"This is my story, told my way."
Velma is an American animated series, serving as the fourteenth television entry in the Scooby-Doo franchise and the first to be aimed at an adult audience. Mindy Kaling executive produces and stars as Velma Dinkley, with frequent collaborator Charlie Grandy acting as showrunner. The series premiered January 12, 2023 on HBO Max.
On a fateful morning at Crystal Cove High, Velma Dinkley opens her gym locker to discover the corpse of one of her popular classmates, with said corpse also suspiciously lacking a brain. Now a major suspect in what is slowly becoming a serial murder case slowly taking the lives of every popular girl in town, Velma finds herself driven to learn the identity of the true killer... and while she's getting back into the flow of solving mysteries again, she might as well figure out what the hell happened to her missing mother too, right?
Bad news, though. Solving mysteries these days tends to quickly send her spiraling into heart-stopping, nightmarish hallucinations, so maybe some backup is in order... not that she actually needs any help, mind you. Certainly not. But who knows? If they can crack the case, maybe this rag-tag squad made up of her, her former best friend, and crush, Daphne Blake (Constance Wu), her current best friend Norville Rogers (Sam Richardson), and fellow suspect Fred Jones (Glenn Howerton) could make mystery-solving a regular gig. Maybe.
A second season
, marketed as Velma 2, was released on April 25, 2024.
Previews: Teaser, Trailer, Season 2 Trailer
Velma includes examples of:
- Aborted Arc:
- The first two kills in Episode 1 emphasize that someone is framing Velma for the murders by stuffing Brenda's body in her locker, then the second one is found in her trash at home. However, this is forgotten by Episode 2, due to the fact that it quickly goes to focusing on Fred being questioned as the murderer and being unfairly jailed for it. Velma is never brought back up as a suspect after this especially since the third body isn't seen on-screen and has nothing to do with a location connected with her. This gets even more muddled with the reveal Velma's hallucinations were a hypnotic suggestion by Victoria in order to keep her from investigating her mother's disappearance. As it raises the question of why Victoria would frame Velma if she already found a way to keep her out of the mystery.
- In the first episode we see Velma being made to work at Spooner's by Sophie (much to her disdain) , but after one scene she straight up quits with no one forcing her back except in episode 9 where she uses Sophie being her boss as a cover story for why she was at their house with Amanda when they were trying to pass herself and Norville as her parents so that she wouldn't know about Aman moving on from her.
- Brenda is mentioned as being a close friend of Daphne in the Girl Posse and she even targets Velma during her funeral speech at Spooner's when talking about how much of a better friend she was than her. However, afterwards their relationship is never treated as especially close, which is notable in episode 8 where she doesn't mind leaving Brenda along with the other two brains behind which bites her in the but in the next episode where she loses her popularity due to not bothering trying to save them.
- One of the subplots in Episode 2 is Velma's father taking Fred's case despite the risk of destroying his career if he fails. By the end of the episode Fred's trial has ended with a guilty verdict and Velma's father laments that he's ruined. Despite the obvious setup Velma's father's ruined career never comes up again after this.
- Despite the drug dealing emphasized in Daphne's character synopsis and episode 2, it never comes up again after this and we focus more on Daphne herself hunting down her bio-parents' case without resorting to finding a private investigator.
- During that same episode, we see Velma's father shown to be a customer of Daphne's drug trading, but nothing ever comes from that as well and it's just a never mentioned again gag.
- Norville is shown to run a stream focusing on different exotic foods which is a clever nod to his status as a foodie in the og series and plays an important factor in him trying to get Velma the money to get her mother's file due to his fanbase being tied with druggies, but again this is never brought up again in the series after this episode.
- In episode 3, Norville is doing therapy sessions to get answers out of Fred about Diya's whereabouts. He mentions seeing an Indian-American lady roaming the house when his parents bought it, while he was waiting for his father to show to commit insurance fraud with him but he never showed up. This would have hinted at William having involvement in Diya's disappearance and some shady business, but this is never brought up again and it was Victoria not William who was responsible for Velma's mom's kidnapping.
- Episode 4 implies that Velma might having a budding better relationship with Sophie after helping her get to the hospital and birth Amanda. There is also hints of the fact she is looking forward to being a good big sister, but by the next episode that is all gone and she's back to not only having a low opinion of Sophie but also has contempt for Amanda as well. It gets so bad by the last episode she locks the two alongside her dad outside the house so she can live with her mom alone.
