Scooby Doo: Mystery Inc

The shows you mentioned don't have the exact same plot every episode. Some of them even have continuous plots and continuity. 90% of all Scooby-Doo series are just mystery monster hunt after mystery monster hunt. Mystery Inc is a reconstruction because it manages to do that and make it interesting.

Yeah, if you boil things down to their basics they seem shallow, but Scooby-Doo is already as basic as it gets.

edited 18th Jun '14 9:56:25 PM by Wackd

Formula still doesn't inherently mean "flat characterization." Again, I cite the recent movies.

Nor does it mean future writers are incapable of doing interesting things with the forumla just because they're not deconstructing it.

A good example is a show like Jackie Chan Adventures - every single season was basically the same plot, progressing in essentially the same way with the same things, yet in those plots there were still interesting character developments, interesting situations and memorable events. Granted, JCA's best episodes were the filler episodes, but the main plots were always very good, because even though the formula never changed the writers were good enough to make it work despite seeing it over and over again.

edited 18th Jun '14 9:58:28 PM by KnownUnknown

Okay, I just edited the post.

You're right about the flat characters, and again—have not seen the movies. I will try to fix this.

I'm still not sure why Mystery Inc. is a Deconstruction instead of a Reconstruction, though.

edited 18th Jun '14 9:58:17 PM by Wackd

Some claim it's both.

I believe I mentioned this before, but I'd love to see some kind of Anti Mystery Inc group.

I mean, the original Mystery Inc came off as evil counterparts (well, Cassidy wasn't all that evil, and Mystery E turned out to have standards in the end), but for the most part that's what they were.

I've love to see a more Psycho Rangers type group.

Hell, we even has two potential members right off the bat:

An older version of good old Red Herring, and Marcie ''Hot Dog Water'' Fleech already make good counterparts for Freddy and Velma (though considering how she turned out in the end, Marcie may be more of a Frenemy then an out and out enemy.

I have no idea who they could use as counterparts for Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby though. It's a stumper.

edited 19th Jun '14 9:52:26 PM by HandsomeRob

I think the difference is in the tone. Mystery Inc does have a ton of things I think the series really needs to start doing more often: story arcs, mysteries that are more than what they appear, more involved character dynamics, etc. It's the tone itself that's more parody than anything.

edited 18th Jun '14 10:54:05 PM by KnownUnknown

You can't reconstruct if the series wasn't deconstructed at some point; no reason to put together something that wasn't taken apart. Something like Gurren Lagann which is a huge recostruction of joyfully stupid Super Robot shows is a response, something that starts from the huge pile of examined parts left behind by Evangelion. Madoka Magica spends the first 11 episodes of its run brutally deconstructing every Magical girl trope it can get its hands around before reconstructing a lot of the Big Ideas genre at the every end. Wishes, love, and hope can change the world for the better, no matter what hardships you face you can look the universe in the eye and spit on its insistence that everything must be horrible, and little girls can strong as steel.

Mystery Incorporated does that. It goes at the accepted aspects of the Scooby-Doo genre with a critical eye, takes them apart, examines the inner mechanisms down to the ugliest gutty works, and then gets cracking on polishing what needs polishing and replacing what wasn't working or limited the show's potential. Why the masks and costumes? Why run from man sized bad guys that don't do anything but chase you off? Why didn't the gang stay in one place long and where exactly where they going? What about their families, what do they think of the mystery solving? What exactly made Scooby Doo and occasional family different from other dogs?

In a parody these questions would be pointed out and played for laughs. In a straight deconstruction these questions would be given answers that shed a darker light onto everything you've been ignoring about how the show works. In a reconstruction the questions are simply answered, acknowledged as parts of the universe that need attention.

Most deconstructions are also reconstructions (or at the very least affectionate parodies), and Mystery Inc does have some elements of it here or there, but I'd argue it's still much heavier on the deconstruction side than it is on the reconstruction side. A reconstruction is more than just acknowledging flaws, it's rebuilding everything back up while still acknowledging them and saying "despite it all, this still works" - which Mystery Inc isn't too interested in doing.

Not that it's necessarily saying the Scooby Doo formula doesn't work, as much as the point of the show was to wipe away the Scooby conventions and slowly replace them with something intentionally twisted and mysterious. At the end of the series, everything reboots and everyone's happy, but only because that's how the story itself ends (and for the sake of a Mythology Gag) - the show itself doesn't put much work into rebuilding the elements it put so much work into taking apart.

edited 18th Jun '14 11:42:07 PM by KnownUnknown

What conventions does it wipe away exactly? Aside from giving more reasons for those conventions existing I don't remember much getting outright removed as an element.

Guys in masks? Check. Criminals using fear and misdirection to cover up misdeeds past and current? Double check. It's never the obvious suspect? Check. Character based comedy and slapstick? Check. Solving mysteries in unique locations with generally somber or dark coloring styles? Check. Monster chases? Check. Musical numbers? Check. Some animals talking while others don't? Check check check. Police being useless until someone needs to be arrested? Cheeeck-a-roo.

That's basically everything the original show had to offer. How was any of that wiped away?

edited 18th Jun '14 11:58:40 PM by odafangirl

The Legend of the Vampire was a good movie,despite being the first light-hearted one,it had the original voice-cast in it for the final time and the Hex Girls.

Also there were Psycho Rangers in the forms of the Reeves (Brad and Judy) and Pericles who were clearly Evil Counterpart s to Fred, Daphne, and Scooby.

I'm not denying that it's nice that they got back Jaffe and North, but the way you phrased it was a bit misleading.

edited 19th Jun '14 8:08:01 AM by Wackd

Interview with one of the showrunners. It has some good insight into the production of the show, character development, and even some possible plans for an un-made season three.

Because Lovecraft was racist or because Lovecraft's writing is not very good?

Both.

Well the first one seems unfair, since it's very possible to enjoy a work even if it has problematic aspects without condoning them. Can't comment on the second though, since I've never read any Lovecraft.

I mean, the fundamental premise of Lovecraft's work is that anything that's not like us—where "us" is white guys—is fundamentally evil to the point where they can destroy your mind without even trying. That's not "having problematic aspects", that's "there is literally nothing about this that isn't racist drivel."

edited 30th Apr '15 7:09:12 PM by Wackd

Yeah... when one of your eldritch monsters is a giant cat literally named after a racist slur...

Wait, what?

Yeah, one of Lovecraft's creatures is named [N-word]man

...Wow.

I mean, I can appreciate monsters beyond human comprehension and all, and I particularly like the idea behind Nyarlathotep (or at least what I've read about it), but...yikes.

I believe that was also the name of his cat. A black cat.

......

Holy shit.

Lovecraft is an Asshole.

I read that story. When I got to the name of the cat I was like "...Huh."

The thing that interested me the most was the confirmation that the series finale sort-of leads into the original show and the plans for another arc involving Miskatonic University.