Veronica Mars Investigations

VMI: Mr Kiss and Tell

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS: Mr Kiss and Tell, an original mystery by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham:

A young woman has been raped and beaten, and, once again, the Neptune Grand hires Veronica to investigate - only so they don’t get sued for hiring the undocumented worker who has been accused.
But, having cleared him, Veronica keeps going with the case, to get justice for the victim, Grace Manning - that’s right, Meg’s little sister. A decade on from being locked in a closet by her parents, and still having a shit time.
Grace is one of several sex workers who have been attacked by this man, a SPORTSBALL coach. I knew I was right not to trust sportsball!
So Veronica and Leo team up, dress up and wig up to go to Vegas and bust this man. A golf course is involved - sports really come out of this novel badly.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s election looms into view, with a new candidate, Marcia - with whom Keith has history. Tense sad history, not sexy history. We assume Keith’s pelvis is still knitting itself back together.
Keith and Cliff put together a civil case, Weevil vs the sheriff’s department and their evidence planting. But which does Weevil need more: justice, or to stop his family falling apart?
And Logan is ashore! He and Veronica are having problems, with her overwork and his months-long absences - but, they do get a puppy! And the puppy’s called Pony! A satisfying conclusion to Veronica’s years-long pony joke.

audioVMI Pod29 April 2021Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Wallace Fennel, Weevil Navarro, 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, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, book, novel, dogs, puppies, ponies, Pony, Leo D’Amato, Norris, Cliff McCormack, guns, Chekhov’s gun, Chekhov’s things, Neptune Grand, Petra Landros, Mannings, Meg Manning, Lizzie Manning, Grace Manning, San Diego, sportsball, basketball, golf, Las Vegas, murder, rape, assault, Sheriff Dan Lamb, sheriff election, Marcia Langdon, dog, boots, cars, Papa Bear, theatre, student theater, actors, doing an Acting, Shakespeare, church, argyle, Loganica, bands, music, Madison Sinclair, Charles Sinclair, DNA, theft, sex workers, sex work, Brechtian, Mitchell Bellamy, George Bernard Shaw, plays, Erotic Critique, beards, baby Lilly, court cases

VMI 3.171819 I Know Weevil's Wobble Tapes

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

Rock star Paul Rudd is here to play a show at Hearst College, to fundraise for Piz’s awful radio station - but oh no! His backing tapes are missing! Presumed stolen! They’re not. A crime-free mystery!
New campus celebrity Apollo has written a hit memoir about being a child soldier in Uganda - but WAS he? - and Veronica is hired by someone claiming to be his dad - but IS he? Yes to both. Another crime-free mystery! How relaxing.
Until! Remember when Weevil was falsely accused of stealing Veronica’s necklace, and falsely accused of stealing the fairground cash box, and… anyway, in today’s edition of “Let’s fuck up Weevil for no good reason,” he’s accused of making fake IDs.
Someone has leaked a sex tape of Pizvonica! Nobody wants to see that! Especially not Logan, who beats up Piz.
Acting Sheriff Mars is investigating a string of Fitzpatricky burglaries, that threaten his sheriff campaign AND his friendship with Cliff.Vinnie is also running for Sheriff, and might be involved in the burglaries too?
And Big Dick Richard Casablancas is back to spend some time with Little Dick before going to prison for all his crimes in the first two seasons. And at long last, Dick Casablancas shows some human emotions.

Join Jenny Owen Youngs and Helen Zaltzman to investigate Veronica Mars season 3 episodes 17, 18 and 19: I Know Weevil's Wobble Tapes, and consider such mysteries as what Wallace has been up to in all the time he has not been on screen, what a Weevil-based Law & Order spinoff would be like, and whether that's Rob Thomas in a wig? After all the wigs he has inflicted on others!

