Still, even if VM makes a surprise last-minute return, it wouldn't be the same show for several reasons: a) much of the writing staff and crew have already moved on to other projects, including potentially the show's creator, Rob Thomas; b) if it comes back, it will be as the much-touted FBI version of the show; and c) it would only come back as a mid-season replacement, which means we wouldn't get to see Veronica Mars and Logan until January of 2008, and by that time, most of the fanbase would have already moved on.

So, it's safe to say, the show the cult-TV community fell in love with is gone forever. (Some say it was gone forever at the end of season two, but I disagree).

In honor of its passing, I will list the five reasons why the TV landscape will forever miss Veronica Mars, the greatest piece of feminism on TV ever.

The Ten Reasons Why We Will Miss Veronica Mars

1. Veronica Mars, the marshmallow

Why is Veronica Mars the greatest single female character in television history?

• Unlike Buffy Summers, Veronica Mars doesn't need superpowers to survive the hell that is high school.
• She proves that with self-sufficency, research, hard work, motivation, and just a touch of sarcasm, a person can accomplish anything.
• A girl doesn't need a boy in her life, and thus a TV show with a female lead doesn't need a romance as the driving plot force.
• A girl's best friend doesn't have to be a girl. It can be an African American mechanical engineer and basketball star, or a Latino leader of a biker gang.
And finally...

• Pain doesn't need to bring a person down. It can be used as fuel.

2. The mysteries: Who killed Lily Kane? Every drama has one of two simple classifications: a stand-alone show, or procedural, where every episode has a self-containing arc; or a serial, where every episode builds on the previous one to build an ever-growing storyline. Veronica Mars, in seasons one, two, and most of its last season, season three, fits comfortably into the latter: This show is very, very much a serial drama. The first and second seasons were built upon a long, 22-episode-long mystery arc where Veronica and team slowly etch away at the answer to the mystery. Subtle, but continuity-driven clues are scattered throughout the 22 episodes. When the answer is revealed, there's nothing like it on TV when the characters (and the viewers) connect the dots.

But the season-ending revelations aren't even the best part. The serialized nature of the show wouldn't be effective without proper plotting, and in this regard, Veronica Mars does it better than anything else before it. This is why it's one of the greatest series ever, particularly notable during the season one Lily Kane murder plot, where every clue and every relevation fit like pieces in a puzzle up to the satisfying conclusion.

3. The dialogue: "Your wish is my shift-command"

Like its spiritual heir, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the dialogue on Veronica Mars is the most lexically-rich dialogue of its genre. From the one liners that fly by at a mile a minute, the quirky pop culture references, the subtle foreshadowing that only becomes apparent on repeated viewings, and the unique idiosyncratic quirks that make every character's speaking style special, the writing is superb and wonderful.

The dialogue wouldn't be as big of a deal if it didn't a cast talented enough to deliver it. Tina Majorino's (Mac) line deliver is superb; Kristen Bell can balance the surreal with the sublime; Jason Dohring (Logan) pulls of the perfect obligatory psychotic jackass role perfectly; and the father/daughter dynamic of Veronica and Keith is both comedy gold and frighteningly realistic.

The dialogue on this show is truly special, and this becomes even more apparent when entire threads on message boards are dedicated to the topic and when Web sites unnravel the multiple pop culture references every episode inevitably contains.

4. The secondary characters: A long time ago, we used to be friends

Wallace Fennel is the best friend. Cliff is the lawyer. Mac is quick-witted computer expert. Parker saved Veronica from her inevitable rape. Piz was cute. Weevil was well-acted.

Whether in the main credits or not, the secondary characters that inhabited the Mars universe established a rich, satisfying community of characters that made Neptune and Hearst College real-life, breathing locations.

5. Veronica's boyfriends (except Donut, and especially every school's obligatory psychotic jackass)

Leo was dreamy. Icetwin was a good distraction. Donut was a donut. Logan was a convincingly epic love. Piz was lame.

Veronica's love life was diverse, but always interesting. The meat of the show was always the mysteries and the characters, but the relationships were the icing on the cake that elevated a tough-acting heroine to a vulnerable, human girl.

6. The online communities, who savored, without pity

With only one online community being more active than Veronica's (that would be the Browncoats, Joss Whedon fans), the myriad of discussion boards, online forums and sarcasm-ladden recaps made discussing and analyzing the show almost as much of a joy as watching it on DVD. Almost.

7. The father/daughter relationship, a Mars for a Mars

It's a relationship rarely touched upon in the teen drama, but nonetheless, the relationship between Keith and Veronica was easily the loveliest relationship on the show. (Except for maybe Wallace and Veronica). When it was hinted at that Keith had died in the season two finale, Veronica contemplated giving up on life, realizing she had nothing left to live for. The same can be said for the audience during that scene.

8. Mars Investigations.net

Copy the link into your URL bar. Click enter. Beware: You'll easily spend two hours during your first visit.

9. Rob Thomas, who isn't a rat who hasn't seen God

The man who gets more work done before 10 a.m. than most people do during a day, Mr. Thomas (and this is not the musician) already had a cult-classic TV show under his belt before launching this one (that would be NBC's Cupid, starring Jeremy Priven). He also had been a successful novelist, with "Rats Saw God" being on the must-read list for hundreds of English classes in high schools everywhere.

It was this literary background that made season one of the series as excellent as it was; every episode was a chapter in a novel, with every character having a role and a purpose.

10. Jason Dohring We love Kristen Bell's portrayal of Veronica Mars. Like Sarah Michelle Gellar and her show, this series would not have lasted without a star talent such as Mrs. Bell behind it.

But the actor with the most convincingly stellar performance was Jason Dohring. He started off as a tiertiary character but quickly became so much more. He became the second lead character the moment when he and Veronica kissed for the first time in front of the Camelot Hotel, and the writers gave him his own season-long arc (and cutey Hannah as a girlfriend) in the second season. In the third season, he was given much less interesting material to work with (how many times did he and Veronica break up?), but Mr. Dohring elevated the material and made the character and the show that much better.

Honorable mention: The soundtrack. Spoon! Air! The Dandy Warhols! And is that Broken Social Scene I hear?

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