Whedonesque : Comments on 10122 : Veronica Mars Season 2 UK Airing.

Hurray!

I haven't seen any of this, do we know if the first season will be repeated first? Or any news on a region 2 dvd release?

Jona | April 20, 17:22 CET

so season 2 has not aired at all in the uk? that sucks, its almost over here in the states.

pongluver | April 20, 17:43 CET

Veronica Mars has a Buffy sensibility, with echoes of Dawson's Creek for a backdrop and Nancy Drew at the heart of its format. Veronica is relentless in a Columbo-type way, and continues to search for evidence that will clear her father's name and get her back into the 'in-crowd'.

Let's not forget she has arms and a head just like Sherlock Holmes and a nose in exactly the same way as Frank Cannon (echoes of Dawson's Creek indeed, ptooey ;).

(and I don't think she was _ever_ trying to get back into the 'in-crowd').

Much better timeslot for Ms. Mars et al. Hopefully this'll help nudge it over the edge into a third season in the US.

Saje | April 20, 17:44 CET

I can't really bring myself to join in with the "Hurrays". Who the hell watches Living TV? I'm a big VM fan, and after Living TV's mishandling of season 1 I was really hoping that one of the big channels would pick it up and air it properly. It deserves a much bigger audience than Living TV will be able to provide.

dzr | April 20, 17:51 CET

Hopefully this'll help nudge it over the edge into a third season in the US.

Doubtless The CW will be taking into account the five people who watch Living TV on a regular basis. Or not. Lalalala.

Simon | April 20, 17:51 CET

Wow, an actual primetime slot for the show, just before it gets axed in the States. Great timing, Living!

Like Simon said, the CW will take no interest whatsoever in the what is happening on this side of the pond when they consider whether to grant VM a third season or not. Especially as Simon probably overestimated the Living TV audience with his "five people" comment.

Jona, the first season is currently being shown on Saturday mornings at 11. It's over half way through though, I believe, but you can at least catch the end of the season before the new one begins.

D-Monik | April 20, 18:13 CET

Jona, Living TV has been screening repeats of VM Series 1 on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. BST (next episode 22 April, 1.14 ‘Mars vs. Mars’.) Good news that S2 will have a far better slot than S1, although I’m surprised Living TV can find space for it amongst its usual fare of makeover/next-top-model/psychobabble nonsense.

Big stripey silence on the R2 S1 DVD front, though – and I for one am not holding my breath. I think you’ll have to import the R1 disks, I’m afraid.

(BTW, another first-time poster here. I’m a long-standing denizen of Lurkage, who always missed those rare periods when registration was open, much to my frustration. Consequently, this is my first chance to thank Simon, who posted the heads-up on 8 August 2005 about the advance screening of the BDM in Manchester on 24 August. I happened to be doing some late night lurkage, and was able to book tickets there and then. By the time I got to tell colleagues at work the following day, all the tickets had gone. So it was that I had the chance to meet Adam and Gina at the screening – and my colleagues didn’t! Simon, I’m for ever in your debt.)

Kulminator | April 20, 18:17 CET

Yeah, I always got the feeling that the TV industry does not consider anything beyond the borders of the good old US of A when deciding on renewal prospects...and sometimes not beyond the tips of their own noses. The strangeness they are doing with the timeslot here in The States has me worried. I looked for it Tuesday night at 9:00 where I thought it was last week, and saw only basketball. Blast! I happened to have the TV on last night at 9:00 and started to flip past UPN when there was VM. During a commercial they said it was on Tuesday night next week. So am I crazy or does that mean that they are changing the night it is on every other week, Wed, Tues, Wed, Tues? (OK, I admit it could be both.)

Got to hand it to them, it IS innovative and different. (Yikes)

newcj | April 20, 18:18 CET

Okay, message to self: don't pause to take a phone-call in the middle of posting, or else someone else will get there first!

So, what you said, The Immortal.

Kulminator | April 20, 18:22 CET

We are few but mighty Simon ;). In fairness, I did say 'nudge' not 'shove with the force of a raging torrent' but surely any overseas sale increases the chances ? The CW presumably don't care if it's not watched after they've sold it, that's not their business. Money's money and whether 5 people watch Living TV or 5 million, The CW have been paid.

And OK, 'regular basis' is probably pushing it re: my Living viewing habits. In fact, anything barring "for Veronica Mars and to occasionally laugh at the 'ghost' hunting programmes" probably is too (they're not 'orbs' they're frikkin' moths FFS ;) but they must have some viewers. Surely.

Saje | April 20, 18:26 CET

Indeed, CW don't care how many people watch it in the UK. As, indeed, the CW don't get the money from the sale - the studio do. And, again, they just care about the money.

