Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season [DVD] [2005] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Summing up the basic premise of the show sounds misleadingly, well...lame, that of a high school student that acts as a private investigator in her spare time. I guess telling you that Paris Hilton shows up in the second episode won't help much either.

The precursor to the plot of the initial season is this; Veronica Mars lives in the town of Neptune, a town consisting of the extremely wealthy and the marginalized lower classes. There is little middle class here, but a lot of friction.

Veronica had it all: she was one of the popular kids, with a much sought-after boyfriend and a happy home environment. Her father was sheriff.

Then disaster strikes several times before the first episode. Her best friend is murdered - her father accuses the family of a cover up. He loses his job as sheriff and the Mars family have to move to a miserable two bedroom flat on the bad side of town while father Keith makes his money in the PI business. Days later, her mother leaves them in the night. To top it all, Veronica is drugged at a party and wakes up knowing something terrible happened to her.

So it's a typical "fall from grace" story, only it's incredibly well written and often has echoes of the film noir style of directing. The acting too, is always faultless, from the incredible main actor Kristen Bell right down to the supporting actors.

Many have called it the "spiritual successor" to Joss Whedon's masterful Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They'd be right too. Each episode peerlessly interweaves a stand-alone storyline in with the overall season arc of finding the killer of Veronica's friend.

So buy this. It has everything you could hope for in a top-notch drama mystery series. Flashbacks, passion, laugh out loud comedy and emotion that will pull on your heart strings. Also, the main mystery of the season is brilliantly concluded in the finale, so their is a definite conclusion and no attempt to string the watcher out forever.

Take a leap of faith and trust a random amazon writer you will never meet, and buy this today.

The obvious connection to series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dead Like Me, and other 'teen' TV series is often made. Veronica Mars is a smart good-looking girl who knows how to look after herself, and is somewhat of an outsider. The series has story arcs that continue over the whole season as well as ones that wrap up neatly with each episode (if fact, there are a number of cliff hanger endings). A common theme Veronica Mars picks up on is how important friends are.

In other respects though it is very different from series like Buffy. Veronica doesn't have any special abilities, and her world, though fantastical, is not supernatural. This makes her character a lot more interesting as she has to rely on her wits and not brute force to get the job done.

The only other thing I would add that comes to mind is that this show seems to have the same charm about it that shows such as Buffy or Dead Like Me did, and if you go back a bit further The Avengers or The Saint did. (Surprising how similar to a female version of 'Simon Templar' Veronica Mars is - she's good looking, dispenses witty comments on a regular basis, looks out for the little man, the authorities usually have a problem with her but also tend to wind up needing her help, she manages to impersonate people effortlessly, and of course, she's very clever).

The only real problem with this series is the fact it was scheduled on UK Living as apposed to a terrestrial TV channel that would have allowed better viewing figures. Also, being on Region 1 doesn't help people wanting to watch.

However, assuming you can play R1 discs, this is a great buy.