Season 1 > Season 2 > Season 3
As everyone's said, the real problem with s. 2 is that the story arcs were not very well thought out beforehand. There were good performances and the universe opened out a lot, but for most of the season Veronica had no investment in the mysteries, and while it was credible from a character point of view that after the trauma of s. 1 she'd want to stick her head in the sand for a while, it lost the show a lot of momentum and made her rather more unlikeable.
The strongest things the show had going for it were dropped one by one over the latter two seasons, starting with Veronica's sense of purpose (the show's not called Logan Echolls, guys) and emotional growth, and continuing on to her ability to have friends rather than minions, her relationship with her father as a constant in her life, the whole arc structure...I agree the last two episodes of s. 3 were great, but they were great mostly because for a brief shining moment, the plot wasn't all about "OMG Veronica/Logan or Veronica/Piz??!?!", the characters were all identifiable as their old selves, and everybody's actions were shown to have consquences.
But just for s. 2: What happened to Lianne? Why the flipping heck was Aaron's trial mostly confined to lame plots that went nowhere and then crammed into the most unbelievable (in the bad sense) episodes at the end? What happened to Lynn Echolls (I was really expecting her to turn up again, if only as a corpse)? Why is Wallace's mom no longer around? Where did Veronica's interest in photography and journalism go? Coma baby - WTF? Why in God's name is Veronica still talking to Dick instead of crucifying him when she knows he purposefully put her, unconscious, in a room to be raped?*
There were some really, truly great episodes in there - "Donut Run" comes to mind, as does "Plan B". Mayor Woody was a great character, as was (in a subtle way that gets better with every re-watching) his daughter Gia. (What happens to Gia after s. 2...? Oh, what's the use.) The Casablancas family had potential, as did some of the organized crime vs. biker gang ideas (as opposed to the actual plots).
But most of s. 3 made me want to spork my eyes out, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what would be left of the show in "VM: FBI," after the loss of nearly the entire cast and the town of Neptune as a setting. Just...no.
Here's hoping the comics thing pans out, though.
* I could almost buy this early on in s.2, as she had other stuff going on, thought she hadn't "really" been raped** and seemed to be out of the revenge business. But I was pretty much shouting it at the screen during s. 3. Nods to Ryan Hansen for doing a fine job and making his character fun to watch throughout the series, but really, WTF?
** Which was a pretty massive rationalization on her part that I would've liked to see addressed again later, but oh well.
Steve Taylor at #113 said: For that matter, if there's a good online guide to fanfic terminology, I wouldn't say no.
The Fanfiction Glossary
Though I do agree with #116 that if you're looking for "more of the same," you're probably looking for gen fic.
In regard to the slushpile problem...well, that's why rec communities exist. Every fandom is a little different, but you could do worse than to stop by the master list at LJ's newbieguide. If all else failed, you could just go to a rec or general comm for the fandom you're interested and ask for recommendations for gen fics. If you're polite and don't make a big production of "but none of that sex stuff, the people who write that make me sick" you'll probably get lots of suggestions and welcomes to the club.
...mind you, finding stuff for rare fandoms is always a bit of an uphill battle, so if you're looking for, say, Raffles fic that doesn't feature Raffles/Bunny UST, you may be screwed.
*It's also part of why fanfiction.net is not-so-lovingly referred to as "The Pit of Voles," or just "The Pit". That and the flame wars. People seem to currently be undecided on a name for FanLib, but "Pit of Weasels" seems to be a front runner.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2007 | 3 |
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