I was hugely excited by the announcement that a fourth season of teen noir show Veronica Mars was going to be made, nearly fifteen years after the show’s initial air date (and cancellation after three seasons), and five years after the crowdfunded movie came out. As soon as the show dropped on Hulu (or Stan, if you’re in Australia like me) – a week earlier than initially slated, I rushed to watch it. And I was so distraught by the ending that it genuinely took two days for my mood to return to something even vaguely resembling ‘okay’.
For those of you who haven’t seen it *SPOILERS FROM HERE ON*, season four has Veronica (Kristen Bell) chasing down a serial bomber who seems to be trying to destroy the Spring Break business in Neptune. It turns out that the first bomb was set by property developer ‘Big’ Dick Casablancas, trying to destroy the Spring Break business in order to buy the waterfront properties cheaply, and the subsequent bombs were set by a pizza delivery man, Penn Epner (Patton Oswalt), who fancies himself a detective and is out to find glory after he is initially ridiculed for his public accusation of an incorrect suspect. The season itself had several issues (one of them being some seriously murky motivations behind Epner’s behaviour, like, if he really was that much of a genius, why was he a pizza delivery man?, and that the people ultimately behind the crimes are more or less ‘hidden in plain sight’ all along, which is a disappointing departure from the way the initial seasons cleverly hid the villain until quite late in proceedings). However, the issue for which there is not enough therapy in the world to appease me is the season’s last-minute killing off of reformed bad-boy and Veronica’s long-time boyfriend, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), right after they finally got married.
Series creator and showrunner, Rob Thomas, justified this decision by saying ‘I know this seems crazy or harsh but Veronica is at her best when she’s an underdog and I don’t know that there’s much to root for if she’s now got a perfect relationship. I need to keep her fighting and I need to keep her a little bit uncomfortable in order to have a show. There’s nothing funny or interesting about perfection.’
Except that’s a deeply flawed understanding of how relationships function, and a deeply messed up thing to push on to people.
It’s fair to acknowledge that once the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ is resolved, TV shows often decline in quality, or at the very least, significantly depart from the original formula which made them into such beloved hits at their beginning. But there are two significant issues with this: First, the assumption that TV shows must remain the same in order to be good. There are some interesting observations that the job of the sitcom episode (in particular) is to return all characters to more or less their original starting points. While that is broadly true, TV shows, like life, need to evolve in order to stay interesting, and as across seasons, audiences grow alongside the characters they watch evolve and mature.
Nevertheless, it was fair for Thomas to note that the characterisation of Veronica is someone who is embittered and cynical about people’s fidelity and inherent goodness – after all, when we first meet her at the age of sixteen, her best friend has been brutally murdered, she’s been raped, her alcoholic mother has upped and left, and her adored father and moral compass has been socially ostracised for a) doing his job and b) being not super wealthy. It’s a lot. Veronica’s very understandable trust issues are compounded by the moonlighting she does as a P.I where, to she regularly sees people cheating on one another and generally behaving in unpleasant ways. So it’s reasonable to point out that for Veronica, the notion of the ‘happily ever after’ is a deeply uncomfortable one. But to keep her in the same mindset as she was at aged 16 is to deny her the capacity to grow as a character.
It’s fair that there was a desire to avoid repeating the pattern previously established (withdrawn/bitter etc), but – and here is my ultimate point – that could have been avoided.
Some of the most complex and interesting storylines come from couples who get together and have to navigate relationships; compromising to fit together, find a way to make it work. Think about the evolution of Niles and Daphne’s relationship in Frasier (and leave aside some of the aspects to his earlier infatuation with her that seem distinctly distasteful in a post-#metoo world). While much of the humour between them in earlier seasons was because of his unrealised ardour for her, after they became a couple, the hardships they navigated through being a couple, and the deepening richness of their relationship that was both romantic and based in friendship, produced some truly hilarious moments. Similarly, one of my (and our fabulous Chief Nerd, Elise’s) favourite TV shows, Chuck, *SPOILER* has the two leads get together in season 3. The show was no lesser for that fact because as Chuck and Sarah’s relationship deepened, they explored facets of themselves that they hadn’t previously shown – it provided more material for the writers, not less.
One of my favourite articles on the ending of Veronica Mars, season four, pointed out that Logan has the most interesting character development because he works to better himself – he has come a long way from the miscreant teenager who organised ‘bum fights’, and he had the potential to become an even more interesting character. How this interacted with Veronica’s cynicism could have provided significant fodder for more story.
