Ginny's Thoughts

*spoilers within for season 4; TW - mentions of sexual assault and trauma*

I decided that the most important thing I could do to heal my heart was to open up completely and contact Hulu, the show writers and Crave.  As I’m sure they’ll continue to ignore and bury our comments, I’ve made it public.

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To those in charge of programming decisions at Hulu and Crave:

My name is Amber, and I am a Crave customer here in Canada.  Crave, as you know, obtained the distribution rights for season 4 of Veronica Mars, an eight-episode block made with the backing of Hulu.  

I am here as a writer, a woman, a Psychology graduate, and a survivor of rape and abuse.  I am asking you something that, 10 days ago, I never would have imagined possible:  that you do not renew Veronica Mars in any fashion, be it film or TV season.  This ask does not, as Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell would have the world believe, stem purely from a “fan service” perspective;  the objective fact of Logan Echolls’ death is not behind my ask.  It is the approach to this creative decision, numerous other alarming messages communicated in this new season and most of all, the misogynistic messaging from Thomas that has driven me to send this to you.

To better appreciate my stance, it’s important to know why Veronica Mars has been one of my favourite TV series for almost 15 years.  When I first began watching Veronica Mars, I was a rape survivor who’d barely processed that experience, never mind years of parental abuse and bullying throughout school. I was fresh out of an emotionally abusive relationship where I’d been gaslit for 2 years.  A friend recommended the show to me and I immediately fell in love with Veronica Mars.

In Neptune, I found a survivor who refused to be broken by her assault and the horrendous bullying that came with it.  In Neptune, I found a survivor of parental abuse who, like me, just wanted to love and trust people in his life.  In Neptune, I found a father like my own, who had a great heart, a love of classic rock and the belief his daughter was capable of anything.  The bonus: I got to watch the titular woman tackle mysteries, like an acerbic Nancy Drew.   It was everything I could want.  

I had my initial reservations about LoVe, a little “girl, he was the worst to you!” vibe, but over time, I came to sit it aside and recognize the cycle of trauma in Logan and myself.  I also saw someone who accepted Veronica as she was, because better than any other love interest we’d come to meet, Logan knew what it was to be broken and furious, to want to raze the proverbial village and make one’s pain palpable for all. Conversely, Veronica also understood Logan’s feelings of loss, abandonment and fury, and could recognize the moments where a kind man hid beneath.  Their pain manifested differently, their weaknesses diverging, but that understanding bred an intimacy that made LoVe one of the most compelling pairings ever on a screen.

I was one of many Kickstarter backers, grateful to support a franchise that had contributed so much to my healing and growth.  I was in a better place, but still living with my ghosts, so to see Logan thriving and finding his peace gave me hope.  And to see Veronica, throughout the film, recognize that she had spent a decade trying to “squeeze back into her cotton dress” as an avoidance coping mechanism?  It was really powerful and nuanced.  It was a story we need to see, particularly trauma survivors:  that you can heal, be stronger, and one day, life won’t always be an angry battle.  You can get a second, third or fourth chance to get things right.

I was so thrilled for a season 4 until it arrived, and now, I feel demoralized.  I was given a show—and words from its creator’s mouth—that told me there is no light, that my value lies in my pain.  I was told by a character I admired and saw a kindred in that therapy rendered me a pod person, that people in my life likely missed angry, toxic me.  The ending was hopeless, and I lost a character I related so deeply to in Logan.

Now that I’ve offered the perspective of a trauma survivor watching the series, in specific detail, here are the reasons why Veronica Mars, as Rob Thomas currently sees fit to write it, is not a show audiences need in 2019:

The misogynistic justification and tropes used to explain Logan being fridged

I’m a writer, and my books have a body count.  I was a fan of The Walking Dead for many years.  I am okay with losing beloved characters, provided the death serves the story in meaningful ways, and the character is given a proper farewell.  

