Making History with Veronica Mars

I first heard about the teen noir show Veronica Mars because at the time TV Guide columnist Michael Ausiello wrote a weekly recap and I happened upon it through one of his Ask Ausiello postings.  Now you may think it’s weird that I was reading the recaps of a show that I was not actively watching and you would be right, but it’s not like I ever claimed to be normal.  When I realized that I had spent the better part of a month anxiously waiting for his next recap I pretty much knew I was hooked and promptly went out and bought the first season on DVD and binged watched it in one day.

I had never seen a show like it before or really since.  Here was a teen drama that was smart and sassy.  It didn’t cater to girl stereotypes.  The main protagonist in the story was a gutsy female who didn’t take crap from anybody.  She didn’t spend her time whining about the boy she had lost or her best girl friend flirting with her guy or some other trivial girl problem we so often see in teen dramas.  No, this girl kicked ass.  To this day one of my favorite lines of any show is when she discovers that a fellow classmate has been bullying another classmate, a classmate she just so happened to be helping:

“Well, I want to congratulate you. Shake your hand. Congratulations! You’ve been named the world’s biggest cockroach. This award is given in recognition in your unparalleled lack of decency and humanity. Bravo. You’re going to die friendless and alone.”

and

“Shut up! If I want you to speak, I’ll wave a Snausage in front of your nose. You use Mandy again to convince yourself you’re not a loser, I will ruin your life. Got it?”

Basically this girl didn’t play around and she damn sure didn’t let anyone walk all over her.  I remained a loyal viewer until the very end and cried when I realized that there was no miracle waiting to bring us a 4th season.  And even though I had all 3 seasons to watch anytime I wanted it just wasn’t the same so  I poured over the trades for any mention of a possible movie, but by March 2013 I had pretty much given up all hope of that ever happening.  Except for the occasional tweet where I wondered along with other fans why Warner Bros didn’t just let Rob Thomas have the rights to the show so a movie could be made I had pretty much stopped thinking about the show.

So when on March 12th, 2013 Kristen Bell sent out a tweet saying that she and the creator of the cult show Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, had something interesting to share on the 13th via Entertainment Weekly I didn’t give it much pause.  Both Bell and Thomas had made it very clear in the past that they were interested in bringing Veronica Mars back to the screen and had tried pretty much everything they could by that point so I figured it was just them telling us that they found a way to make some webisodes or maybe she was coming back in graphic novel form.

But not in a million years did I think they were going to be announcing that if they were able to raise 2 million dollars through Kickstarter within 30 days they were going to shoot the Veronica Mars movie this summer.  It wasn’t until I pulled up the Kickstarter page that I began to let myself believe it could be possible.  Maybe.  Yeah I was a doubting Susan those first nerve soaked hours and why wouldn’t I be?  When it was on the air it never had more than 2.5 million views and it had been off the air since May 2007.  There was just no freaking way it had enough fans like myself willing to shell out money to see the movie be made.

Yeah you read that right I was a Veronica Mars movie backer and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Do you know how rare it is to say that you were a part of making entertainment history?  It’s pretty freaking rare.  Especially if you are an average Jane whose only claim to fame is you have no claim to fame.   So when I had a chance to bring some kind of closure to a show that I loved I figured why the hell not.  It wasn’t like I had anything to lose.  If they made it to 2 million in 30 days I was not only going to get to see the movie I was also going to get some pretty sweet swag and if they didn’t then I didn’t pay anything.  See, win win.

The day all this went down I was supposed to be working.  The operative phrase here is Supposed To Be working.  Let’s just say not a lot of work got done that day.  In fact the only thing I remember about that day is checking the site every few minutes to see what the progress was.  I swore to myself I wasn’t going to let my hopes get up until they reached 1 million, because if they made it to 1 million then it was pretty safe to say they would make it to 2 million no problem.  Little did I know that they would reach and pass a million in a little more than 4 hours of the project launching and reach their projected goal of 2 million 6 hours later.  And I was part of that.  Not a big part mind you, but a part nonetheless and I don’t care what the naysayers think it was the best 5o dollars I ever spent. So fellow Marshmallows I will see you at the movies.