- Episode 4 has the killer's motive be concluded to be targeting hot girls and the aforementioned girls needing the most protection while unattractive girls like Velma are excluded to make commentary on societal standards of beauty. However, after this episode this point is forgotten and all girls regardless of attractiveness are considered targets of the serial killer.
- Episode 6 has Velma and Aman try to amend their relationship with him finally believing that her mom was kidnapped but after this it goes back to their relationship being volatile to the point in the season finale she locks him, Sophie, and Amanda out of the house so that she and her mother live alone.
- Episode 6 shows that Aman was hurt by Diya's disappearance and admitting it's partially why he buries himself in work in order to forget the sting of it. However, it's never brought up again and it goes back to him emphasizing how much he didn't care about being married to her.
- Episode 6 has hints that Aman and Sophie would be having relationship issues due to him trying to get out of parental duties towards Amanda and the fact that he has two minds about dating her, but those are forgotten and the next episode just brushes those aside.
- Episode 8 reveals Daphne used to have feelings for Gigi and might still have some but this gets dropped almost immediately.
- Actor IS the Title Character: As the various teasers and trailers proclaim, Mindy Kaling IS Velma.
- Adaptational Diversity: The series features a bisexual East-Asian Daphne, a bisexual South-Asian Velma who has a mental disorder, and a black/biracial Shaggy (using his real name Norville).
- Adapted Out: Scooby-Doo himself is not due to make an appearance despite being a major character in almost all other parts of the franchise. Word of God is that Warner Bros. did not allow the producers to include the character, which the producers ultimately agreed with as they didn't know how to write the character in a way that wouldn't have clashed tonally with the rest of the show anyway. The closest we get to seeing Scooby within the show is an Easter Egg of his skeleton buried underground in the woods.
- Adults Are Useless: Every adult in the show is often incapable of doing simple tasks (or even their own job in the case of Velma's dad) and is just another way to insist that Velma is the smartest person in the entire show.
- Affectionate Parody:
- The series is a self-aware parody of the Scooby-Doo universe, lampooning some of the tropes and perceived reputations of the usual Mystery Inc. characters. This is mashed with satirizing tropes associated with adapting existing properties into teen dramas and murder mystery adaptations like Riverdale to Archie Comics. This also includes a bit of Self-Deprecation of "woke reboots" - a joke that is exploited throughout the series as early as the first teaser.
- Grady makes it clear that Velma is not meant to mock Scooby-Doo, but rather celebrate it for adults that grew up with the cartoon:It was actually part of the pitch, that we wanted it to be a love letter, not just to Scooby-Doo, but also to the current iteration of teen dramas which have really pushed the envelope and been at the forefront of diverse casting and telling new stories that have been taboo in the past.
- Animated Shock Comedy: The show has gratuitous amounts of swearing, gore, sexual themes and nudity, and drug use while trying to make jokes.
- Aesop Amnesia: There are multiple episodes where Velma is forced to learn to not be selfish or judgmental but by the start of the next episode, she goes right back to being selfish and judgmental. The most egregious example is in the premiere episode where she remembers that she was a terror as a kid who drank alcohol, permanently dislodged her mother's eyeball and ruined her book scripts, effectively making her come to reason, alongside her father, that her mother abandoned her family for. When it's stated she could use this revelation to be a better person, she flat out refuses.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: What Velma and Daphne's relationship appeared to be, as Daphne is written to have "complicated" feelings for Velma and passionately kisses her in the end of the second episode.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Outside of Velma's hallucinations, characters get injured with some regularity, getting shot or sliced up. The overarching mystery of the first season also involves a serial killer who removes their victims' brains, with the corpses and their empty skulls being on full display.
- Bowdlerize: The official YouTube upload of the official trailer has several of the show's adult elements toned down, likely to prevent the trailer from being age restricted. These include:
- Censoring and/or removing shots featuring gore or dismemberment
- Removing/rewriting lines with profanity in them (notably Velma's "...and it starts with a murder, bitch." being rewritten to remove the word "bitch", and replacing the "Daphne is a huge bitch who ditches people to be cool" exchange with a different, less profane exchange entirely)
- Putting towels over characters who were originally naked with suds barely covering their privates.
- Removing a shot where Velma opens up a backpack full of drugs.
