Veronica Mars

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Television series
German title Veronica Mars
Original title Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars 2004 logo.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 2004-2007, 2019
length 42 minutes
Episodes 72 in 4 seasons ( list )
genre Noir , crime , drama , youth series
Theme music The Dandy Warhols - We Used to Be Friends
idea Rob Thomas
production Joel Silver , Rob Thomas , Diane Ruggiero , Jennifer Gwartz, Danielle Stokdyk
music Josh Kramon
First broadcast September 22, 2004 (USA) on UPN
German-language
first broadcast		 March 2, 2006 on ATV +
main actor
supporting cast

Veronica Mars is an American television series developed by Rob Thomas . The focal point of the series is the protagonist Veronica Mars (played by Kristen Bell ). She is a high school student for the first two seasons and a college student for the third season . On the side she works - initially unofficially - with her father as a private detective. The series combines the company's typical elements from the film noir , thriller - High school and drama - Genre .

The series pilot ran on UPN on September 22, 2004 . Since spring 2006, the series has also been shown in Germany on ZDF , in Austria on ATV and in Switzerland on SF Zwei .

Despite good reviews, Veronica Mars achieved poor audience ratings . On May 17, 2007, The CW canceled the series after three seasons. The film of the same name for the series was released in German cinemas on March 13, 2014 ; the US film release was on March 14.

On July 19, 2019, the streaming service Hulu released a fourth season. The plot of the eight new episodes takes place five years after the 2014 film.

content

Seasons 1 and 2, in addition to the cases limited to the individual episodes, were each dominated by a large criminal case as the framework for action (Season 1: “Who killed Lilly Kane?”, Season 2: “Who was responsible for the bus accident?”). The series deviated from this scheme in the third season. There were two minor overarching cases ("Who is the Hearst Rapist?", "Who Killed the Dean of Hearst College?") And five individual episodes. The broadcaster intended to bind viewers with less stamina to the series. Originally, the last five episodes were supposed to have their own story arc, but it was finally decided against it. One of the reasons given for this was the shortened season length.

season 1

Leading actress Kristen Bell on the set of Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars, the main character in the series, is the daughter of Keith Mars, the sheriff of the fictional Californian town of Neptune. Neptune is presented by Veronica in the first episode as a “city without a middle class”: “If you go to school here, then your parents are either millionaires or they work for millionaires.” This social division continues into the student body: The after the final digits of the postal code of the rich residential area named “09s” can afford any number of status symbols; the others cannot. Before the plot begins, Veronica is part of the "09er" clique as the friend of billionaire son Duncan Kane.

After Duncan's sister and Veronica's best friend Lilly Kane are murdered, Sheriff Mars arrests Lilly's father as a suspect; the city is behind the popular Kane family, however, and Keith Mars loses office in a hastily convened new election. Since Veronica takes sides for her father towards her friends, she becomes an outsider. When, out of defiance, she appears at a party where she is not wanted, she is drugged and raped. The next morning, however, she can only remember the beginning of the evening. She wants to file a complaint with the new sheriff Don Lamb, but he just laughs at her because he thinks Veronica and her father are busy people. Shortly afterwards, Veronica's mother leaves the city and goes into hiding.

Veronica helps her now single father, who now works as a private detective, solve cases. At the beginning of the season she officially only acts as his part-time secretary, but then stumbles over and over again in her school and privately over "cases" that she clarifies independently. In doing so, she finds more and more pieces of the puzzle to answer the most important questions for her: Who murdered her best friend Lilly, who raped her herself, and where and why is her mother hiding? Veronica receives support from Wallace Fennel, a classmate who Veronica assists in a compromising situation on his first day at high school, the leader of the local motorcycle gang Eli "Weevil" Navarro and Logan Echolls, a spoiled actor's son and ex-boyfriend of Lilly Kane.

Veronica starts a relationship with Troy Vandegraff, the first "09er" who is interested in her again. However, when his car appears to be stolen after a trip to Mexico along with a package of steroids , it becomes clear that he has no serious intentions and wants to sell the steroids himself. Veronica sees through him and makes the steroids go away; Troy has to leave Neptune. Since Veronica is often at the police station, she notices Deputy Leo D'Amato, who is going to a high school ball with her. Logan's mother, Lynn Echolls, commits suicide by jumping off a bridge. However, Logan firmly believes that she is still alive; so he hires Veronica to look for her. However, the two only find one amateur video that suggests that Lynn actually committed suicide.

