A boy broke my heart the week before my freshman year finals, and watching Veronica Mars was only way I managed to pass my classes. My friend had all three seasons on DVD, and each night, after I spent a few hours studying, she and I would watch a few episodes. I loved the characters, the mysteries, and Logan Echolls, and though we only made it through one season by the time the semester ended, I blew through the rest of the show over the summer. I was crazy about Veronica Mars, but I am much less crazy about the news that Hulu plans to commission a reboot, because sometimes good things should die as they are.
According to Deadline, Hulu is in the midst of finalizing plans for a new season of Veronica Mars, helmed by creator Rob Thomas and starring Kristen Bell as the titular (former) teen detective. Deadline says there’s talk of other cast members returning, though it’s not clear who—the original series, which ran from 2004 to 2007 on UPN and the CW, starred the likes of Jason Dohring, Percy Daggs III, Ryan Hansen, Enrico Colantoni, and a baby Tessa Thompson. The reboot is expected to consist of a limited eight-episode run, a la 2016’s four-episode Gilmore Girls revival on Netflix.
I liked the new Gilmore Girls episodes. They was a little unsettling and fan service-y, but ultimately the whole reboot was a nice reunion that tied up some loose ends. But Veronica Mars has already had a revival—the Veronica Mars movie, a fan-funded Kickstarter venture, was released in theaters and in digital download form in 2014. It too was a cute, fan service-y throwback to a beloved show, and though I’ll never get over seeing Logan in a JAG uniform, for the most part, I enjoyed it.
We can’t possibly need more than that. The whole premise of Veronica Mars was that she was a wise-cracking teen who solved crimes and survived high school at the same time. Now she’s an adult, and based on what I recall from the film, she’s just as useless and fucked up as the rest of us. That’s fine. Growing up is hard! But I don’t need my heroes to age with me, and these reboots are starting to feel lazier by the minute.
Perhaps Thomas and Bell will prove me wrong, but in the meantime, I demand this concession: someone stream the original seasons of Veronica Mars. They were on Netflix a few years back and I watched them whenever I felt sad. They have since disappeared from streaming services, just in time for the world to become a shit pile and make me sad all the time. Bring back Veronica Mars! But don’t screw it up.