Veronica Mars Investigations

VMI: Voluptuous Male Idiot, a recap of Play It Again Dick

A LONG TIME AGO ON THE VERONICA MARS SPIN-OFF WEB SERIES PLAY IT AGAIN DICK:

Ryan Hansen persuades the CW suits to let him make a pilot for a Dick Casablancas spin-off show.
So then he has to persuade the Veronica Mars actors to come back to reprise their roles...
And then they all film Private Dick! Wherein Dick Casablancas is a private detective investigating the murders of several beloved Veronica Mars characters.
There are masks! Punchings! Sexytimes! Pull-ups! Ghost Cassidy Casablancas! And bikinis as funeral-wear!
And a catchphrase that never really takes off?
Oh and a big dance number. Twice.

Join Jenny Owen Youngs and Helen Zaltzman to investigate the official but non-canonical Veronica Mars spin-off web series Play It Again, Dick, and contemplate such mysteries as why Madison Sinclair is the MVP of the piece, how there is so much filler in such a short show, and why the CW didn't commission a Wallace'n'cookies-focused spin-off The Great Wallace Bake-Off

audio, Season 5VMI Pod15 October 2021Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Dick Casablancas, Ryan Hansen, spin-offs, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, noir, cases, crime, law, Francis Capra, Weevil, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Cliff McCormack, Daran Norris, Cassidy Casablancas, Kyle Gallner, Madison Sinclair, Amanda Noret, Mercer, Ryan Devlin, Duncan Kane, Celeste Kane, Lisa Thornhill, Clarence Wiedman, Christopher B Duncan, Piz, Chris Lowell, Ken Marino, Gaston, Robert Buckley, Rose McIver, iZombie, Teddy Dunn, bodies, body-building, 3D printing, Kane Software, masks, stereotypes, dance, dancing, The CW, CW Seed, Tom Hanks, Gavin Rossdale, necklines, shirts, clothing, drinks, booze

VMI 1.01 Pilot: the RErecap

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

We meet Veronica Mars! High school detective with tiny jackets and flowbee hair, plus a heartbreak, an absent mother, a murdered best friend and a rape to deal with.
We meet Logan Echolls, a rich boy with a rage problem.
We meet Duncan Kane, a human screensaver.
We meet Wallace Fennel, taped to a flagpole then recruited to do Veronica’s bidding for the next several years. Wallace, we have seen the future and you should run! Now! Run!
We meet Sheriff Lamb, local law enforcement with bad jokes and even worse morals.
And we meet Keith Mars, disgraced ex-sheriff, private investigator and dad of the century - but why’s he being so weird about Veronica surveilling beige billionaire Jake Kane?

audio, special guest, Season 1, special episode, Season 4VMI Pod16 September 2021Veronica Mars, season 1, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, Hrishikesh Hirway, Lo Dodds, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, Mars Investigations, high school, Cliff McCormack, Daran Norris, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Weevil Navarro, Francis Capra, Lilly Kane, Amanda Seyfried, Duncan Kane, Teddy Dunn, Celeste Kane, Lisa Thornhill, Jake Kane, Kyle Secor, Abel Koontz, Van Clemmons, Duane Daniels, Deputy Sacks, Jerry Sacks, Brandon Hillock, Felix Toombs, Brad Bufanda, Lianne Mars, Corinne Bohrer, Sheriff Lamb, Don Lamb, Michael Muhney, Corny, Jonathan Chesner, Inga, Seraina Jaqueline, Mrs Murphy, Linda Castro, Shelly Pomroy, Backup, smashing stuff, Angelina Jolie, flagpole, PCHers, Loretta Cancun, murder, rape, revenge, beach, meat, sandwiches, Wizard of Oz, Full Metal Jacket, Two Live Crew, gavels, bongs, crowbars

VMI season 4 pitches

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

Rob Thomas wrote a mini-pilot for a season 4 that involved Veronica becoming an FBI agent, and guess what! It’s full of awful white guys who don’t seem to do anything and leave all the work to Veronica and her new colleague Nish-In-A-Wig - we mean Callie. Callie! Totally new character!
Nish goes off to infiltrate a strip club, while Veronica is sent back to high school in a tiny vest, to arrest a pervy principal…
...then she goes to question someone about a bomber but he turns out to BE the bomber!
He’s holding Nish-in-a-wig at knifepoint, argh what’s going to happen???
The show’s cancelled, that’s what happens. BUT we've got all your incredible pitches for what could have been in the years between the end of Veronica Mars season 3 and the movie!