But, giving full credit to Rob Thomas for a moment here, the show is called Veronica Mars, not Logan Echolls. So the decision to axe Logan was made to push Veronica’s character development forward, especially given the shows position as a gender-flipped noir which so often has the embittered, cynical detective dealing with the ongoing pain of a tragically killed love.
But the problem is that I can’t actually see how this is going to do anything but ossify Veronica’s primary characteristics: bitter, a hardnosed and reckless desire to catch the bad guy at any cost. Moreover, in most of the noir detective stories, this love has died before we meet the hard-bitten detective.
Thomas said to The Hollywood Reporter, “Moving forward, we’re going to really build around [the idea that] the case is the thing and less of the soap opera of Veronica’s life.” Except Veronica Mars is all about character. Her interactions with her father, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) and the genuine bond of affection between them evokes some of the show’s most poignant interactions. Her internal struggle when the pursuit of justice comes up against questions of morality is inherent grounded in her character. One of its most interest aspects across the years is that Veronica is often wrong. She falsely accuses people (including Logan himself), she behaves badly, she takes her friends for granted, and she can be reckless to the point where she endangers herself and someone has to come in and rescue her (case in point: wandering into the base of an Irish gang that had a particular grudge against her father). So to strip away the elements to the story that allow for depiction and consideration of those complexities would be to lose much of the show’s point.
There’s also a part of me that feels the way in which Logan was killed feels personal. Logan and Veronica were never initially meant to get together, but in the first episodes, the chemistry between the characters, and Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring was so profound that it was written in. I might be putting on my tin foil hat to say this, but it feels as though Thomas resented the manner in which LoVe became such a pivotal part of the Veronica Mars ‘brand’. What really underpins that for me is that the way the series sent off other characters was considered, and gave them a certain ‘exit’. The way in which Logan was killed off feels almost like an afterthought, made more so by some of the questions that arise from the manner. How did he know that she would be in it when it actually blew up? Moreover, the convenience of him leaving a voicemail for his therapist about why he wanted to marry Veronica (why exactly would he call his therapist to tell him about his epiphany? Who has that kind of relationship with their therapist?), and this woman’s decision to keep it from Veronica for a year seems weirdly contrived. Because it was.
However, to be fair, one could claim that the season mistreated some of its other characters, too. Tina Majorino who plays Cindy ‘Mac’ Mackenzie specifically noted that she did not want to return because she did not want her character to be sidelined. Similarly, the complexity to Eli ‘Weevil’ Navaro’s character was stripped away, as was the depth of his relationship with Veronica. What’s worse is that this could have been a really interesting storyline; why he decided to walk away from the court case which would have seen him awarded with compensation for what happened to him in the movie. While we are told that his wife left him along with his child, prompting him to return to his old gang-running ways, the depth of his grief and the reputable life he lost were never really portrayed. Honestly, I would have preferred that rather than the convoluted storyline that involved Mexican cartel hitmen.
But beyond my argument as a writer as to why Logan’s death was a totally unnecessary element to bring in, it also feels like a real slap in the face to fans. I’ve previously talked about the relationship this show has with its fans. Realistically, season 4…hell, the movie, only existed because of the love and support fans showed the show.
Any narrative material exists to interact with fans. Obviously, there is a fine line that can cross into blatant pandering, and there is also a trend that offers a ‘gritty’ or ‘sad’ end (ie the tragic death of the lover), but it’s a balance.
The Veronica Mars movie was very much fan service – it was, after all, fan funded. Much of the movie’s contents and storyline were determined by what Thomas was seeing from fan comments on social media, noting “I did have an idea of things people wanted to see, characters I wanted to get an appearance in, whether it felt extraneous or not.” He added, “there’s no way in the world we would have had a fan-funded movie and I would have killed Logan,” he added.
In the same interview, he said, “I fear that leaning into the high school soap that the show started out as is a losing proposition, that it will start feeling nostalgic rather than vital. If Kristen [Bell] and I want to make more of these Veronica Mars mysteries, I think it’s going to survive best as a true mystery show with a badass PI at the center of it, and I think that works better if the PI doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
Yet for a show whose who schtick was challenging the noir detective genre, it seems the prospect that someone fundamentally gritty and damaged can also have a relationship that the struggle to be healthy was simply a bridge too far.
