Season 4 finale backlash is what happens when a show is inextricably linked to its... - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 07-23-2019, 04:58 AM

fandom

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/7/2...terview-fandom

"Veronica Mars is a show so inextricably linked to its fandom that, in some ways, to talk about the show is to talk about its fans," says Constance Grady. "Veronica Mars fans are so passionate and so vocal that they’ve brought the show back from the dead twice now; when it was in its first run, from 2004 to 2007, their volume and enthusiasm kept the show alive while its dismal ratings argued for cancellation. Veronica Mars has long had the kind of fandom that contemporary shows aim to cultivate in the age of social media, and it built that fandom on message boards like Television Without Pity and pre-MySpace social media platforms like LiveJournal." Grady adds: "Veronica Mars’ relationship with its fandom wasn’t purely positive. It was always a push and pull between a fanbase that adored the show but often found itself frustrated with the direction it was going — and with a creative team that was genuinely grateful to its fans yet appeared to be growing ever more frustrated with the task of satisfying them. That fraught tug-of-war would turn out to be a forerunner of the relationships that today’s shows find themselves building with their fandoms. And nowhere was it expressed with quite as much energy as it was in the question of Veronica’s love life and whether she would ever find true happiness with her central love interest, troubled bad boy Logan Echolls."

ALSO:

Season 4 twist is an understandable way to shake up the series, but it's still detestable: "When it premiered, Veronica Mars was doing surprisingly incisive and acerbic things about class, sex, and pain from inside the relatively frothy confection known as the teen drama, not doing surprisingly hilarious things from inside a dark drama about a traumatized truth hunter: If these two descriptions amount to almost the same thing, they’re not quite," says Willa Paskin. "You put the emphasis on a different syllable. As Veronica heads into middle age and future seasons, how much pain is so much that the show can still be the first thing—actually fun and dark— instead of the second—pretty fun for being so dark?"
Veronica Mars fares better than most reboots, but it still let fans down: "Bluntly, the new season of Veronica Mars isn’t awful but there are so many wasted opportunities, obnoxious character shifts, bizarrely introduced and undeveloped plots, a boring and needlessly complicated mystery and an approach to race that is offensive at worst and questionable at best," says Pilot Viruet. "It is, arguably, better than the last two seasons but it’s also true that those seasons weren’t exactly great. Season 4 is a far cry from the immediacy and charm of Season 1, though there are, at least, some bright spots."
In defense of Veronica Mars' bombshell ending: "The devastating ending leaves the show a lot of really interesting places to go"
Veronica Mars didn't need to hit a reset button to bring Veronica into the next phase of her life
Why is the season finale shocker so hard to get over?
Veronica Mars never was designed to be a series about a crime-fighting couple
The tragic finale is the most outsized statement that Veronica’s story isn’t over
Season 4 acknowledges Veronica and Logan's toxicity before forgetting it completely
Season 4 was particularly annoying with Hulu product placements: Would Veronica and Logan really watch Harlots?
An appreciation of swole Logan
Enrico Colantoni is shocked by how "nothing changed" between him and Kristen Bell after all these years

Tina Majorino: I turned down Veronica Mars' Hulu revival when I was told Mac wouldn't be "integral" to the story

Creator Rob Thomas said he told Majorino that the series regular characters would take a backseat to the over-arching mystery of Season 4. That prompted Majorino to turn down his offer to reprise her role as Mac. “I have a very deep love for the character of Mac and my goal from the beginning has always been to give her and her trajectory the respect she deserves,” Majorino said in a statement to TVLine. “Mr. Thomas told me up front that his vision for Veronica Mars was going in a different direction and that Mac was not an integral part of this new path. I respect that greatly. When Mr. Thomas first wrote this part for me, I was an 18-year-old young lady who got to grow up playing a character I adored. She got to grow with me as did those who were watching. When he came to me with the offer for this new revival, I was excited at the prospect, just as excited as I was when the film was given the go-ahead by our wonderful fans. But the schedule reflected to me the diminished value of Mac in this new world of Veronica Mars. There was no room for my beloved hacker queen and, as conversations continued, that only became more clear. So, I made the decision not to participate."

