Veronica Mars: Performance anxiety

[rivkat]

As a fangirl, I would have liked to see more of Veronica and Logan rebuilding their relationship, but the thing is: they didn’t. Their reconciliation happened too fast, because of external pressures, which is probably the only way it can happen for them. It can’t last, both for dramatic reasons and because it isn’t in their natures. Their chemistry is the kind that, when you add a catalyst, reacts so fast it breaks the glass and sets off the fire alarm.

Logan, to me, is a perfect example of a person who’s always on stage, always playing a role. Often it’s the role he (correctly) thinks his interlocutors expect him to play, because Logan is very accommodating that way, and here I mean to be both facetious and serious, just like Logan. He tells people, especially Veronica, the truth in a tone that allows listeners to disregard the content: completely honest and completely affected, because there’s no difference between the two for him. (Remember his comments about what role he’s playing now that a girl broke his heart?)

I think much of fandom’s love for him can be traced to the way that he’s a perfect representation of the performative self, never unconscious of the impression “Logan Echolls” is making, and we are all a little worried about the self we’re performing. Scare quotes as cultural moment. It’s no accident that TWoP finds Logan a little campy.

It’s also no accident that VM trades in emotional realism and shout-outs to TWoP at the same time – it’s emotionally realistic for these characters, these people, to be performing for an imagined audience, sealed off behind the glass of the TV screen. The way the jerky 70s green-screening plays behind the characters when they’re supposedly driving in cars is defiantly obvious (and probably achieved in a very high-tech way nothing like the original state of the art effects it emulates), but it also represents the emotional meaning of being inside a car where all the important stuff is going on; the outside world isn’t real, so why should it look real?

Some of Logan’s roleplaying can be traced to the difference between a father and a father figure; Logan had only the latter, and thus treats everyone as shadows on a cave wall. But the other high-school-age characters on VM, Veronica especially, have similar expectations – they don’t live, they perform themselves. They have individual soundtracks to their lives, just as Apple encourages them, and us, to do. I don’t doubt that there’s a show called Dick Casablancas in Dick’s mind (it airs on MTV). It has a Dick Casablancas Voiceover, just like we have a Veronica Mars Voiceover.

In other words, Veronica’s voiceover isn’t extradiegetic any more than the (sponsored) music is. I really noticed this two weeks ago, with Carol of the Bells by Mike Doughty playing over and under Logan’s epic confession. Veronica begins by saying “I love this song” – completely obvious product placement, and also perfectly integrated into the narrative, because she really needed something stupid and distracting to say that would keep her from engaging with Logan. Is Veronica Mars the commercialized version of Donna Haraway’s cyborg? Or is Veronica Mars?

Other: Yes, Beaver went evil genius too fast. We had some prior glimpses of the skull beneath the skin, but he shouldn’t have been so gleeful, at least not without drinking more than we saw. I liked it anyway. He was a kid, and I’ll allow him some crazy plans.

Query about old episode: Anyone have a screencap of “Gone on puzzling errand”? I would love to have an icon of that.

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Some of Logan’s roleplaying can be traced to the difference between a father and a father figure; Logan had only the latter, and thus treats everyone as shadows on a cave wall. But the other high-school-age characters on VM, Veronica especially, have similar expectations – they don’t live, they perform themselves. They have individual soundtracks to their lives, just as Apple encourages them, and us, to do. I don’t doubt that there’s a show called Dick Casablancas in Dick’s mind (it airs on MTV). It has a Dick Casablancas Voiceover, just like we have a Veronica Mars Voiceover.

That's amazingly insightful, and also explains a *lot* of the twists we saw last night (like the revelation that Jackie has only been playing the spoiled rich brat--a performance she was quite convincing in). To me that even excuses the Beaver reveal, because I'm sure the voiceover in his head painted himself as the great puppetmaster, manipulating smart people (like getting revenge on his dad via Veronica, and blackmailing Kendall into doing his bidding), so when his own self-narrative was so drastically challenged by the threat that Veronica would reveal he was not the puppetmaster but in fact Woody's victim, he desperately tried to reassert himself as mastermind.

[chase820.livejournal.com]

Lovely Logan analysis, Rivka. So, what channel does his show come on?

I'm thinking F/X: Logan Echolls, like Nip/Tuck, would be an uneasy mixture of satire, shock-TV, and camp comedy of manners.

Though in his mind, he probably imagines he's on HBO. But don't we all?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer to imagine the Rivka Review -- I get much more control over the presentation that way. It's a lot like LJ.

As for Logan, FX sounds just about right. Or maybe a British reality show.

[fenwic.livejournal.com]

Fascinating take on the show, and on Logan, in particular. I wouldn't have called this show affected or stereotypical, and yet it does often feel like everyone's playing a role. But I guess noir's like that. Logan treating "everyone as shadows on a cave wall" rings especially true. He comes from a family of actors who didn't stop acting when they got home. His friends and girlfriends hide/hid behind facades, and as you said, he himself is constantly playing a part. I think that's why I'm so drawn to him and Veronica (separately and together) when they let the pretense slip.

Love your take on the cheesy green-screen effects, btw. It makes it almost bearable :)

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I don't think Veronica is affected (I do think Logan is deliberately so much of the time) -- my argument is that's the way she really is: she has a running commentary track, just like a character in a show. It's a step past being the hero of her own life; she's the star of her own life, which implies a constant imagined audience. Neither of them are stereotypical, but they think of themselves as characters; they are immersed in the generic conventions they use to define themselves. I therefore think they don't let the pretense slip so much as play the role of people with hidden depths. Their emotions are real, otherwise they wouldn't be so good at playing them.

The green-screen has to be deliberate. Without decent commentary tracks on the DVDs I can't get confirmation on this, but given the attention paid to lighting on the show and the current technological capabilities available, the only way to read it is as a choice, probably in part homage to older noir.