, wasn't the "dip" between the two of them in the opening montage of Starsky and Hutch way intentional? Hello! I don't care if it was intentional or not, if the actors have chemistry and if I find them attractive, I'm into the slashy aspects even if the character is kind of a jerk (which Logan certainly is). So I'm all good with the canonical, intentional homoerotics of Veronica Mars!
Eventually it is sort of explained why Logan is an asshole. (In the words of Ally Sheedy's character in The Breakfast Club, his home life with Father Echolls is "unsatisfying" -- to say the least...) And, yes, he certainly is an asshole, much of Season 1.
But I could totally buy the Veronica/Logan thing that happened later because, as inexplicable as it was, and as freaked as she was that she was doing it, Logan's got a boy-man thing going on, a vulnerability that's so obvious under his cocky surface, and I don't care if the character is exactly half my age, I could happily fantasize teaching the boy a thing or two!
And don't get me started on the Weevil thing. Oh, Weevil! The sexy bad boy, a leader (okay, of a gang, but still, a leader), but with some ethics, and certainly with the whole sleepy bedroom eyes and tattoos -- not to mention that he's much smarter than he pretends -- what more could you want?
Besides, the show is so witty. I started watching it before it got the Joss Whedon stamp of approval, and it was the witty dialogue that kept me tuned. Just one example:
Vice Principal Clemmons [approaches Logan at his locker]: "Mr. Echolls, may I have a word?"
Logan [kneeling, pauses, thinks, then smiles]: " 'Anthropomorphic.' [waves his hand] All yours, big guy!"
I also really like how VM shows the have/have-not dichotomy in the fictional town of Neptune, California, and isn't afraid to address the racial tension between the rich white kids and the Mexican kids. Two major characters' losses of their mothers factor in as well -- I mean, BTVS extensively covered that theme after Joyce died, but not in the same corrupt-SoCal-noir-ish way that VM is handling the whole "are they dead?/aren't they dead?" way. This is so not a one-dimensional teen show.
I mean, a show that opens with the voiceover dialogue of a 17 year old girl going, "I'm never getting married..." as she stakes out a motel where a cheating husband is meeting his mistress, and where Veronica is poised to take photos for one of her father's PI cases -- how can you not love the cheerful cynicism? Veronica's the petite, blonde female version of Humphrey Bogart's Marlowe in The Big Sleep -- similarly wisecracking, cynical beyond her years, yet willing to take a chance on the unlikeliest of runners. (Logan would be her Vivian, the Lauren Bacall character in The Big Sleep).
Which leads me to another point. I just can't get into Duncan. No offense to any VM fans who love Duncan, but... he's too good, too squeaky clean, too... relatively unconflicted and pretty uncomplicated, once you get past the revelations about his personal problems and his biological relationship to Veronica (which, later, it turns out doesn't exist). Having the fetish for angst that I do, Duncan's not angsty enough for me (except in a handful of episodes). And, since I can't get into the unconflicted and uncomplicated Duncan, I just can't see him slashed. With anyone. Sure, there's canonical slashiness with Logan -- just as there is canonical slashiness between Logan and Weevil. But Duncan's too... scrutable.
Logan and Weevil are shiftier, and both have angst enough for two. For me, anyway. Yowza.
I've searched a bit for Logan/Weevil slash -- and, happily, found some. Unfortunately, haven't had time to read any of it, a very major yet ordinary bummer, as Iggy Pop would say.
But what I really can't understand is...
Dick Casablancas slash. (Or Beaver, for that matter). I mean, imo -- ick. Logan may be an asshole a lot of the time (canonically, no less!) -- and Weevil too -- but both characters have shown themselves to have redeeming qualities (as well as slashy chemistry).
The same cannot be said of Dick or Beaver. Maybe Beaver, a little... but he's too boy-boy for me to get into. Logan: boyman. Weevil: manboy. Dick? boy in every pejorative sense of the word. It doesn't matter how pretty he is; it's his character, which is... just icky. Dick is a good example, imho, of that classic quote on the banality of evil.
Logan and Weevil may act like jerks sometimes, but they are complicated jerks, with boyish vulnerabilities and mannish protectiveness of their women. Dick is just... well, a dick. IMO.
That's my 247 cents, and I'm stickin' to it.
Having now seen Season 1, I say: "Guh, what a fantastic SoCal noir show, which somehow manages to capture the get-tough-or-get-trampled dog-eat-dog social world of high school in a poignant and cynical way, yet without making the characters whiny or annoying!" To which I can only add: "Guh. Logan and Weevil... are so meant to be slashed...!"
(SPOILERS!!)
Now, no question, Logan's an asshole for much of Season 1. And Duncan's inexplicable treatment and brush-off of Veronica is explained. But the Weevil-and-Logan-in-detention-together scenes... holy shit. It was meant for slashing!
Come on... [Episode 1.07 The Girl Next Door]
Weevil: "You like playin' wit' yourself?"
Logan: "Huh?"
Weevil: "Unless you'd like to make it more interesting."
