‘Veronica Mars’: Ryan Hansen Says Controversial Season 4 Ending Was ‘Necessary’
Once again, a popular show has ended in a way that many viewers did not like, with the conclusion of the Hulu season of Veronica Mars proving to be highly divisive. But unlike some other high-profile shows, this Kristen Bell-led series may be able to withstand the shock.
[Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for Veronica Mars Season 4.]
A brief history of ‘Veronica Mars’
The series came along in 2004 on UPN courtesy of creator Rob Thomas. There are a million detective shows, but not many where the detective was a teen girl, played by Kristen Bell. What also made the show stand out was its brightly lit California locale, making the series feel like film noir with the brightest lighting you’ve ever seen.
The first two seasons had a central mystery that spanned the entire run, while the third season had mysteries with smaller arcs. The show turned out to be notable not only for Bell, but it also featured “before they were stars” turns with Krysten Ritter, Amanda Seyfried and Jessica Chastain. Yet despite critical acclaim and a very devoted fanbase that is called Marshmallows, the show never had huge ratings, and Warner Bros. finally pulled the plug after the third season.
Here’s how devoted the Marshmallows were – when Thomas proposed a feature film and Warners said no, he turned to Kickstarter, where fans raised $2 million in less than 11 hours. Fans got their movie, and that still wasn’t the end – Hulu gave them a fourth season that aired last year. This was made all the more impressive by Bell squeezing it in among voicing Anna in Frozen 2 and starring in The Good Place. And then there was that ending.
Why Ryan Hansen thinks the ending works
The fourth season was a short one, running for only eight episodes. The central mystery this time was the bombing of a motel in Neptune. Veronica, as usual, cracks the case, but this time with life-altering consequences. She married her longtime boyfriend Logan, but only hours after that, Logan dies in an explosion from a bomb planted in Veronica’s car. In the aftermath, Veronica decides to leave Neptune.
Screen Rant reported that Hansen spoke to Collider about the ending, saying, “I do know that fans had a very hard time with it. But I feel like that’s the way the show was kind of heading and it needed to kind of grow up and do all that kind of stuff. My character will never grow up so I hope we get to keep doing it and I get to be Dick.”
Fans don’t always like to be told to grow up, and those who shipped Veronica and Logan must have felt especially betrayed. As of right now, there are no plans for a fifth season on Hulu or anyplace else, but as we have seen with Veronica Mars, that doesn’t necessarily preclude a continuation.
Will Veronica Mars come back? Should it?
In an interview with Rolling Stone, also reported by Screen Rant, creator Rob Thomas tried to justify Logan’s death by saying it was hard to write with Logan being alive. “It’s just hard to imagine a detective show with a 35-year-old woman with a boyfriend. I just don’t want to write that. … I feel like for this show to work as a detective show, it has to be with Veronica as a single woman,” he said.
Some fans didn’t buy this, thinking that Thomas had written himself into a corner and the only way out was to “fridge” Logan. They thought that sold Logan and Veronica short. However, even though a continuation has not been planned yet, no one with the show has said “Season 4 is definitely it,” as, say, season 8 was with Game of Thrones, and the overall opinion of that finale is not exactly positive.
For Veronica Mars, the case may be closed now, but it’s not locked shut. No one is making any promises, but Veronica Mars has come back from the dead so often the show is practically a zombie – in a good way.
