Post by midnight on Dec 5, 2005 9:52:25 GMT 10
The Sun Herald has something interesting up.
It's got far too many facts wrong but it's not bad publicity for the show.
Nice quotes from RT and KB too.
And a typical Paris/KB image.
www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/teenage-sleuth-reborn-in-veronica-mars/2005/12/04/1133631139171.html
It's got far too many facts wrong but it's not bad publicity for the show.
Nice quotes from RT and KB too.
And a typical Paris/KB image.
www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/teenage-sleuth-reborn-in-veronica-mars/2005/12/04/1133631139171.html
Rebirth of a teenage sleuth.
By Scott Ellis
December 5, 2005
A lot has changed in the world of teenage girl detectives.
Back when Nancy Drew was queen of the genre, the biggest mystery she faced may have been finding out who sabotaged the local pony club competition or getting to the bottom of what happened in the haunted mansion down the lane.
Fast forward a few decades and you get Veronica Mars.
She's a teenage girl with a taste for amateur sleuthing, but that's about as close to the demure Miss Drew as she gets.
Forget about the pony club or fake ghosts, Mars has much more grown-up mysteries to unravel.
She wants to know who drugged and raped her on the night of her prom, who murdered her best friend at the same party and what has happened to her mother, missing since it all happened.
Nancy Drew would have fainted away at the very thought.
"Veronica might be a bit of a post-modern Nancy Drew," said series creator Rob Thomas, a former writer on the teen drama Dawson's Creek.
"In Nancy Drew, typically, she would find the secret jewels in the haunted cave, whereas here we'll have a 16-year-old girl come up to Veronica and say: 'My boyfriend took dirty pictures of me, can you help me get them back?'
"There's a different tone in the decades between Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars, but I understand the comparison . . . ours is the up-to-date take on it."
Up to date it certainly is, with Veronica's dress code leaning heavily toward rock-star goth and the handsome Hardy Boys replaced by the tattooed and pierced leader of a local bikie gang as her love interest.
Her best friend is a computer geek who hangs out with Veronica because the local bullies are - quite understandably - too scared to cross her path.
A traditional lady she may not be, but in an era where Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alias's superspy Sydney Bristow are touted as positive female role models Mars's intended audience might more easily relate to her.
"Right . . . I mean, who slays vampires and how many of us are really going to be CIA agents?" said Kristen Bell, who plays Veronica.
"What I like about Veronica so much is that [while] there are certainly aspects where you have to suspend your belief of reality, for the most part, it's a very realistic setting, everything is extremely grounded and they deal with real issues like date rape, single-parent homes and things that really happen to kids that aren't usually talked about.
"And we're so used to seeing the female as a victim on television and I've really identified with that . . . I really like the fact that they chose to take a chance on this young girl being so strong yet still allowed her to be a girl."
The result is, like Buffy and Alias, a show centred around teens which manages to appeal to a much older audience.
It's another happy accident, said Thomas, who started out as a writer with the accidental teen-novel hit Rats Saw God.
"I got my start writing young adult novels, but I fell into that accidentally," Thomas said.
"I wrote a novel about an 18-year-old when I was 28 and I really believed - given the sex and drugs and language - that it was a book for people my age, about an 18-year-old.
"So my experience - and I really learnt this writing for young adults - is to write things to please me.
"I'd rather shoot high on that teen audience than aim low.
"So hopefully in telling smart, compelling stories about a 17-year-old girl, we'll have an adult and a teen audience."
Veronica Mars, Monday, 7.30pm, Channel Ten.
By Scott Ellis
December 5, 2005
A lot has changed in the world of teenage girl detectives.
Back when Nancy Drew was queen of the genre, the biggest mystery she faced may have been finding out who sabotaged the local pony club competition or getting to the bottom of what happened in the haunted mansion down the lane.
Fast forward a few decades and you get Veronica Mars.
She's a teenage girl with a taste for amateur sleuthing, but that's about as close to the demure Miss Drew as she gets.
Forget about the pony club or fake ghosts, Mars has much more grown-up mysteries to unravel.
She wants to know who drugged and raped her on the night of her prom, who murdered her best friend at the same party and what has happened to her mother, missing since it all happened.
Nancy Drew would have fainted away at the very thought.
"Veronica might be a bit of a post-modern Nancy Drew," said series creator Rob Thomas, a former writer on the teen drama Dawson's Creek.
"In Nancy Drew, typically, she would find the secret jewels in the haunted cave, whereas here we'll have a 16-year-old girl come up to Veronica and say: 'My boyfriend took dirty pictures of me, can you help me get them back?'
"There's a different tone in the decades between Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars, but I understand the comparison . . . ours is the up-to-date take on it."
Up to date it certainly is, with Veronica's dress code leaning heavily toward rock-star goth and the handsome Hardy Boys replaced by the tattooed and pierced leader of a local bikie gang as her love interest.
Her best friend is a computer geek who hangs out with Veronica because the local bullies are - quite understandably - too scared to cross her path.
A traditional lady she may not be, but in an era where Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alias's superspy Sydney Bristow are touted as positive female role models Mars's intended audience might more easily relate to her.
"Right . . . I mean, who slays vampires and how many of us are really going to be CIA agents?" said Kristen Bell, who plays Veronica.
"What I like about Veronica so much is that [while] there are certainly aspects where you have to suspend your belief of reality, for the most part, it's a very realistic setting, everything is extremely grounded and they deal with real issues like date rape, single-parent homes and things that really happen to kids that aren't usually talked about.
"And we're so used to seeing the female as a victim on television and I've really identified with that . . . I really like the fact that they chose to take a chance on this young girl being so strong yet still allowed her to be a girl."
The result is, like Buffy and Alias, a show centred around teens which manages to appeal to a much older audience.
It's another happy accident, said Thomas, who started out as a writer with the accidental teen-novel hit Rats Saw God.
"I got my start writing young adult novels, but I fell into that accidentally," Thomas said.
"I wrote a novel about an 18-year-old when I was 28 and I really believed - given the sex and drugs and language - that it was a book for people my age, about an 18-year-old.
"So my experience - and I really learnt this writing for young adults - is to write things to please me.
"I'd rather shoot high on that teen audience than aim low.
"So hopefully in telling smart, compelling stories about a 17-year-old girl, we'll have an adult and a teen audience."
Veronica Mars, Monday, 7.30pm, Channel Ten.