As we all know, Veronica Mars was refused a renewal for the 2007-2008 TV season for The CW. We also have heard of the plans for Rob Thomas possibly trying to retool the show, basically fast-forwarding the series to where Veronica is an FBI agent, no longer residing in familiar Neptune. Would such a show reboot appease rabid fans of the old show? Would it be enough to grab new viewers? And what would this new show look like?Luckily for all of us, I've got a very reliable anonymous source who has seen a copy of the retooled Veronica Mars, and I have to say I'm in agreement with this person's assessment of the new show. It's only a matter of time before the episode leaks to YouTube, but for those who can't wait for that moment, here's my source's description of the episode with some commentary.
SYNOPSIS: We start out with Veronica on her first day of work at the Los Angeles FBI offices. She has just graduated from the Academy, already with her snappy little suit. Her voice-over sounds competitive, and we get the sense that she's not always going to be the smartest person in the room here. There's also lots of sexism for her to overcome. We're introduced to another hot-shot female rookie and a guy named Sean, who Veronica either slept with at some point or embarrassed at the FBI Academy through her superior sleuthing skills. He tells her that everything is OK, that they are both adults in the professional world now, yadda yadda.
Veronica goes into a staff briefing where she's essentially given the option of going undercover as a pole dancer or a high school student. Much to her dismay, she ends up with the high school assignment. She goes undercover as a juvenile delinquent to catch the principal who's a sex predator. It's a funny but kinda gross scene, where the guy unzips his pants and tells her to give him a blowjob to get ahead. Once Veronica gets him to state that aloud, she tells him that she's with the FBI. The guy flees but is caught by the other FBI officer on the stake-out -- some hot guy who thinks Veronica is an idiot rookie.
Back at FBI headquarters, Veronica's boss tells her she did a good job, but asks why she wasn't at drinks last night with the rest of the team. "Hot shot" was supposed to spread the word among the rookies. Veronica assumes the other hot girl agent didn't tell her.
Cut to Veronica and the hot guy on a stake-out later that night where we find out that he didn't want to be paired with Veronica, who he refers to as "Barbie." They're staking out a mail bomber, a college professor, but hot guy says that they're staking out the wrong guy. He explains that the mail bomber would be more "meticulous, patient, etc." We learn that hot guy is a very talented profiler.
Cut to a scene where Veronica and said hot-shot girl rookie are questioning one of the professor's students in his apartment. The student leaves the room for a minute, and Veronica confronts hot-shot girl rookie about not relaying the "drinks with the boss" information to her. It turns out it wasn't her. Sean - the guy who told Veronica that they're "professional adults" now - neglected to tell her; apparently he's still hurting. Veronica then starts poking around this kid's apartment, when she notices how "meticulous and patient" this guy is. It dawns on her that this the kid is the mail bomber. We hear a noise, and when Veronica turns around with her gun withdrawn, we see that the kid has a knife to hot shot rookie girl's throat. The end
COMMENTS: The reason I disliked the promo so much was because it was a complete and total ctrl-alt-del reboot. The network was looking for the cheapest possible way to essentially keep Kristin Bell and jettison everything else. There wasn't a single character other than Veronica that came over to the FBI version of the show. Seriously, not even her dad, Keith, on a phone call. The writing was still top-notch, Veronica's wit was still intact and Rob Thomas set up the new world really quickly and completely, but the whole thing was just surreal. It turned the show into a standard-issue procedural about rookie FBI agents. It was way more charming than your average FBI procedural because Veronica was in it, but everything else that was great about the show was gone.
I should say that it wasn't a rough cut at all. It looked great. It looked like a show that could easily be on the air and be pretty decent, too. I just felt like they ripped the heart out because basically her dad wasn't there. It was clear that the show's emotional center was gone - replaced by an "episodic" engine that would require Veronica to go undercover in a different hot outfit every week. Basically just another procedural fed show.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
5-23-2007 @ 11:15AM
mike m said...
