4x01 Spring Break Forever

[9.0/10] Welcome back to Neptune! I am glad to report that Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, and the rest of the cast and crew haven’t missed a beat since we left them. If anything, this re-pilot episode feels more like the classic Veronica Mars than the 2014 film did.

We’re back to the outstanding (and winkingly modernized) banter, back to the great father/daughter dynamic, back to the haves vs. have nots, back to dealing with the treatment of young women, back to an intriguing mystery to motivate the season. In brief, I was shocked at how true to form this thing feels, as though there were no time at all, rather than a decade-plus gap, between seasons 3 and 4. This is Veronica Mars, back in all its wondrous glory.

But a few things are different though, and they’re all good things (or at least promising things)! Most importantly, we have a new cast of characters involved in a mystery, from a douchebag law bro and his friends, to a nerdy crew trying to get by on Spring Break, to a young party girl and her coterie, to the brother of a congressman, to a middle class hotelier and his daughter, to a harried pizza guy played by none other than Patton Oswalt! While I’m sure that some familiar face will be involved in the bombing incident somehow (most likely Dick Casablancas’s dad), it’s nice to see a new set of whodunnit candidates that feel new and yet of a piece with the show’s milieu.

We also have the involvement of some kind of cartel boss, with scenes in Mexico that feel like something straight out of Breaking Bad. It’s new and different territory for Veronica Mars, and I’m curious to see how it intersects with Mars investigations.

Speaking of which, the show has advanced Veronica and Logan and Keith and even Wallace to create new challenges and storylines which all feel unique and, again, promising in the early going. Wallace’s part isn’t really a storyline, but it’s still nice to see him with a wife and a kid and the irony with which Veronica calls him an 09er. Keith’s possible alzheimers is an interesting hook for someone who makes a living on their wits, and has the potential to show Veronica having to confront what happens when a parent starts to slow down, which is fruitful territory.

And, of course, for you LoVe-rs out there, we get some good Veronica/Logan material. The prospect of the two of them making a life together over the past five years, one that Logan wants to make permanent, but which Veronica is wary of given their respective families’ marital histories, is a strong one out of the gate. It gives both of them someplace to go without an arbitrary break-up and get back together, and roots the challenge in something true to the characters’ pasts without regressing them to their teenage selves.

All the while you have interesting spectres and echos of things from the series’ past. You have money troubles versus justice creeping in as a theme, as Veronica winces at who she’s working for in the cold open, while Keith is taking jobs for nice shopkeeps who may not be able to pay the going rate, as both think about the future of their P.I. firm. You have a rough and tumble bartender who goes after assaulting dudebros and challenges the uptight well-heeled entrenched interests much like Veronica herself did. And in the show’s most fun sequence, you have Cliff sashaying through the hospital, handing out business cards, and rustling up business for our heroes.

The laughs are there. The character dynamics are there. The mystery is there. The class-consciousness is there. The black velvet heart of it all is there. In short, Veronica Mars is back. There’s still seven episodes for the show to go off the rails from here, but the hardest thing for a revival is to make the proceedings feel like they once did, to recreate the alchemy that made a show so memorable and worth bringing back in the first place. At least in its first episode, season 4 of Veronica Mars has that down.