And at the crux of it, what really frustrates me – as a fan, and as a writer – is that for Thomas, it simply felt too hard to give Logan and Veronica an enduring relationship, and it if wasn’t too difficult, then he perceived it destroyed some fundamental part of the show by making it emotionally sappy. If that’s the dichotomy in which Thomas thinks, then Veronica Mars is no longer the show which attracted its die-hard following of fans and may as well be a different show with a similar premise.
Totally agree. Killing Logan was lazy.
I finally decided to catch up and watch this show, and damn, while seasons 3 and 4 weren’t as strong, I could see a potential season 5 getting better, but then they went and killed off Logan to make some stupid point. Lame. And honestly, easily guessable all season, her reluctance to marry, getting mad he wasn’t mad about her no, her changing her mind.. it was obvious something would happen to him.
Lazy and predictable writing, in the most formulaic way, not something I’d have expected this show to become after the first two, excellent, seasons. Sigh.
I’m a 78 year mom, grandmother and great grandmother who found Veronica mars and decided to try it. The first three seasons kept my attention specifically due to the characters. Even though I liked Duncan and he was sweet to Veronica his character was some what weak. On the other hand Logan was strong and was a good match for Veronica inspite of the roller coaster relationship. I felt some how they would work it out through all the different cases and school situations. Some of the episodes were a tad convoluted at times but rounded out resolutions. I didn’t like the bus crash dragged out so much and that the truth came out involving a kid who came off as a genius causing the catastrophe. I liked the way Veronica’s mind worked most of the time to bring her cases to a solid resolution. That was a strong part of the series. Also she showed compassion and understanding and kindness in spite of the what she suffered emotionally..And then comes season 4 which belongs in the garbage. It was poorly written and seemed written just to wrap it up. Logan should have never been killed off. He deserved happiness. Veronica’s character was pretty disgusting. All of her talents and skills to investigate was sloppy and shoddy. How could she not remember or check her car for that backpack. How could she not read the pizza guy and his intentions. She showed little tenderness or consideration for Logan the love of her life. The entire season four showed writing incompetence. Logan and her dad should have been the strength and support to carry on her and their future endeavors.
If you want to salvage the reputation of the creator and series, you can start an episode with Veronica sitting up from her nightmare of the bomb explosion killing Logan. She finds Logan laying next to her and with the important clues to take pizza man down and make sure there’s no bomb or backpack in her car or apartment. Also the thought of losing Logan encourages her to solidify her love and relationship with Logan. They can still get married and his career takes him for periods of time thus allowing her to continue working her cases. The movie made up a tad for the disappointing season 4. Story a little flakey but it does have a good ending. Logan is truly deserving of a good and loving relationship with Veronica. He’s always been protective and immersed in his love for Veronica. Well folks that’s my take. There’s already so much devastation in our world, why would you want to slam fans with fiction devastation. We deserve some feel good and loving programs.
100% agree, great idea for it to be a nightmare. We know it’s fiction but love is what wins and we need to see that.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: literary subversion for its own sake is creative dishonesty.
Writers who are so worried about “fan service” they will inexplicably train wreck the material they’re responsible for do not understand that the opposite of fan-service is creation-service, not creator-service, and it is quite plain to me that this ending served neither the fans nor the creation, but a creator who seems to find no issue admitting he doesn’t know nor care to learn how to maintain his story while also including functional adult relationships.
Avoiding bad writing is about staying true to the characters and setting that has already been established, not gutting your creation out of your own fear of “giving in” to the audience.
I also don’t appreciate the unspoken inference that tragedy and sadness were the core of this show when in fact the core of the show was overcoming tragedy and sadness, and I don’t appreciate the implication that anybody complaining about that in any way must just be a spoiled petulant fan who is trying to force unicorns and rainbows and puppies into every orifice of the show.
I wish I could say that this is the only example I’ve ever seen in recent times of someone inexplicably treating such a beautiful story and world with such cruelty and disdain, because that’s not even close to true, but I will say that as far as I recall this is one of the first examples where it’s the Creator themselves viciously tearing it down rather than some lifeless Hollywood company who bought the IP but don’t understand how to reboot it.
I absolutely cannot translate anything from this ending but hatred for the creation itself, and hatred for the fans. There is no other explanation, and it baffles me.
I’m baffled people loving something you made would bother you so much, I’m baffled that you would build it up to the absolute peak of beauty and then bludgeon it to death like a despised enemy.
