Girls on Film: Can the Veronica Mars movie make up for the show's mistakes?

Veronica Mars started strong, then stumbled. An upcoming film has the chance to make things right

Veronica Mars
(Image credit: Facebook.com/VeronicaMars)

In 2004, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sunnydale imploded and popular shows like Dawson's Creek and Felicity were already in our rearview mirror, Veronica Mars arrived to fill the void. Veronica was Nancy Drew crossed with Rory Gilmore, a super-smart teen caught between the haves and have-nots in Neptune, California. And her speed-of-light pop culture banter was delightfully matched with a healthy dose of sleuthing.

Star Kristen Bell and creator/showrunner Rob Thomas fought tooth and nail to keep Veronica Mars alive, getting three seasons from Warner Bros. despite the show's continually lackluster ratings. When a third-season revamp took Veronica to college, introduced several new characters, and still failed to attract a higher viewership, Thomas whipped up a last-minute pitch to throw Veronica into the FBI for the show's fourth season. When the CW passed, Thomas pitched movie ideas. But for six years, nothing worked — until last week, when Kickstarter allowed the show's loyal fans to donate the relatively meager $2 million budget necessary to bring Veronica to the big screen.

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Monika Bartyzel

Monika Bartyzel is a freelance writer and creator of Girls on Film, a weekly look at femme-centric film news and concerns, now appearing at TheWeek.com. Her work has been published on sites including The Atlantic, Movies.com, Moviefone, Collider, and the now-defunct Cinematical, where she was a lead writer and assignment editor.