Veronica Mars: Making new, awesome friends at college

Strap in for season three of Veronica Mars, where there are big changes! She's starting her freshman year of college, she's got new friends, some old ones have joined the main cast (yay Mac!), we're getting smaller, bite-size mysteries instead of a season-long mystery, and there's a new remix of the theme song. That last one I'm not too happy about. Veronica Mars used to have the only theme song I would actually sit through and rock out to without changing the channel. I'm afraid that theme song has been severely weakened.

Still strong: the snappy dialogue and the awesome characters. Veronica, Keith, Wallace, Mac, I missed you all. Dick, I don't care if you're drunk and homeless, you're still [a] Dick. As for the new characters: promising. Mac's new roommate Parker is... well, the name Parker pretty much says it all. She's bubbly and blonde and wants to carry Mac around in her purse like she's a little bichon frise. Wallace's new roommate Piz is instantly endearing. And he has a total thing for Veronica. Rob Thomas, is this because you always need to have two options for Veronica? And now that Duncan is gone, you need another Emergency Backup Boyfriend? Is she not allowed to be single? Besides, we all know things aren't going to end well for Piz, because Logan was here first and he just gave Veronica a key to his suite to show her he's serious. And I like Piz too much already to see him go the way of George.

On the mystery front: Veronica is on the case of Piz's missing stuff, Keith brings a guy to Kendall's hideout who ends up shooting her, and it looks like Mystery #1 is the campus rapist, because Parker's been raped and shaved.