Charisma Carpenter

If Sherlock Holmes was a hot chick in high school, he’d be VERONICA MARS, the smart, sassy and intelligent show about a junior sleuth solving the town of Neptune’s craziest and toughest mysteries.

VERONICA MARS is the show you should be watching instead of craptastic offerings like ACCORDING TO JIM and TWO AND A HALF MEN and the endless amounts of LAW AND ORDER. The show has a strong, youthful cast, lots of interesting ideas and resolutions that are never quite what they appear or as easy as they may seem. Plus, it isn’t just a teenage show with all that 90210 drama crap you might think it is.

In season two, it is mostly about a mysterious bus crash that ends in tragedy with a variety of colorful suspects - Irish mobsters, plastic surgeons, wealthy high brow types - and a cover-up that involves deception, lies and a lot of twists. Unlike the first season, the mysteries part of the show has been ramped up maybe to get more LOSTish fans to lock on. The core fan base is great and rabid but it isn’t enough to sustain the series and Thomas was probably branching out with season two.

The problem that I have always had with shows that have stars that are far older than the characters they play is that it is an unrealistic portrayal of high schoolers, especially with the situation these kids are supposedly in. As much as I hate to say it, look at a show like LAGUNA BEACH, while granted staged with nearly everything that happens, it is at least a portrayal of real students and the superficial issues that concern them.

But that said, the show is still enjoyable and you can suspend disbelief enough to look past it, especially with Kristen Bell delivering some great drama among the humor and other antics of the show. Bell is still the reason the show works and works extremely well. Without her and someone else in the title role, VERONICA MARS probably doesn’t last a year. With her, it looks like it is going to last two and half - unless a dramatic turn around in season three as The CW has only ordered 13 episodes.

The first complete season of VERONICA MARS on DVD was a disgrace to the fans including not a single special feature on it. Sure, Rob Thomas later put some features up on his own Web site which was a cool thing to do but that defeats the purpose of owning it on DVD. We want to see these things in digital and have them available to us as part of the set. That DVD failed in that respect.

The complete second season is a huge improvement with three elements but still there is a lot of room for improvement and that’s what decreases the DVD’s grade. “A Day on the Set of Veronica Mars” featurette is decent as the crew gave Bell a camera for a day and she follows around many of the crew and cast behind the scenes. The only problem, it’s only 7 minutes long which leaves a little to be desired.

“Veronica Mars: Not Your Average Teen Detective” featurette is a five minute overview of the show with Bell and Thomas giving some interviews about season two. Pretty standard stuff but at least it’s something.

The highlight of the special features is the gag reel that is bound to be a fan pleaser with Bell acting foolish and blowing numerous lines throughout. Good stuff and fans will enjoy it but make sure you check out the Josh Whedon cameo. With only 20 minutes of special features time on the DVD set, it isn’t winning any awards for content but it beats the 0 minutes the previous season had.

VERONICA MARS: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON is offered in widescreen only in English language only with Spanish and French subtitles.