Duncan is now with Veronica's only "09er" friend Meg Manning. Veronica finds her now alcoholic mother and takes her to rehab, while Keith Mars begins a relationship with Wallace Fennel's mother, Alicia. Veronica leaves Deputy Leo because she and Logan are getting closer. During an investigation, Veronica learns of Duncan's illness, a rare form of epilepsy that is accompanied by flares of aggressiveness and amnesia. She now suspects Duncan to have killed his sister Lilly, whereupon he escapes from Neptune. Keith Mars tracks down Duncan and brings him back. Veronica finds out that at the “09er” party a year ago she was given a drink containing GHB that was actually meant for another girl. Duncan, who found her in the guest room, also got GHB from Logan and slept with her. However, since Logan's mother had told him that Veronica was his sister, he wanted to forget everything. A genetic test shows that it is not Jake Kane, who was in a relationship with Lianne Mars, but Keith Mars' s father.

Veronica now thinks Logan is Lilly's killer. However, videotapes found by Duncan and Veronica prove that Lilly and Logan's father, Aaron Echolls, had an affair. After Lilly took the tapes and refused to give them back, Aaron killed her. Aaron Echoll's attempt to take the tapes off Veronica and kill her is foiled by Keith Mars and Aaron is arrested.

season 2

The night Aaron Echolls was arrested, Logan is beaten up by "Weevil's" motorcycle gang and wakes up with a knife in hand next to the corpse of gang member Felix. He doesn't go to jail, but he changes so much that Veronica breaks up with him. She later gets back together with Duncan and thus counts again to the clique of the "09ers". Wallace and five other top athletes are banned from exercising for allegedly using drugs; Wallace asks Veronica to prove his innocence. When the bus crashes over a cliff on a school trip, Veronica tries to find out why the bus crashed. At first, the bus driver is suspected of having committed suicide. Wallace is visited by his birth father, with whom he goes to Chicago for a few weeks, while Keith Mars and his mother Alicia separate. A witness appears who claims to have seen Logan intentionally killing Felix.

The only survivor of the bus accident is Meg Manning, Duncan's ex-girlfriend, who is in a coma. Evidence emerges that the bus accident was a planned bomb attack carried out by a special effects expert in the film industry; he is found dead on the beach. By chance, Veronica finds out that Meg is pregnant; the father is Duncan. Meg dies in the hospital, the child survives. Veronica helps Duncan to flee to Mexico with his little daughter Lilly in order to protect the child from Meg's overstrained parents and thereby fulfill Meg's last will. Ex-baseball star Terrence Cook is next suspected of plotting the bus attack, as a teacher on board knew he was addicted to gambling.

Veronica clears up a series of abuses by the mayor of Neptune, who then escapes. Aaron Echolls, who is charged with the murder of Lilly Kane, is acquitted on false evidence. Duncan hires Clarence Wiedman, the former security chief of Kane Software, to kill Aaron. In the final episode of the second season, Veronica finds out that Cassidy Casablancas was responsible for the attack on the school bus and learns that it was he who raped her during the party. Thereupon he falls from a roof and dies.

season 3

Veronica Mars, who is in a relationship with Logan Echolls, is starting her studies at Hearst College in Neptune with Logan, Wallace Fennel, Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie and Dick Casablancas; she is studying criminology with Hank Landry. On the very first day, she is confronted with a rape series in college. One of the victims is Parker Lee, Mac's roommate. After she was drugged and raped, her head was shaved off. The trail leads to the fraternities as all the victims were previously at fraternity parties. Keith Mars is still a private investigator and is initially concerned with a case involving the Fitzpatricks and Kendall Casablancas, which begins in the second season. Eli "Weevil" Navarro works briefly for Keith Mars. Veronica breaks up with Logan on several occasions, who withdraws completely until he gets together with Parker Lee. During an investigation, Veronica learns, apparently by chance, that her mentor Hank Landry has a relationship with Mindy O'Dell, the wife of the college principal. Veronica is finally able to solve the rape case, after which a duo of two students is arrested.

The unpopular Dean Cyrus O'Dell is found dead in his office. Everything looks like a suicide, but murder cannot be ruled out either. Mindy O'Dell and her lover Hank Landry but also Mindy's ex-husband Steve Bitondo are possible perpetrators. Bitondo and Sheriff Don Lamb are killed during the investigation; Mindy O'Dell and later Hank Landry escape. After Lamb's death, Keith Mars resumes the sheriff's position in Neptune. Landry is caught and tried for manslaughter of Mindy O'Dell; Veronica discovers that Tim Foyle, Landry's right-hand man, wanted to get rid of his professor by killing the dean, and that is why she leaked information about Landry's relationship with Mindy O'Dell.

