By Geno McGahee
(Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions are my own.)
On October 22nd, VERONICA MARS: The Complete First Season will be released on DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The show reunites a familiar cast, including Kristen Bell as Veronica, Enrico Colantoni as her father, Keith Mars, and Logan, played by Jason Dohring, as her troubled boyfriend. Veronica is back to her old detective ways and we get 8 episodes of this new launch to a series and storyline that we have come to become familiar with and enjoy.
The 8 episodes link to each other very well and center around one mystery that needs to be solved. There’s a mad bomber that Veronica and her dad are trying to identify and stop and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way, leading us in different directions and assuming different things. The mystery, as always, is the fun part of the show and anyone that enjoys following along and trying to figure it out, will be their fill here.
What makes this show so special is Kristen Bell. She is very likable and her portrayal of the zany but serious, Veronica Mars, is always a joy to watch. I like this reboot of the series and this new first season was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the different curve balls thrown my way and the way that the characters interacted with each other and worked off each other. I highly recommend this one. I found it very fun and binge-worthy.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Veronica Mars at Comic Con 2019
8 ONE-HOUR EPISODES
- Spring Break Forever
- Chino and the Man
- Keep Calm and Party On
- Heads You Lose
- Losing Streak
- Entering a World of Pain
- Gods of War
- Years, Continents, Bloodshed
DIGITAL
The first season of Veronica Mars will be available to own on Digital on August 19 (in the U.S.). Digital allows consumers to instantly stream and download all episodes to watch anywhere and anytime on their favorite devices. Digital is available from various retailers including Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Vudu, PlayStation, Xbox and others.
BASICS
Digital Release: August 19, 2019 (in U.S.)
DVD Release: October 22, 2019
DVD Order Due Date: September 17, 2019
DVD Presented in 16×9 widescreen format
Running Time: Feature: Approx. 456 min
Enhanced Content: Approx.30 min
UNITED STATES
DVD
Price: $24.98 SRP
2 DVD-9s
Audio – English (5.1)
Subtitles – English
CANADA
DVD
Price: $30.99 SRP
2 DVD-9s
Audio – English (5.1)
Subtitles – English
About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment’s home video, digital distribution and interactive entertainment businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. An industry leader since its inception, WBHE oversees the global distribution of content through packaged goods (Blu-ray Disc™ and DVD) and digital media in the form of electronic sell-through and video-on-demand via cable, satellite, online and mobile channels, and is a significant developer and publisher for console and online video game titles worldwide. WBHE distributes its product through third party retail partners and licensees.
It’s also a problem that the streaming-season model entails stretching a single mystery over close to eight hours. That’s new for “Veronica Mars” — the network seasons had long-arc mysteries, but they were broken up by lighter stand-alone cases over their 22 episodes. Thomas has put together a complicated caper in Season 4, with the bombings simultaneously investigated by Veronica and Keith, the hapless Neptune police, a group of true-crime nerds, a pair of Mexican cartel hit men and Matty, a young woman who evolves into Veronica’s protégée. (Played by Izabela Vidovic, Matty fills the vacuum left by Tina Majorino’s pugnacious Mac, the one central character who doesn’t return.) Some of the twists are clever, but in the eight-episode format the story’s implausibilities are more distracting. The seams show in a way that didn’t used to matter.
(There’s another more directly annoying consequence of the move to streaming: several obtrusive product placements for Hulu itself, including a scene in which Veronica and Logan settle in to binge the last show you can imagine them watching, the British costume drama “Harlots.”)
Still, whenever the love story starts to drag or the mystery gets irritatingly convoluted, and despite an abrupt (and seemingly convenient) late detour into tragedy, “Veronica Mars” finds ways to charm you. Bell’s sparkle — no one does pluckiness better, or funnier — and Colantoni’s utterly relaxed, jazzlike timing are givens. Old favorites like Daran Norris, Duane Daniels and especially Max Greenfield make their usual solid comic contributions. (The chemistry between Bell and Greenfield puts a spotlight on the show’s failure to grow Dohring’s character into an interesting adult.) The show has fun with its own history, as in a touching scene when Daggs’s Wallace, now a teacher, watches Matty extract information from a love-struck mark just like Veronica used to when he was her high-school accomplice.
