"Veronica, Why Is It So Dark?"

That question is simply answered with the word, noir. “Millennial noir” as cited in Professor Stein’s article, Millennial Noir, “A noir sensibility seems to be newly resonant in our contemporary television…” (p.4) Veronica Mars is a perfect example of millennial noir and how its style, gendered characters and narrative arc are reminiscent of film noir.

While my posed question may sound ridiculous, the style of film noir is distinct. The presence of film noir is known for its distinct style with regard to shadows, tones, and dress. Veronica Mars harnesses the style of shadows and tones through its dark lighting, shadows, and flashbacks. It is hard not to feel the noir like styles that are present in this show. For example when Duncan Kane wins president of the student council. He’s making a speech in a barely lit room where you can hardly see the faces of other students or him as he makes the speech. Aesthetic appeal isn’t the only reason this show has noir like features.

Veronica is a detective, teenager, and a female, kind of like the high school version of Harriot The Spy. Following the noir tradition there is a case that needs to be solved, however, in this case its left up to a female teenager that has to figure it out. I thought that this was interesting because unlike other noirs that I have seen, Veronica is not the typical main detective character. As Stein posses in her article, millennial noir takes liberties with renegotiating the noir and its gender representations. The television show, Gossip Girl, is a good example of this. Despite the episode we saw, where Chuck Base is the detective that has noir like flashbacks, the female narrator possesses in place of the male detective narrating the story.

Millennial television reworks gender representations of the powerful yet powerless detective as the narrator of both, Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl are female. We are now at the hands of the female character to get information that the characters in each respective world will either come to learn or not find out. At the same time that the narrating voice is being changed, so is the way that these detectives get their information. The Internet is the new and millennial way of digging to find information. Interestingly in GG, Blair tells the girls that they aren’t looking hard enough for information and to just make something up when they can’t find the truth. Opposite is Veronica Mars where Veronica will always dig deep to find the truth and stop at nothing to get criminal. Also, Veronica resolves to more old-fashioned detective methods, which we can say comes from the presence of her dad. She will question people, using the Internet as a means of finding them, for here the daily crimes and moments of confrontation are sparked in person. Not by an ominous force online that disseminates information.

This break between the two leading woman characters represents a break in what the two shows are going for. Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl renegotiate the classic noir with their female leads however, I think the noir style and theme wise is heavily more present in Veronica Mars. These show are a good sight to see how millennial noir is changing old representations takes on film noir and renegotiating its dominating traits. Through gender and style, Veronica Mars, takes on the role of detective in a dark world that has to figure out a murder. Watching this show in contrast to Gossip Girl as a potential site of millennial noir is interesting in itself because of the clear differences between the two shows in respect to their style and themes.