Veronica Mars Season 2 DVD

Sophomore slump.

This is not as severe as it sounds. (See the O.C. for a real sophomore slump.) But any show with a great first season is more than likely to falter a bit the second time around (see Lost).

Season two started out strongly. Uhm, kind of. The fake drug results mystery was lame; it was the reason she got back into the P.I. business, but it would’ve resonated and made more sense if a BUS THAT SHE HAD JUST BEEN ON CRASHED INTO THE OCEAN did the trick. Other than that, all the episodes leading up to One Angry Veronica dealt with the bus crash, whether directly (Keith finds a rat) or indirectly (a dead victim’s parents are being harassed).

Then the comababy.

Profit DVD

The Complete Series

Jim Profit’s To-Do List for the Pilot

[x] blackmail dead boss’s secretary
[x] have sex with stepmom
[  ] become president of Acquisitions
[x] become senior VP of Acquisitions
[  ] destroy Jack Walters for ruining plans and becoming president of Acquisitions
[x] kill _____________
[x] sleep nude in a cardboard box

How many corporate thrillers are on TV right now, or have been on? Can’t say I can name any, or at least remember any. Jim Profit is the antihero, working for no one but himself and doing what it takes to rise to the top. The two-hour pilot plays like a movie, so much so that I knew immediately any subsequent episodes just wouldn’t live up to it. In fact, they revealed pretty much everything about Profit and his motivations by the time the episode was over, I thought, “where’s the mystery?” The second ep is a good “sequel” in that in delves further into his background, but now that I know where he’s coming from, when I saw the third episode, so what?

When he was actually protecting his own skin, whether it was trying to hide his past and keep his opponent, Joanne Meltzer, the chief of security, from exposing him, or seeing what unorthodox (to put it mildly) methods he would use for the company, I was interested. Yet that’s the thing: FOR THE COMPANY. Instead of being loyal to himself, he is also loyal to a corporation. I know he wants to bide his time and get into their good graces so he can come out on top, but it just kind of diluted the series. I think if it was a miniseries or a movie, it would’ve been strong throughout, instead of opening with a bang and dropping into “better than most shows, but not as great as itself in the pilot” territory. Even so, it was unfortunate this unique series was cancelled so soon.

Æon Flux DVD

The Complete Animated Collection

I thought I’d check it out just to see what the big deal was about (granted, the movie garnered bad press and similarly bad box office returns, but it had to have made a big enough deal to generate a live-action movie). It starts out interestingly enough, but soon I realized, Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, and Lost have spoiled me. Each episode was a self-contained story and had little to do with one another. You just need to know Æon Flux is a secret agent (or assassin, it’s never that clear and I rented it from online) from Monica; Trevor Goodchild, her antagonist, is the leader of Bregna (who I think has entirely way too much time on his hands, considering his position), and they both want to fuck each other up in every sense of the word. Knowing that bit of info and you can really watch any episode in any order (except I suppose for the last one, which I read is an ending of sorts).