Not only was I, until very recently, a Buffy virgin, I had never seen the short-lived but geek-loved Veronica Mars. Raf, the very same friend who lent me his Buffy DVD’s, also lent me Season One of Veronica Mars, and told me I’d love it. Raf, you were right. The missus and I just finished the first season, and it was pretty darn amazing. At the risk of sounding like a weirdly obssesed fanboy, I can’t help but gushing about what I love about this show.  (Besides the totally awesome theme song, that is.)

For starters, Kristin Bell is amazing. Not only is she super-cute, she’s a great actress, and she gives the character a ton of smarts and sass without it ever feeling like she’s trying to hard. Seriously, I bet this role in the hands of most actresses would come across as incredibly hokey and lame. And it’s important that she be believable, because she carries much of the show on her own. That’s not me discounting the rest of the characters, but Veronica is in charge of her own investigations, and she is on-screen for most of the show, plus her voice-over when she isn’t. But you never get sick of her. Sure, other shows have strong lead characters, but shows usually don’t allows their background characters to simply exist, they are too often forced down your throat.

That said, the other actors on the show all do a great job at playing the other people in Veronica’s world.  I  enjoyed watching the evolution of Logan, and Duncan became much more three dimensional as the season progressed.  But the true standout of the cast besides Bell has to be Enrico Colantoni’s portrayal of Keith Mars.  The fact that this is a show about a teenage girl, and the main “relationship” revolves around the girl and her father might seem weird, but it makes sense in the context of what has happened to this family.  In spite of all the tragedy that’s occurred to them, they truly love each other, and they make a great team.

The show also masterfully handles the balance of an overall arc and stand-alone episodes, by making virtually every episode contain both.  Veronica uses her smarts and private investigator savvy to solve mysteries in the present, while also working at uncovering the truth about the Lily Kane murder.  The way that the show spreads out this case throughout the season makes sense, especially given the magnitude of the cover-up and the personal toll it has taken on the Mars family.  And the standalone stories are also brilliant - there were some twists and turns along the way that I saw coming, but for the most part, the cases that Veronica takes on are hard to predict, even if you’re trying to.

If I had to find one thing to gripe about, it would be that at times Veronica takes what people say at face value when she should be more suspicious of their motives.  But I guess despite her cunning, she is still only human and is allowed to make errors in judgment every now and again.

I’ve heard that the next seasons aren’t as strong as the first, but I’m still looking forward to watching the further adventures of Veronica Mars, and seeing the aftermath of everything that went down in the first season finale.  Now if only there was someone who would be kind enough to let me borrow those DVDs…