07-23-2019, 04:58 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,569	Season 4 finale backlash is what happens when a show is inextricably linked to its... fandom https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/7/2...terview-fandom "Veronica Mars is a show so inextricably linked to its fandom that, in some ways, to talk about the show is to talk about its fans," says Constance Grady. "Veronica Mars fans are so passionate and so vocal that they’ve brought the show back from the dead twice now; when it was in its first run, from 2004 to 2007, their volume and enthusiasm kept the show alive while its dismal ratings argued for cancellation. Veronica Mars has long had the kind of fandom that contemporary shows aim to cultivate in the age of social media, and it built that fandom on message boards like Television Without Pity and pre-MySpace social media platforms like LiveJournal." Grady adds: "Veronica Mars’ relationship with its fandom wasn’t purely positive. It was always a push and pull between a fanbase that adored the show but often found itself frustrated with the direction it was going — and with a creative team that was genuinely grateful to its fans yet appeared to be growing ever more frustrated with the task of satisfying them. That fraught tug-of-war would turn out to be a forerunner of the relationships that today’s shows find themselves building with their fandoms. And nowhere was it expressed with quite as much energy as it was in the question of Veronica’s love life and whether she would ever find true happiness with her central love interest, troubled bad boy Logan Echolls." ALSO: Season 4 twist is an understandable way to shake up the series, but it's still detestable: "When it premiered, Veronica Mars was doing surprisingly incisive and acerbic things about class, sex, and pain from inside the relatively frothy confection known as the teen drama, not doing surprisingly hilarious things from inside a dark drama about a traumatized truth hunter: If these two descriptions amount to almost the same thing, they’re not quite," says Willa Paskin. "You put the emphasis on a different syllable. As Veronica heads into middle age and future seasons, how much pain is so much that the show can still be the first thing—actually fun and dark— instead of the second—pretty fun for being so dark?" Veronica Mars fares better than most reboots, but it still let fans down: "Bluntly, the new season of Veronica Mars isn’t awful but there are so many wasted opportunities, obnoxious character shifts, bizarrely introduced and undeveloped plots, a boring and needlessly complicated mystery and an approach to race that is offensive at worst and questionable at best," says Pilot Viruet. "It is, arguably, better than the last two seasons but it’s also true that those seasons weren’t exactly great. Season 4 is a far cry from the immediacy and charm of Season 1, though there are, at least, some bright spots." In defense of Veronica Mars' bombshell ending: "The devastating ending leaves the show a lot of really interesting places to go" Veronica Mars didn't need to hit a reset button to bring Veronica into the next phase of her life Why is the season finale shocker so hard to get over? Veronica Mars never was designed to be a series about a crime-fighting couple The tragic finale is the most outsized statement that Veronica’s story isn’t over Season 4 acknowledges Veronica and Logan's toxicity before forgetting it completely Season 4 was particularly annoying with Hulu product placements: Would Veronica and Logan really watch Harlots? An appreciation of swole Logan Enrico Colantoni is shocked by how "nothing changed" between him and Kristen Bell after all these years Tina Majorino: I turned down Veronica Mars' Hulu revival when I was told Mac wouldn't be "integral" to the story Creator Rob Thomas said he told Majorino that the series regular characters would take a backseat to the over-arching mystery of Season 4. That prompted Majorino to turn down his offer to reprise her role as Mac. “I have a very deep love for the character of Mac and my goal from the beginning has always been to give her and her trajectory the respect she deserves,” Majorino said in a statement to TVLine. “Mr. Thomas told me up front that his vision for Veronica Mars was going in a different direction and that Mac was not an integral part of this new path. I respect that greatly. When Mr. Thomas first wrote this part for me, I was an 18-year-old young lady who got to grow up playing a character I adored. She got to grow with me as did those who were watching. When he came to me with the offer for this new revival, I was excited at the prospect, just as excited as I was when the film was given the go-ahead by our wonderful fans. But the schedule reflected to me the diminished value of Mac in this new world of Veronica Mars. There was no room for my beloved hacker queen and, as conversations continued, that only became more clear. So, I made the decision not to participate."