Danielle Solzman
The fourth season of Veronica Mars is binge-worthy as Kristen Bell comes back to the titular role of the rebooted television drama.
Bringing back Veronica Mars without the whole gang is seemingly impossible. No matter how long it is between seasons or films, everyone is quickly able to get back into the groove. It’s been a little over five years since Veronica (Kristen Bell) returned to Neptune to defend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) in the 2014 film. Presently, Veronica is working along side her father, Keith (Enrico Colatani), at Mars Investigations. It would not be the same series without their working relationship or Veronica’s wit. Her wittiness is one of the great strengths of her character.
What drives the fourth season is the Sea Sprite hotel bombing. Sul Ross (Brad Morris) owns the Neptune establishment. After the bombing, his daughter, Matty (Izabela Vidovic), decides to take matters into her own hands. Nobody could blame her after what she just witnessed. In viewing her from afar, there’s certainly something that Veronica sees in her. It makes perfect sense for Veronica to take Matty as her protege. In a perfect world, Matty would not have to do this. However, this is what happens when your livelihood gets attacked.
Matty isn’t the only new person getting a welcome into the Neptune family. Veronica quickly befriends Quack’s owner Nicole (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). When many victims spend time at Quack’s, Veronica has every reason to be suspicious. Then we have Cho’s Pizza delivery guy Penn Epner (Patton Oswalt). If there’s somebody that you want to be spreading conspiracy theories on the news, he is certainly your guy. Penn is a character for sure and a charming addition to the cast. We also have Clyde Prickett (J.K. Simmons), a new associate of Richard Casablancas (David Starzyk).
Here’s the thing about Veronica Mars. It does not even matter how long the series has been off the air. Watching this series is like going to a family reunion because you get to see your friends again. It’s disappointing that a few of them do not get as much screen time. Dick Casablancas (Ryan Hansen) is a working actor so he feels like an afterthought. We get more time to hang out with his father! Regardless, it’s always nice to hang out with friends like Leo D’Amato (Max Greenfield) and Logan Echolls.
Making the series for Hulu means that we no longer have to worry about commercial breaks. The series is no longer limited to some 42 minutes so they’re able to extend episodes, sometimes over 50 minutes. When you know that a series will air on a streaming provider, it helps to improve in how they write the season. It’s a solid season as a result.
The other thing about having an eight-episode order is that the crew can work their mystery magic in a shorter time span. During the series’ prior run, the mystery could extend an entire full-length season. This isn’t the case here as it’s eight episodes long. This run works to the benefit of Veronica Mars. Whether or not this is hit for the witty PI, Marshmallows should come away from Veronica Mars with a feeling of satisfaction.
