Here in our General Knowledge column we tackle things that fall outside of this magazine’s normal genre-centric purview. But I still think we at Geek Speak could cover Veronica Mars, regardless. How? you may ask. After all, sci-fi/fantasy/espionage cover a lot of territory, but this is just human drama, with nothing futuristic or fantastic about it. Anyone looking only at the ads for the show could be forgiven for thinking that it's just some boilerplate high school soap, more polished perhaps than a Beverly Hills 90210 knock-off, but in the same class.

But a closer look shows considerably more depth.

Veronica lives in Neptune, California, a town without a middle class, where a technological breakthrough by the town's biggest employer made half of the town millionaires overnight. (In the pilot, Veronica says tellingly, that if you go to school here, “...your parents are either millionaires, or your parents work for millionaires.”) The company is Kane Software, and the children of its founder are Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried), Veronica's best-friend, and Duncan (Teddy Dunn), her boyfriend.

Veronica used to be one of the in-crowd, but that all changed with two tragedies: Lilly's murder and Veronica's drug-assisted rape, of which she has no memory. Instead of spending her afternoons lounging poolside in the vast mansions of the rich kids, Veronica now lives in a seedy apartment with her father Keith (Enrico Colantoni), the town’s disgraced sheriff turned private investigator. Duncan mysteriously dumped Veronica even before Lilly's death, and Lilly's boyfriend, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) -- who is having troubles of his own -- has, as the show begins, viciously turned against Veronica.

I'm making it sound melodramatic and heavy-handed, but it's not. Showrunner Rob Thomas handles everything with an extremely deft touch.

But that still hasn't answered the original question. Why can we write about it here? Because, at its heart, Veronica Mars is a geek show.

Alyson Hannigan as Logan's actress sister, Trina.

I remember the first episode that I saw. I was looking through the TV listings and I saw that Alyson Hannigan was guest starring. Willow?! Heck, yeah, I'll check out this show! And I loved it. The wealth of Buffy alums (including Joss Whedon himself, who was a really big fan) didn't hurt, of course, but I think the core of the geek experience -- at least for me; your mileage may vary, as the kids say on the Internets -- is in figuring things out, and that's where Veronica Mars excels.

A while ago, a buddy of mine complained that Veronica's not really any kind of genius and went on to detail how she doesn't really do anything all that brilliant.

I think that criticism manages to miss the point entirely.

"Underneath that angry young woman shell, there's a slightly less angry young woman who's just dying to bake me something. You're a marshmallow, Veronica Mars. A Twinkie!" -- Wallace, "Pilot" (01.01)

Veronica is a competent investigator, with the skill set one would reasonably expect to find in the daughter of a sheriff turned PI. She's sensible, she's methodical, and she knows the tricks of the trade, but she's not brilliant. But she manages to avoid gaspingly stupid moves too, and with so much of the tension in your average TV show dependent on one side or the other doing something so boneheaded that it makes you yell at the TV, Veronica Mars is a breath of fresh air.

Not only that, but I think one of the things I like most about the show is that the supporting cast gives as good as they get. Veronica's not the only one with clever ideas or witty lines. Indeed, she's often outsmarted, but when she wins through, you really feel like it because she was legitimately smart and not just because the opposition was really dumb. In a lot of shows with a strong main character, the member of the supporting cast seem more like proxies than people, existing only to reflect the untrammeled glory of the main character, by setting him up with rhetorical softballs which he can then hit out of the park.

Also, she screws up. Badly. More than once. And she pays the consequences for it, and so do her loved ones. But she always bounces back.

Season 3 Cast: Francis Capra as Weevil, Julie Gonzalo as Parker, Percy Daggs III as Wallace Fennel, Chris Lowell as Piz, Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars, Enrico Colantoni as Keith Mars, Jason Dohring as Logan, Ryan Hansen as Dick Casablancas, Tina Majorino as Mac, Michael Muhney as Sheriff Lamb.

The series had its ups and downs. The first season may have been one of the best runs of television in the past ten years. The second, well, it was a mess, with stunt casting (Hi, Kevin Smith!) and a make-it-up-as-you-go mystery, and Season 3 was somewhere in between, with three shorter arcs, more stunt casting (Hi, Patty Hearst) and a really memorable ending.

