Veronica Mars is a teen drama series that started in 2004. A lot of aspects from the show are dated and cheesy, but it tackles a surprising amount of injustice. The show focuses on Veronica Mars, a high school student that is dealing with the death of one of her friends. Her father is a private investigator, and Veronica often helps him with his job and picks up her own cases.
A key theme in the show is a difference in socio-economic classes. Half of the high school is in a higher class, the “09-er’s”, which is a nickname given by the zip-code that they live in. The other half are lower or middle class. This difference causes a lot of injustice and othering. Veronica, for example, is othered by the higher-class kids that she was once friends with. Her father used to be the sheriff of the town, and with the power of that title, Veronica was accepted by the higher-class students. After her father accused one of the wealthiest men in town of murdering Veronica’s friend, they were made outcasts by the town, and Veronica’s father lost his job. This socio-economic struggle also is shown by blatant favoritism to those in higher classes, while those in lower classes were treated more harshly.
The show often focuses on the power that money, fame, and certain positions give to those that have them. There are several instances in the show where people from lower-class families get more serious punishments for crimes or wrong doings than those in from higher-class families get for doing more serious offences. The police in the town often seek out the former for the many crimes that are done throughout the show, and they overlook the latter’s crimes because of the status they hold.
Another thing that the show does is it tries to eliminate the single-story narrative. There are several crimes committed in the show that most of the town seems content to believe that the most obvious person that committed it is the person that did it. These types of crimes are often blamed on someone that is of lower-class and can’t afford a great lawyer or to cover up the crime. Most of the show is Veronica seeking to eliminate this single story and broaden it so the wrong person isn’t convicted of a crime they didn’t commit.
The show is a little dated, and that shows several times as the season goes on. However, I think it does a pretty good job of tackling difficult topics in over-dramatized way.