- The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: Lampshaded and discussed in the teaser. Velma gets a call from a serial killer saying he's in her house, she recognizes the trope and even goes into detail about how classic it is.Velma: Who is this?Caller: That's the mystery. And solve it quick because I'm in your house.Velma: A serial killer calling from inside my house? Yes! That's a classic! And that's my point: why change anything when the classics all still work, right? (Beat) Wait, you're inside my house?!
- Censored for Comedy: In the YouTube upload of the official trailer, a student's grisly, gory remains are censored with a red box reading "MINDLESS VIOLENCE".
- Clueless Aesop:
- "Velma Kai" has mental health as its common theme. The episode seems to make fun of it at first, treating Norville's father as a joke because he is a high school counselor. It then makes a sudden shift when Velma reads Daphne's diary and exposes her mental health issues to the student body, which is treated as the terrible act it is. Right after, the episode's back to making jokes about how "hurting people's feelings is worse than physically hurting them."
- In "Velma Makes A List," Velma attempts protecting the popular girls by making them ugly. The whole time, she treats it as deprogramming and talks down to them for liking to focus on their appearance. Olive finally tears into Velma, calling out her actions as shaming instead of liberating. It could have been an interesting lesson about how women can express themselves in traditionally feminine ways and be as valid as women who don't. Unfortunately, this is undermined in the next scene, where the same popular teenagers clear a path by seductively dancing. Adding to that, Velma twists the lesson to validate her own judgmental, Jerkass personality. On top of all that the entire point of the exercise was to stop them from being murdered by a serial killer thereby implying the popular girls care more about being hot than they do about not being murdered.
- Clueless Mystery: The serial killer behind the first season's mystery plot is revealed to be Fred's mother, Victoria Jones, with the evidence explaining why they were the culprit only being revealed after they've been unmasked. In fact, some of her earlier actions outright contradict her schemes, such as launching a very public search effort for Fred after kidnapping him.
- Company Cross References: In the teaser, Velma writes to HBO Max to complain about a series centered on Judy Jetson, another Hanna-Barbera-created character owned by Warner Bros..
- Depth of Field: The simulated depth-of-field is very inconsistent, with the blurring effect being applied apparently randomly. Stuff is focused when it should be blurred and vice versa.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Mixed with The Unfair Sex with Daphne and Fred. In the early episodes, Daphne openly pressures Fred into a sexual relationship and gets angry when he's reluctant, to the point of being demanding. Later on, when she mistakingly hears him ask her for sex, she slaps Fred in the face for asking. Once again, it's an example of the series demonizing male sexuality in favor of female sexuality.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the teaser, Velma, after getting a call from the killer saying he's in her house, goes into a spiel about how classic The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House trope is and ties it to her earlier rant about changing Judy Jetson. Then the fact that he's inside her house fully hits her.
- Fanservice: Daphne and all the "popular girls" are the main source of fanservice, and the series even shows them naked in the showers in the first episode.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- In one shot in the teaser, in the background behind Velma is a picture of her with Daphne (closely in her traditional outfit) with X's crossed over both eyes.
- Multiple Easter Egg references to classic Scooby-Doo turn up.
- Deep under the ground ... in the woods near Crystal Mountain can be glimpsed the skeleton of Scooby-Doo?!
- Fun with Acronyms: Episode 6 reveals the existence of an old secret project known as the "Special Covert Operation Brain Initiative"... or in other words, S.C.O.O.B.I.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- The opening scene full of showering high school girls debating "sex sells" while their nudity is barely obscured by steam and soap.
- When Velma learns that Norville has a girlfriend, Gigi tells her that Norville won't be seeing Velma anymore until he learns to stand up for himself. Then Gigi adds on that he'll be doing whatever she tells him to do.
- Indecisive Parody: The series mocks and lampoons multiple of the tropes associated with the Scooby-Doo franchise, teen drama series and "woke" reboots... the issue being that it seemingly has no problem playing those tropes straight at the end of it. Such as playing Velma and Daphne's revamped relationship completely straight, and the naked shower scene, which despite the show lampshading how unnecessary it is, still exists.
- In Name Only: The characters have very little in common with most of their counterparts apart from their name and clothing. This is intentional as the series is very self-aware about shows that alter character personas to be more "modern" and "woke". The villain is a generic slasher in a welder's mask with an M.O. of murdering teenage girls rather than someone dressing up in a costume to perform a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax.