I have been treated better by people who know me personally and hate me.
I think this quote sums up how I feel about these bitter, destructive writing choices better than anything I could ever say:
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.” -Ursula K. LeGuin
So yeah, I’m not buying into the narrative that fans are spoiled, and heroes need to writhe in endless pain.
I’m putting the ending of this show in the scrap heap of The Last Jedi, Terminator: Dark Fate, and every other pseudo-deconstructive slap in the face piece of media I’ve been traumatized by these last several years.
Logan never died, but boy Rob Thomas sure did.
I re-watched all the seasons. Was suprised with season 4. But It broke my heart, when Logan died. He was finally happy. Why wouldn’t she check her car – she knew he brought a backpack?
I am new to the series and binge watched all 4 seasons and the movie in a month. I loved it. Now, I am heartbroken, Why would anyone, especially long time fans even want to continue watching (had there been a season 5). Life is hard enough, especially for Veronica. She lost her best friend, her HS boyfriend, and her mother. She has difficulty maintaining her friendships. We root for Weevil, and Thomas knocks him down. I was so happy in the movie that he had turned his life around. Her best friend Wallace (Robin to her Batman)becomes a boring cliche…really!!! VM finally meets a gal she can truly bond with…nope gotta wreck that. And her funny loving relationship with her dad has to be diminished by distance and deceit. But, I could have accepted those idiosyncrasies. But to kill Logan…on there wedding day…OMG! I think Thomas was tired of the whole thing and wanted to destroy the series. There are so many ways the LoVe relationship could have added interest to the series. Honestly, if need be, Thomas could have just sent Logan off to the Navy most of the time. As is, VM could only be bitter, angry, and make decisions that would ultimately be self destructive. And after fans had invested in these fabulous characters, Thomas whittles them away believing Veronica must be alone and wretched in order to preserver? Hello, she was never alone…till now.
I hate that I invested my time and now will carry around this disappointment..
So I’m way late to even watching the whole thing through until this year. I’m so glad to find others who are just as frustrated with the ending as I am. Thank you for all those who wrote such elegant responses that are so true. I should have stopped with the movie but I did end up loving the new Logan that was in season 4. Wish Veronica didn’t treat him so badly. Just so frustrated and my heart is broken about Logan, why can’t Veronica be a good PI and have a good healthy relationship with Logan?
I’m not sure it wasn’t the right decision to kill off Logan. But to do it in a way that made me roll my eyes rather than cry was really disappointing. The worst thing about season 4 is that it exists. To make us fall in love with a character-driven mystery and them pull the rug out and remove character relationships and make the mystery hard to follow and full of gory violence and stereotypes was just wrong. She was always able to make good friends and to maintain a moral compass. In this show she doesn’t really care about anyone and nothing she does is at all clever or forward-thinking. She could at least have remained a good detective. Instead, the copious good will and excitement I had towards the show was drained completely dry, and I only finished season 4 to put the nail in the coffin of a great show gone bad.
It has taken me a year and multiple binge sessions of all seasons and the movie to even find the words. The new narrative is Veronica Mars can’t be kick ass at her job with the complexities of a committed relationship. No real detective with a supportive husband who has his own story and who himself has conquered a lot of his demons and who knows how to ask for and get help could exist. Imagine the ongoing growth we could see from them together. Apparently, this is why we can’t have nice things. EPIC FUTURE FAIL!! Guess what Rob Thomas? Us women do it every day. Job? Check. Marriage? Check. Problems? Check. Dealing with our problems? Check. Staying on top of our game? Check. Complex? Check.
Loss does not always make us better. Sometimes it just kills the spark. It steals hope. It brings out the worst in us. It makes us depressed and inert. I’d like to refer Rob Thomas back to his own writing where Veronica says if she lost Logan and her dad she would put her head in the oven. Well R.T., guess what? Keith is not going to live forever and with Logan gone you have given us a Veronica Mars/Sylvia Plath crossover. Bravo!
I think Thomas made a mistake in killing Logan because it presumes that Veronica and Logan would inherently live happily ever after.
Logan bluntly says that he’s angry all the time. That doesn’t bode well for conflict resolution, even with new Logan who is visiting his therapist.
Beyond that, there was always the thread in the show that Veronica and Logan’s attraction to each other had unhealthy aspects of jealousy, primal anger, possessiveness, etc. That doesn’t lead to an “easy” path.
