VMHQ STATEMENT RE: REVIVAL
Marshmallows,
Individually, most of the librarians have been rooting for Veronica Mars since the Pilot first aired in 2004. Collectively, we formed the fan group, Veronica Mars Headquarters, in order to continue promoting our beloved show by having rewatches, creating contests and giveaways, organizing fanfic challenges - anything we could think of to support the fandom and help it grow.
Needless to say, we were very excited when we heard the news of a revival, and we are sure you can imagine how we now feel in the aftermath. After months of being sold one type of product in the marketing– an empowering story for women, a strong female grappling with the direction she wants to go in life, the importance of mental health, and the exploration of a committed hard-won relationship–we were given something entirely different.
This bait-and-switch has left many feeling betrayed.
All of the things we admired and loved about the character of Veronica Mars were gone. Instead of a heroine who survived trauma, while managing to be both strong and have a generous heart, the writers removed not only her marshmallow center, but fifteen years’ worth of character growth.
Veronica’s problematic behavior toward Weevil would take too many paragraphs to describe. There was no loving concern for her father. While he was struggling with memory loss and fearing the worst, she just seemed ambivalent. Spending time with her best friend only bored her. (Wallace was her rock, now he seems like an annoyance because he had the audacity to form his own life. Based on her behavior now, would Wallace STILL feel it was worth getting taped to a flagpole?) She showed no genuine emotion toward any of the people she is supposed to love.
They seemed to forget Veronica used to encourage Logan to seek professional help, and that she holds a psych degree from Stanford; they decided to instead have her ridicule Logan for working on his mental health and mockingly ask him if he was taking drugs. Yes, we know the way this is portrayed is supposed to show us Veronica’s position is wrong– but this is simply not the Veronica Mars we’ve known all these years. This is a character who resembles Veronica, but has very few of the qualities that made her so great.
We think the revival regresses Veronica’s character to this bitter shell of a person, in order to show us an abbreviated version of her journey to mental health? However, they negate the entire message in the last ten minutes of the revival. With that ending, they tell us, it doesn’t matter how she works to improve yourself, because people like Veronica (and Logan) don’t deserve a happy ending. Bottom line - why bother? It is nihilistic and, frankly, depressing. It is certainly NOT the story we need in our current social climate.
We do understand that sometimes the death of a major character is unavoidable on a television show– an actor wants to leave or the story dictates this decision. However, this usually happens during the original run, and when it’s done, the showrunners and writers try to handle the situation with care and regard for their fans. Unless the death was for shock value only, they at least allow space for the audience to grieve.
Veronica Mars is different. The death of Logan Echolls did not happen during the original run. This happened after fans spent seven years campaigning to have their canceled show resurrected. This happened after fans funded a movie through Kickstarter in order to get their closure. This happened after fans spent another five years championing the franchise so we could spend more time with our favorite fictional people. This happened in the last ten minutes without any preparation or warning. It was not part of the plot. It was not a hero’s death. Logan Echolls was fridged to re-traumatize our heroine. It was an ignominious end for a beloved character.
Our takeaway from the revival is that the showrunner and writers are not only saying trauma victims like Logan and Veronica do not deserve a happy ending. They are also telling us stories about women are only interesting if they are victims. They are saying women can’t have both challenging careers and partners who love them. We find these messages demoralizing and degrading - the complete antithesis of what we thought this show was about.
We’d like to encourage our followers to not buy into such damaging stereotypes. It is okay for you to feel sad and disappointed. We certainly do.
We strongly disagree with the direction the Hulu revival took, and it’s hindered our desire to love and promote the product. While we debate our next steps, we have decided to put all our social media accounts on indefinite hiatus and will not be commenting or posting about Veronica Mars.
However, one thing we’re clear on is, we want to support you–our wonderful, loyal fandom. To that end, we are keeping our Discord server open so people have a place to connect (https://discord.gg/mEZWSZZ). We’ve experienced an influx of people over the past two days all seeking an outlet to express their feelings, and we hope it is offering a small measure of comfort. We are also considering hosting another fanfic challenge specifically for season 4 fix-its, in order to help people process through writing and reading.
Please practice self-care. If you’re having trouble with your mental health, please think WWLD (what would Logan do) and do not be ashamed to seek help. Here’s a link of resources to help you get started: https://www.nami.org/Find-Support/NAMI-HelpLine/Top-HelpLine-Resources
We love you, marshmallows, and we will keep you posted as plans coalesce. In the meantime, please know we appreciate all of you; thank you for all the fun and laughter over the past fifteen years.
Love,
The VMHQ Librarians
