I know what you won't be watching next fall

She's not quite Xena or Buffy, but Veronica Mars still gets high marks from me in the kick-ass television heroine category. The show went up another notch in my book by turning this week's episode into an hour-long fundraiser for Invisible Children, an international NGO dedicated to improving the quality of life for war-affected children by providing access to quality education, enhanced learning environments and innovate economic opportunities.

This week found Veronica trying to prove whether or not an African student at her college, whose recently published memoir recounted his time as a child soldier in Uganda's rebel army, is the son of a man who moved from to this country prior to the war. As the story unfolds we learn there is war still happening in Northern Uganda. Children are continuing to be kidnapped and forced to fight as child soldiers, and that in the displacement camps 1000 people die every week due to the horrific conditions.

The episode ends with an epilogue by actress Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) urging her viewers to "please go to invisiblechildren.com and use your time, talent and money to become a part of this story's end."

You can watch the entire episode, I Know What You'll Do Next Summer, online at CW Video.

Unfortunately, two days after this episode was aired, CW officially canceled this series. It is set to be replaced by a show called the Reaper, about a 21-year-old slacker who ends up becoming Satan’s bounty hunter, retrieving souls lost from Hell. Which I guess is why I don't watch very much television anymore.