Veronica Mars Investigations Investigations season 3

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS SEASON 3:

Murders! Rapes! Frats! The Dreaded Feminists! Jenny's beautiful wife Mindy! Eggs! Wigs! Bland white boys! Obnoxious white boys! Bland obnoxious white boys! Loganica together! Loganica asunder! Aaaaand... Weevil’s big red toolbox!

Join Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman and returning Special Agent LaToya Ferguson, to reopen the cold case files and try to crack some of Veronica Mars season 3's unsolved mysteries, such as: where's Wallace? Why is Lucky-in-a-wig? Is Professor Landry actually hot? Ah screw it, let's all just escape to Jenny's island where she cavorts with her beautiful wife Mindy and Wallace happily flies his little planes on the next beach over.

audio, Season 3, special guestVMI Pod23 February 2021Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Weevil Navarro, Francis Capra, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, teen, teenage, college, Hearst College, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, season 3, investigations investigations, Piz, Stosh Piznarski, Chris Lowell, Parker Lee, Julie Gonzalo, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, Tina Majorino, Dick Casablancas, Ryan Hansen, Jaime Ray Newman, Mindy O’Dell, Hank Landry, Patrick Fabian, Lucky in a wig, Tim Foyle, James Jordan, Steve Batando, Richard Grieco, Paul Rudd, Dean O’Dell, Cyrus O’Dell, Ed Begley Jr, Mercer, Ryan Devlin, Duncan Kane, Teddy Dunn, Apollo Bukenya, Nelsan Ellis, Charisma Carpenter, Kendall Casablancas, Fitzpatricks, Karmony, Harmony Chase, Laura San Giacomo, Keith’s romances, The CW, Dawn Ostroff, wigs, The Dreaded Feminists, boats, cars, Porsche, Mindy’s yacht, campus rapist, murder, dean’s murder, coach murder, plagiarism, Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes On Television, Play It Again Dick, set decoration, listener questions, abiding mysteries, LaToya Ferguson

VMI 3.20 The Bitch Is Back

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

As we know, sex people never prosper in this show, and Piz is bruised from Logan’s attack and Veronica is humiliated - and ready for revenge.
Veronica’s search for the sex tape culprit takes her from Piz to Logan to Dick to Chip to some other asshole Dominick to some other other asshole Gory to the secret society The Castle to JAKE KANE!?!?!
Of course, to cap a season that began with the Stanford Prison Experiment, we get the Milgram Experiment; and, unfortunately, it is performed on Wallace as he helps Veronica investigate the Castle.
Veronica breaks into what turns out to be Jake Kane’s new lonely bachelor mansion, steals his hard drive, but leaves a shred of her sweater snagged on the doggy door she shimmied in through, and is caught on the neighbour’s security tapes.
Keith destroys the security footage of Veronica - and maybe also his chances of winning the sheriff election. Did he win?? Find out next epi- oh but then the show was dormant for seven years.

Join Jenny Owen Youngs and Helen Zaltzman to investigate Veronica Mars season 3 episode 20: The Bitch Is Back, and consider such mysteries as how this show, even in its last moments pre-cancellation, finds ways to introduce new awful white boys, each more revolting than the last; how many supercomputers this college contains; and whether Jake Kane painted the big terrifying portraits of his children himself.

audio, Season 3VMI Pod16 February 2021Tags: Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Weevil Navarro, Francis Capra, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, teen, teenage, college, Hearst College, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, season 3, Piz, Stosh Piznarski, Chris Lowell, Parker Lee, Julie Gonzalo, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, Tina Majorino, Dick Casablancas, Ryan Hansen, Chip Diller, David Tom, Nish Sweeney, Chastity Dotson, Leo D’Amato, Max Greenfield, Jake Kane, Kyle Secor, Lilly Kane, Duncan Kane, Gorya Sorokin, Matthew Alan, Domonick Desante, Joaquin Perez-Campbell, Clarence Wiedman, Christopher B Duncan, Walt Harvey, Jim Jensen, The Castle, sex tapes, sexpeople, surveillance, Sheriff Keith, sheriff election, punching, breaking in, paintings, art, evidence tampering, Migram Experiment, torture, electrocution, awful white boys, toxic masculinity, wigs, planet puns, boobs

