Especially since they didn't tell Kristen Bell who it was, so her reaction is completely random

Heh. This reminds me of the end of the S4 X-Files finale, "Gethsemane", in which Scully learns Mulder has "died" (eye-roll), and Gillian Anderson was told no different and proceeded to act her little heart out. Then in the S5 opener, we learn that Scully knew Mulder was alive all along, which made nonsense out of her genuine display of grief.

Whenever people have finished watching "A Trip to the Dentist", I always point them to this phenomenal essay by Mars, which says everything I could have said about why I love this episode so much, and more.

Cos TWOP - surely the ground zero of joyless reductive sniping at TV - loved the finale.

I can't speak for the VMars fora, but in my experience TWOPers tend to get obsessive and critical about these tiny little details that no one on the production staff probably even noticed, but be pretty accepting and even loving toward the big stuff. In contrast, my particular corner of LiveJournal doesn't tend to nitpick as much, but does tend to ruthlessly destruct huge arcs.

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I adore the show, but VM fandom is frickin' crazy. Well, at least the highly vocal/visible proportion of the fandom. I kind of had to stop wandering around the fandom at large because I didn't want a repeat of the BtVS experience in which the fandom made me dislike the character I used to love (i.e. Spike).

Others don't like the fact that Veronica doesn't handle the situation with perfection and power, and instead gets in trouble.

I didn't like that she got in her car without looking in the backseat first. It bugged me.

I kind of had to stop wandering around the fandom at large because I didn't want a repeat of the BtVS experience in which the fandom made me dislike the character I used to love (i.e. Spike).

I’m more than a little worried that Logan might become like Spike. I don’t know much about VM fandom, but it seems like he’s already that kind of character – charismatic, tortured soul, etc. – and people seem to REALLY like him or dislike him. I hope the writers ignore all of this, because I like how he’s presented on the show, as someone who can be sweet at times, but who can also be a major waste of space. It’s the kind of complexity you don’t often see on tv and I worry that his massive fandom contingent might sway the writers into making him the focus of the show and making him even more tortured and angst-ridden.

I’m more than a little worried that Logan might become like Spike.

Well, I have hope, since we are not dealing with the big honkin' metaphysical question of good vs. evil and soul vs. no-soul à la Buffyverse. Everyone in Neptune is somewhere on the spectrum of gray, not the least of whom Veronica herself, who does some hugely questionable stuff morally and ethically. And Logan's broken in a way that I find complicated and interesting and not totally beyond hope. We shall see.

He does divide the fandom something fierce, although I haven't met that many Logan-naysayers in that even those who don't like him very much (with or without Veronica) tend to agree that his character arc was well-plotted and acted.

Oh, I definitely like Logan the way he is presented now and I think the writers do a great job with his complexity. I'm just worried that his massive fandom base might sway the writers in how they present him in the future. Although I have no rational reason for thinking this.

Nah, I share your worries, especially since Rob Thomas and co. appear to be very fandom-aware. They did an excellent job making him sympathetic without white-washing his past wrongdoings in S1, but I'm not sure where they're going to go with the character now, given the state he was in when we last saw him in the finale. Much as I like the character, I don't want him to be more front-and-center at the sufferance of Keith, Wallace or Weevil et. all.

From the little bit I've seen of VM fandom, a lot of the craxy faction focused on Logan are former Spike craxies, or at least, some of the other fans are spinning it that way.

I was kind of meh on the finale, I thought most of it was gratuitous.

Yeah, me too. Plus my aforementioned issues with VMars and the whole gender thing.

I watched it thoroughly spoiled, knowing all the complaints from the LJ set, and fully expecting to find said complaints a result of overinvestment in their own view of the story being told. (I think I mentioned this to Vonnie when she was up here.)

I was a little surprised to find that I pretty much agreed with the complaints about the finale, and IIRC, had a couple to add of my very own. Mind you, I'm not going to swear off the show or anything. I found the first 21 episodes to be fairly tightly written and plotted, and I like the characters enough to give S2 a shot.