- Irony: Despite being an aspiring detective, Velma actually has the poor skills and qualities of a detective. In terms of skills, she very rarely gathers evidence as it's either found by accident, provided to her, or someone unwittingly tells her about it. In terms of qualities, Velma is biased against white men and she impulsively accuses two men of murder without thinking it through: she accuses Fred of murder but it's shown in the trial can't use a knife and thus he wouldn't be able to surgically remove a brain, Velma then finds a welding mask and accuses Lamont Rogers of murder until he and Norville explain that Lamont had a solid alibi for circumstantial evidence.
- Mature Work, Child Protagonists: The series is intended to be an adult-oriented take on Scooby-Doo. The main characters are high school students, around 15 or 16 years old, but due to its graphic violence, nudity, sexual content, drug references and crass humor, it's clear as to why it's rated TV-MA and it's definitely not appropriate for Scooby's usual demographic.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Diya and William both have thousand-yard stares with yellow pupils when under hypnosis, the latter Lampshaded by Velma.
- Missing Mom
- Velma's mother has been missing for several years. Velma feels particularly guilty about it, as she went missing whilst buying a gift for her to unwrap on Christmas Day when Velma discovered her gifts too early. However, this turns out to be a bit on the nostalgic side - she might have left because Velma and her father were jerks. By the end of the first episode though, Velma is left doubting this explanation. She ultimately turns up alive at the climax of the antepenultimate episode.
- This could apply to Daphne's parents as well. Being adopted in this continuity, she is saving up money to hire a private investigator to track down her biological family. She ends up meeting them in the end of "Marching Band Sleepover".
- Mythology Gag:
- The series takes place in Crystal Cove, CA; the setting for Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
- When a towel-clad Velma accidentally shocks herself by sticking her right hand in a toaster, she briefly assumes her classic design, complete with the glasses, haircut, freckles, and Black Bead Eyes.
- Norville has an unrequited crush for Velma, in reference to the handful of Scooby-Doo media where Velma and Shaggy have been romantically involved such as Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
- Easter Eggs of the villains, catchphrases, supporting/guest characters, etc. from all across the Scooby-Doo franchise are sprinkled in episodes.
- The sheriff resembles (but doesn't sound like) Don Knotts, and a kid resembling Red Herring makes appearances.
- During Norville's livestream, three of his viewers are "rubyj", "scrappy79", and "hexgrrlsfan".
- The drugs Daphne sells are called "Zoinks", "Jeepers", and "Mystery Machine".
- A mask of the Creeper is on Velma's shelf in the opening of the first episode, in the police station are wanted photos of other Scooby-Doo villains, Shaggy has posters of Charlie the Robot and Mr. Hyde, and Captain Cutler is reeled in while Velma and her dad are fishing.
- The crystal mine tour's recorded audio narrator is identified as being Casey Kasem (though isn't actually voiced by the late Kasem).
- Fred's traditional design appears for barely a second in a funhouse mirror.
- Velma's only school friend being East Asian and who later gained a makeover and elevated social status which ended their friendship, was also in Velma's backstory in Scooby Apocalypse.
- Ted Nichol's original chase-scene music from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and the franchise's traditional door chase-scene are featured in the "Fog Fest" episode.
- While investigating in the woods Scooby-Doo's skeleton can be seen buried underground. Looks like he ended up on the show after all...
- While on a bloody rampage, Scrappy gets to use his Character Catchphrase, "Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!"
- Pottery Barn Poor: Velma calls her family so poor that they can't even afford a new coat for her when Aman recklessly spends money on Sophie. However, they are seen in a rather nice suburban house, while having the average luxuries her fellow peers enjoy. Not to mention Sophie is a business owner unlike Diya who was an unemployed mystery writer, they have a second income. The only justification to this label is how wrecked everything looked when Diya was there, but it has to do more with the fact that she wasn't a good housekeeper and was an alcoholic.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: A good chunk of the dialogue consists of metahumor and pop-cultural references.
- Red Herring Twist: A number of episodes, as well as a few scenes in the finale, point to William Jones being the murderer. Biggest one being one scene where he spies on Victoria talking with Daphne. But it's revealed that Victoria was the murderer all along with practically no hints pointed to her.
- In Season 2, all the victims getting their dicks ripped off had nothing to do with Scrappy's motives. He was only targeting those specific men because of their involvement in Project SCOOBI.
