Veronica Mars (season 4), on Hulu
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Veronica Mars aired for three seasons, from 2004 to 2007 (the first two seasons on UPN, the third on the CW). In 2014 a film of the same name was released, set 9 years after the series ended. In July 2019, an 8-episode fourth season of the series was released on Hulu. And despite the fact that this was one of the main reasons I had subscribed to Hulu (several months earlier), I didn't start watching it until August. And somehow, I didn't finish the season until May 2020. So, it kind of feels to me like the season was longer than it actually was. But still, a lot of stuff happened in those eight episodes, and I'm not sure how much I can remember, or even want to detail here.

I suppose I should begin by saying Veronica is once again working with her father, Keith, at Mars Investigations. And she's living with Logan, though due to the nature of his work in the Navy, he's never sure how long he'll be around before getting called off on a new mission. At the start of the season, he proposes to Veronica, but she doesn't want to get married. Also at the start of the season (which is set during spring break, so there are a lot of tourists), a bomb destroys the Sea Sprite hotel, killing several people, including the owner, Sul Ross. One of the survivors is his teenage daughter, Matty, who is eager to learn who is behind the bombing, and occasionally interacts with Veronica and Keith, who are investigating the incident. Another survivor is a pizza delivery guy named Penn Epner (Patton Oswalt), who is a member of a group of amateur sleuths called the Murder Heads. They also try to solve the bombing. And there are subsequent bombings in the beachfront community, which points to Big Dick Casablancas as a suspect, since he's been trying to buy up those properties. Also, he recently got out of prison, where he had met an inmate named Clyde Pickett (J.K. Simmons), whom Big Dick hires as a "fixer." Clyde strikes up a friendship with Keith, though Keith never completely trusts Clyde.

Well... I said the Marses were investigating the bombings. Their original client was Daniel Maloof, a Congressman whose brother Alex was one of the victims of the Sea Sprite bomb. Maloof also hires Logan as a bodyguard. Meanwhile, another victim was a guy named Gabriel, the nephew of a Mexican cartel leader, who sends two of his employees, Alonzo Lozano and Dodie Mendoza, to find out who was responsible for Gabriel's death and kill him. And... I dunno, a lot of other stuff is going on. Keith has medical problems, incurred in the events of the movie, I guess. The FBI sends agents, including Leo D'Amato, to investigate the bombings, and Leo spends some time with Veronica. Veronica also befriends the owner of a bar called Comrade Quack's, Nicole Malloy (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), though she also becomes a suspect. Oh, there are plenty of suspects for the bombings, though it also turns out that the ones that happened after the Sea Sprite might be copycat crimes. Also there's drama between Veronica and Weevil, whose life changed quite a bit after the events of the movie... though despite his anger at her, he's still always got her back. And... Wallace makes a few appearances, though he's not really important to the season's story. And Neptune has a new police chief named Marcia Langdon (Dawnn Lewis, whom I knew from A Different World). She generally does not like Keith and Veronica's attempts to help solve the bombings.

I hope I'm not forgetting anything terribly important. But I think that's most of the plot and important characters, anyway. As always, the writing and acting are impeccable, there's a fair amount of humor in addition to the drama, and just in general... you know, everything about the show is good. But... that doesn't mean you're going to like everything about it. Some of it is definitely painful to watch, no matter how high the quality of the story. The ending especially is a major downer. But anyway, I'm glad I finally finished the season, and I hope there might be more seasons in the future.