Veronica Monk: Two more explorations of the Drama of Mystery
So, just finished up the first season of Veronica Mars, and am halfway through the first season of Monk, two shows which make an interesting contrast.
In both shows, at the pilot/setup, we have main characters who are portrayed as professional detectives obsessed with solving one very personal case, and having little trouble solving whatever other ancillary cases should happen to appear in their paths.
Of course, of the two, Veronica Mars is a Drama of Mystery and Monk is...not.
Overall impressions of VM: good dialog and characterization, decent plotting. Like Desparate Housewives, overcompensated for the Twin Peaks factor by burning through the uber-mystery entirely in the first season without setting up a new one immediately. Problem is, I won't come for the mystery and stay for the soap; I came for mystery and want more of it, dammit.
Which brings us to Monk. Now, while it doesn't do any damage to Veronica's nature to have there exist things that she can't figure out, Monk is Sherlock Holmes, the uber-detective, and so the idea that there exists, anywhere, a case that he can't crack within 43 minutes, let along three years, is incongruous.
Which, along with the memory losses, lead one to odd speculations if one thinks too seriously about it. The only way this guy could possibly not be able to solve his wife's murder is if he doesn't want to solve it. Which sends the suspect list to a place way, way darker than the tone of the series.
So far, at least, they're giving too many details and references if they want it to be a perpetual baseline never-to-be-solved mystery (like Remmington Steele's past) but too few to convince this viewer that they even have a solution in mind. We'll see...
In both shows, at the pilot/setup, we have main characters who are portrayed as professional detectives obsessed with solving one very personal case, and having little trouble solving whatever other ancillary cases should happen to appear in their paths.
Of course, of the two, Veronica Mars is a Drama of Mystery and Monk is...not.
Overall impressions of VM: good dialog and characterization, decent plotting. Like Desparate Housewives, overcompensated for the Twin Peaks factor by burning through the uber-mystery entirely in the first season without setting up a new one immediately. Problem is, I won't come for the mystery and stay for the soap; I came for mystery and want more of it, dammit.
Which brings us to Monk. Now, while it doesn't do any damage to Veronica's nature to have there exist things that she can't figure out, Monk is Sherlock Holmes, the uber-detective, and so the idea that there exists, anywhere, a case that he can't crack within 43 minutes, let along three years, is incongruous.
Which, along with the memory losses, lead one to odd speculations if one thinks too seriously about it. The only way this guy could possibly not be able to solve his wife's murder is if he doesn't want to solve it. Which sends the suspect list to a place way, way darker than the tone of the series.
So far, at least, they're giving too many details and references if they want it to be a perpetual baseline never-to-be-solved mystery (like Remmington Steele's past) but too few to convince this viewer that they even have a solution in mind. We'll see...
posted by Jeff R. at
2:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home