Veronica Mars Investigations Investigations season 2

Join Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman and special guest detective LaToya Ferguson to investigate the abiding mysteries of Veronica Mars season 2. Ends? Loose. Herrings? Red.

audio, Season 2, special episode, special guestVMI Pod22 October 2020Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Weevil Navarro, Francis Capra, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, teen, teenage, school, high school, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, season 2, Jackie Cook, Tessa Thompson, Terrence Cook, Jeffrey Sams, Alicia Fennel, Erica Gimpel, Nathan Woods, Cress Williams, Abel Koontz, Christian Clemenson, Gia Goodman, Krysten Ritter, Woody Goodman, Steve Guttenberg, Cassidy Casablancas, Kendall Casablancas, Charisma Carpenter, Aaron Echolls, Clarence Wiedman, Thumper, Fitzpatricks, Lilly Kane’s murder, Kristin Cavallari, Paris Hilton, guest stars, Trina Echolls, Celeste Kane, Duncan Kane, Bearded Duncan, Mannings, Meg Manning, Lizzie Manning, Grace Manning, Lucky, Leo D’Amato, Hannah Griffith, Dr Tom Griffith, retcons, UPN, limo, bus, bus crash, gas station, incorporation, rat, murder, bombs, explosions, mysteries, plot holes, text messages, red herrings, Thumper’s murder, Oscar, murder weapon, pizza, muggings, pizza muggings, sign language, LGBTQ, Versatile Toppings, My Mother the Fiend, friends, fiends, baby, books, novels, email, phones, LaToya Ferguson, special guest

VMI 2.22 Not Pictured

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

Everyone graduates high school! Except for Weevil, who is arrested for Thumper’s murder.
Keith tracks down Woody to a hunting lodge and gets him arrested for child abuse!
While he’s doing that, Veronica identifies Woody’s third victim: Cassidy Casablancas…
Who, after stealing Mac’s clothes, gets ready to kill Veronica on the Neptune Grand roof…
But Logan saves Veronica, Veronica saves Logan, but nobody can saves Cassidy.
Elsewhere in the building, Aaron Echolls enjoys a post-coital cigar until Clarence Wiedman shoots him in the head.
Oh and Jackie’s not in Paris, she’s in New York City, waitressing and reuniting with the two-year-old son she’s apparently had this whole time.

Join Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman and Special Agent Alanna Bennett to investigate Veronica Mars season 2 episode 22: Not Pictured, and probe such mysteries as Wallace’s glasses-wearing, whether Veronica would really be into Broadway and modern art, what Corny ends up doing in life, and what to use for a dramatic reveal if you don’t have a briefcase. Tote? Trash bag?

audio, Season 2, special guestVMI Pod14 October 2020Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Weevil Navarro, Francis Capra, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, teen, teenage, school, high school, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, season 2, Alanna Bennett, Kendall Casablancas, Charisma Carpenter, Jackie Cook, Tessa Thompson, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, Tina Majorino, Aaron Echolls, Harry Hamlin, Steve Guttenberg, Woody Goodman, Principal Clemmons, Van Clemmons, Duane Daniels, Sheriff Lamb, Don Lamb, Michael Muhney, Cassidy Casablancas, Kyle Gallner, Leonard Lobo, Gil Birmingham, Deputy Sacks, Brandon Hillock, Clarence Wiedman, Christopher B. Duncan, Duncan Kane, Teddy Dunn, Adam Bitterman, Curly Moran, Ken Marino, Vinnie Van Lowe, Lilly Kane, Amanda Seyfried, Alicia Fennel, Erica Gimpel, Lianne Mars, Corinne Bohrer, Corny, Jonathan Chesner, Peter Ferrer, Luke Fryden, Marcos Oliveres, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Manning parents, Mannings, Stewart Manning, bus crash, murder, child abuse, suicide, New York, Paris, graduation, Neptune Grand, explosions, bombs, planes, chlamydia, Loganica, dream sequences, retcons, parties, sex, rotatokissing, briefcases, Little League, Sharks, Mr Lee, lawyers, incorporation, glasses, The Wig, sexpeople, bacon, taxidermy, Quail Creek Lodge, hunting, Weevil’s grandma, arrests, pony, NYC, Harry Styles, Madison Square Garden, Sugarhill Gang, babies, children, Brooklyn, tasers, tasing, Woody’s Burgers, Comic Sans, Hart Hanson, Dilemma, Nelly, Kelly Rowland, shower curtains, sandcastles, Gilmore Girls, college, Phoenix Land Trust, airport, JFK, rewards, pelvic wreckage

