WesternAnimation The Ship of Theseus in Action
The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment in which all the parts of a ship are replaced gradually and one at a time, posing this question: Is the vessel that exists after the replacements the same ship as the vessel that existed before the replacements?
With that thought experiment in mind, how is Velma a remake of Scooby Doo? The titular dog isn't in it because Warner Bros wouldn't let them use the character, Shaggy was not allowed in the show either so they had to write around the restriction by making a character based on him, the remaining 3 characters have had their personalities changed so much that they are vastly different to the original characters, the story format changes to a single, overarching mystery than episodic mysteries. The only connection to Scooby Doo it has is the costumes worn by the main characters.
To its credit, there are a few jokes that work in the series, the animation and art style are great during the hallucinations, and I am willing to give the show a benefit of a doubt if people are willing to talk about it respectfully. My main gripe with the show is with its writing, the characters are just too unlikeable to root for, and the mystery takes a backseat to Velma's love life.
The show tried to be woke by referencing all sorts of social issues but it doesn't really talk about these issues. It's a surface-level explanation of what they are and how it affects the characters. I must emphasize that it's not the lessons I'm against, it's the way that it's done, it's just too aggressive and cynical, it offers no hope or positive outcomes for the future.
The meta-humor and dialogue are unrealistic, characters need to be more than just their gender, race, or sexual identity. In the first episode, Daphne says "Well, as an Asian woman", Fred is only described as "white" and blamed for the murders because Velma believes minorities are being unfairly blamed for it, and Velma makes a speech saying how minorities are more sympathetic than white people when they sell drugs on tv.
This type of writing is just lazy and feels like they didn't know how to write a compelling backstory or a relatable motivation for any of them. It just feels like the writers were comparing their work to an existing franchise or referencing a current sociopolitical issue as a shortcut so it would make it easier for them to write for the show.
Then there's the question of why the show was even directed at adults in the first place if all they were going to do with it is use blue humor, mildly violent content, and off-screen deaths. Ironically, it's more juvenile compared to other adult shows and stories. The hallucinations look like they belong in a younger age rating and the nudity is uncomfortable because the main cast is teenagers, it's just gross and gratuitous.
In conclusion, if you like the show, please tell me why so I can find the appeal. I don't understand how people can like this show. It's just too cynical for me.
WesternAnimation (Vito Corelone voice) Look How They Massacred My Girl
I consider myself a fair and open-minded person. I try to give everything a chance, even if it has a bad reputation or if I personally think it's gonna suck ass. I'm also of the belief that one has to actually watch something to make a proper judgment call. Adhering to that belief, I watched the first two episodes of Velma, avoiding watching other reviews so it doesn't appear I'm parroting others' opinions. My verdict?
What the fuck did I just watch?!
To call Velma the worst Scooby Doo cartoon ever would actually be putting it nicely. It's an outright bastardization of everything that makes Scooby Doo good and a gigantic middle finger to every Scooby Doo fan. I never imagined HBO would be able to make something even worse than Gen:Lock Season 2, but boy did they prove me wrong. Two episodes were more than enough to convince me this show was not worth my time. This show is a living example on how not to write an adult cartoon.
Story: The premise is simple: An origin story of how the Mystery Inc. gang came to be with Velma as the main protagonist. The sad part of this is that with better writing it could work and it has worked before. Unfortunately, this simple premise is dragged down by constant jokes and meta references. And the jokes themselves, barring a few exceptions, fall flat on their ass. Most of the time, I was cringing more than laughing.
Characters: Now we get to the show's cardinal sin. The characters weren't just flanderized, they were downright assassinated and they're borderline unrecognizable. Shaggy, or as he's called Norville, was the only character in this cesspool of a show I genuinely liked and his scenes were actually funny.
- Velma has all the snark of her Mystery Incorporated incarnation, but none of the charm. She's obnoxious, rude, judgmental, and arrogant. And the way she treats Shaggy is just cruel. That she's our main character makes this worse.
- Daphne is nothing but a stereotypical Alpha Bitch and her sudden romance with Velma felt way too rushed and forced.
- Fred is easily the worst of the lot. A pathetic manchild who's every Dumb Jock joke brought to life. I felt so bad for Frank Welker. Having to watch a character he's voiced for years get degraded like this must've been torture.
- Apparently, they couldn't have Scooby in this show as he would clash with the show's tone. And I say Thank God! Cause I shudder to think of what they would've done to Scooby.