Logan: "What did you have in mind?"
(with a little tiny quirk of a smile at the corner of his lip, which you could only notice if you'd watched that part multiple times, zoomed it 2x and 4x, and spent entirely too much time with the DVD in slomo-forward. Oh! The slashiness.
Then there's also:
[Episode 1.10 An Echolls Family Christmas]
[Weevil steps on Logan's books while Logan kneels at his locker]
Logan: "If you're asking me to the prom again, the answer is still no."
I've heard people complain (or agree with the complaint) before (on a DS list... strangely, these people were Starsky and Hutch fans as well) that when writers intentionally put slashy dialogue or action into shows, it "ruins" the slash for them. This was the argument made that the DS "buddy breathing" between Kowalski and Fraser "wasn't slashy."
Huh?! I mean, wasn't the "dip" between the two of them in the opening montage of Starsky and Hutch way intentional? Hello! I don't care if it was intentional or not, if the actors have chemistry and if I find them attractive, I'm into the slashy aspects even if the character is kind of a jerk (which Logan certainly is). So I'm all good with the canonical, intentional homoerotics of Veronica Mars!
Eventually it is sort of explained why Logan is an asshole. (In the words of Ally Sheedy's character in The Breakfast Club, his home life with Father Echolls is "unsatisfying" -- to say the least...) And, yes, he certainly is an asshole, much of Season 1.
But I could totally buy the Veronica/Logan thing that happened later because, as inexplicable as it was, and as freaked as she was that she was doing it, Logan's got a boy-man thing going on, a vulnerability that's so obvious under his cocky surface, and I don't care if the character is exactly half my age, I could happily fantasize teaching the boy a thing or two!
And don't get me started on the Weevil thing. Oh, Weevil! The sexy bad boy, a leader (okay, of a gang, but still, a leader), but with some ethics, and certainly with the whole sleepy bedroom eyes and tattoos -- not to mention that he's much smarter than he pretends -- what more could you want?
Besides, the show is so witty. I started watching it before it got the Joss Whedon stamp of approval, and it was the witty dialogue that kept me tuned. Just one example:
Vice Principal Clemmons [approaches Logan at his locker]: "Mr. Echolls, may I have a word?"
Logan [kneeling, pauses, thinks, then smiles]: " 'Anthropomorphic.' [waves his hand] All yours, big guy!"
I also really like how VM shows the have/have-not dichotomy in the fictional town of Neptune, California, and isn't afraid to address the racial tension between the rich white kids and the Mexican kids. Two major characters' losses of their mothers factor in as well -- I mean, BTVS extensively covered that theme after Joyce died, but not in the same corrupt-SoCal-noir-ish way that VM is handling the whole "are they dead?/aren't they dead?" way. This is so not a one-dimensional teen show.
I mean, a show that opens with the voiceover dialogue of a 17 year old girl going, "I'm never getting married..." as she stakes out a motel where a cheating husband is meeting his mistress, and where Veronica is poised to take photos for one of her father's PI cases -- how can you not love the cheerful cynicism? Veronica's the petite, blonde female version of Humphrey Bogart's Marlowe in The Big Sleep -- similarly wisecracking, cynical beyond her years, yet willing to take a chance on the unlikeliest of runners. (Logan would be her Vivian, the Lauren Bacall character in The Big Sleep).
Which leads me to another point. I just can't get into Duncan. No offense to any VM fans who love Duncan, but... he's too good, too squeaky clean, too... relatively unconflicted and pretty uncomplicated, once you get past the revelations about his personal problems and his biological relationship to Veronica (which, later, it turns out doesn't exist). Having the fetish for angst that I do, Duncan's not angsty enough for me (except in a handful of episodes). And, since I can't get into the unconflicted and uncomplicated Duncan, I just can't see him slashed. With anyone. Sure, there's canonical slashiness with Logan -- just as there is canonical slashiness between Logan and Weevil. But Duncan's too... scrutable.
Logan and Weevil are shiftier, and both have angst enough for two. For me, anyway. Yowza.
I've searched a bit for Logan/Weevil slash -- and, happily, found some. Unfortunately, haven't had time to read any of it, a very major yet ordinary bummer, as Iggy Pop would say.
But what I really can't understand is...
Dick Casablancas slash. (Or Beaver, for that matter). I mean, imo -- ick. Logan may be an asshole a lot of the time (canonically, no less!) -- and Weevil too -- but both characters have shown themselves to have redeeming qualities (as well as slashy chemistry).
The same cannot be said of Dick or Beaver. Maybe Beaver, a little... but he's too boy-boy for me to get into. Logan: boyman. Weevil: manboy. Dick? boy in every pejorative sense of the word. It doesn't matter how pretty he is; it's his character, which is... just icky. Dick is a good example, imho, of that classic quote on the banality of evil.
Logan and Weevil may act like jerks sometimes, but they are complicated jerks, with boyish vulnerabilities and mannish protectiveness of their women. Dick is just... well, a dick. IMO.
That's my 247 cents, and I'm stickin' to it.