Veronica Mars, how do I love you? Let me count the ways! Is it because of he beautiful and talented, and yes, geeky Kristen Bell? (Kristen, if things don't work out with you and Dax, you can find me here at Geek Speak! Rachel has my contact information!) Is it the haunting theme by the Dandy Warhols? Is it the wonderful cast of Amanda Seyfried, Enrico Colantoni, Tina Majorino, Kyle Gallner, Jason Dohring, Percy Daggs and Francis Capra who brought Lilly, Keith, Mac, Beaver, Logan, Wallace and Weevil to life? Is it the snappy dialogue? Is it the stories themselves, by turns heartbreaking and hilarious, but always clever and never patronizing?

Probably all of these, but most of all, it’s just the kind of excellence that transcends genre and once in a great while produces something truly unforgettable.

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BEST CHARACTER:

Veronica Mars

Sometimes the obvious answer is the right one. Kristen Bell went on to legitimate stardom after three seasons in Veronica Mars, and it's not like a teen series on UPN is the fast track to Hollywood. Almost the entire series rested on her shapely shoulders and she brought Veronica to life, week after week.

Veronica herself… she reminds me of my favorite quote from Buffy: "Bottom line is, even if you see them coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really, but it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are." This leads into Angelus: "No weapons, no friends, no hope. Take all that away, and what's left?" Buffy: "Me."

And indeed there comes a time when everything else is gone, and Veronica looks at what's left and sees only herself. She is able to hold her head high, and answer the unasked question of what remains with "Me", and to know that she needs nothing else.

VERONICA:	Hey.
WEEVIL:	See, there you go with that head tilt thing. You know, you think you're all bad-ass, but whenever you need something, it's all "Hey."
VERONICA:	Just be glad I don't flip my hair. I'd own you.
	-- “An Echolls Family Christmas” (01.10)

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BEST SUPPORTING CHARACTER:

Keith Mars

I've been a fan of Enrico Colantoni since his Just Shoot Me days. He plays a great dad to Veronica; Keith loves Veronica more than anything in the world, but he can't be there for her all the time, so he has to help her become a person who can look after herself.

They’re dynamic is always a pleasure to watch, and some of the show’s funniest, sweetest, and heartbreaking moments happen between these two.

VERONICA:	Hi, Dad. Their case is fuzzy and circumstantial.
KEITH:	You know the odd thing? Those were also her first words.
	-- “Clash of the Tritons” (01.12)

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BEST RELATIONSHIP:

Weevil and Logan.

Okay, they weren't a couple in the dating sense, but they had some great on-screen chemistry, and I don't think there was a single scene with the pair of them together that wasn't uproarious fun.

WEEVIL:	You made the wrong play, dawg. I shouldn't let you live for what you pulled.
LOGAN:	What I pulled? Hang on, compadre, let's recap. You blasted a shotgun through my car with me inside.
WEEVIL:	That wasn't me.
LOGAN:	You torched my house. Then your masked bandidos played Russian Roulette with my hand. Okay, my math says that you still owe me.
WEEVIL:	I thought you killed Felix.
LOGAN:	Well, I didn't.
WEEVIL:	Yeah, I pretty much know that now.
LOGAN:	Oh, are you waiting for the music to swell before you start the apology?
WEEVIL:	We have something in common now. We both need to find out who killed Felix.
LOGAN:	So what, we team up? Get matching capes? I ride shotgun in the sidecar?
	-- “My Mother, the Fiend” (02.09)

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RUNNER UP:

Keith and Wallace's mom.

Just because their kids' reaction is so hysterical.

VERONICA:	No offense, but you look... odd.
WALLACE:	I just watched our parents cuddle on the couch last night. My eyes, they burn.
VERONICA:	Any idea what our parents do Mondays and Wednesdays from six to ten that requires an overnight bag?
WALLACE:	As far as I'm concerned, they play bingo at the V.F.W. That's my story. I'm sticking with it.
	-- “M. A. D.” (01.20)

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BEST EPISODE:

Kristen Bell's favorite episode was “The Wrath of Con” (01.04) and who am I to argue with the lady herself? It's the first episode where we see Logan as anything but an antagonist, and the video tribute he puts together is genuinely moving.

And Logan, of course, went on to become Veronica’s epic, complicated love. (Who was always getting accused of murder, for some reason.)

LOGAN:	I thought our story was epic, you know, you and me.
VERONICA:	Epic how?
LOGAN:	Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. Epic. But summer's almost here, and we won't see each other at all. And then you leave town... and then it's over.
VERONICA:	Logan...
LOGAN:	I'm sorry about last summer. You know, if I could do it over...
VERONICA:	Come on. Ruined lives? Bloodshed? You really think a relationship should be that hard?
LOGAN:	No one writes songs about the ones that come easy.
	-- “Look Who’s Stalking” (02.20)