Veronica Mars (season 1)
Encyclopedia
The first season of Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network. Veronica Mars was produced by Warner Bros...

, an American drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 created by Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas (writer)
Rob Thomas is an American author, producer, and screenwriter, best known as the author of the 1996 novel Rats Saw God and creator of the critically acclaimed television programs Veronica Mars and Party Down.-Education and early career:Thomas graduated from San Marcos High School in 1983 and went...

, premiered on the United Paramount Network
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...

 in the United States on September 22, 2004. The series was produced by Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...

, Silver Pictures Television and Rob Thomas Productions, and Joel Silver
Joel Silver
Joel Silver is an American Hollywood film producer, co-creator of the sport of Ultimate, co-founder of Dark Castle Entertainment and owner of Silver Pictures.-Life and career:...

 and Thomas served as the executive producers.

The season revolves around Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars (character)
Veronica Mars is a fictional character in UPN/The CW the television series, Veronica Mars, which aired on the UPN and CW networks from 2004 to 2007. She is portrayed by Kristen Bell.- Background and details of plot :...

 (Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell
Kristen Anne Bell is an American actress. Although her first film role was an uncredited appearance in Polish Wedding, Bell previously acted in stage and musical productions. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer...

), a high school student and private investigator in the fictional Southern California seaside town of Neptune. When Veronica's best friend, Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

), is murdered, her life falls apart. Her father, County Sheriff Keith Mars
Keith Mars
Keith Mars is a fictional character on UPN/The CW television series Veronica Mars, which debuted during the fall 2004 season on UPN. He is portrayed by Enrico Colantoni....

 (Enrico Colantoni
Enrico Colantoni
Enrico Colantoni is a Canadian actor, probably best known for portraying Elliot DiMauro in the sitcom Just Shoot Me!, Keith Mars on the television series Veronica Mars, and Sergeant Greg Parker on the television series Flashpoint. He has also had supporting roles in such films as The Wrong Guy, ...

), accuses Lilly's father of being involved in the murder. This provokes Neptune's wrath and Keith's ousting as sheriff in a recall election
Recall election
A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended...

. Veronica's mother, Lianne (Corinne Bohrer
Corinne Bohrer
Corinne Vilhelma Bohrer is an American movie and television actress.-Early life:She grew up in Arlington, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex area, where she attended Lamar High School. She was active in drama, band, and student government...

), develops a drinking problem and leaves town. Veronica's "09er" friends—wealthy students from the fictional 90909 ZIP code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

—force her to choose between them and her father; she chooses her father. Keith opens a private investigation agency, Mars Investigations, where Veronica works part-time.

The series was critically acclaimed, and appeared on several fall television best lists. The first season garnered an average of 2.5 million viewers per all 22 episodes in the US. Out of all regular primetime programming that aired during the 2004–2005 American television season
2004-05 United States network television schedule
This was the United States broadcast television schedule on all six commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 2004. All times are Eastern and Pacific....

, Veronica Mars ranked #148 out of #156, according to the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 system. The pilot was watched by 2.49 million viewers, while the finale was watched by 2.99 million viewers.

Cast

The first season features a cast of seven actors who receive star billing
Billing (film)
Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works...

. Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell
Kristen Anne Bell is an American actress. Although her first film role was an uncredited appearance in Polish Wedding, Bell previously acted in stage and musical productions. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer...

 portrays the titular Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars (character)
Veronica Mars is a fictional character in UPN/The CW the television series, Veronica Mars, which aired on the UPN and CW networks from 2004 to 2007. She is portrayed by Kristen Bell.- Background and details of plot :...

, a high school junior and skilled private detective. Teddy Dunn
Teddy Dunn
Edward Wilkes "Teddy" Dunn is an Australian actor known for his portrayal of Duncan Kane in the Rob Thomas television series Veronica Mars which he portrayed for 44 episodes.-Personal life:...

 plays Duncan Kane
Duncan Kane
Duncan Kane is a fictional character on UPN/The CW television series Veronica Mars, which debuted during the fall 2004 season on UPN. He was a series regular during seasons one and two. He is portrayed by Teddy Dunn. He is Veronica's ex-boyfriend, and the brother to her dead best friend, Lilly...