VMI 2.21 Happy Go Lucky

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

There have been some rough episodes of Veronica Mars, but this has to be one of the roughest. Aaron fucking Echolls is found innocent on all charges!
And it’s somehow something to do with Veronica getting chlamydia? Fuck! Off!!
Woody Goodman is revealed to be a child abuser, and some of the kids in the bus crash were his victims.
As was Lucky the janitor, who starts firing a gun at the school, then is shot dead.
Terrence Cook is exonerated from the bus crash, but condemned to work at the casino for at least a decade.
Jackie LEAVES without even saying goodbye.
And then, after all that trauma, Veronica has to take finals! It’s too much!

Join Jenny Owen Youngs and Helen Zaltzman to investigate Veronica Mars season 2 episode 21: Happy Go Lucky, delving into such mysteries as to whether Woody could have chosen a more disgusting password, what’s actually supposed to happen in court when someone shouts “Objection!” and why a load of physical evidence, witnesses and legal procedure <<< CHLAMYDIA. We have an XL edition of The LoDown to deal with all the legal bullshit in this episode.

Season 2, audioVMI Pod6 October 2020Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Weevil Navarro, Francis Capra, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, teen, teenage, school, high school, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, season 2, Jackie Cook, Tessa Thompson, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, Tina Majorino, Aaron Echolls, Harry Hamlin, Steve Guttenberg, Woody Goodman, Gia Goodman, Krysten Ritter, Tommy Dohanic, Lucky, James Jordan, Terrence Cook, Jeffrey Sams, Sheriff Lamb, Don Lamb, Michael Muhney, Cassidy Casablancas, Kyle Gallner, Leonard Lobo, Gil Birmingham, Deputy Sacks, Brandon Hillock, Ethan Lavoie, John Prosky, Gay Storm, Annie Hinton, Don Worley, Hart, Mike Gaarde, bus crash, murder, death, assault, shooting, guns, blanks, child abuse, sexual abuse, sexual offenses, statutory rape, trauma, courtroom, trials, court cases, lawyers, shitty lawyers, jury, prosecution, defense, attorneys, judges, legal procedure, alibis, evidence, subpoena, Leo D’Amato, Duncan Kane, Marcos Oliveres, Peter Lilly Kane, Lilly Kane’s murder, bullshit, chlamydia, Thumper, Thumper’s murder, math, algebra, quadratic equations, veterans, war, People Magazine, Sexiest Man Alive, Kane scholarship, chia pets, press, batboys, passwords, cars, keying cars, lighting, computers, finals, exams, tests, Mannings, accidental porn, masks, catcher’s mask, bleach, email, MySpace, incorporation, objection, breakfast, mugshots, private plane, flight plans, monologuing, immunity, witnesses, shitnesses, POWER KEITH

VMI 2.19 Nevermind the Buttocks

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

We meet another misfit Neptune boy with a hobby for weapons: Harry! Who has a bedroom full of arrows, a wall full of stag heads, and a dog that was killed by a driver of a green Barracuda car…
...which belongs to an old lady who doesn’t drive it, but guess who does? Liam fucking Fitzpatrick! To run his errands, such as:
i. Trying to kill Keith Mars, but instead getting whupped by our favourite power dad;
ii. Bullying the PCHers so they bring in more drug money;
iii. Mooning Gia Goodman;
iv. And being in league with Kendall Casablancas, who has a criminal record, a secret house, AND an identity she stole off a girl who died in car crash?!
Oh and just in case you thought the Lilly Kane murder case was solved last season, here it is again, as Aaron’s Oscar has been dug up from the Kane garden, with Lilly’s blood and Duncan’s hair on it!

