Mars, Bars Reviews

Ok so they killed off Sheriff Lamb... I’m still not quite mentally processing that and I’m in two minds as to what I actually thought about this episode. But I'm so very beyond glad that I spoiled myself because I wouldn’t have wanted to watch that unprepared.

Lamb. Is. Dead. Nope still not quite managing that fact. What’s worse, aside from the totally disrespectful manner in which this staple character was killed off (with quite possibly no emotional fallout - not a black armband in sight!), is the very implications and wider implications Lambs death will have for the tone of the show. VM is supposed to be a noir universe and one of the most important aspects of retaining that is to have a corrupt authority system that causes the hero or anti-hero to do good; that by their very nature and circumstance the hero must work against this corrupt environment to serve justice themselves. We have seen Veronica do this in past seasons (Lily’s murder, bus crash etc) the only reasons she felt compelled to action was because she had no faith that the law would bring about justice. So now that the lazy Sheriff Lamb is dead and papa Mars is acting Sheriff she has no motivation to act outside the law. Which by all accounts is illegal and therefore punishable! But I’m not feeling up to contemplating all the potential consequences of Veronica breaking the law while Keith is Sheriff, I’ll be here all day if I do. Now while I may not have liked Lamb as a person I will miss him as an ‘interesting shades-of-grey’ character; and someone that continually acted as a foil for Veronica and Keith. When Lamb bit the dust I not only mourned the loss of his character, but the total and utter wasted potential Lamb as a character possessed. His death was simply that. A waste.

I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive RT for this episode; I truly hope this is the last season so I won’t have to suffer a fourth season which looks to be a boring standalone episodic soap opera. RT has been successful in stripping away everything that made me love this show; the snarky Logan - completely boring this season, friendly interaction - Wallace and Mac have disappeared almost completely, the season long mystery arc - two short boring arcs, LoVe which has slowly become more convoluted and then to top it all off they kill off the only remaining dark character, who stood as a symbol of the corruption and noirish tone in Neptune.
Where do we go from here? Lord knows, judging by the “stellar” writing this season there’s always more down... I’m just reeling from a death that was almost nonsensical. If the only reasoning being killing off Lamb was to make Keith sheriff then the tone of Neptune changes goodbye noir) and cheapens the events of the Pilot. But if Keith is just acting sheriff in a non-permanent capacity then what was the point at all? I’d take Lamb over any new character. It’s just pointless; if his death was purely for shock value then I’m even more annoyed.

In other news Parker and Logan seem to like one another! Oh what surprise I exhibited... well I would have had I not read spoilers. Where the hell has that relationship come from? Though to be honest at this point I’m not altogether bothered. They’ve already pretty much destroyed my ship by throwing in plot points so convoluted I’m having trouble realising this is in fact Veronica Mars... supposedly a mystery noir drama and NOT a teen soap opera. So screwing around with it some more won’t make much difference to me. Bring on Pizronica while you’re at it, why not. Since I was so worried about Lambs death I felt it difficult to enjoy this episode, it felt somewhat tainted. Although the Karma Sutra stuff was amusing... but why was Mac so eager to jump into bed with Bronson?? Have the writers forgotten about Cassidy? It certainly seems that way. The Veronica jail scenes while amusing (My little pony tattoo!) did feel a bit over the top. How good was it to see Cliff, Wallace and Vinnie again? I was happy. I was however decidedly unhappy about Wallace’s homophobic comment regarding Lamb being a friend of Dorothy. So it’s ok to mock sexuality for a cheap laugh now is it? It was rather tasteless. I remember the more subtle dark humour... once upon a time in a universe far far away.

And with this episode we’ve hit jump the shark territory... I should have seen it coming. When Lamb died he took the noir and any hope I had for this show with him. RIP Sheriff Lamb you will be greatly missed. I feel better now! :]