MONDO EXTRAS

CB: Yeah. I thought "I Am God" was a really brilliant idea for an episode, but by the time it came around to pull Veronica in, I felt like it was a little late.

RT: I agree. I mean, we couldn't have done that episode as it was much earlier in the season, because there were clues revealed that it wouldn't have made sense to reveal earlier in the season. But yeah, I agree.

CB: Last thing about Season 2, in the context of the realism vs. entertainment debate: there was a lot of criticism of the depiction of courtroom proceedings. I think that's partially because if there are any liberties taken in a mystery about, say, REITs, the story can still have verisimilitude if not truth. But the courtroom is an area of greater collective familiarity. What are your thoughts on the courtroom stuff?

RT: First, I'm not sure that should be labeled a Season 2 question. It's weird, the untouchable status Season 1 holds for some fans. We failed in plenty of instances in Season 1 to land on the "good" side of the reality line. The audience was simply more forgiving -- E-string strangler, anyone? As for the trial stuff: in our defense, real-life courtroom stuff is very, very boring. I think we did get it right in the amount of time it took Aaron Echolls to get to trial -- on some shows, he would have been in the courtroom the next day. But yeah, I would agree that the courtroom isn't our greatest strength. I think we were less realistic than Law & Order, but no less realistic than, say, Boston Legal. But at the end of the day, I would concede that that wasn't our finest moment.

CB: Let's move on to Season 3. You did something of a restart in that the main setting of the show moved from Neptune High to Hearst College. Did you think this was a good thing for the show? What were the challenges in creating the new environment?

RT: Yeah, you know...I have to say that moving to college is nothing I've second-guessed at all. I like it -- I actually think it opens up a new spectrum of cases. I've been really pleased with the new environment, and shows that stay in high school sort of bug me. In terms of challenges, we sort of lost the easy story idea of haves versus have-nots, but honestly, we milked that for two years, and there is a desire to move on to new ground and not wanting to rehash 09ers versus non-09ers. I wanted to depict college as a microcosm of the world. There are sects, and it's fun to have Veronica navigate groups, which I think over the course of the year you'll see a bunch of.