reviewed by Charity Bishop
            

One of the most mature young adult programs to run on UPN during its short stint as an independent network, Veronica Mars took some chances in its second season that alienated a few fans and made others tune in just to see the conclusion. It maintained its hip status as the next teen hit, but also lost some ground in its storytelling.

 Months after Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) was nearly killed after solving the murder of her best friend Lily Kane, she is struggling to return to some normality in the small town of Neptune, known for its tough street gangs, less than formidable local cops, and everlasting struggle between the haves and the have-nots at the local high school. Having broken up with the troubled Logan (Jason Dohring) over the summer, and re-entered into a relationship with former sweetheart Duncan (Teddy Dunn), Veronica now works at the coffee shop four nights a week and tries to avoid the cases that got her into so much trouble in the first place. But she just keeps stumbling into the midst of them, from on-campus college rapes to messed with drug tests. The biggest issue in her life comes when she narrowly avoids being on a bus that plummets through the railing and crashes into the sea below, killing all but one of the high school students on board.

Neither Veronica nor her father Keith (Enrico Colantoni) believe it was an accident, and fear that one of Veronica's high-powered enemies is at the bottom of it. With Meg in the hospital and her boyfriend strangely distant, Veronica struggles to find out what really happened to cause the crash, while maintaining relationships with the friends in her life. The second season also introduces Kendall (Charisma Carpenter), the manipulative gold-digging twenty-something wife of one of the most influential businessmen in town, and Jackie (Tessa Thompson), the daughter of a sports star in deep over gambling debts. In some respects it remains a good season despite obvious faults and the overwhelming negative response the network received to the split up of Logan and Veronica, but the truth is that the second year of the hip series is not nearly as good as the first. The underlining mystery surrounding the bush crash is complicated and involved, so much so that it's hard to follow at times and if you don't have the luxury of watching all the episodes immediately in a row, you might forget names, places, and details. Many of the characters' dubious actions are not fully explained, leaving me with the feeling that I must have missed something somewhere, but it has the best season finale in the series and some truly great moments between the cast. I was also surprised that the show not only explored the details of their lives, but also the consequences of their actions.

That being said, the second season has far too much sex in it. Various couples are intimate throughout; some are shown hot and sweaty during the act, others basking in the afterglow, or undressing one another. Logan and Kendall have the most graphic relationship, but Veronica and Duncan are also sexually involved. In the season finale, Wallace and his girlfriend get too friendly with one another, and one of Veronica's friends is frustrated that an attempt with her boyfriend went badly. Logan starts a relationship with a girl at school and implies to her father that it is more physical than it actually is, but later is found making out with her in his hotel room. Glimpses of a sex tape from the previous season are briefly shown, but the nature of the relationship is heavily discussed at a public trial. Several episodes deal with sexually related crimes: a series of rapes are committed on campus in "The Rapes of Wrath," "Versatile Toppings" is all about someone trying to out closet gay students, and a series of child molestations are discovered in the final episodes. There are streakers in "Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough," but we never actually see them.

There also seems to be more innuendo this time around. Beaver sets up his older brother with a transsexual hooker as a joke. The violence is pretty intense, with flashbacks of a gang beating, several explosions, fist fights, and other physical altercations. Veronica is nearly stabbed with a tattoo needle, and various people are threatened by guns. Certain moments this season were beyond classic. Logan saving Veronica from thugs. Weevil (Francis Capra) taking matters into his own hands. The murder trial for Lily Kane. It also tackled a few things that most shows are reluctant to address -- like sexually transmitted diseases, and teen pregnancy -- but overall I felt in some respects the show lost the vision of what Veronica Mars actually is. The title character is still short, blonde, and sassy, but some of the spark is missing, replaced with a bit too much smut to suit my personal taste.