Last night technology thwarted my Veronica Mars watching. See I have a PVR (basically a Tivo), so I was watching the show as the PVR recorded. I'd tuned in about 10mins after the hour so I could fast forward through commercials (which I HATE, but then who doesn't). As a result I was behind the live recording. About 15mins into watching the show my PVR inexplicably shut down. Yes, my PVR shut down for no reason (perhaps other than that it hates me, but why? I LOVE it, how could it hate me?). I think I shall refer to this incident as The Betrayal of my PVR /emo-ing about technology.

I surprised myself by not panicking at all (this is totally the kind of situation that would normally cause me to shriek and flail around). I stared at the blank screen calmly for a bit, anticipating it would fix itself. After a couple of minutes, just as I was about unplug it and plug it back in (my normally successful solution to EVERY technological problem), it started back up again.

Miraculously it immediately started recording again. I didn't realize until afterwards that the PVR had saved the previous recording so I assumed that it was lost and started watching again at 9:42pm, and - surprisingly - it didn't seem like I'd missed much. After the episode ended I discovered that the 1st part of the recording was saved, so I watched the middle part that I missed. It turns out I only missed part of a Veronica/Mac scene (sigh).

I'm all impressed with myself for not panicking, although I think I was so calm because UPN re-airs VM again on Saturday night so I knew I had another chance of seeing it. Also, I could always download if desperate.

So enough with the rambling about The Betrayal of my PVR, here's my random thoughts on VM "Versatile Toppings" 2:14:

1. Continuity = good. I loved that Corny, Madison, Ryan (gay kid from "Ahoy Mateys"), Carmen (from M.A.D.!!) and Cho's pizza all returned in this episode.

2. There were some excellent quippy lines as per usual, my favourites:
- Veronica: Why can’t the evil just get jobs like the rest of us?
- Dick to Veronica: You’re like rich dude kryptonite.
- Also bonus points to the crassness of Dick's t-shirt: There's a U in ugly.

3. I really liked the way the issue of outing is dealt with in this episode. Often on television shows it's examined from the self-help angle, ie. if the person would learn to love themselves and be out, it would be okay. This is definitely a relevant issue to explore but things aren't normally that straight forward (hee). During high school 2 of my friends were kicked out of their homes when they were outed (one of them, who I was dating at the time, was outed by gossiping teachers. Reason #105 why I'm glad I don't live in Kingston anymore.)

I liked how this exchange highlighted that being queer generally doesn't help your social standing:
Veronica (re: Kylie being a lesbian): That's cool.
Kylie: Only when you're in college.

Also, the episode did a good job of making the point the not being out isn't always about self-hate, it's often about not being bashed:

Veronica: I want to know why you act like you do. The other day when you and your pal were making fun of Dick -
Kelly: When underneath I was really just bashing myself? Very insightful. Want to know why I do it? Because I want to survive high school.

Um, of course, I don't think that means it's okay for Kelly's character to be an ass, but it does point out the serious reasons behind acting the way he does. Not being out isn't always - or only - about self-hate, it's frequently about real fears of how you'll be treated by others (eg. kicked out of the house, bashed).

4. The scene of the lesbians holding hands, walking the hall made me very happy.

5. Thanks Rob Thomas for having Rick Santorum be the blackmailer's alias in an episode which highlights how difficult it is to be queer in high school.

6. I'm still unsure of Logan's motives in the whole Hannah relationship, which I'm okay with that. I knew he definitely wanted to use the relationship as leverage with Dr. Griffith, but I continue to be unsure whether he's telling the truth about his feelings for Hannah. I expect this'll be explored in future episodes, and I like that Logan's motives are ambiguous.

7. I don't really have much comments about the plots or the overarching mysteries because my non-linear viewing confused those a bit for me. I suspect that Jackie's dad is innocent and the explosives are in the hangar to frame him.

8. I like the developing Jackie and Veronica friendship. It's still very surface but it's nice to see Veronica having more female friends. Also, yay for the Veronica and Mac scene and I'm looking forward to seeing it in its entirety on Saturday.


By 11:30pm I was so exhausted from the stresses of work and The Betrayal of my PVR that I collapsed into bed almost 2 hours earlier than usual. So I didn't see last night's Bones and I heard that Adam Baldwin (Jayne!!) was on, and something about naked David Boreanaz?! Fortunately my PVR didn't have any problems during the recording of Bones so I'll be able to watch it in the next couple of days.