1.10 - An Echolls Family Christmas

Hear that?

Yup. So do I. It's great sound, don't you think?

What is it? you ask.

It's the sound of a TV program setting a standard for itself.

Apparently, someone on the Veronica Mars writing team found the notes from their fiction writing class and more importantly, decided to follow two of the tenants of writing:

1. Show, not tell.
2. Interesting characters doing interesting things.

The main episode arc was an invitation to the audience. The writers, for the first time in this show's history (all 9 episodes of it), gave the viewer an opportunity to be Veronica herself. We heard the same clues that Veronica heard, we saw the evidence through her eyes, and we were invited to draw our own conclusions and see if they matched Veronica's. It was like a chapter from Encyclopedia Brown, a do-it-yourself mystery. I dare you to tell me those are not fun to do.

The beauty of it was that we weren't able to decisively determine the culprit until we were toward the end of the episode and we had all our clues. It was a true dinner mystery theater to the very end.

This, my friends, is an example of show, not tell.

This do-it-yourself mystery became even more fun when it involved characters we liked, each with their own set of idiosyncracies and motives. Within the first 9 episodes, I could see some major growth on the part of the writers as they tried to discover what they could and could not do with the given characters. This episode, more than any before this, demonstrates that the writers know the characters. Writers who can get inside their characters can create moments like

• "Annoy, tiny blonde one, annoy like the wind!"
• "What if I run into a pack of your white boys, on some clean, well-lit street? I could be bored to death"
• "This is the worst game of strip poker. Ever."
• "Just be glad I don't flip my hair. I'd own you."

Congratulations, Rob Thomas. Your show has moved from good to great. Next step: legendary.

Other Notes

- Weevil and Logan continue to have the best chemistry on the show. Is anyone else dying to see just one complete episode of these two taking swipes at each other?

- Keith was relegated to the B-story this episode, but he did a fine job with it. Despite all that went down before, I was surprised at how comfortable Keith and Aaron were with each other.

- Ah, the kinder, gentler Logan made a cameo this episode.

- The stuff with Jake Kane at the end has pretty much convinced me that Keith had it wrong. Celete should've been the person he brought in, not Jake. Of course, knowing writers today, they'll prove me wrong, just to spite me.

Final rating: *****. As if you need to ask. The standard has been set.