From Deseret News archives:
Bell is 20% more girl
"I don't have the stomach Veronica has," Bell said. "I think I have the determination and the stubbornness and a little bit of the go-get-'em. But I think I'm about 20 percent more girl than Veronica is."
Not that Veronica isn't feminine, but she's not your average TV teen. "There's a lot of Veronica that hits home with me, the sort of feisty area." Bell said. "But I think that I have a little bit more girl. I'd scream my head off if I saw a body in the freezer."
"Veronica" creator/executive producer/writer Rob Thomas, as always, isn't giving away plot developments as the show gets ready to enter its third season, but we do know that Veronica will be solving more mysteries than ever. Assuming the critically acclaimed, ratings-starved show runs an entire season.
Just getting picked up for a third season amidst the UPN-WB merger was touch-and-go, and the new CW network has only ordered 13 episodes, nine short of a full season. Thomas said he is operating under the assumption the "back nine" episodes will get picked up, but, regardless, he will structure the third season differently.
He's planning a nine-episode mystery arc, followed by a seven-episode arc, followed by a six-episode arc. "That's spoken with the confidence of a man who thinks he's going 22 episodes," Thomas said.
The character arcs and relationships will carry through however many episodes are produced, but the mysteries will be closed-ended.
The show has struggled in the ratings; the numbers fell so low last season it almost didn't get picked up. Thomas said that was, in part, because "we almost worked Kristen to death in season one," so in order to lighten her workload a second season-long mystery was added to the main story, "but it had the effect of putting two concurrent mysteries lasting 22 episodes with way too many suspects, way too many red herrings.
"We felt like we got too convoluted last year. We sort of freely admit that."
Not so in season three.
"To service a 22-episode mystery, you have to have a large playing field. To service a nine-episode mystery, we can keep that tighter, more focused," Thomas said. "Instead of having 12 people who can be in the running for the villain, there might be five in one of those mysteries. I think it will be much cleaner. I think it will also give a new audience more jumping-in points."
Assuming there is a new audience. Which there has to be for the show to survive.
Thomas knows that 13 episodes isn't enough for a nine-episode arc and a seven-episode arc. But that 13 number has to do with contracts and budgets.
"We're either going to do well and do 22, or we're not going to do well, and we're not going to make it to 13," he said. "I think we're actually in a make-or-break time now. We need to come on in this new time slot and do well."
Following "Gilmore Girls" on Tuesdays can only help. Bell hopes it helps enough.
"I love playing Veronica Mars," she said. "There's no one that's dumb that watches 'Veronica Mars.' I mean, you have to pay attention."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com
