A scattering of thoughts on season 2:
- Smart move to set up another season long central mystery with large personal implications for Veronica. Not really a propos, the crashed bus full of school children (actually only half a dozen, but that's more than enough and the motif is the same) can't help but bring to mind The Sweet Hereafter.
- I guess the name 'Veronica' is a call back to the Archie comics, but it makes me think of Heathers instead (which of course draws on that same source). I like how Veronica Mars is so unintrusively but clearly embedded in pop culture, both through meta-references like that one (*) and the role that pop culture quite naturally plays in its characters' lives (**).
- (*) Another example might be the guest appearances of both Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat in the same episode, which can't have been a coincidence. Also possibly not coincidental: the way that both this show and Arrested Development are obsessed with family as a theme.
- (**) Also nice is how Veronica goes to the soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides for her breakup music.
- Lots of plot and at times a bit soap opera-ish, but I don't mind that here in context.
- Does a decent job moving its main characters around and giving them things to do and room for development, including giving some more supporting figures from season 1 more prominence and introducing some new ones. It is fun never quite knowing which way anyone - well, most of them - is going to turn or what their true colours will be.
- Krysten Ritter shows up as a classmate. If I'm honest, it's hard to tell whether it's just because she's attractive or because she also has talent/charisma but she's eye-catching wherever she appears (Don't Trust the B... was fun while it lasted).
- Obviously, easy to watch, just like the first season.