, Veronica's ex-boyfriend and Lilly's brother. Jason Dohring
Jason Dohring
Jason William Dohring is an American actor who is best known for his role as Logan Echolls on the 2004 television show Veronica Mars and for his role as Josef Kostan on the 2007 series Moonlight.-Personal life:...

 plays Logan Echolls
Logan Echolls
Logan Echolls is a fictional character on the UPN/The CW television series Veronica Mars, which debuted during the fall 2004 season on UPN.He is portrayed by Jason Dohring.- Background :...

, the "bad-boy" 09er son of an A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...

 actor. Percy Daggs III
Percy Daggs III
Percy Daggs III is an American actor best known for his role as Wallace Fennel in the Rob Thomas television series Veronica Mars. He is also known for starring in television commercials for Hot Pockets and Orbit Gum...

 portrays Wallace Fennel
Wallace Fennel
Wallace Fennel is a fictional character on UPN/The CW television series Veronica Mars, which debuted during the fall 2004 season on UPN. He is portrayed by Percy Daggs III.- Background :...

, Veronica's best friend and frequent partner in solving mysteries. Francis Capra
Francis Capra
Francis Capra is an American actor. Some of his best known roles are a young Calogero Anello in A Bronx Tale, Max Connor in Kazaam, and Eli "Weevil" Navarro in the TV series Veronica Mars.-Personal life:...

 portrays Eli "Weevil" Navarro, the leader of the PCH
California State Route 1
State Route 1 , more often called Highway 1, is a state highway that runs along much of the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. It is famous for running along some of the most beautiful coastlines in the world, leading to its designation as an All-American Road.Highway 1 does not run...

 Biker gang and Veronica's friend. Enrico Colantoni
Enrico Colantoni
Enrico Colantoni is a Canadian actor, probably best known for portraying Elliot DiMauro in the sitcom Just Shoot Me!, Keith Mars on the television series Veronica Mars, and Sergeant Greg Parker on the television series Flashpoint. He has also had supporting roles in such films as The Wrong Guy, ...

 plays Veronica's father Keith Mars
Keith Mars
Keith Mars is a fictional character on UPN/The CW television series Veronica Mars, which debuted during the fall 2004 season on UPN. He is portrayed by Enrico Colantoni....

, a private investigator and former Balboa County Sheriff. Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Sydney Tamiia Poitier is an American actress known for her work on television.- Biography :Sydney is the daughter of famous Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier....

 plays Mallory Dent, Veronica's journalism teacher at Neptune High. Although she was given series regular billing, Poitier appeared in only four episodes, but was given credit for seven.

Kristen Bell was chosen to play Veronica Mars from more than 500 women who auditioned for the role. Bell felt that it was "just luck" that Rob Thomas saw that "I have some sass to me, and that's exactly what he wanted". Bell thought that it was her cheerleader looks and an outsider's attitude that set her apart from the other women who auditioned. Jason Dohring, who played Logan Echolls, originally auditioned for the role of Duncan Kane. Teddy Dunn originally auditioned for Logan, but ended up portraying Duncan Kane. Dohring felt that his audition for Duncan "was a little dark", and he was told by the producers that it was "not really right". The producers asked Dohring to read for the role of Logan, which involved reading Duncan's lines. Dohring acted one scene from the pilot, in which he shattered the headlights of a car with a crowbar. During the final auditions, Dohring read two times with Bell and met with the studio and the network. When reading with Bell, Dohring acted the whole scene as if he had raped her, and tried to give the character an evil and fun feel. At the time of Dohring's audition for Logan, the character was only going to be a guest star in the pilot.

Thomas described Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

, who portrayed the murdered Lilly Kane, as "the biggest surprise of the year". When casting a series regular, he was able to see all the best actors in town, mainly because they all wanted to be a series regular. When casting Lilly Kane, who would only appear from time-to-time as "the dead girl", Thomas did not receive the same standard of actors. Thomas said that he had "never had a more cut and dry audition" than he did with Seyfried. He said that she was "about 100 times better than anyone else that we saw, she was just spectacular". He continued by saying that she ended up being so good in the series that he used her three or four more times than he initially planned.

