Veronica Mars' TV YIMBYism

Class warfare and housing policy come to Hulu

Kristen Bell.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Michael Desmond, omyos/iStock)

Veronica Mars has always had a lot to say about society. Where its supernatural predecessor, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, spoke to high school issues like bullying and first love, even in its initial incarnation — 50 percent noir detective tale, 50 percent teen soap — Mars aimed older. Its first three seasons took on race relations; Islamophobia and terrorism; official corruption and municipal incorporation; frat culture, free speech, and rape on campus; child abuse; gender identity; fame; and more.

The constant through line, though, was class warfare. Veronica lives in Neptune, California, a fictional city somewhere along the Pacific Coast Highway between San Diego and Los Angeles which she introduces as "a town without a middle class." If you go to Neptune High, she explains in the pilot voiceover, "your parents are either millionaires or your parents work for millionaires." If there is a middle class, it's a class of one: Veronica herself, low on cash but saved from after-school drudgery by her work as a private investigator.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.