I have a new favourite TV show and it is Veronica Mars .

What a show! Veronica Mars has everything you want in a TV show - a great lead character that you love to cheer for, good mysteries, red herrings, great modern teenage plots (e.g. girl breaks up with boy, so boy blackmails girl with phone-video he took of her doing something sexually embarrassing).

Season 1 follows an ongoing 22-episode mystery involving the murder of Veronica's best friend - it is complex and clever and the final revelation is some of the best writing I've seen on TV. Add to that the top-quality minor 'mysteries' Veronica has to solve each week, great actors, the best theme song on TV, and you have a way cool show.

Kristen Bell is an absolute stand-out as Veronica - the high school student who is part detective, part loving daughter, and all chutzpah. She can even do a mean karaoke (this was in a fantastic scene in what I thought was both the best written and best directed episode of Season 1).

It's TV shows like this that put feature films to shame. A single episode of Veronica Mars has more plot, twists and character moments than just about every feature film I've seen in the last four years. Seriously, movies are getting worse while TV is getting better. No wonder the cinemas are scared. With TV like this, it's better to stay at home!

Ironically then, VM is executive produced by Joel Silver, king of the 1980s action movies that inspired me so much. With top story 'finders' like Joel Silver, Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI , Without a Trace), Bryan Singer (House MD) and Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy) all doing TV now in addition to movies, no wonder TV's so good.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Just go out and buy Season 1 of Veronica Mars and you'll be hooked. (Reviewed September 2006)