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Dan Carlson
Houston, Texas

I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of certain TV shows — for starters, "The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "The Zeppo," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April Is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day," "An Echolls Family Christmas," "Look Who's Stalking," "The Garage Door," "Charlie Gets Crippled," "Wind Sprints," and "Corner Boys" — you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings, or at any rate a heartfelt attempt to interpret them. I guess I was made to be a film critic.

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June 17, 2008

I Hear The Bells, They Are Like Emeralds

By Dan Carlson

vmart1.jpg

Over at Pajiba, it's my turn at bat again in our continuing survey of the best TV seasons of the past 20 years. We've bumped the roster from from 15 to 20, which should carry us through the summer and allow us to write about some favorites that we just couldn't pass up. This one, however, was always on the list. My struggle wasn't to decide whether to write about "Veronica Mars," but which season to write about. For reasons I hope I make clear, I went with the first.

The piece can be found here.

Comments: 7

Jen

That was beautiful Dan. It may have brought a tear or two to my eyes. Oh, how I miss Veronica and peps :(

Jun 17, 2008 4:12 PM

Chris Dowdy

we watched the pilot again tonight after reading your column (and the hilarious comment thread)...God this show is good

Jun 17, 2008 9:14 PM

Chris Dowdy

We watched the pilot again tonight after reading the column...God what a show

Jun 17, 2008 9:19 PM

WestCoastPat

Thank you for including this. I was hoping this would be one of the last 2 (now 7?).

This may be the single best stand alone season of the past 20 years. There have been better seasons of other shows, but all require prior seasons setup. VM starts from nothing and rocks it.

Jun 18, 2008 7:54 AM

Clitty McGoo

Dear Pajiba,

When it comes to this list please for the love of all things sacred... do not fuck up and neglect the Sopranos.

Respectfully,
Clitty

Jun 21, 2008 1:41 AM

JMW

Veronica Mars is awesome. Haven't seen the second season yet, but glad to hear you think it holds up. The first season set a pretty high bar.

Looking forward to posts describing your debauchery in NYC...

Jun 22, 2008 2:00 PM

Kristin

I dont know if you already read this somewhere but Rob Thomas has started writing the script for the Veronica Mars movie. Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni and Kristen Bell all have agreed to be in it.

I think my life will be complete when this movie is made.

Jan 28, 2009 1:42 AM

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