>Again, one of my biggest gripes is that they are leaning away
>from the stylistics that made the show stand out in the first
>place--no voiceover at all last night, for example.

You know, I didn't notice the diminishing (and then vanishing) voiceovers at all until people started mentioning it. It's kind of an odd choice to move away from, because it fit so nicely with the noir elements of the show and it was just an easy, practical way to advance plot and character. I'm not entirely sure why they've nearly dropped it, but the show is worse for having done so.

Further along practical lines, I think bringing back her voiceover would also go a long way to quell some of the criticism from the "good old days"-style critics who've piled on Veronica for leaping to so many false accusations recently. If you watch Season 1, it's pretty easy to see that she did exactly the same thing then and was wrong with the same frequency. But access to her internal monologue makes her a bit more sympathetic - we can see when she's trying to read somebody's reaction, etc. rather than just think season 3 Veronica is a nasty jerk.