Comments on: Characters as crafty as Veronica Mars?

Question: Characters as crafty as Veronica Mars?

giggleknickers — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:03:40 -0800

Characters as crafty as Veronica Mars?

I'm unhealthily addicted to Veronica Mars and I can't get enough of her brilliant plans. Could anyone recommend a book/movie/show/game/whatever that features a character as crafty as she is? I especially enjoy the social engineering. So far I've come up with Hackers, Shooting Fish, Sneakers and Catch Me if You Can.

Thank you in advance!

By: awesomebrad

awesomebrad — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:07:35 -0800

Burn Notice

By: sneakin

sneakin — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:12:00 -0800

I'm with you 100% on Veronica Mars as well as the crafty planner stuff. For that reason, I really like heist movies like Ocean's 11. On the non-heist front, and in an odd way, Hard Candy delivers on that brilliantly crafty thing. But it's pretty twisted so beware.

By: desuetude

desuetude — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:12:43 -0800

I'm sure that this is specific enough, since it's more a group-cleverness, but Buffy comes to mind.

By: willnot

willnot — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:15:15 -0800

Hustle is a British import about con artists that you might like.

By: seldomfun

seldomfun — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:18:15 -0800

I've never seen Veronica Mars, but Columbo is about as crafty as they come.

By: Phire

Phire — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:23:15 -0800

Yeah, Buffy was sort of the default comparison made by TWoP (Reading those recaps was what got me through the many droughts, haha.)

And I think Chloe Sullivan from Smallville got mentioned a lot as well, though from what I've seen of Smallville, she's not exactly "feature" character. I adore VM beyond believe, So I'll definitely be watching this thread closely.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:37:20 -0800

2nding Hustle. I love that show. The 3 seasons with Adrian Lester are better than the 4th though.

By: saffry

saffry — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:39:02 -0800

I was watching the pilot of Remington Steele the other day on Hulu and found myself comparing Laura Holt to Veronica. Especially in the first episode, where she's weaving a web of lies about the non-existent Remington Steele. And then the fake Steele arrives and spins an even bigger web. The final chase scene was way too cheesy, but I'm planning to go back and watch more.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:55:44 -0800

There's the rich vein of con movies like The sting, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, etc.

The three protagonists of American Tabloid take craftiness and social engineering to a new level.

Prop Joe on The Wire is crafty.

By: martinX's bellbottoms

martinX's bellbottoms — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:01:51 -0800

Seconding Columbo. My personal favorite heist movie is a Spanish film called Nine Queens.

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:17:02 -0800

I love Veronica, but on a much broader basis, I am a huge fan of the art of the con.

On that basis, I 3rd Hustle, 2nd The Sting, and to a lesser extent, 2nd Oceans 11. It ain't The Sting but it is quite clever.

By: catburger

catburger — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:20:57 -0800

I, too was a fan of Veronica Mars and would recommend The Riches, a show on the FX network (but can also be watched through other means). It's about a family of con artists that settles into a gated community, assuming the identity of a family that was meant to live there. The acting is excellent - Minnie Driver received an Emmy nomination for her performance in it, and the rest of the cast which includes Eddie Izzard and Margo Martindale are also top-notch.

By: brookedel

brookedel — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:02:33 -0800

Seconding Burn Notice (on the USA network), which in addition to being crafty also features the awesome Bruce Campbell.

By: hgws

hgws — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:30:59 -0800

The Bank - I've only seen it once, a couple of years ago, but I still remember being utterly stunned.

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:41:39 -0800

Check out the movie Brick. Like Veronica Mars, it's hard boiled High School but taken to the extreme.

And I'd like to give a hearty 3rding to Burn Notice, one of the coolest unwatched shows on television right now.

By: mooza

mooza — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:34:35 -0800

Macgyver, of course!

Inside Man? The Italian Job? The Thomas Crown Affair?
How to Steal a Million
Bottle Rocket
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

By: Scoo

Scoo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:33:39 -0800

Jeeves, of Jeeves and Wooster, is among the most fiendishly ingenious literary creations ever, and does a lot of the social engineering you crave, albeit in the service of affable twit Bernie Wooster.

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:55:37 -0800

The creator/writer of Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, also wrote a '98-'99 ABC series called Cupid which starred Jeremy Piven as a man who was certain he was Cupid, exiled from Olympus, and Paula Marshall as a relationship shrink assigned to keep an eye on him. The two had a David-Maddie-Moonlighting kind of thing going on, and the writing was just as quippy and crafty as we'd later see with Veronica. The bad news: it's not on official DVD. The good news: it's on eBay, and evidently even Rob Thomas had to buy an eBay copy in order to get a copy on DVD. The best news: it's coming back to TV next year.

By: filmgeek

filmgeek — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:44:19 -0800

Crafty? House of Games. The Spanish Prisoner. The Sting.

By: jbrjake

jbrjake — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:05:19 -0800

The A-Team. Faceman is the master of social engineering, and Hannibal is crafty like Odysseus.

By: papafrita

papafrita — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:15:41 -0800

As a kid I was hooked on the 'Encyclopedia' Brown books. Don't know how well those books have aged, but in my childhood I was mesmerized by them.

By: Messily

Messily — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:34:51 -0800

The Kiki Strike books by Kristen Miller.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:38:59 -0800

I just finished watching the BBC mini-series House of Cards, about the most scheming politician you'll ever see. Give it a watch.

By: zanni

zanni — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:25:55 -0800

Check out The Great Brain books, about a young, too-smart-for-his-own-good, con artist.