Finally, Veronica begins a relationship with Stosh "Piz" Piznarski, Wallace's roommate, who also works as a radio presenter. The second private investigator in Neptune, Vinnie Van Lowe, is also running for the upcoming sheriff election as a competitor to Keith Mars. The ominous secret group "The Castle" sends a sex video of Veronica and "Piz" via email, whereupon Veronica breaks into the property of "Castle" member Jake Kane to collect evidence. At the end of the season, the sheriff election begins while prosecutors are investigating Keith for destroying video evidence showing his daughter Veronica breaking into the Kane estate.

Cast and dubbing

Leading roles

Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars)
Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls)
Teddy Dunn (Duncan Kane)
Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel)
Ryan Hansen (Dick Casablancas)
  • Veronica Mars ( Kristen Bell , German speaker: Manja Doering )
    is the title hero and a young detective. Veronica not only clears up cases for her classmates (from blackmail to theft, drugs and stalking to rape of students), but also finds the killer of her best friend Lilly in the first season and the school bus bomber in the second season. She works with her father and thus has access to the necessary technical resources.
  • Keith Mars ( Enrico Colantoni , German speaker: Detlef Bierstedt )
    is the father of Veronica and former sheriff of Neptune. Keith is now a private investigator and a single father. He broke up with Lianne and started a relationship with Wallace's mother.
  • Wallace Fennel ( Percy Daggs III , German speaker: David Turba )
    is Veronica's best friend. He's new to Neptune High in season one and later becomes the star of the school's basketball team.
  • Logan Echolls ( Jason Dohring , German speaker: Gerrit Schmidt-Foss )
    is the son of Hollywood actor Aaron Echolls and is presented in the first episode as the school's "psychotic Jackass". He gradually develops into one of Veronica's friends and often gets from one difficulty to the next through his arrogance.
  • Duncan Kane ( Teddy Dunn , German speaker: Robin Kahnmeyer )
    was Veronica's friend at first, but leaves her without giving a reason. He is the brother of Lilly and the uncrowned "King" of the "09er", who has a mysterious illness. Towards the end of the first season, he begins a relationship with Meg. In the course of the second season he moves to Mexico with Veronica's help to protect his and Meg's child from their fanatically religious parents.
  • Eli "Weevil" Navarro ( Francis Capra , German speaker: Michael Deffert )
    is the boss of the Neptune motorcycle gang, the PCHers . Veronica and he help each other out with difficulties. Eli was briefly with Lilly before her death, which both of them kept silent.
  • Don Lamb ( Michael Muhney , German speaker: Viktor Neumann )
    is the new sheriff of Neptune and replaced Keith Mars with it. He and Keith have had a long rivalry, which is why he reluctantly works with Veronica and her father and thus often lengthens the investigation of criminal cases unnecessarily.
  • Dick Casablancas ( Ryan Hansen , German speakers: Fabian Hollwitz , Kim Hasper )
    is an arrogant "09er" and the long-term friend of Madison Sinclair. The son of Richard "Big Dick" Casablancas and big brother of Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas knows no morals. He and Logan encourage each other to engage in new, sometimes illegal, activities.
  • Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas ( Kyle Gallner , German speaker: Marius Clarén )
    is the younger brother of Dick. Although he is a member of the "09er", he remains an outsider in the rich world. He turns out to be Veronica's rapist.
  • Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie ( Tina Majorino , German speaker: Julia Kaufmann )
    is a computer-savvy friend of Veronica who helps her with technical problems. She has a talent for business. After the birth, she and another child in the clinic were accidentally mixed up.
  • Stosh "Piz" Piznarski ( Chris Lowell , German speaker: Wanja Gerick )
    will be Wallace's roommate in the dormitory and speaker for his own radio show on campus radio from the third season.

