Today the CW officially cancelled the best show on television (understandably, some would say, due to abysmally low ratings). There lingers a chance that the series might be revitalized in a different form, but the hammer has officially fallen. Veronica Mars is unceremoniously over.

Season 3 was the first (and last) season of the show to air on the fledgling CW network. It took a different approach to storytelling than seasons 1 and 2, featuring two separate mystery arcs and a number of one-episode mysteries, rather the season-long affairs for which the show had become known and loved. Despite the change, season 3 works as excellent, intriguing television. The writing is witty and the acting in sharp, as before.

The creator of the show, Rob Thomas, once heard the series described as "Chinatown meets Heathers." That's a perfect description. I would say it also owes heavily to Twin Peaks. Chinatown happens to be my all-time favorite movie. I'm a noir junky, and V-Mars serves it up in lusty, lipsticked, smoke-tinted glory with every episode. Many people are turned off by the concept of a high school/college girl solving mysteries. And they should be. As a premise, this show would easily fail in the hands of most producers. But Thomas and co-writers have created something magical and perfect here. The heroine Veronica is sarcastic, at times mean, overly hard-boiled, and full of acerbic wit. There's nothing candy-coated about Veronica. First time viewers often disregard the show as "another teen drama," and for this reason more than any other it failed to attract a sustaining audience. I urge you to give it a chance. Especially if you have a sarcastic mind, if you've lost faith in the basically good nature of humanity, if noir interests you, or if you just like an intelligent mystery or exceptionally well-acted drama, this may be what you're looking for. It was for me.

Admittedly, I watch very little television, but to put things in perspective this is a short list of the TV shows I've watched and loved over the years: Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Freaks and Geeks, Deadwood, and Wonderfalls. I would place Veronica Mars at the top of this delightful heap. (Actually, looking at that list, every show was cancelled before its time save BSG which is still on the air. Maybe that says something. Maybe not.) Recently, my wife and I started re-watching season 1 and 2 of Veronica Mars with a friend. His comment after one episode was this, "This show shouldn't be on television. It's too... challenging, too beautiful." I couldn't have said it any better. Unfortunately, our friend was right in the end. V-Mars was too challenging, too beautiful. And now it's gone.

Heads-up: This review is for the S3 DVD set as a DVD set, and not an editorial about the quality of Season 3. (For the record, I'd give most S3 episodes a solid 4-stars) This review is more for the VM fans who don't need to be "sold" on the series, but are deciding whether to shell-out $45 for the DVDs, given that the last 2 DVD sets were pretty skimpy on the extras.

The Season 3 DVD set, while it still doesn't have commentaries (not everyone is as chatty as Matt Groening and Co., I guess), it finally includes a few substantial behind-the-scenes extras, most notably, a 90-minute (or so) discussion with Rob Thomas, who walks us through clips and explains his choices. Very episode commentary-like, just more efficient-- you go through a lot of good clips from the whole season.

Chapters from the RT commentary I especially liked were on favorite guest characters, favorite pairings (Veronica and her dad; VM and Logan; VM and Duncan was not included here, mercifully).

It also includes RT's 14-minute mini-episode presentation for the CW heads that takes Veronica to the FBI in season 4. It's fun to watch, even if it DOES make you kind of sad because it never came to fruition, and instead you now have to sit through a whole convoluted thing of Heroes to see Kristen Bell on TV for 3 minutes. (Hypothetically, of course, as Heroes is, like, awesome!)

In conclusion, a good buy for established VM fans who wished for extras on the S1 and S2 DVDs.

While the first season of Veronica Mars will always be one of my favorite seasons of any show, the latter years just cannot compete. I found the second season too convoluted, and I thought Veronica's likability was starting to fade. The third season, however, is much too simplified. And the worst offense? Veronica Mars, the title character, becomes a complete Mary-Sue. Her sleuthing skills are nowhere near the vicinity of season one, yet everyone falls in love with her and superior "gift." Her college professor wants to vouch for her for an FBI internship, and the college dean writes a glowing letter of recommendation. She's able to stay on top of her college grades while working cases and cooking dinner for her father, and she requires no time or adjustment to do so. And not only does she have Logan Echolls madly in love with her and willing to do anything to protect her, but now we have the annoying character of Piz (Wallace's college roomie) following after her.

Veronica has always been an attractive and smart character, but these things continue to happen despite her coldness, her smugness, her arrogance. You wait and wait, expecting her to be set up for a fall so she can see the error of her ways, but it never happens. It's obvious that the creator of the show is head-over-heels for his character, and it feels like he's lost the necessary objectiveness. Veronica is right, you're wrong. Even if you're a member of the audience.

This would be more bearable if there wasn't SO MUCH Veronica this year. The first two seasons did a much better job of balancing screentime, so even though it's a show with a title character, it felt like an ensemble cast. But this year, the amazing talent from the rest of the actors was wasted. Logan had no real storyline outside of Veronica, Wallace all but disappears for episodes at a time, and Weevil is hardly ever on-screen. The utter waste of Jason Dohring (Logan) hurts the most, as Logan is transformed into the "boyfriend" character, and his sickle wit dies with his screen-time. In the end, it's just too much Veronica and not enough everyone else, coupled with a dumb-downed version of a once very smart show.