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A long time ago, we used to be friends but I-

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I love Veronica Mars! I think it's an absolutely brilliant show. It only had a short run of

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three seasons and only two of which were actually watchable.

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The third season has sort of been written off as a fluke, there was a lot of problems

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with it but I'll save that for another video.

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That said, you should go out immediately and BitTorrent, pirate, rent, buy whatever you

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have to do to watch Veronica Mars because it will totally be worth it.

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It's a show about a teenage detective. She actually learned the tricks of the trade from

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her father who's a private detective and she often solves mysteries at school.

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She even solves crimes that the local sheriff's department is unable to solve.

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The show is actually really funny, it's got great wit, great humour and I would actually

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compare it to Joss Whedon's writing in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and maybe even say

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it's a little bit better? Joss Whedon did a cameo during season two because

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he thought the show was so good.

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And so did Courtney from the Dandy Warhols and Kevin Smith.

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One of the things that immediately drew me into the show is how technologically savvy

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Veronica Mars is. It's a pretty rare representation to have young women shown

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as super knowledgeable about all sorts of different technologies.

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So you see her often using computers and having a really good understanding of how

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they work. She is also an excellent photographer, printers, scanners all that sort

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of stuff. She also has a lot of different spy gadgets, so she can take apart an ipod

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and put in a hidden camera that will take a photo every five seconds for example.

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Or track people through GPS or put recording devices in cars.

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There's also another teenage woman at Veronica's school named Mac who's

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also super tech savvy. Veronica met up with her because she needed some help with

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the computer systems at school and Mac knew everything about them.

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So throughout the television series she is constantly going to Mac asking her for help

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in how to break into wifi networks and how to create websites and how to hack into

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different things and they work together as a pair on various projects.

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Very little violence is used on the show to solve problems but it's not a world

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without violence. So it kind of comes in two forms on the show.

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The first is really awkward and clumsy. So you'll have two teenage boys beating each

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other up and throwing punches and kind of missing but it's not like they are trained

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in martial arts, it's just really awkward.

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The second way shows how horrific and egregious violence actually is.

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It makes your stomach kind of turn as you're watching the show.

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I think that these characteristics and representations of violence on Veronica Mars

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really helps to show us how violence is used on other shows to solve problems how easy it is to write

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violence as a solution as opposed to coming up with really creative ways to deal with

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different problems.

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"Well she's giving a statement at the Sheriff's department tomorrow. I'll drop by see

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if she's up for a chat." "Well I'll go with you."

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"Actually, despite popular opinion, you really can't beat the truth out someone."

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Instead of using violence Veronica gets really creative and clever with the way that she

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solves her cases. At the resolution of each show the viewer is left with this sense of

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poetic justice. An example of this poetic justice is, when Veronica gets back at her

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boyfriend, Troy who she finds out later on was sort of scamming her the whole time.

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"Troy what's with this girl calling me? You gave her my number?"

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"Whoa, whoa what girl?" "Some girl named Veronica" "You didn't tell her you'd be seeing

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me did you?" "She caught me off guard, what was I supposed--"

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"Sorry we didn't get a chance to say good bye, just wanted to wish you good luck

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at your new school and leave you something to remember me by.

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It took me awhile to figure out where you stashed the steroids but there was only one

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place you were alone right? In case you were wondering the former contents of the

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package are somewhere between my toilet and the pacific ocean.

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Say hi to Shauna for me, she sounds like a keeper." "Dammit"

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The show is of course not without it's faults. It has some problematic portrayals of

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racism and classism but it does actually acknowledge those things and talks

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about them throughout the show. This is in comparison to most mainstream television

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shows that don't really acknowledge that racism or classism exists.

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I think that even though it talks about it in a sort of problematic way,

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just having that on our television screens I think is a step towards making our TV

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programs more anti-racism, more anti-classist.

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When I first started watching the show we were introduced to the local Latino

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biker gang and I was really fearful that the writers were going to feed into the very

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racist stereotypes, which they kind of did, but the writers also took the main leader of

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the gang and sort of humanized him. Really showed a bit of his backstory, and made the

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audience sympathetic and created a very complex character.

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There are also other moments in the show where the writers gave us very subtle and

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interesting and also humourous ways of exposing racism that you don't

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often think about. And you almost never see that on TV.

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"We're going to have to start searching the lockers. Immediately."

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"You wanna save yourself some time start with hers. We all saw her lurking around."

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"Lurking? Uh, you mean standing while black?"

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Sexual violence is a reoccuring theme throughout all three season of the show.

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I think that for the most part the writers did a really, really terrible job of dealing with

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rape and abuse and because of that I'm going to dedicate a whole other videoblog to

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it because I think that really needs to be exposed just how important it is to deal with

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sexual violence in a healthy manner on television.

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Overall I really, really like the show I would highly recommend season one and two.

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I think that there's a lot of really great things about it as far as the complexity

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of characters, it's entertaining and witty, it's really fun to watch.

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Veronica's relationship with her father is totally worth watching because they are

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really funny but it's also this mutual love and respect they have for one another

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and there's a lot of really progressive values that the show offers and I think that

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that's fairly rare to see on TV.

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That said I'm going to leave you with this clip that I think is wonderfully subtle.

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"Wow, that's some cake."

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"Isn't it though?"

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"I love it. Ever notice how everything you make just tends to lean a little to the left?"

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"I do that on purpose."