Warm Glowing Warming Glow

Little Hailey Nichol, All Grownsed Up

Amanda Righetti (Kirsten's sister Hailey on The O.C., a bunch of other shows I never watched) has joined the cast of K-Ville, Fox's New Orleans cop show, starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser. I'm looking forward to this pilot; I've heard good things, particularly about Anderson. Righetti was really good on The O.C. -- and got better all the time. I couldn't bring myself to watch either the Hawaii show she was on, with either Brooke Burke or Brooke Burns, or the one about the high school reunion, with Chyler Leigh and the drug addict-y youngest brother from Brothers & Sisters.

Charisma Carpenter (Kendall Casablancas on Veronica Mars, Cordelia Chase on something called Buffy the Vampire-Slayer) will be appearing on the season finale of ABC Family's Greek. I've been watching Greek and meaning to post about it. Short version: it's oddly winning. No, it's not anything like my college experience, but it's not quite science fiction, either, and the cast is appealing.

It Never Rains in Southern California

So I didn't care for the WC's "Veronica Mars season finale" promos.  They hurt my feelings.  I get that maybe the show hasn't been that successful for the network, but I think they could have been a little more gracious to the fans and admit that these episodes were really the end of the series. 

Otherwise, a pretty good set and an acceptable conclusion to the series.  I really liked "Weevils Wobble But They Don't Fall Down": good to see Francis Capra, who's otherwise been absent from this last arc.  This really argued in favor of the self-contained episode model: here you had a mystery that wrapped up in a single episode, but it had real weight, because Weevil's prospects are so bleak that it really mattered whether or not Veronica could vindicate him.  (Of course, there's only so many times the show could have gone to that well.)  Some of Kristen Bell's best comedic work here, too -- did you see the big showdown with the Aspen crowd, in which she replays the conversation?  Veronica's smirk at her own line ("Are you going to turn me into a vampire?") was perfect. 

"The Bitch Is Back" had some great stuff, too.  I've complained in the past about Veronica doing really awful things (getting Weevil to jack Madison's car, for example), but here her actions seemed warranted.  It was actually really enjoyable to see her tearing through Chip and that other kid.  Then, of course, we also got the pay-off where there were dire, dire consequences for Keith.  A little tantalizing to see how the Keith-Veronica law-vigilantism dynamic could have played out, had the show had more time.  In fact, this particular episode would have benefited from being twice as long: too much to track in a single hour -- Logan, Jake, the election, the hard-drives, Russian mafia . . .

Goodbye to Neptune

Crap.  It looks like it's over for Veronica Mars.  We may not know, for sure, for another month, but Sepinwall is pretty sure.

Update: Yep, dead.

Goodbye to Stars Hollow

I was even more wrecked by last night's Gilmore Girls series finale than I expected to be.  I don't think it's just a matter of not wanting the series to end because hey, there's another hour of the void I have to fill.  There's enough else on, plus 150 or so episodes floating around on ABC Family and DVD.  I think I was actually responding to how sad the send-off was.  One of the things that the show always did very well -- under both the Palladinos and Rosenthal -- was to make every story relatable: I don't have that much in common with Lorelai or Rory, I often don't even like either of them very much but I really, really could relate to the sadness of Rory leaving Stars Hollow.  I'm not sure what else I wanted to say: I thought it was a really good finale and we couldn't have hoped for a better one.  It's probably good the show didn't try to limp on through another season -- even a 13-episode one.  Um, no Mrs Kim in the finale, though.  That disappointed me, but thinking back, I think we last saw her in the shower episode ("Will You Be My Lorelai Gilmore")?  That was a good summation for the character.  Anyway, thanks for everything, Emily Kuroda.  You were usually better than the writing. 

I was sort of in and out during Veronica Mars last night, no strong responses.  Um, Chris Lowell was pretty funny last night . . . Pitchfork got a huge and very persuasive shout-out -- I almost never read that anymore, but the more Piz talked about it, the more I thought "I'm going to visit Pitchfork, right now."  Oh, I liked the Mac-Max stuff.  I'm still a little down about her dumping the hot vegan, but Tina Majorino and Adam Rose have good chemistry. 

Veronica Mars Death Watch IV

According to Michael Ausiello, there's still a pretty good chance that Veronica Mars will be back in the fall. 

Couch Opening!

Gilmore Girls.  Um, having a hard time coming up with comments about this.  Did anything happen?  I usually like Gilmore Girls -- all shows, really, except Lost -- when nothing much is doing, but  this episode seemed to move past nothing doing to some other, less amusing place.  Let's see . . . some housekeeping on the Lane-Zack-twins front, a lot of name-dropping of indie rock venues and bands, per usual.  Black Cat!  9:30 Club!  First Unitarian!  I know those places!  Magic Stick?  In, um, Detroit?  Also, apparently, important in that annoying way where sometimes Lane or Zack has to explain.  Were any of the bands they mentioned real?  Grizzly Bear was one of them, I think, but I hadn't heard of the others.  The Miss Patty-Babette revue was a bit of a let-down, but the Lorelai karaoke was good, just because did we know that Lauren Graham could sing like that?  I wish drunken "I Will Always Love You" (Dolly version, not Whitney) had not been sung in the key of Lorelai-and-Luke-work-their-way-back-to-each-other, because I'm a little embarrassed by my investment in that story.  I don't really have anything to say about Rory and her apparently dimming post-Yale prospects or the prospect of a proposal from Little Lord Patronizing.

Veronica Mars.  Quite the little civics lesson.  Shall we review?  Underage drinking = wrong.  Graffiti = wrong, but = OK if someone in your family was injured in Iraq.  Muslims = not terrorists, but possibly = mildly chauvinistic, but definitely love freedom + America, and therefore = manageable.  Aside from all that, there was some good stuff -- I think it was almost worth the tedious, overwrought fake I.D. agitprop to see Keith cleaning house at the Sheriff's Department and using Wallace and Piz to do it.  Plenty of screen time for Percy Daggs, Tina Majorino and Chris Lowell, some of it very funny.  Good music this week . . . So, to sum up, kids, don't drink and cross the street and, if you're going to have sex with someone who comes from a different religious background than your own, draw the blinds so your illegal alien fiance can't take photos.  Good night!  -- Peter   

"I Just Want to Keep Making It"

Alan Sepinwall has an interview with Rob Thomas here.  It's interesting -- it starts off pretty pessimistic, but by the end it sounds like both possible versions of the show -- sophomore year at Hearst and FBI -- are still in play, at least as far as Thomas can tell.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, though.  I read an interview with Dawn Ostroff, the head of the CW (and sorry, can't find it right now) that suggests the CW is looking to invest in a lot of new shows, in hopes of re-defining themselves, after their disappointing premiere season.  If Smallville, Supernatural, Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill are all coming back next season, I'm worried there may not be room for our girl in the lineup. 

Veronica Mars Death Watch III

Now Michael Ausiello quotes both Rob Thomas and a CW flak saying that not only is Veronica Mars not canceled (yet), but Veronica Mars, FBI is still in play. 

Veronica Mars Death Watch II

I don't know what to think.  Earlier in the week, USA Today reported that Veronica Mars had already been canceled.  Today, the Toronto Star says, no, but the Special Agent Mars idea is probably dead.  Who to believe?  Of course, the USA Today report isn't sourced at all, whereas the Star was talking to Sheriff Mars himself, so I'm still optimistic.  I'm thinking we can forget about a Veronica-Piz romance, though: Chris Lowell is on the Grey's Anatomy spin-off. 

Special Agent Veronica Mars

I don't know how I feel about this.