I've been pretty tight lipped about this, but allow me to throw in the change in my pocket. Veronica Mars was watched by no one. 2.7/5. That's the average rating of THE GILMORE GIRLS. Veronica Mars did even worse for the most part. Yet, all you 2.7 million people or less that actually tune in waste your time talking about a show that wasn't that good to begin with all because it's some hold out of hope for something. There's a reason it was canceled. Ratings. right? Why, pray tell, would ratings be so low. Maybe because there are better shows out there. Not just in the 8pm time slot on Tuesdays, like NCIS. But there are enough good shows on TV that Veronica Mars falls short of. This means there's no reason to even TIVO it let alone watch it. Let it go. The show sucked.
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5-23-2007 @ 11:19AM
stephen said...
so you figured out the whole show in just a few minutes? who's to say that Thomas wouldn't have included Keith if the show got picked up. He know how essential that relationship is to the show. Personally I trust Rob Thomas to not turn the show into Law and Order. What he did was make a flashy trailer hoping to appease the morons at the CW. Remember these are people who put their trust in the search for the next pussycat doll
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5-23-2007 @ 11:28AM
Whitecat said...
Thanks "mike m" for your brilliant views. I am soooooo happy you are no longer being tight lipped about this. Now go run along and watch Two And A Half Men. Tard.
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5-23-2007 @ 11:35AM
Chris said...
In reference to Mike M and his "NCIS is better"
comment. What are you? 60? NCIS is/was procedural TV at its worst. Take a well known actor on the downside of his career (Harmon), add the quirky fringe
characters (the tattooed girl and the creepy English guy) , add insome token eye candy and mix. God forbid good writing on TV get rewarded. Maybe the problem with TV right now is exactly that..people are willing to settle for crap on TV and not expand thier minds and give well written shows a chance. VM's rating were
bad because the CW had no idea how to market it and paired it with the wrong shows. Much like they had Supernatural following Gilmore Girls the first year. The CW is at fault here for not marketing Kristen Bell more. They are willing to give One Tree Hill yet ANOTHER year while a show 100 times better gets the axe. Ah well.
Such is life in the United States of Duh. Go watch American Idol.
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5-23-2007 @ 12:47PM
Diana said...
Veronica Mars certainly had its weaknesses but in its prime it was one of the best shows on television. It was original and smart.
If The CW had greenlit the new concept it wouldn't have been Veronica Mars at all. While I'm sad to see the show go, I know I would not have enjoyed the new version. The Veronica Mars I loved was because of the ensemble.
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5-23-2007 @ 12:50PM
David said...
The review sounds like shit, sexism and "we are all adults" bullshit. Thank god they canceled VM and thank god they don't pick this us.
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5-23-2007 @ 12:55PM
Ellory said...
I'd absolutely love to see Rob Thomas pull a VM type snow job here on the CW. He polishes up this trailer about VM in the FBI, it's a procedural looking show in it's first couple of eps and then we start to see a leak back of some of the people we love.
VM goes to a Laker (or whatever the LA basketball team will be named) game and is sitting courtside with Keith and Wallace is playing. Maybe they investigate a plane crash and she needs an aeronautical engineer. Maybe a high profile celebrity child kidnapping (Logan and Parker Echols) could be the season's mystery or even more interestingly a bombing of the FBI building where she loses all of her new understanding team and falls back into calling up her computer genius friend.
Kristen Bell is more than cool enough to strip down for a role, see Reefer Madness the Movie Musical. The CW loves her obviously as she voices, the mysterious and unseen Gossip Girl, her sarcastic tone is fantastic on what would otherwise become just another crappy high school drama.
I hope they pick this show up and he pulls out all the stops on it. Start it as a procedural show, which won't work on the CW, get it's full season order and then pull the switch. That or you know Kristen Bell could go to work on Big Love, like all the other kids from VM.
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5-23-2007 @ 2:07PM
Thomas said...
I'm not saying that this should or shouldn't have been made but I doubt that this was a full representation of exactly what the series was going to be, more a representation of where they could go and what could be added. There's not a lot of point filming a short demo and then just putting in everything that the existing series had.
