By KRISTEN GREEN ’14 and MARIANA ZEPEDA ’14
Features Editor and Online Editor
Six years after the “Veronica Mars” series came to an abrupt end, fans continued to clamor for closure. A Kickstarter campaign gave them just that. Rob Thomas, the creator of the show, along with members of the cast, including Kristen Bell, who plays the titular character, promised fans that if they raised $2 million through the crowdfunding platform, they’d bring the series to the big screen.
Fans answered the call to action, reaching the $2 million dollar goal in under 10 hours. By the end of the fundraising campaign, Thomas and his team had raised $5.7 million to support the creation of the feature film, making “Veronica Mars,” the biggest successful film project in the history of Kickstarter.
The series “Veronica Mars” ran for three seasons between 2004 and 2007. The setting of the seaside town of Neptune, California (filmed mostly in San Diego) was described by Veronica in the pilot episode as “a town without a middle class.” The series picks up just after the violent and widely publicized death of Lily Kane (played by Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of one of Neptune’s wealthiest families and Veronica’s best friend. Lily Kane’s death changed Veronica’s life dramatically. Her father, Keith Mars (played by Enrico Colantoni) takes up work as a private detective, after resigning as sheriff following his alleged mismanagement of the Kane murder case. The scandal surrounding Veronica’s dad has made them social pariahs in Neptune. Veronica copes by trailing philandering spouses, weeding out corrupt school officials and continuing to investigate Lily’s murder.
Even now, there aren’t many female characters like Veronica on television, and years later she’s still the same morally incorruptible genius with a sharp sense of humor and, as her friend Wallace Fennel puts it, she’s still a marshmallow. Nine years after her stint at Hearst College came to an end, Veronica is a recent Columbia Law School graduate interviewing at high-powered law firms and living in New York City with her boyfriend Stosh “Piz” Piznarski (played by Chris Lowell). She returns to Neptune and her old sleuthing addiction after former flame Logan Echolls is accused of murdering his famous girlfriend.
The film sets out to fulfill fan expectations. Most of the cast of the original TV show returns to the Neptune set. Wallace, Dick, Mac and Weevil all come together, along with Veronica and Logan, at the Neptune High 10-year reunion. Cameos by James Franco and Dax Shepard (Bell’s husband) round out the film.
Thomas also brings back the Piz-Veronica-Logan love triangle, one of the aspects of the television show fans lamented over that was never resolved.
“Veronica Mars” is as much a tribute to the fans as it is a story of home-coming. It is not in leaving Neptune but in returning that Veronica finally comes to terms with her past.