Supporting roles

Amanda Seyfried (Lilly Kane)
  • Mallory Dent ( Sydney Tamiia Poitier , German speaker: Gundi Eberhard )
    teacher at Neptune High, who becomes pregnant in the middle of the first season and hands the journalism course to another teacher.
  • Van Clemmons ( Duane Daniels , German spokesperson: Stefan Staudinger )
    long-time teacher at Neptune High, who was vice-principal during Veronica's school days and later became principal.
  • Jake Kane ( Kyle Secor , German speaker: Udo Schenk )
    father of Duncan and Lilly, by far the richest man in Neptune and owner of Kane Software. Keith is suspected of killing Lilly.
  • Meg Manning ( Alona Tal , German voice-over artist : Ulrike Stürzbecher )
    friend of Veronica and the only one of the 09s who still speaks to her at the beginning of the first season. She dies in the second season.
  • Abel Koontz ( Christian Clemenson , German speaker: Lutz Schnell )
    alleged murderer of Lilly Kane. He has stomach cancer and is paid by the Kane family to confess to Lilly's murder.
  • Alicia Fennel ( Erica Gimpel , German speaker: Anke Reitzenstein )
    mother of Wallace, who is initially not enthusiastic about her son's friendship with the Mars family. But that changes very quickly when Keith helps her with a subtenant problem and the two get a little closer.
  • Lianne Mars (Corinne Bohrer, German spokeswoman: Silke Matthias )
    Veronica's missing mother with an alcohol problem. Veronica solves her secrets in the first season.
  • Lilly Kane ( Amanda Seyfried , German speaker: Maria Koschny )
    fun-loving and wild best friend of Veronica. Her murder turns Veronica's life so much that everything only stabilizes again when Veronica has caught her murderer.
  • Jackie Cook ( Tessa Thompson , German speaker Tanya Kahana )
    new student from New York, who arouses Wallace's interest. Also has a secret that won't be cleared until the end of the second season.
  • Aaron Echolls ( Harry Hamlin , German speaker: HJ Dittberner )
    Logan's father. Actor and womanizer. Violent and charming and with some corpses in the basement.
  • Lynn Echolls ( Lisa Rinna , German speaker: Heide Domanowski )
    Aaron Echoll's wife and Logan Echoll's mother. Choose suicide in the first season and jump off a bridge.
  • Kendall Casablancas ( Charisma Carpenter , German speaker: Schaukje Könning )
    Dicks and Beaver's stepmother. Former “Laker Girl” with countless male acquaintances and secrets.
  • Deputy Leo D'Amato ( Max Greenfield , German speaker: Dennis Schmidt-Foss )
    works as an assistant sheriff and has a short-term relationship with Veronica.
  • Cliff McCormack ( Daran Norris , German speaker: Peter Reinhardt )
    Lawyer and friend of Keith Mars.
  • Vinnie Van Lowe ( Ken Marino , German speaker: Jörg Hengstler )
    detective from Neptune and main competitor of Keith and Veronica Mars.
  • Madison Sinclair ( Amanda Noret , German speaker: Antje von der Ahe )
    Veronica's archenemy at Neptune High School. Was swapped with Cindy when she was born.
  • Cyrus O'Dell ( Ed Begley junior , German speaker: Bodo Wolf )
    Rector of Hearst College, who dies.
  • Mindy O'Dell ( Jaime Ray Newman , German speaker: Ranja Bonalana )
    wife of Cyrus O'Dell. Doubts her husband's suicide and hires Keith Mars to find the killer.
  • Tim Foyle ( James Jordan , German speaker: Nicolas Böll )
    Assistant to Professor of Criminal Studies Hank Landry.
  • Hank Landry ( Patrick Fabian , German speaker: Bernd Vollbrecht ) Professor of
    Criminology at Hearst College, who promotes Veronica Mars.
  • Parker Lee ( Julie Gonzalo , German spokesperson: Julia Zahl )
    Student at Hearst College who shares a room in the dormitory with Cindy “Mac”.
  • Woody Goodman ( Steve Guttenberg , German speaker: Uwe Büschken )
    Mayor of Neptune.

Guest appearances

Alyson Hannigan (Trina Echolls)

Episode list

Television broadcast

season 1

In the United States , the first season from September 22, 2004 to May 10, 2005 was still broadcast on UPN . In German-speaking countries, the episodes were broadcast from March 2, 2006 to August 17, 2006 on ATV , from April 1, 2006 to September 23, 2006 on ZDF and from April 7, 2006 to May 11, 2006 on SF Zwei.

season 2

The entire second season was broadcast on UPN from September 28, 2005 to May 9, 2006. The ZDF broadcast the second season from April 20, 2007 in the night program. ATV broadcast the second season from April to June 2007 on weekdays, SF two from May to June 2007 also on weekdays.

season 3

The third season was broadcast between October 3, 2006 and May 22, 2007 on the then new network The CW , which emerged from a merger of UPN and The WB . Originally 13 episodes were ordered, this number was later increased to 20 episodes. On October 26, 2007, ZDF began the German premiere of the third season at irregular intervals. From May 9, 2008, it ran on SF two on weekdays.

Season 4

The fourth season comprises eight episodes and was released on the streaming service Hulu on June 19, 2019.

DVD

Seasons 1 to 3 were released on DVD in the US.

The first season was released in Germany on May 16, 2008, the second on August 15, 2008, and the third on December 12, 2008. On June 5, 2009, a complete box with all three seasons was finally released, but it is only the three individual boxes in a slipcase.