Living will probably get more viewers with it than watched Firefly on Sci-FI in the UK.

gossi | April 20, 18:35 CET

I might be completely off base here, not being an expert about the workings of television production in America or anywhere else for that matter, but would the American network really be all that interested in the oversees market? Surely this would be of greater interest to the various production companies with a financial stake in the making of the show and whoever is responsible for oversees distribution.

Edit to say: Gossi has just said pretty much the same thing. I was too slow with my message (one-finger typing technique) but at least it seems I'm not completely off the mark.

Edited again to correct various typos!

[ edited by dashboardprophet on 2006-04-20 16:41 ]

[ edited by dashboardprophet on 2006-04-20 16:42 ]

alien lanes | April 20, 18:39 CET

newcj, the VM time has changed to Tuesdays at 9 (or 8, if you're in central time like I am). They repeat the episodes the next day (Wednesday), and occasionally other times over the week. So if your TV was showing basketball on Tuesday, that's not because of UPN changing its schedule, but because of your local affliliate deciding to preempt VM for the game. Which supposedly has been happening a lot, lately, in some pretty major markets. Though not here in Chicago, thankfully.
But I think the change, and frequent preemptions for sports, and a plot that's so complicated that missing one episode can leave you seriously out of the loop, all adds up to not much help for VM's ratings....

acp | April 20, 18:41 CET

Saje, I actually don't think overseas sales matter to them at all when considering renewal. Sooner or later, even axed series will be screened here so I assume they just look at that as a given, whether they renew Veronica Mars or not. It's all about the ratings over there. Very shortsighted but then, as we all know, the networks are not blessed with an overabundance of patience. Or intelligence.

Kulminator, better that two people give Jona the information than none at all. :)

D-Monik | April 20, 18:42 CET

This is great news! Although I wish I hadn't read the last paragraph spoilers. Maybe in two months I can forget and get despoiled?
I think Charmed is an important show for Living too. Although that's up there with gosling juggling for me.

Kang | April 20, 18:48 CET

The words "Charmed" and "important" in the same sentence. Now there is something you don't see every day.

D-Monik | April 20, 18:54 CET

VM got pushed back to 2 a.m. for baseball last week in Minneapolis and then replayed on Wednesday. This week it played at the normal time but was repeated on Wednesday anyway. Whee...

zeitgeist | April 20, 19:00 CET

As, indeed, the CW don't get the money from the sale - the studio do

Yeah, well, by 'CW' I meant 'studio'. It's a street thing, yo * does that thing 'street' people do with their hands that makes their fingers click * ;-)

dashboardprophet, closer to the mark than me, i'd say ;). Though I guess the gist is the same. Studio gets paid even if VM tanks on Living.

The consensus seems to be that US networks don't really pay much mind to overseas markets though which is a bit daft but kind of par for the course (as The Immortal says, not an overabundance of brains) so seems like it won't matter either way. And the whole pre-emption thing people are mentioning doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

That said, re: what gossi said, it was seeing 'Firefly' on Sci-Fi the first time that turned me into a fan (flicked over part-way through the pilot, thought 'Ah, it's that Joss Whedon thing' and the rest, as they say, is half about hiding the truth) so even comparatively low audience figures can have an effect (albeit indirectly).

Saje | April 20, 19:07 CET

Thank goodness for torrents 'cause although CTV holds the rights to VM in Canada, so far they've decided not to air season 2.

Ruadh | April 20, 19:08 CET

Saje, yeah, a surprising amount of people I've spoken to who saw Serenity at the cinema watched it because they saw Firefly on Sci-Fi. I really wish Firefly had been aired on BBC 2 before the movie came out. There was actually talk of this happening, then talk of it going to Sky One, but it fell apart fairly late on. :o(

gossi | April 20, 19:18 CET

Big stripey silence on the R2 S1 DVD front, though – and I for one am not holding my breath. I think you’ll have to import the R1 disks, I’m afraid.

They are multiregion discs anyway (R1,2,3 and 4), so go ahead and get them, Jona. :) Unfortunately there aren't really any specials included - apart from about 20 minutes of deleted scenes - but Rob Thomas made an audio commentary for the pilot, which you can download at his website.

Shukriyya | April 20, 19:24 CET

Oh good, so now not only do I have the piss taken out of me for watching Buffy (I'm a late fan, only season 3 left to watch now), I also have to be seen with a Living TV program on my Sky+.

Should I read up on whats happened in the episodes prior to the one on Saturday or will I be able to pick up whats happening easily enough?

Jona | April 20, 19:28 CET

They are multiregion discs anyway (R1,2,3 and 4), so go ahead and get them

They are? I’ve got separate R2 and R1 players at home, and have always played the VM disks on the latter. Never tried them on the R2 (much more expensive!) player. I’ll give it a try when I get home and report back.

