Just finished watching the season finale of Veronica Mars -- and I have to admit I didn't piece the whole thing together before the end, although all the elements were there and I should have figured it out. I did predict that Aaron Echolls was the one who had the cameras in the boat house, but I didn't manage to put that together with Lilly. I'm bothered that they didn't wrap up what happened with Weevil and Logan's confrontation. And I predict that it's Wallace that showed up at her door at the end.
I love the way they treat story arcs in this show -- they write them in the same way Joss Whedon did in Buffy. They have stories arcs that last for a single episode, stories that span several episodes, and stories that stretch over the entire season, all of which mesh together well with the shorter arcs advancing the larger ones. It's a formula that two of my other favorite shows, Lost and Desperate Housewives also use, and when the writing is good it keeps me riveted to the show. I wish more shows were written this way.
West Wing!
I don't remember the story arcs of the West Wing being that tightly interwoven at all, and I haven't seen any of the last two seasons. I lost a lot of interest after Aaron Sorkin left, because frankly, without him, the writing sucked. Maybe he was a pain in the ass to work with, but he did know how to write dialog, and he wrote intelligent plot lines for smart people. I thought they dumbed it down after he left, which seemed to go hand in hand with the more conservative storylines. Unsurprisingly.
Well ... yar ... but it was good for a while, no? =/
Oh, and here, I made this recently, and I know you'll appreciate it. It's about Bush's "Mission Accomplished" crap, and how more troops are still dying. http://www.nuvolab.com/MissionImpossible.mov (Only 4MB)