I watch very little television these days - that is, television in the old sense of sitting down and watching a television program at the time that it is broadcast and with commercials. I suspect that I am not alone in this. I do watch a lot of movies and TV shows on DVD. It is ever so much more confortable that way - I watch with my laptop on my lap and usually Pumpkin on or by my legs. No commercials and none of the annoying clutter that fills the screen of regular television these days. And you can watch at any convienient time.
Recently I watched the Season One DVD of the new television show Veronica Mars. Let's just put this bluntly - Veronica Mars is the best television show since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The reason the show works is that it is so well written. It is both funny and action packed, like Buffy was. The formula is essentially this:
Veronica Mars = Buffy - vampires + Nancy Drew
Except that Veronica is much more interesting than Nancy Drew.
Basically, there is a mystery contained in each episode, plus there is a season long mystery that plays out over the 22 episodes. This formula works great - each episode is self-contained, but yet there is a thread that goes through the entire season. And the best part is that the writers don't play games with you. They don't just come up with something out of the blue, as in some other shows like the excretable Lost. It's like Buffy was in seasons 2-5 and also like the early Alias (and unlike the current Alias which has become Lostisized).
I highly recommend the Season One DVD of Veronica Mars - it's just 22 hours of fun.
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