Life on Mars.....

I'm currently obsessed by Veronica Mars. It's brilliant - you should watch it. It's on Living or Trouble - and is what Sky Plus was made for.

Typically, I'm about three years out of date, though, and after a quick google search today, I've found that the three series are done and dusted, and the show has been cancelled. But hey, a television schedule full of repeats can sometimes be a marvellous thing.

Checked it out last week, and was immediately hooked. Series linked it so that I had a stack of episodes lined up - and spent last night (while the boy was out being a glamourous PR type) with a big bag of crisps, a glass of wine and a few hours of entertainment. Actually, before I knew it it was almost midnight and the boy was back - telling me how well his glamourous PR event had gone.

Summing up the basic premise of the show sounds misleadingly, well...lame. It's about a high school student that acts as a private investigator in her spare time. And I guess the fact that Paris Hilton shows up in an early episode won't do much for my case.

But trust me, it's addictive. The ongoing mystery (which lasts a full season - of 40 odd eps) somehow keeps you entertained despite some cheesy dialogue and characters. But cheesy as the characters are, I like them all. Veronica's wisecracking is pretty contrived, but good god, she's made me want to be a private investigator.* And Logan (her on off boyfriend) is strangely attractive, despite being barely 21 (hey, he's probably older in real life).

There's a bit of Twin Peaks about it - with the drawn out tale, twists and turns and freakish flashbacks. This was added to, though, because I mistakenly started watching episode 33 (thinking it was the pilot) - so the mystery might have been more about me not getting the back story. But I'm straight out of work to HMV to pick up the rest, and catch up.

Genius TV - watch it.

* Since raising private dectective-ing as a career option, I've been told by many friends that my tendency to gossip could let me down significantly, and I'm probably better off in PR, where gossiping is a career-advancing skill.