Veronica Mars ended its run last night with a two-hour finale, broken into two episodes with a continuous story line between them. The show had taken a turn this year, so that Veronica as a college freshman was meaner than she’d been in high school, but it was still a good show until the end--campy and funny and with enough pop culture references that it should have kept the CW’s core audience happy.

The show moved away from the multi-episode mystery format this spring, although there was some wrapping up of longstanding plot points at the very end. It was fitting to have the person who ostensibly lost Veronica’s dad his job, which was a large part of the premise of the show, come back and cause him to lose it again at the very last moment. I can’t help but imagine that there were the seeds of a new plotline planted there, but we’ll never know.

The same goes for Veronica’s relationship with Logan, as he seemed to have relapsed into his violent tendencies, which was something that had been brought up in earlier seasons as a concern because of his dad’s history. Again, another story line we’ll never see bear fruit.

Kristen Bell did a superb job playing the smart, sarcastic title character for all three seasons. The writing was usually good, and the dialogue great.

Maybe it’s just my appreciation of Battlestar Galactica references on broadcast TV, or maybe it’s my concern over where certain of my friends will get their wardrobe ideas from, but I’m sad to see the show go. It’s been brassy, and fun to watch, for three eventful seasons.