- Running Gag:
- Norville repeatedly denying that he is in any way, shape, or form, a drug-user.
- One of their classmates has his foot chopped off or otherwise removed once an episode.
- The media and town officials repeatedly misnaming Velma's surname into "Dorkley".
- Security Cling: The girls cling on each other and scream when Velma hits Daphne with a crowbar.
- Shout-Out:
- The teaser depicts Velma being attacked by a serial killer who calls her on her phone before attacking, much like Ghostface.
- Daphne and her friends talking about gratuitous nudity and sex in the pilot episodes of most shows reference "how we saw Rachel Brosnahan's boobs" and that Betty and Veronica kissed.
- Norville thinks "betting a friend he can make Velma fancy" will win her affections.
- Norville remembers that "in teen movies, whenever a girl needs money, a guy sells something and then blackmails the girl into dating him for it". This is a plot-point in The Last American Virgin where the protagonist sells his possessions to help his crush pay for an abortion in the hopes that it will convince her to date him.
- Fred refers to a fork as a "dinglehopper".
- While Velma's in police interrogation and pondering the mystery, the music is in the style of The X-Files leitmotif.
- In the second episode Velma and Daphne have a Suggestive Collision like the one in Harley Quinn, serving here as Five-Second Foreshadowing to the kiss they will share at the episode's end.
- Along with the Cross Company Reference to Judy Jetson in the teaser, references to various other Hanna-Barbera properties drop in across the series.note
- Velma gives Fred the Betty Friedan book The Feminine Mystique, which he assumes is connected with the X-Men Film Series.
- Captain Caveman is the mascot for the Crystal Caves theme park.
- Speaking of which, Crystal Caves is located beneath Crystal Mountain, which has a Mount Rushmore-esque single face. It's Billy Crystal.
- Slapstick: The main cast members get regularly subject to physical humor, including Velma who gets hit by a car.
- Status Quo Is God: Despite often needing to learn she shouldn't be a selfish Jerkass to her friends and family, Velma goes back to her old ways each episode and even doubles down on her behavior.
- Take That, Audience!:
- The teaser shows Velma writing a complaint to HBO Max about how they are making an origin story for Judy Jetson where the character wouldn't be boy crazy. She then states her relief that Judy is still white in the new show... while revealing that Velma herself isn't, referencing the numerous fan complaints about Velma being race swapped.
- When spotting a bunch of stoners with Norville in the trailer, Velma notes that they're the kind who haven't stopped watching cartoons, a direct reference to the show being animated and its audience demographic.
- In the pilot episode, Daphne notes that pilot episodes of new series use gratuitous nudity and sex just to hook audiences, during a shower scene with sex talk and uncensored butt nudity.
- Unreliable Narrator: Velma's confident narration paints her as an intelligent investigator who always has the moral high ground and is the most important person in the room. In reality, while she's certainly intelligent, the show doesn't hesitate to showcase that she's victim to It's All About Me and that she's just as much of a jerkass as everyone else (if not more so), with her snarky attitude regularly frustrating her family and friends.
- Useless Protagonist: For a show which the main two mysteries are "What happened to Velma's mother?" and "Who is murdering girls and cutting their brains out?", Velma does surprisingly little to investigate either. While Velma does eventually figure out both mysteries and take down the villain, she would have been completely unable to do so without evidence provided by Daphne and intervention from Norville and Fred in the finale (Norville arrived due to Velma giving him a phone call, giving Velma some indirect usefulness).
- We Used to Be Friends: Velma and Daphne used to be best friends until Daphne started hanging out with the popular girls and left Velma in the dust. Nowadays, Velma does not have a good opinion of her former friend, though it's later revealed that Velma was the one at fault for their damaged relationship: she shut out everyone when her mother disappeared and suddenly stopping interacting with Daphne at all, which prompted Daphne to try and find new friends, with Velma's antagonism ever since being the reason why they were unable to make amends.
- World of Jerkass: With the exception of Norville and his dad, everyone else is a jerk to some degree. Many of the characters exhibit signs of intolerance toward one another. Fred is an affluent, pampered imbecile who only recalls women based on how gorgeous they are; Velma is bitter and critical and uses self-referential humor to justify her own conduct; and Daphne is the cruel popular girl.
WHAT IS SCOOBI??