Beyond that, we have thrillseeking Veronica whom Logan accuses of asking for Bruce Banner but really wanting the Hulk, which jibes with the original series when it comes to picking him. And he doesn’t want to be the Hulk any more. This thread kind of reappears in Veronica’s Leo sex dream, where she wants what’s bad for her (to cheat on her boyfriend and have the forbidden fruit because it’s exciting and erotic and different). I didn’t think the dream was representative of wanting Leo, but it seemed to be representative of wanting things that are bad for her. And Logan was becoming good for her, so she needed a new fantasy.
That’s some hard stuff to deal with, and would probably lead to a really rocky, potentially violent relationship (because she likes it that way) and eventual divorce. And potentially getting back together only to not be able to stay together, but possibly being happier during those brief moments they get to be together because “I thought our story was epic. You know, you and me. Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined. Bloodshed. You know epic.”
Does that sound boring to you?
But Thomas chickened out on writing a relationship involving looking at the darker side of humanity and ourselves.
I feel cheated out of that epic.
Passionate relationships are complex. All relationships are complex; especially romantic relationships. Their love you, hate you relationship has seeds of many things: growth (the opportunity to have what you want and what you need with a ton of work) or maybe dissatisfied, dissolution. We will never know. There was nothing unexciting about their passion or their ever evolving relationship. DId they need marriage? Maybe not. Did they need each other? “Always.”
Leo is a false flag. Veronica (VM) would use him often in the past and would probably use him again to staunch her wounds after losing Logan so senselessly. Leo has a kind heart and has always wanted what VM can’t give him: her true love and commitment. Would he take what she would give him? Probably. Would that be “epic” for her? Nope. Sometimes it’s just a sex dream. A sex dream does not a relationship make after violently losing the love of your life.
Passionate relationships are not always violent (read “abusive”). What people do consensually in their bedroom can border on BDSM (or be full on BDSM), perfectly legal with consent. The implication that Logan’s anger and constant search for control of HIS ANGER, NOT VM would devolve into a power and control dynamic where he is a violent abuser is a disservice to VM cannon and Logan. He never tried to control her and when she disclosed Keith’s brain issues, Logan gave her an out and told her that if he wasn’t what she wanted to tell him and that if Neptune was not where she wanted to be she had control over her life. Abuse is about power and control. Offering someone an out (even if it will emotionally destroy you) is not illustrative of an abusive power/control dynamic, in fact it is the opposite. Although Logan was an inadvertent participant in the roofie party, he never laid hands on VM any time for which her consent was not voluntary. Volatile yes, abusive no. After he punched the kitchen cabinet and he a VM were intimate, he felt like garbage and left VM his therapist’s number. Physical response and emotional response are two different things. Frustration angry can be hot, abuse is not. For more information on power and control and domestic and sexual violence see: http://www.ncdsv.org/images/PowerControlwheelNOSHADING.pdf.
Killing Logan “Rob”bed (ha ha, but not really) the viewer of real relationships issues where people are highly emotional, where they struggle with emotional volatility, and yet do not physically harm each other. As a culture (American) where 1 in 3 women are abused and 1 in 8 men are abused, we could sure use more evolution, rather than he/she was angry so he/she would have beat her/him up. VM didn’t like the “sanded down” version of Logan or so she says, but in the end before his demise and it was her turn at the chopping block the only one she could think about was Logan. Just like the rest of us.
We never saw her grief at the loss of this lifelong friend/love/Husband which was one of the biggest fails of Season 4. A loss so tremendous that anyone would want to put their head in the oven. No one who has experienced such a loss would tell you that helping their dad through a hip replacement would get you through it. The grief would be “epic,” but it was dismissed. Shame on anyone who thinks that all of us couldn’t use a lesson about grief. We do. “Rob”bed again.
How do I know what I know? I am a legal professional who works in divorce, domestic violence, and with abused kids.
No chance im watching it now, fullstop. Thank god I read a spoiler so I turned it off rather than watch Logan die. Show ended at the wedding for me but sadly knowing he diea ruined any rewatching as well. Amazing show destroyed by a disreapectful ego. Well its done now, no chance of season 5 and most fans of show
Detest Rob Thomas. I wont bother with anything of his, Logan was as much a draw as Veronica, in fact probably more so. What a waste
The show started going downhill in S3. Breaking up Veronica and Logan for Piz was annoying. I’m rewatching it right now and it’s definitely a more boring season compared to the others.
