TV and Sympathy

The men of VM

Veronica Mars is lousy with guys. I mean that in both senses of the word - Veronica herself doesn't have the best luck with the fellas, and VM the show is teeming with hombres. While I love that the show has been able to create such a variety of interesting male characters, it's a bit odd sometimes to look at cast photographs and see Kristen Bell backed by a bevy of dudes.

Do the writers not find women not as interesting to write for? Or is Kristen Bell so good she's the only woman they want to write for? Or, I wonder, is Veronica such an uber-cool female lead that the writers can't bring themselves to make another woman the focus? Hard to say - and probably none of those things. There have been some female characters I've loved -- Mac, Meg, and now Jackie's growing on me -- but I'm not sure any of them have been the same stellar treatment Veronica has.

Don't think I'm complaining, though. Even the supporting actors on Veronica Mars are more layered and entertaining than main characters on some other programs. I find myself consistently impressed with all the supporting studs in Veronica's life.

Sheriff Don Lamb: Michael Muhney is awesome in this role, especially considering what a lovely, humble guy he is in real life. Once described as "a cross between Greg Kinnear and an eel," he brings just the right amount of arrogance, corruption, dim-wittedness, and glee to what could have been simply a one-note villain. Also, the abs.

Cliff McCormack: I like this character - he's...tawdry. And when he's played by the same actor who voiced Spottswoode in Team America: World Police, you've got a real winner. He manages to combine seediness, sarcasm, caring and competence to create one hell of a lawyer. Plus, he knows how to wear a $250 suit like nobody's business.

Dick Casablancas: Dick Casablancas is the bastard child of Satan. So why do I love him so much? Because he gets so many great lines. ("Sometimes you don't need the prettiest horse. Just one that lets you ride bareback." Shudder.) He's what Logan might have been, minus the woobie nougat center. It's a testament to sweet Ryan Hansen's talents that we buy him so completely as a douchebag of epic proportions. Every show needs an obligatory psychotic jackass. He's ours.

And on a related note, let me just say: Wallace!=Weevil. For those of you who don't speak geek, "!=" means "does not equal", and I bring it up because several of the synopses I read prior to the airing of "I Am God" indicated that it was Logan and Weevil who worked together on a physics project. I love Weevil, but we've already had our shoe-horned-into-the-plot Logan and Weevil interactions back in season one's "The Girl Next Door. This time around, it was nice to get some Logan-Wallace interactions instead, since they're two central figures in Veronica's life, and prior to last week we hadn't see them utter two words to each other.

posted by Veltman @ 10:35 PM