We're as sad as you are that they couldn't figure out a way to keep Veronica Mars (1) consistently good; and (2) on the air. But who's even sadder? The cast, now out of work and in that odd trap where cultish fans are devoted enough to see you again, but not necessarily to see you again doing anything else. Many of them were fairly fresh faces when the show bowed, so their prospects are particularly hard to predict...but we're not above making a few predictions.
Name: Kristen Bell
Age: 26
Occupation: Actor; pistol
Non-Veronica Experience: 14 movies, though one of them is Pootie Tang
Assessment: Bell stands to lose the most with Veronicas' cancellation, but she also stands to gain the most. She's in year's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, written by Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother and Knocked Up) and thus adjacent to the Judd Apatow juggernaut (he's credited as a producer). Bell shakes up an interesting cocktail of pixie cuteness and satisfying fury, and there may be a place for her in the movies, even though last year's Pulse didn't exactly elevate her to Love-Hewittian horror stardom. Barring that, we hear the Pussycat Dolls are looking for someone.
Assets: With this fall's Gossip Girl, Bell will have the cachet of being a network show's unseen narrator.
Liabilities: Bob Saget already does.
Current approximate level of fame: Alexis Bledel
Deserved approximate level of fame, post-Veronica: Lauren Graham
Name: Enrico Colantoni
Age: 44
Occupation: Actor; idealized dad
Non-Veronica Experience: 15 movies, plenty of television and theater
Assessment: The challenge for Colantoni is that he's not quite conventionally dreamy enough to be a Hot Dad, but he's not strange enough to be a quirky character actor. That's why Keith Mars was such a good role for him: Keith was cool, but he wasn't chased around by a bevy of horny, purse-waving MILFs. He's a talented actor, fiercely beloved by Veronica's fans, and he's found plenty of guesting TV work over the years -- and that's not even getting into all the theater he's done. But before this, his regular gig was Just Shoot Me!, and it would be sad to see him stuck in a seventh-floor walk-up in that neighborhood again. We're sure there's a right move for him, because there must be, but it's not coming to us.
Assets: It's good to be versatile enough that your CV includes past roles playing both "Bookish Man" and "Creepy Guy."
Liabilities: Not very many people pronounce his name right on the first try, we're guessing, so he might miss important messages.
Current approximate level of fame: Sam Rockwell
Deserved approximate level of fame, post-Veronica: Tim Allen
Name: Jason Dohring
Age: 25
Occupation: Actor; believer
Non-Veronica Experience: 4 movies and quite a bit of TV
Assessment: Before becoming the dark prince on Veronica, Dohring was cashing checks by walking through pedestrian shows like JAG and Judging Amy. Frankly, much of his early work as Logan borrowed heavily from other tortured thugs, and it did him no favors when the noir beginnings of the show, which showcased Logan as a twisted, damaged bully, were swamped by the callow, who-cares-tastic Logan/Veronica mambo, which was right up there with "We were on a break!" when it came to emotional resonance. Dohring can act his ass off in the right context, but he may have peaked right here.
Assets: When he gets out of the love triangles, he can be pretty interesting.
Liabilities: It involves ancient aliens and rhymes with "Schmientologist."
Current approximate level of fame: Corin Nemec
Deserved approximate level of fame, post-Veronica: Giovanni Ribisi
Name: Percy Daggs III
Age: 24
Occupation: Actor; basketball faker
Non-Veronica Experience: A handful of TV
Assessment: There wasn't a lot to Percy Daggs's pre-Veronica acting career in terms of visibility, and unfortunately, though he was cute, the show eventually lost interest in his friendship with Veronica and stopped paying nearly enough attention to it to build Wallace into a fully realized guy. As much as we like Daggs, and as appealing as we think he is, and as much as we love that smile (which we do), the bump he's likely to get from being on the show doesn't seem likely to be enough to vault him into anything other than possibly another supporting role on another CW show.
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Assets: Not everybody could pull off that hair in this day and age, but he totally does.
Liabilities: In most cases, anything "the third" is kind of a letdown. Consider Shrek.
Current approximate level of fame: Jeanne Tripplehorn
Deserved approximate level of fame, post-Veronica: Reese Witherspoon
Name: Chris Lowell
Age: 22
Occupation: Actor; beach attraction
Non-Veronica Experience: 2 movies; a little TV
Assessment: Lowell got the worst assignment Veronica had to offer: playing the guy Veronica moved on with after Logan. This earned him substantial audience enmity, so it's a good thing that he's going from this directly to Private Practice, the Grey's Anatomy spin-off that's already featured him with his shirt off and made it clear that he's not going to be The Other Nerd on that show like he was here. He's good-looking, he's very young, and now that he's cleared the very weird Life As We Know It from most people's memories (remember? Teen erotica?), his immediate future seems bright.
Assets: "Discovered playing beach volleyball" = "probably not ugly."
Liabilities: It also = "probably not originally chosen on the basis of talent."
Current approximate level of fame: Teddy Dunn
Deserved approximate level of fame, post-Veronica: Gabrielle Reece
Name: Ryan Hansen
Age: 25
Occupation: Actor; activist
Non-Veronica Experience: 3 movies; a pop-in on America's Top Model
Assessment: We don't know if it's the character or the actor that makes us a little indifferent to the fate of Dick Casablancas. He had his comedy moments, mostly courtesy of the writing staff, but Ryan Hansen's resumé includes not only episodes of That's So Raven, but also The Cutting Edge 2: Going For The Gold, a project that karma seems to demand will doom everyone involved. (Look, Stepfanie Kramer FROM HUNTER took over the Moira Kelly role; need we say more?) We like that he's apparently the guy who got the show interested in the Invisible Children movement, but "Blond Douche" is not exactly the toughest role to fill in the Hollywood firmament, and we're thinking Hansen may have played his hand to the best of his ability with Dick. So to speak.
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Assets: Maybe "Blond Douche" is harder than it looks. In fact, it would almost have to be.
Liabilities: He originally wanted the role of Duncan, which he lost to Teddy Dunn. TEDDY DUNN. Who's made of Play-Doh. Are you feeling us here?
Current approximate level of fame: Paul Henreid
Deserved approximate level of fame, post-Veronica: Conrad Veidt
Name: Michael Muhney
Age: 31
Occupation: Actor; smarm carnival
Non-Veronica Experience: 7 movies; joining MENSA
Assessment: Sheriff Don Lamb was certainly memorably unctuous, and Muhney oiled his way across the soundstage with the best of them. It also makes a nifty cross-fandom tidbit that he was in Amber Benson's movie Lovers, Liars, and Lunatics. We're fascinated by the fact that he's reportedly slated for a 2008 movie called Columbus Day, which will require him to share space with Val Kilmer and Wilmer Valderrama, and we're thinking that's going to require a cheese overload permit of some sort, because otherwise, it's a health hazard. We wouldn't put it past Muhney to find his way as a character actor, but we also wouldn't put it past him to have missed out on his best chance at a longer career when NBC stopped making TV movies about summer camps and driving schools with Jackée in them.
Assets: Good-looking, although he has a way of pulling funny faces.
Liabilities: The part of his official site where he lists all the parts he almost got makes him seem like a real wank.
Current approximate level of fame: Almost Brad Pitt
Deserved approximate level of fame, post-Veronica: Almost Jackée
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