Join Jenny Owen Youngs and Helen Zaltzman to investigate Veronica Mars season 2 episode 19: Nevermind The Buttocks, and consider mysteries such as whether any of the Duncans are sexpeople, how you’d get a long-dead person’s blood onto a burned-up Oscar statuette, what Keith Mars’s Power Dad training regimen involves, and Jenny’s new feature Accidental Porn Dialogue in Veronica Mars.

audio, Season 2VMI Pod16 September 2020Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Weevil Navarro, Francis Capra, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, teen, teenage, school, high school, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, season 2, Kendall Casablancas, Charisma Carpenter, Jackie Cook, Tessa Thompson, Hector, Patrick Wolff, Harry, Tommy Snider, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, Tina Majorino, Butters, Vincent Clemmons, Adam Hendershott, Cliff McCormack, Daran Norris, Gia Goodman, Krysten Ritter, Principal Clemmons, Van Clemmons, Duane Daniels, Billy, Matt Bush, Liam Fitzpatrick, Rodney Rowland, bus crash, Cervando, Fitzpatricks, dogs, Lilly Kane, Thumper, grifters, false identity, Duncan Kane, Lilly Kane’s murder, sex tapes, sex, Chekhov, Princess Mombi, Return to Oz, insurance, life insurance, Richard Casablancas, snakes, biology, car alarms, prom, Anarchist’s Cookbook, Accidental Porn Dialogue, Neptune Navigator, PCHers, John Wick, Kendall Shiflett, Priscilla Banks, henley, paddle, claddagh rings, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, stereotypically Irish things, fights, Action Keith, drugs, drug dealing, laughter, fake laughter, laughing, wire fraud, Oscars, Aaron Echolls, murder weapon, false evidence, Chekhov’s shower drain hair

VMI 2.15 The Quick and the Wed

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

Like all Wallace’s special ladyfriends, Jane requires Veronica’s services: her sister Heidi went missing after her own bachelorette party! And the wedding’s in three days!
Heidi’s got a rich fiance and a past, and these things are incompatible in the Marsverse.
Meanwhile, Aaron Echolls is back, marvelling at Kendall Casablancas’s boobs, and asking her for a favour that sends her rooting around in the shower drain.
She’s also trying to get Logan to invest in Cassidy’s booming property empire. But good luck with that: Logan’s busy dating Hannah and manipulating her parents.
A warrant is issued for Terrence Cook’s arrest, but then Keith finds some evidence that may prove his innocence - but then Terrence does something that makes him look really guilty again!

Join Jenny Owen Youngs and Helen Zaltzman to investigate Veronica Mars season 2 episode 15: The Quick and the Wed, and consider such mysteries as engagement rings being legally binding, Gollum bachelorettes, and Kendall Casablancas being some kind of sex Roomba.

audio, Season 2VMI Pod27 July 2020Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Neptune, California, Jenny Owen Youngs, Helen Zaltzman, VMI, television, TV, recap, review, drama, teen, teenage, school, high school, mystery, detective, PI, private detectives, Marshmallows, cases, crime, law, season 2, Jane, Jane Kuhne, Valorie Curry, Hannah Griffith, Jessy Schram, Vinnie Van Lowe, Ken Marino, Aaron Echolls, Harry Hamlin, Kendall Casablancas, Charisma Carpenter, Cassidy Casablancas, Beaver, Kyle Gallner, Heidi, Virginia Williams, Rick Peters, Dr Tom Griffith, Dick Casablancas, Ryan Hansen, Daran Norris, Cliff McCormack, Sheriff Lamb, Don Lamb, Michael Muhney, Arturo, Michael Ausiello, Mr Pope, Michael Kostroff, Nick, Brad Ashten, bus crash, explosives, Terrence Cook, wedding, marriage, faxes, missing bride, family, engagement ring, engagement, karaoke, Felix’s murder, Felix Toombs, Phoenix Land Trust, Hannibal Lecter, prison, Clarice Starling, Easy Rider, Duncan Kane, CONDOMS, plea bargains, incorporation, bachelorettes, bachelorette party, hen party, sex Roomba, Neptune Onlyplace, Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan, Gollum, melon, strippers, bowling, bands, musicians