After Veronica Mars was cancelled last year I wasn't sure how I would go on. Seasons 1 and 2 were masterpieces of serial television, containing all the aspects of a great viewing experience: great villains, a compelling overarching storyarc, smart dialog, perhaps the best television love story ever. It saddened me when the CW picked up the show for season 3, only to damage it by cutting one long, relevant mystery into one short, relevant mystery paired with one short, stupid mystery and a few orphan episodes (all separated by miniseasons of The Pussycat Dolls, ugg!). For the show, it was time to go; before Kristen Bell became visibly too old and the writers cannibalized beloved characters to continue a threadworn plot line. But knowing that didn't make it sting any less or begin to fill the hole left in my life.
In tv, as in life, there is always next season. So go on I did, and, looking to fill the void, I was stoked about the new shows in the fall. Turns out, most of them sucked, and the writers' strike just emphasized how little tv belongs in my life.
Anyway, the highlights of the 2007-8 tv season were:
Josh Schwartz, creator of The OC, had two new shows last fall, Gossip Girl and Chuck. For those of you who didn't watch The OC; Season 1 was fantastic, and the only season worth watching. Sadly, the characters you wanted to hook up all hooked up half way through the first season, leaving no reason to watch the show. Where you gonna go from there? Bring in some contrived obstacle and hope that fans still care. Without some daily trials for the characters, big arches run out fast. The series was cancelled fast considering it's initially popularity, but not before I stopped watching. The last episode should have been the one where they killed off Marisa, a nice bookend to the story and notable because Mischa Barton's weight dropped right along with interest in the show. Let that be a lesson, young actresses: keep eating. :)
Back to this year and this abbreviated season:
I loved Chuck, the story of how a Stanford dropout working at Buy More is sent the database of all government secrets, which implants itself into his brain. If a show with a premise that contrived gets greenlit, either NBC really is as bad off as we think or the show is great. Well, the fans were the winners here. It was a fantastic show, a great kung fu scene in every episode and Simpsons-esqe supporting characters. It was a live action cartoon. And, ultimately, it had the best part of the OC, a character based on Josh Schwartz. Instead of Seth Cohen, we have Chuck. Awesome.
I was really excited about Gossip Girl. New York teens and a Kristen Bell voiceover, how can you go wrong? Well you can recreate The OC, with all its flaws, in a stereotyped New York. After the first few episode's the poor outsider had hooked up with the it girl. Hey writers, Where you gonna go now? I don't care, I'm bored. Where they went was a few annoying stories that had only one possible conclusion. However, as unpleasant as the show is to watch, that's how much fun it is to read about on the New York Magazine blog. Yeah, see what I mean? To be fair, the only character I find tv worthy is the slime-o Chuck Bass, so in the spirit of Veronica Mars, maybe this show has legs afterall. I look forward to reading about it.
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