Throughout the pilot episode of the Veronica Mars series, Veronica is portrayed as an extremely unique and strong person. Despite all of her obstacles and what she has over come, her major talent, and passion, is detective work. Due to her love for detective work, the ability to see new and interesting actions is vital. Veronica Mars’ isolation amongst her peers forces her to have a third-party view, much like the viewer, on the formulaic system of the social ranking within her school. This isolated perspective sheds light on the subtle details regarding the importance of socio-economic standings and race.
This idea of the third party perspective connects Veronica’s isolated perspective, her previous perspective and the viewer’s position. Since the segment is shown from Veronica’s viewpoint, the observer is expected to make similar inferences and try and see things as she sees them.
Veronica’s first and second perspective on her high school’s system is very interesting due to the fact that she herself was once a part of the system. Her father’s high position in the police station gave her that “in” with the popular crowd allowing her to have the privilege to breeze by socially in high school. Once her father was stripped of his position, she lost her socio-economic status and lost her privilege to be a part of the “in-group.” This loss of social respect forces Veronica to acquire a new outlook on her school. She begins to see how divided, exclusive, and tormenting her classmates truly were. Veronica describes her peer as a “jackass” despite the fact that they used to be friends. She sees the amount of corruptions that occurs when a new student comes to school or when a group doesn’t live up to their social or economic standings.
The third section of the third party view comes into play when discussing the racial tension within the Veronica Mars series. There are distinct differences between the acceptance of social groups: the popular students, the tough students, and the outlier. The popular students are all Caucasian and extremely wealthy, whereas the tough students and the outlier are of minority ethnicities. Veronica Mars is the only Caucasian who comes from a socially acceptable family, that we see, who is an outlier.
Mars’ different interpretations of the social standings within her school allows for a larger outlook on the amount of corruption and significance placed on status. These three separate perspectives allow for the viewer to not only see what is shown on the screen, but what Veronica would be thinking about while making her deductions. It allows for us to tap into Veronica’s emotional actions along with her professional actions.