Kulminator | April 20, 19:38 CET

We bought a cheap dvd player to watch the Veronica Mars R1 dvd and it wouldn't play until I "made" it region free.
Jona - If you want to catch up I found the season 1 recaps at Television without pity enjoyable and surprisingly snark free.

Kang | April 20, 20:13 CET

We bought a cheap dvd player to watch the Veronica Mars R1 dvd and it wouldn't play until I "made" it region free.

In fact, I did something similar, by converting an old player to Region 1 using a hack found on the web...

...although if any lawyers are reading this, I did nothing of the kind, 'cos that would be wrong. :-)

Kulminator | April 20, 20:33 CET

I have very vague memories of Due South being saved cause it was so popular in the UK. I think the network it was shown on (BBC?) chipped in with some of the production costs for the next season.

Simon | April 20, 20:54 CET

Well, I haven't played the discs on a proper DVD player yet, only on my computer - and PowerDVD claims that they are R1, R2, R3 and R4. It would be great if you could report back, Kulminator.

Jona, Mars Investigations is also a good site for reading up on the mysteries. You can specify that you only want to see content up until episode X, so that is very helpful if you are catching up with the series.

Shukriyya | April 20, 21:03 CET

Simon, that is correct. The third season of Due South was partly funded by the BBC. Unfortunately it was also nowhere near as good as the first two seasons, largely due to David Marciano not being a regular cast member anymore, and so the show got axed anyway.

Pity that the Beeb haven't done something similar as yet with a Ripper series. Splitting the cost between themselves and a network or cable channel in the States would be an ideal way to finance the show, given the fact that it would be equally popular both here and in America. Are you listening, BBC? Do something actually entertaining with my licence fee, for a change.

D-Monik | April 20, 21:24 CET

Well, I haven't played the discs on a proper DVD player yet, only on my computer - and PowerDVD claims that they are R1, R2, R3 and R4. It would be great if you could report back, Kulminator.

Well, whaddya know? In spite of all the packaging stating it is Region 1, the disks play perfectly well on my R2 machine. Just as well I didn't hack my old machine just for VM - I still need it for 'Wonderfalls' and 'Dead Zone'.

This is great news - I can now lend the disks to my sister, who cannot hack her own machine and has been trying to find a way to see VM.

Kulminator | April 21, 00:31 CET

It plays fine on my Region 2 DVD-ROM drive as well.

Gag Halfrunt | April 21, 04:21 CET

[A]lthough if any lawyers are reading this, I did nothing of the kind, 'cos that would be wrong

Luckily this is a lawyer free-zone. Apart from the great moral authority that is your admins and mods, of course. :)

*writes down Kulminator's name and number*

SoddingNancyTribe | April 21, 04:32 CET

Awesome. Ill see what I think of the episode on Saturday and then I may have to invest. Is Mars vs Mars a particularly strong episode?

Jona | April 21, 04:33 CET

I was always amazed that Due South did well anywhere outside of Canada because it has so very many Canadian jokes. Of course it did have Paul Gross to look at. Maybe that was enough.

Lioness | April 21, 06:20 CET

Is Mars vs Mars a particularly strong episode?

I'd say Mars v Mars was middle of the pack – not a bad episode, but not necessarily indicative of the show's greatness either. But it's not a bad place to start. Definitely catch yourself up with some of the recaps first. VM is a very plot-heavy show, and while you'll pick up some of the important stuff and characters after seeing a few episodes in the middle of the season, there's a lot of background and characters introduced in the early episodes (and in almost every ep, actually) that are pretty important.

acp | April 21, 09:10 CET

This is shiny news - both about Season 2 coming to the UK and the DVD being apparantly multi region. Although I was glad at the time that LIving showed the first Season an episode a night, cos I was hooked - in hindsight it was all over too quickly and I have been having severe withdrawl, especially as there seems to be no sight of a region 2 DVD.

I don't see why VM shouldn't do OK on Living - isn't Charmed on Living and that seems to do well enough and as far as I am aware it has not been on a terrestrial channel other than Channel 5 - which seems to have about as many viewers or perhaps the actual same viewers as Living TV.

Living TV have been doing a lot of promotion for their newly aquired shows recently, Close To Home and Boston Legal in particular, so if they do this with VM too I see no reason why it shouldn't do well. And if it does, then all the more reason for a region 2 DVD release of Season 1 so that people can catch up.

Cider | April 21, 20:53 CET

Hell, if its that plot heavy, Ill just buy the DVD, I dont want to ruin it. And if it turns out to be rubbish, I blame you internets!

Jona | April 21, 21:07 CET

April 20 2006