Seth Green

Find out where VERONICA MARS will go in future seasons, how it was for Thomas to direct his first episode and the BUFFY cast member he wants on his show next

As the mysteries of the second season of VERONICA MARS heat up, creator/executive producer Rob Thomas took time out of his busy schedule to speak with iF MAGAZINE in an exclusive two-part interview about UPN’s cult hit.

For those who haven’t discovered this great show yet, the series follows high school detective Veronica Mars (Kristin Bell) who this season is trying to unravel the cause of a fatal school bus crash among other complicated plot lines in the classic film noir tradition (with a teen angst twist).

Be warned, some spoilers listed below.

iF: Tell us a little of what to expect during the latter half of the season.

THOMAS: There’s a storyline about a romance with Logan [Jason Dohring] I adore. We cast a very young girl to play this love interest for Logan, sort of a sophomore girl which is Jessy Schram who plays Hannah. And it’s a twisted little story, but I adore it. What it does to Veronica and Logan, I’m excited about. It’s got some interesting twists to it. We also get into the issue of Veronica and where she is going to college. One of the things I’ve said and we’re sticking to, we’re not going to be one of these shows that keeps their characters in high school for four or five years. Last year was her junior year this year is her senior year and next year she’s going to college.

iF: How will it open up the show when you do the college thing?

THOMAS: There’s a certain level of story that can be done with that high school scene and it expands a bit when she becomes a college student. In a way it will reinvigorate the show in terms of what Veronica can do. I think a lot of teen shows are built around the idea that it’s about going to high school. I don’t think that’s us. I think we’ll be fine sending her to college. Honestly, if Kristin Bell wanted to do the show for eight years, I think we have a great show with her first year at Quantico in FBI training. I think it can constantly evolve with her.

iF: The 24 producers say they don’t’know where they’re going in the beginning of the season and they make it up as they go along and paint themselves in corners. Do you have a more rigid structure of where you’re going throughout the season?

THOMAS: When we start the season, we know what the crime is, we know who did it, we know how the criminal did it, we kind of know what the big clues are that solve the crime. What we don’t know are what we fill in, what are the red herrings, the tangents, where are we going to drop the little clues. Then we have interesting debates along the way. During Season 1, we had a huge debate in the writer’s room that went on and on about whether we show Aaron Echolls [Harry Hamlin] as an abusive parent the first time we ever see him? The writers knew he was a killer. The first time you see him and he’s beating his son, doesn’t that just scream, "he’s the killer?" The thought was, we used the audience expectations against them, or to your benefit. "Surely we’re not going to show him beating his son if he is the killer." Also it’s interesting I think, if you introduce that idea that he is a violent man and then he appears to try to repair his relationship with his son in the back half of this season, that it will fool us. So it’s a constant debate. I’m so fearful, that one of these years, I hope I don’t misjudge that, "Wait a minute, I gave them that clue, everybody knows it’s the killer now and I’ve really screwed up." It scares me.

iF: How was it directing your first episode with "Donut Run"?

THOMAS: I loved doing it. If I do it again, I will direct at the end of the year once the scripts are already in. This being my debut episode, the mandate from the network was, you can direct, but you can’t direct a sweeps episode. So I got episode 11, which meant I was directing while scripts were coming in, while cuts were coming in. trying to direct at the same time I was still running the show. It was very hard. I am thrilled I did it and happy how the episode came out, but it was a month that almost obliterated me.

iF: Last year, you said your ideal BUFFY person to have on the show was Charisma Carpenter. Is there anyone else you would like to get on the show from BUFFY?

THOMAS: I’ve adored everything Seth Green has every done. If I could get Seth on the show, that would be my next BUFFY person.