What makes the finale of season 4 so terrible is that it is the television equivalent of Adele's Rolling in the Deep: we could have had it all, Marshmallows. We really could have. And instead, Rob Thomas (with Kristen Bell's co-sign and endorsement) fell into a tired, lazy trope that served as the framework of GOT and Buffy, and nuked his own masterpiece in the last 20 minutes.
The first 7 episodes are strong, overall. The red herrings are a little too obvious and forced at times, but the mystery is satisfying. The characterizations are spot-on, for the most part, and newcomers Patton Oswalt et al. are stellar additions. The updated, more adult feel and problems works for the series.
It first begins to come apart at the seams with Veronica's absurd 180 on Weevil that feels like a tired recycle of the beginning of season 2. Francis Capra shines as always, but the tone shift between them and the literally repeated one-line excuse for Veronica's shift never fully rings true. Wallace feels like a placeholder, not a bestie, and it's annoying considering the emotional turmoil she's in. This is when Wallace SHOULD be omnipresent.
Logan's character growth is one of the stand-out elements. It's a hopeful message that from abuse and many mistakes, one can change, heal and move forward. Jason Dohring nails the nuance here, and it's stellar.
Rob almost had it all. He even opened a door for Veronica to heal and grow, just like Logan. But he made two lazy, terrible decisions this season, and they unfortunately mar the whole thing.
Keith's storyline begins promising, and Colantoni plays his part with such emotional depth, I found myself on the edge of my seat... only to wave it away in a quick two-line fix, negating what could have been something so powerful.
And then, the last twenty minutes happens. The part where we understand why the entire cast, save the brave Capra, bailed offline for a few days. The part where we question why Kristen Bell thinks her daughters need to see more tragedy porn in 2019. Last I checked, we had Buffy, GOT and oh yes, the first 3 seasons where online we collectively counted at least TWENTY instances of trauma Veronica has endured. But instead, Thomas falls into the dangerous "women cannot be strong without endless trauma" trope and decides his heroine can only be better if he breaks her, one more time. As one critic astutely expressed, he spend a season drilling home a message that she is choosing not to grow, not to be happy, only to dismissively take her agency from her and leave us with a broken woman who is nothing if she is happy. To add insult to injury, he literally fast-forwards her trauma and denies her exploration of that so she can quite literally "get back to work". A major character demise is given 30 seconds of screen time, and worse, this is done one minute after granting Marshmallows a moment of peace and joy. I'm not sure why I'm surprised, considering Rob has a terrible habit of inflicting trauma upon his characters and either fast-forwarding past it or making it a past event so as to skip the difficult writing of people in the midst of that grief and trauma. It's the mark of a writer who enjoys being DARK and EDGY and SHOCKING, but cannot deliver meaningful denouement.
Here's the thing, and I offer this as a rape survivor who was bullied as a teen: what we loved about Veronica was yes, that she rose up stronger, took no prisoners, and shined in the darkness. That she reclaimed her body, her agency, and her joy in spite of the trauma. But in the years since we first became friends, we have grown and healed, like Logan. We are strong IN SPITE OF our traumas. To see a writer we thought "got it", and to see her portrayer believe it to be healthy for her daughters to see a reductive, lazy "women are only interesting in pain" storyline? It's an insult and a shame. I am more than my abuse and rape. Much more. But Rob Thomas doesn't seem to believe Veronica is much of anything interesting without repeated trauma. He decided that he was so determined to prove the minority bemoaning the "fan service" in the film wrong, he cancelled out his own point in three scenes.
A long time ago, we used to be friends. I think I'll stay in those seasons, where Veronica was on a slow, upward trajectory, instead of this forced crash and burn in the name of "strong women".
176 out of 221 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
