Cult classic status hurts

THE Pussycats have chosen their newest Doll, leaving their time slot open once again for critics’ darling “Veronica Mars.” Back from an eight-week hiatus, the bubble-gumshoe is ignoring that her father is temporary sheriff and manning the family detective business on her own, tracking down anti-Arab vandals even as she provides underage friends with the best fake IDs in town.

The final five episodes of the season may well be the last we see of the techno-savvy Nancy Drew, whom a small, devoted audience has followed from her tender high school years. It is one of life’s great mysteries that this truly excellent bit of teen noir, created by former “Dawson’s Creek” writer Rob Thomas, hasn’t fared better in the marketplace. Since its debut, it has been referred to as a “cult classic,” that bittersweet descriptor that always manages to seem past tense. A little too hip for the “CSI” crowd, a little too smarty pants for “O.C.” fans, “Veronica Mars” defines its own demographic -- high school honor students and women’s studies majors crossed with adults who still miss “Buffy” and occasionally reread “The Outsiders.”

Of course, if enough people who truly believe clap their hands, “Veronica” star Kristen Bell may take her penetrating gaze and square-jawed patter somewhere special. Meanwhile, where else are you going to find a good-looking blond tough enough for stakeout duty, slick enough to know where a jealous suitor would develop a roll of compromising photographs and neurotic enough to require the aid of three friends to get through a party thrown by the ex-boyfriend for his new girlfriend?

Not on the “Pussycat Dolls Presents,” that’s for sure. (CW, Tues., 9 p.m.)

-- Mary McNamara