Veronica Mars 3.10: Show Me the Monkey

From here on out it’s just a case of the waiting game; seeing how long it takes before the series starts to suffer at the hands of the Network Meddling Monster. The series retains a lot of its charm, and still stands up remarkably well to many other shows around but it seems like the series is starting to get a little less Bogart and bit more OC. Regardless, there's still a nice message behind ‘Show Me the Monkey’, and Mac’s new position close to center-stage is a welcome change.

You can see that the series was just beginning its quest to gain some new viewers by ‘soaping’ the series up, with a lot of the characters love lives becoming a priority for the series. As opposed to episodes after the O’Dell mystery wraps up, this episode’s ‘Tree Hill-ish segment was fun enough. Personally, I’m more of a fan of it being relegated behind the more important detectiving, but since it’s all about the big Mac I liked all the silly shy girl stuff. 

Her trauma after what happened with Cassidy is being handled quite realistically. Any normal person who’s been through that would inevitably be carrying some amount of emotional baggage, and I’m glad that Veronica Mars didn’t opt out of it by speeding her recovery too much.

Mac’s love life aside, Logan and Veronica take 3 is what takes up a lot of episode time following this one. Though the former is cute and watchable, this whole LoVe saga is starting to really grate. There was a chance for the series to move on here, and it tried too hard to please all the shipper out there who weren’t ready to let go, even though I do love a certain birdy’s involvement in the episodes to come.

Cyrus’ presence is sorely missed, but this mystery arc is the first that felt more like his than any of the others before, which were a lot closer to Veronica than her father (Lilly, Meg, Parker all victims that were close to her). Keith is the one who takes the reins on this one, and it’s great to see him not being ignored, like some of the older characters do once a teen drama moves onto the college scene.

As small as it was, there was something so charming about the story of a scientist rescuing a monkey from certain death. Tackling issues like this have the potential to enter cheesy town (Glee anyone?), but this episode handled well. Despite the fact that it feels like the series has already peaked, I’m still enjoying myself.

7/10