audio, Season 3VMI Pod10 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, Desmond Fellows, Paul Rudd, Apollo Bukenya, Nelsan Ellis, Piz, Stosh Piznarski, Chris Lowell, Parker Lee, Julie Gonzalo, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, Tina Majorino, Dick Casablancas, Ryan Hansen, Vinnie Van Lowe, Ken Marino, Max, Adam Rose, Leo D’Amato, Max Greenfield, Bronson Pope, Michael Mitchell, Fitzpatricks, Liam Fitzpatrick, Rod Rowland, Jenny, Dianna Agron, Russell Marchant, Patrick Fischler, Karin Mackay, Lauren Bowles, Richard Casablancas, David Starzyk, Brandon Hillock, Deputy Sacks, Jerry Sacks, Jeff Ratner, David Magidoff, Kizza Oneko, Babs Olusanmokun, Wilson Behan, Michael Charles Roman, Professor Lisa Tonin, Elizabeth Karr, Olympia, Noel True, Sheriff, sheriff election, child soldiers, Invisible Children Inc, Uganda, Kony 2012, hoaxes, ID cards, fake IDs, surfing, Barbara Eden, musicians, singers, songs, rock stars, Night Court, drugs, luggage, baggage, skinnydipping, swimming, ocean, beach, bands, The Beatles, literary hoaxes, books, costumes, tiny vests, pens, Irish, tattoos, accidental porn dialogue

VMI 3.01 Welcome Wagon

A LONG TIME AGO ON VERONICA MARS:

College! Veronica’s outsmarting her professors, driving a new car, and getting drunk. Conveniently, Logan, Wallace, Mac and Dick are also all at Hearst College.
Along with new roommates/friends: bland white boy Piz, who hires Veronica to find all his worldly possessions, which have been stolen by a fake welcome committee; and Parker, who is punished for being a popular and fun-loving sexperson character by becoming the latest victim of the campus rapist who struck in season 2, and is still attacking women and shaving their heads.
Keith, meanwhile, is picking up Cormac Fitzpatrick from prison and taking him to a desert safe house to reunite with Kendall Casablancas.
Being a Fitzpatrick, though, he’s a violent jerk; so, Kendall is murdered, and Keith might be also. TBD.

Join Jenny Owen Youngs and Helen Zaltzman to investigate Veronica Mars season 3 episode 1: Welcome Wagon, and consider such mysteries as whether Logan is right that it wasn’t possible to make Veronica more butch, why Lucky the dead season 2 janitor has turned up as an academic in a terrrrrible wig, and when Dick Casablancas learned to cartwheel. Plus we reunite with some old friends: tiny jackets, Brigadoon references, the black and white argyle shirt, and an actual Chekhov’s Gun!

Season 3, audioVMI Pod18 November 2020Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, 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, university, Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Keith Mars, Logan Echolls, Jason Dohring, Wallace Fennel, Percy Daggs III, Piz, Stosh Piznarski, Chris Lowell, Parker Lee, Julie Gonzalo, Mac, Cindy Mackenzie, Tina Majorino, Professor Landry, Hank Landry, Patrick Fabian, Tim Foyle, James Jordan, Vinnie Van Lowe, Ken Marino, Dick Casablancas, Ryan Hansen, Moe Flater, Andrew McClain, Fitzpatricks, Cormac Fitzpatrick, Jason Beghe, Donald Fagin, Josh Harto, Deputy Sacks, Brandon Hillock, Dee Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brigadoon, argyle, rape, campus rapist, murder, death, theft, bands, music, The Unwashed, criminology, murder mystery, Take Back the Night, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, windows, lighting, Clint Eastwood, Cassidy Casablancas, Greg Louganis, Hardy Boys, NYC, New York City, guns, guitars, Gretsch, Beaverton, Oregon, Portland, Battlestar Galactica, swearing, tasing, tasters, balaclavas, ski masks, hacky sack, fighting, fights, punching, costumes, clothes, sexpeople, Irish coffee, booze, alcohol, drunk, USD, UCSD, San Diego, dorms, Dee Dee

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

Theme Tune Investigations

A long time ago (well, 2003), the Dandy Warhols released ‘We Used To Be Friends’ and we hadn’t thought of it lately at all, except for it being the theme tune to Veronica Mars.

With the assistance of Guest Deputy Sheriff Charlie Harding of the podcast Switched On Pop, we investigate the several versions of the song, stuffing a manila folder with grunge guitars, scratchy synths, bravado and rather unusual syntax.