Then we got that teaser that Veronica ended up at the FBI. Then they change that in the movie. Veronica Mars started out strong but has been lacking for awhile. Her relationships are a big part of what kept us all coming back. Her supportive father, her adoring and protective boyfriend, her best friend that would help her despite her selfishness, her other best friend that did all the tech and her close relationship with Weevil, someone who everyone judged harshly, even Veronica sometimes, but we would get to see the good in him.
I hate that Thomas thought he needed to kill Logan off in order to make Veronica’s character better when their relationship is what made Veronica better. It’s been a year since I watched S4 but if I remember correctly, her father was in declining health. So Logan would have been her only anchor and they thought, eh. Just kill him. I don’t understand how his character ended up being so disposable. But then again, many of the main characters have become disposable. I wish someone who loved this show could just take it over.
I’m also disturbed that Logan was killed off. Couldn’t they be happy for a little while? Have a honeymoon and a year or two of happiness before killing him off? That seems cruel to the loyal fans. He could have mysteriously disappeared on one of his missions, not to have been killed off my the pizza delivery man.
The post from Burnt above hits the nail on the head and I resent the fact that S4 made me not really like Veronica very much. Then to kill Logan at the very end was just a slap in the face to all the fans. I just finally got Hulu a few weeks ago to watch VM (I was an original Fan when it was first on TV) again to brush-up before watching S4. So this season and the senseless TV murder of a character that had finally redeemed himself feels very raw to me right now.
His statement that it would be boring to have Logan sitting at home while Veronica was out solving crimes was really ridiculous given Logan was in fact the person out saving the world and solving large portions of the mystery in season 4. Veronica has very little to offer on her own in that sense – she isn’t strong or some kind of skilled fighter, she has no computer hacking skills and now no inside information from the criminal world. She had to rely on her friends for a huge bulk of what she was able to accomplish.
For RB to assume she is suddenly national sought out to roam the world solving crime on her own, after being bested by a loser pizza delivery man, is ludicrous.
Despite all Rob Thomas’s claims of the movie being total “fan service” now, at the time he had full control over the script and repeatedly told the audience it was the movie he “wanted to make”. He was the one who used Logan and Veronica’s relationship as the crux of the film—something yes, fans did love. But Thomas is also the one who then couldn’t come with a mystery that didn’t involve Logan being accused of murder a 4th time, a 4th love triangle (a recycled one at that), or a legitimate reason the villain would actually frame the murder as murder or Logan as the culprit— things fans did not love. Veronica’s detective skills in the film were weak at best, but she grew as a character—she was still sassy and prickly and screwed up, but realized her mistakes, tried her best, showed compassion and rediscovered her purpose and place in life— in Neptune, fighting the good fight, and no longer denying Logan was the guy for her. Logan, Wallace, Keith, and Weevil all had been set up for interesting character dynamics. Fans forgave the film’s shortcomings because we didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth and because we love the characters and relationships. And because, let’s face it, the mysteries had gotten weaker and more preposterous with each passing season. To say you watched VM for the mysteries is to say you’re not much of a critical thinker. The mistreated underling who’s a secret mastermind or the morality-free, Uber rich, entitled guy will always be the Big Bad. Most often some combination of both.
Rob Thomas sold the movie to his audience on the premise of Veronica and Logan’s relationship and Logan’s appeal. Logan was the second lead. He sold “Logan Lovers” packages through Kickstarter and signed his emails with “LoVe”. He even jokingly extorted money from the audience by threatening to kill Logan on Twitter if they didn’t reach a $3mil goal. Kristen Bell retweeted it, jokingly saying her “boss had gone nuts”. But none of that looks funny in hindsight when Thomas admits he has been legitimately planning to kill Logan since he made the movie on the dedication of the fans that loved him and his relationship with Veronica.
With S4 Thomas turned fans’ dedication to the franchise/characters and their (false) belief in Rob Thomas’s common decency into the reason that what they loved was destroyed. He essentially said I wouldn’t have gotten S4 without you, but now that I used your money and leveraged your investment, I don’t need you— while diminishing what we had invested in AT HIS REQUEST as “fan service” and not worthy of future exploration. It’s a betrayal, through and through. A sinister, cruel one at that.