The death of Logan Echolls does not meet either of these criteria, and with every interview, the misogynistic lens through which Rob views the show’s future alarms me.  It suggests he has lost sight not only of what his own show is, but why he’s been lucky to cultivate a fandom so intensely devoted to it. Logan has been a character and a love interest since season 1.  If he needed to die to serve the story in meaningful fashion, any reasonable writer would have made the time to bid him a proper farewell.  A hero’s death for a decorated military man and textbook-brilliant anti-hero was his due. One also has to suspend a great deal of belief to accept that the bomb would still be in the car, that Veronica would park the car in the wrong spot so close to the usual alert time, etc.  

That aside, the explanation for this plot twist is extremely sexist, based heavily in lazy tropes, and ultimately, offers dangerous messaging to women.  Thomas tells us he prefers his “strong” female lead as a “wounded creature”, that married leads make for “boring TV”.  That Veronica with a husband at home—a husband whose career deploys him on missions lasting weeks or months—would be difficult and dull to watch because he didn’t know what to do with Logan.

Many of the show’s fans are survivors of rape and violence.  What Rob has told us for the last week is that our pain is what makes us interesting, that love makes us “boring”, and we cannot be interesting with both a career and a spouse.  As an investigator with a husband, I would beg to differ.  

Season 4 presented us with multiple future conflicts for married Logan and Veronica:  her refusal to seek therapy or heal from years of trauma; the challenges military spouses face (which are seldom explored on TV).  To say it was too difficult or dull when shows like Bones, Flashpoint and even Brooklyn 99 have managed it suggests to me that Rob Thomas has no idea how to write an adult Veronica—and that bodes poorly for any future seasons.

The dangerous messaging about mental health and therapy

One of the things I have always admired about Kristen Bell is her candor about her own mental health concerns and her encouragement of therapy as a powerful tool.  Imagine my shock and dismay to watch Veronica, a Psychology degree holder, discredit therapy, imply it had ruined her life partner or made him less attractive, and that she wouldn’t even consider a single couples session.  Imagine my disgust when Veronica so enthusiastically approved of pushing her partner into unhealthy anger, and encouraged him to take drugs when he was sober due to previous substance abuse.  When Veronica tries to explain Logan’s supposed “pod person” self with psychiatric medication, I want to throw things at the TV.

There is enough stigma tied to asking for help with mental illness.  Many people suffering from mental illness refuse or stop medications out of a fear that people won’t love them on their medications, or that they are “sanded down” when taking them.  This storyline arc was extremely irresponsible TV and frankly, I’m shocked Kristen Bell did not take Rob Thomas to task for it.

Frequent continuity inconsistencies and out of character actions speak to a writer’s room where people were given Cliff notes on characters, as opposed to truly knowing them and their story

Continuity errors do happen on shows.  People are human, although a good showrunner should have a book that captures the facts and events each character has revealed or experienced throughout a show’s run.  Veronica Mars’s fourth season suffered from so many of these, it was jarring.·    

       Veronica has a Psychology degree, but is aggressively against psychological help for her partner

      Logan is invited by his partner to partake in substances when he is sober after a substance use issue

·         Leo D’Amato was let go from the Neptune police force for negligent handling of evidence (theft, but covered up by Keith), but has failed upwards into the FBI

·         Veronica remains friends with and sexually interested in Leo, who dated her as a minor and sold off child pornography, the latter resulting in the killer of Veronica’s best friend being acquitted

·         Logan and Leo act like they don’t know or recognize each other, despite the fact Leo sold the aforementioned videos to Logan, escorted him out of a dance in season 1 and arrested him in season 2

·         Veronica’s dismissiveness of Wallace and Weevil runs counter to her character

·         Veronica is more concerned with solving a case than her father’s declining health, also contradicting her character

·         Veronica accepts and does drugs with Dick, who is indirectly responsible for her being drugged and raped at the start of the series (their continued acquaintanceship already strains belief)