Movie

In March 2013, Kristen Bell announced that a Veronica Mars movie was planned to be funded through Kickstarter.com . Within a day, the target of $ 2 million was exceeded, and the Kickstarter project ultimately raised over $ 5.7 million. Series creator Rob Thomas took over the direction and was responsible for the script. Shooting began in June 2013. The film opened on March 13, 2014 in German cinemas and one day later in US cinemas.

Spin-off

On the occasion of the film, the US broadcaster The CW decided in mid-January 2014 to produce a web-based spin-off that is to be published on the online platform CW Seed. It will be a metafictional series that shows Ryan Hansen in an exaggerated version of himself producing a spin-off to Veronica Mars with himself in the lead role. Eight webisodes with a length of five to ten minutes are planned.

Novel series

On March 25, 2014, Random House published the first novel in a series based on the events of the film. It's titled Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line . It was written by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham . The German translation Veronica Mars - Zwei Vermisste sind Zwei zu viel was published on August 11, 2014 by script5. The book is also available as an unabridged audio book, read by Manja Doering, the German voice of Veronica Mars. The second volume Veronica Mars: Mr. Kiss and Tell was published on January 20, 2015. The German translation was published on September 21, 2015 under the title Veronica Mars - Murderers Don't Stay for Breakfast . No audio book has (yet) been published for the second volume.

reboot

In September 2018, Hulu announced that the series would get a fourth season. Showrunner Rob Thomas and leading actress Kristen Bell will return for the eight episodes . Veronica, now grown up, is looking for a serial killer in California who's after students on the spring break vacation. Even Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls), Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars), Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel), Francis Capra (Eli "Weevil" Navarro) and Ryan Hansen (Dick Casablancas) interact with again; newcomers are Dawn Lewis , Patton Oswalt , JK Simmons and Kirby Howell-Baptiste . All eight episodes went online on July 19, 2019.

literature

  • Rob Thomas , Leah Wilson (Eds.): Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations Into Veronica Mars . Jennifer Canzoneri, 2007, ISBN 978-1-933771-13-7 . ( Excerpt in the Google book search)
  • Sue Turnbull: Veronica Mars . In David Lavery (Ed.): The Essential Cult TV Reader . University of Kentucky Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8131-2568-8 , pp. 314-321. ( Excerpt in the Google book search)
  • George A. Dunn (Ed.), William Irwin (Ed.): Veronica Mars and Philosophy: Investigating the Mysteries of Life (Which is a Bitch Until You Die) . Wiley, 2014, ISBN 9781118843697
  • Rhonda V. Wilcox, Sue Turnbull: Investigating Veronica Mars: Essays on the Teen Detective Series . McFarland, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-4534-9 .
  • Melissa Sartore: Robin Hood Goes to Neptune: The Collective Social Bandit in "Veronica Mars" . Studies in Popular Culture, Volume 40, No. 1 (Fall 2017), pp. 53-77 ( JSTOR )
  • Alessandra Stanley: A Junior Detective at Hard-Boiled High . In: New York Times. September 20, 2004.
  • Debra Dudek: Over My Dead Body: Multicultural Social Cohesion in Veronica Mars . In: The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature. Vol 11, No 1, 2007, ISSN  1551-5680 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Metacritic : Reviews of the first season
  2. ↑ 2004-05 Primetime Wrapup . The Hollywood Reporter . May 27, 2005. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  3. ^ Christian Junklewitz: Veronica Mars: Definitely discontinued. In: serienjunkies.de. Veronica Mars: Deposed May 17, 2007, accessed October 3, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Veronica Mars: Season 4 takes place five years after the movie , accessed September 24, 2018
  5. ↑ Jeff Jensen: 'Veronica Mars' movie: Kristen Bell says it's finally happening. In: EW.com. Inside TV, March 13, 2013, accessed March 14, 2013 .
  6. ^ The Veronica Mars Movie Project by Rob Thomas. In: kicktraq.com. Kicktraq, March 2013, accessed on March 14, 2013 .
  7. ↑ http://www.serienjunkies.de/news/veronica-mars-ryan-hansen-krysten-50584.html
  8. ↑ http://www.script5.de/titel-2-2/veronica_mars_moerder_bleiben_nicht_zum_fruehstueck-7467/
  9. ↑ Film starts: Finally a "Veronica Mars" sequel: The first trailer for the fourth season of the cult series is here. Retrieved June 22, 2019 .
  10. ↑ 'Veronica Mars' Revival: Here's Everything We Know - So Far. In: TheWrap. June 14, 2019, Retrieved June 22, 2019 (American English).