Made even more sour by the fact that S4 didn’t just kill Logan or shed the show of other characters, it did so, but first it undermined everything people loved about those relationships and made Veronica herself crueler and more incapable than ever. Specifically, regarding Logan, her affection for him has always been based on the fact that he prioritizes her and is genuinely sweet and understanding within their relationship. In S4 that pisses her off. She always wanted him to grow up and become emotionally healthier and he has been that guy— for 10+ years— but now she thinks his maturity is unappealing— even though this version of Logan is literally the ONLY VERSION of Logan she’s been in a relationship with for 5 YEARS. Watching Veronica give Logan crap for going to therapy when he’s an abused orphan who tried to commit suicide twice and has PTSD from his incredibly dangerous job was straight up disgusting. She used to be the person who saw his trauma and recognized it, showed him compassion. Not any more. Now when he reveals she’s hurting him, Veronica only increases her damaging behavior— behavior that undermines Veronica’s long established, vehement opposition to cheating. The show then spends more time exploring the Veronica-Leo dynamic than the Veronica-Logan one. Even going so far as to force a truly gratuitous sex scene on the audience that’s twice as long and significantly more graphic than anything they show with Logan— right before they kill Logan for good. If that’s not a middle finger to the audience who supported and and financed and loved this show when no one else did, I don’t know what is.
Yes, the killing of Logan was lazy. Yes, the S4 mystery was once again formulaic and riddled with plot holes. Yes, Veronica was her least likable and most incompetent self. But the truth is, it’s the betrayal that sits with fans. It’s the betrayal that breaks their hearts and won’t let them forgive.
For years Kristen Bell said the only reason to bring the show back was to “give fans what they want”. That her interest was to satisfy fans. So fans rallied. Then she released S4 with the statement “it’s not what you want, it’s what you need”.
I didn’t need to be lied to. I didn’t need to be mistreated. And I certainly didn’t need to watch a show I loved turn into something that felt resentful, designed to injure, and now makes me sad and angry to think about.
I agree with everything you said!! I feel so cheated out of my time and effort to binge the series and movie! The ending is probably the worst ending I have seen in a long, long while! I don’t foresee watching any further installments.
I couldn’t have said this better. Fighting a nasty cold for over a week, I decided to binge VM because I love Kristen Bell and heard Max Greenfield was in it. I knew nothing about the show and went into it with a totally open mind. I absolutely fell in love with Season 1 and most especially with LoVe. I couldn’t believe I was rooting for Logan by the end of that season and thought what clever writing to get me to end up cheering for a character that started out so loathsome. Veronica’s relationships with Wallace, her dad, and Weevil were also so well done. After season one, the show and the characters just seemed to steadily decline. I got more and more irritated with the character development, but held onto hope that LoVe would eventually prevail…my whole reason for watching the show. I was actually really happy with the movie and how it ended…with the promise of their “epic” relationship living on. Season 4??? Wow. What an “epic” disappointment. The way Weevil’s character was just butchered, not to mention his relationship with Veronica…awful. And Veronica’s character? I honestly really hated her through most of the season. But to kill Logan off like that in the end…because nobody thought to look for the bomber’s backpack? So sloppy and lazy. I didn’t even tear up (and I’m a cryer) because it was just so poorly done and unnecessary. I can’t imagine people are itching for the show to come back because they can’t wait to see Veronica solving more crimes. We loved it for the characters and their relationships. The mysteries were fun, but not the main draw. They really blew it with Season 4 and I for one, will not be watching anymore if it ever comes back. So disappointed.
I think killing Logan was a huge miscalculation on Thomas’s part, because it alienated 90% of the fans, and his excuses were a cop out. No one expected their relationship to run smoothly, and since Logsn was still serving he could be have been legitimately absent from a half a season or more if they were worried about pulling focus. Thomas shot himself in the foot, and Veronica Mars through its heart, I’m just going to pretend the series finished with the movie.
I agree!! If I would have know how season 4 would end, I definitely would have stopped after the movie!! Horrible writing and terrible ending!
100% agree with your astute observation about the demise of Logan. I found his character to be the most interesting one in season 4. I, also, mistakenly, had given Thomas the benefit of the doubt that he was using Logan’s character growth as a device to force Veronica to evaluate herself. That was what I took away from her thoughtless reactions to Logan’s therapy. I was hoping that it would be a starting point for an emotional housekeeping for VM. This dynamic could have played out nicely in future seasons; Logan pushing Veronica’s growth and vice versa. But no. We got handed this BS. It was a cop-out ending, a real disappointment and I won’t sign on to watch another season. Too bad.