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5-23-2007 @ 2:24PM
David said...
I liked Veronica until she went to college. I'm 33 and... ugh... does that make me a pervert? Crap.
Serioulsy though, I did like the show until the college years. Then I stopped watching. But then I did watch everything back to back.
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5-23-2007 @ 2:40PM
Jane said...
Oh, God. I'd cry if I weren't laughing so hard. Well,
thank the goodness this didn't materialize. "Much to her dismay, she ends up with the high school assignment." Yes, pole dancing would have been much classier. I know now why the network wasn't interested at all.
They already have "Pussycat Dolls." Why order another, more expensive one to produce? And with Rob Thomas's record of not bothering with accuracy, legalities, common sense, or procedural reality, it's FBI, the bizarro version. Complete with "hot chick #2" and "hot guy #7." And lots of sex tapes.
Thank you for posting this. It was good to have a laugh.
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5-23-2007 @ 2:41PM
Emily said...
I agree with others who said that this demo doesn't necessarily tell us everything the show will be about. Just because Keith wasn't there, doesn't mean he wouldn't be in the show at all. It makes sense to me that he would. If Veronica is in the FBI she obviously has to be more of a "follow the rules" type of investigator which she has never been before. I can imagine Keith relocating (since he pretty obviously did not win the election, why stay in Neptune?) and being a PI and helping out Veronica with the... less ethical side of crime solving.
That said, I'm ambivalent about the whole new show. While I have faith in Rob Thomas's ability to create an interesting, well written procedural, this demo is NOT Veronica Mars and I doubt I would have enjoyed it as much.
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5-23-2007 @ 3:07PM
Susan said...
Thank you, Jane. I couldn't have said it better myself and agree 100%.
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5-23-2007 @ 3:55PM
tiffany said...
Sounds like Alias.
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5-23-2007 @ 4:05PM
Jennifer said...
This makes me glad VM got canceled if this was the alternative. Sounds...meh.
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5-23-2007 @ 6:18PM
jinmiseru said...
People who don't know VM shouldn't talk about it, let alone bad mouth it. Just stick to the shows you're acquainted with, will you Mike M ? Seriously...
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5-23-2007 @ 8:56PM
Kink said...
Mike M is a troll and nothing more, actually on second thought he's and ignorant troll. It's a small but significant difference... The Wire and BSG, arguably the two best show on tv, have low ratings so by your assessment they too should be canceled? Whatever, it's not like anyone takes you seriously when you argue the way you do.
As for the retooling I can imagine it's better off paper than on it. That said the father daughter relationship is indeed intrinsic to what made Veronica Mars work, it would be impossible to manufacture that again.
... I don't think much of the CW or networks in general who impose episodic formats on shows that thrive on serialization. It's a sure fire way to ensure easy cancellation. That's not me making excuses for the drop in overall show quality, nothing has been as good as season 1 of VM but when you have shows like that Pussycat Dolls thing you can help but fell jipped, especially at the loss of Kristen Bell, she's a star for sure.
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5-23-2007 @ 8:57PM
Bob said...
David do you even like TV? I don't think I've ever seen you do anything but complain.
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5-23-2007 @ 9:08PM
Keli said...
Sorry, I'm still laughing that the show he thinks IS good quality and deserves to stay on the air is NCIS.
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5-24-2007 @ 12:43AM
jk said...
NCIS really mike m, is that the best you can come up with..?
I'm so sad to see vm go. One of the reasons I looked forward to tuesdays. The new show sounds pretty sketchy. To take a smart, witty, clever show, and just water it down with sex scandles and violence. Why not just watch csi miami. It's all the same. It's really sad that my favorite show on tv had to go. Please try and work on a spin off, and bring back keith and some other character's. Your really saying that Mac couldn't get a job at the FBI working on computers? come on.
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5-24-2007 @ 2:04AM
Kay said...
I am shocked that the ratings were so low. I came home early every Tuesday to see each episode. To me, if I don't watch VM I don't watch anything. I don't think there many interesting programs to make a special effort to watch on a weekly basis.
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