Veronica Mars revival proves Kristen Bell is one of TV's best actors

Los Angeles Times

"It is easier to imagine anyone playing Batman than it is to picture anyone but Bell playing Veronica Mars," says Robert Lloyd. "An attractive and subtle actress of greater range than any single snapshot of her career might suggest, Bell draws you in without seeming to work hard. This is true of many of television’s best actors, in part because the medium, in its intimacy, requires a light touch. Anything too big, too thespian, can become exhausting week after week. This is what makes Ted Danson, Bell’s The Good Place costar, a god of the medium. What works for Bell in Veronica Mars is not wholly distinct from what works for her in The Good Place, in which she plays a hot mess becoming a better person after death; or worked for her in House of Lies, the Showtime series about self-dealing management consultants in which she appeared opposite Don Cheadle; or in Deadwood, where she took the role of a con artist masquerading as a good girl working as a prostitute. She’s a small person, with a persistent touch of the child in her features, that makes her age hard to pin down. As ingenues go, she’s always been a bit of a bad girl — elfin, but impish." ALSO: Rob Thomas breaks down Veronica Mars Season 4.