Veronica Mars

Entertainment Weekly told me for two years it was good, but one aborted viewing combined with the desire to decrease, not increase, the number of shows the DVR allowed me to watch left Veronica Mars on the bench. Like every nerd you know, the combination of TV on DVD and Netflix has allowed me to correct what appears, at a second glance, this horrible mistake. Of course, I've only watched the pilot at this point, but given the chance to watch a second episode or last night's taped copy of Lost, I'd watch the entire DVD and take the dog for a long walk before the DVR got its turn.

Which is completely unfair: the relationship between Lost and I has three years of baggage: disappointments, character flaws I've had to sit through whole episodes about, filler that doesn't tell me anything about the mythos behind the island. It's not like I'm blind to the potential failings of VM. The dog, for one, seems like a familiar plot device, the reverse of Superman's kryptonite. As long as he's around, she's indestructible, so any number of plots will revolve around trying to separate the two, with bonus points for using another blond chick to lure him away (if there isn't an episode where the crazy kid tries this, I'll be disappointed in a way). The flashbacks were overly long and melodramatic; of course they were setting up the plot plus she got date raped. Either way, I'm willing to forgive the flashbacks with a patience suspiciously missing when I hear That Sound on Lost.

I know it's not fair, but why do I have to pick the ever-shrinking good bits out of the 40 minutes of Lost? When did entertainment stop being entertaining and start being whatever it is now?