Critical reception

Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 gave the season a Metascore—a weighted average based on the impressions of a select nine critical reviews—of 82, signifying "universal acclaim". James Poniewozik of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

labeled the series as one of the six best dramas on television. He praised Bell as "a captivating star," and said that the series "uses its pulp premise to dramatize a universal teen experience: that growing up means sleuthing out the mystery of who you really are." Kay McFadden of The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...

called Veronica Mars an update to the "classic California film noir". She felt that Veronica Mars was the best new series on UPN, and that the title character was potentially "this season's most interesting character creation". McFadden described the series as "Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...

in its attitude, Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...

 in its writing and The O.C.
The O.C.
The O.C. is an American teen drama television series that originally aired on the Fox television network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 21, 2007, running a total of four seasons...

in its class-consciousness." James South of Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...

praised the "crisp, clever writing", and noted the supporting characters were more than just plot devices. He commended Bell's portrayal of Veronica as "simultaneously smart, vulnerable, tough and injured", and found the guest stars were well-utilized. South wrote the remaining cast was "uniformly good", but gave Dohring a special mention for his acting. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...

 praised the first season finale for being "just the sort of satisfying capper you look for in a series that, week after week, keeps you asking questions".

Robert Abele of LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...

said that "in this smart, engaging series about a former popular girl turned crime-solving high school outcast, the hard-boiled dialogue comes from its teen protagonist's mouth in a way that stabs any potential cutesiness in the heart with an ice pick." Joy Press of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

saw the series as "a sharp teen noir in the making", "[pulsing] with promise". However, Press felt that the series paled somewhat compared to the television series Wonderfalls
Wonderfalls
Wonderfalls is a comedy-drama television series that was broadcast on the Fox television network in 2004.The show centres on Jaye Tyler , a recent Brown University graduate with a philosophy degree, who holds a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop...

. Filip Vukcevic of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 gave the season a positive review, particularly praising the amount of audience participation. However, the reviewer felt that several of the main characters were undeveloped, and that Daggs III and Dunn, as well as their respective characters, were "boring". Vukcevic wrote that while the ultimate resolution to the murder was satisfying, it was not "world-shattering".

Awards

The first season was nominated for seven awards, winning one. In 2005, Veronica Mars received the American Film Institute Award
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 for Television Programs of the Year, and was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Breakout Show, and the Television Critics Association Awards for Outstanding New Program of the Year. Kristen Bell was nominated for the Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...

 for Best Television Actress
Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television
The following are a list of Saturn Award nominees & winners for Best Actress on Television:-1990s:*1996: Gillian Anderson - The X-Files**Claudia Christian - Babylon 5**Melissa Joan Hart - Sabrina, the Teenage Witch...

, the Satellite Award for Outstanding Actress in a Series, Drama, the Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Breakout Performance, Female, and the Television Critics Association
Television Critics Association
The Television Critics Association is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian journalists and columnists who cover television programming...

 Awards for Individual Achievement in Drama.

Distribution

The CTV Television Network
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

 began airing Veronica Mars in Canada as a mid-season replacement on May 30, 2005. Living began showing the series in the United Kingdom in October 2005, averaging 50,000 viewers per episode for its first season. Veronica Mars premiered in Australia by Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 on November 28, 2005, where the series saw erratic airings. TV2 began showing the series in New Zealand on July 15, 2005.

The first season of Veronica Mars was released in the US under the title Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season as a widescreen six-disc Region 1 DVD box set on October 11, 2005. In addition to all the episodes that had been aired, DVD extras included an extended "Pilot" episode, over 20 minutes of unaired scenes and an unaired opening sequence. The same set was released on May 16, 2008 in Region 2, and on June 4, 2008 in Region 4. Ben Fritz of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

criticized the DVD for a lack of special features, but noted that the producers were forced to release the set early to attract more viewers. Fritz believed that Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 owed fans a better DVD set "chock full of commentaries, interviews and deleted scenes in context". Likewise, Anita Srikamswaren of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...

was surprised by the minimal amount of extras. Srikamswaren pointed out that despite the early release, it was still two weeks after the second season premiere.

Episodes

When Veronica discovers new evidence that suggests that Lilly's convicted killer is innocent, she decides to investigate the case. As Veronica delves deeper into the murder, she also works on other investigations, seeks her mother's whereabouts and deals with the aftermath of being drugged and raped during an 09er party. Veronica, no longer part of the school's wealthy in-crowd, makes some new friends: Wallace, Neptune High basketball star; Weevil, leader of the PCHers, a Latino biker gang; and Mac, Neptune High's resident computer genius. Using her friends' resources, as well as those provided by her father and his contacts, Veronica gains a reputation for sleuthing and finds her skills in increasingly high demand at her school. Things get more complicated when Veronica falls into a relationship with Lilly's ex-boyfriend Logan, who for a time held Veronica partly responsible for Lilly's death and went out of his way to harass her.
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External links

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