Conclusion: If you want an edgy, mature Scooby Doo cartoon done right, watch Mystery Incorporated or Zombie Island. If you want a raunchy adult cartoon done right, watch Harley Quinn. Otherwise, avoid this show like the plague. There's nothing redeeming or even entertaining about it and it's not even So Bad, It's Good. There are better Scooby Doo cartoons out there.
Now I'm gonna go try to wipe the memory of this show out of my mind.
WesternAnimation Bad. Just Bad.
I have read many defenders of the show insist that people "Just don't understand how smart this show is."
Was....this the part where they have a shot of cockroaches humping? Or the part where Velma eats out of the garbage?
Velma's definition of being clever is relying on meta humor about situations...only unlike meta commentary shows like Rick and Morty....doesn't...do anything with them. Velma is content to just point out the tropes and cliches and then proceed to do them unironically while acting like it's so much better than all other adult animation for still doing the thing. Just lampshading cliches doesn't mean anything, if you don't actually do something with them. It's not clever. It's stupid.
It would at least be just standard below average adult animation bad, if it were not for how much the show thinks itself of being so much smarter and funnier than it really is.
As many having pointed out, the characters are deliberately designed to be thoroughly unlikable and mainly aimed at parodying traits that almost flat out didn't even exist with the characters in the first place. Which is what contributes to Velma's biggest problems.
It cites Rick and Morty and Harley Quinn as inspiration, but only shows a surface level and almost childish understanding of what elements about those shows made them so great. They weren't trying to be like every other adult animation.
It wants to be Rick and Morty. It wants to be Harley Quinn. It still wants to be Scooby-Doo. But it doesn't have the faintest idea of what it's even talking about. Yet it carries itself with complete and utter arrogance and smugness. The meta humor becomes less playful winks from time to time, and just oozing of a completely unearned smug sense of superiority even while it does everything exactly the same.
Summary. Velma is a show that considers itself deconstructive and original, but does it by proving it doesn't know the first thing about the material it looks to as inspiration beyond surface level things that it incorporates poorly. I can accept this as just a generally bad show. That would be okay. It's just how utterly smug it is about it, that gets me. It doesn't know what it's even talking about, but doesn't hesitate to talk down to you about things it knows nothing about.
WesternAnimation Just make your own thing, Mindy
Velma is a lot of things, most of those things negative. The humor is juvenile at best while the characters act like complete jerks, and Velma herself is a deeply unlikable protagonist who mistreats the only people who like her (such as her parents and Norville) while complaining that everyone hates her. The serial killer stuff is sort of interesting, but any intrigue is taking a back seat to the badly written everything else. Even the art and animation, to me, is passable at best and ugly at worst, with the only well-animated scenes being the hallucinations and the scene where Fred cuts a dude's leg off.
The worst crime to me, though, is the fact that it takes beloved characters and botches them. Now, I've always been a massive Scooby-Doo fan so this may be bias, but I can't even picture these characters as Velma, Daphne, Fred, or... Norville. Race swapping aside (which really doesn't matter to me; whether the work is good or bad, a character's race rarely impacts my enjoyment), they act nothing like the characters people have known and loved for decades. While each iteration changes them up a bit (Fred in particular has gone from a normal, good-guy leader, to an arrogant airhead, to a trap obsessed weirdo), they all keep the same basic traits. In this series, all of that has been tossed out the window, making these characters, essentially, random assholes wearing Mystery Gang cosplay and lacking a dog to complete the set.
So, I can't help but feel that if Mindy had made something actually original, it would've been an easier pill to swallow. I still wouldn't have liked it; I've never been a fan of mean-spirited comedy or over the top sexual jokes, and the art still isn't appealing to me. But there wouldn't be the stigma of Mindy having taken something beloved and destroying it. It'd just be a raunchy, adult, animated mystery show, maybe with some nods to the Scooby-Doo franchise, but it would stand alone, and maybe people would at least be able to tolerate it.
WesternAnimation As pleasant as throat cancer, without the sympathy
Many have fond memories of the Scooby-Doo series, with its quirky comedy and hilarious charm. It's been so beloved that it's referenced over and over by other popular works. But the series itself has had its setbacks: Scrappy-Doo is much despised and was seen as one of the worst mistakes the series ever made, if not the worst in all of animation history.
That is, until Velma. A supposedly "adult" take on the Scooby franchise, replete with drug dealers, sexual frustrations and real murders, instead comes off as a overly self-referential farce. Jokes, where they occur, are little more than vicious Take That! attacks, particularly directed at the audience. All of the characters, particularly the titular Velma, played narcissistically poorly by Mindy Kaling, are nasty, rude, and so devoid of any charm that one wishes the murders could just get pinned on the Mystery Inc gang so the series could end.
The series itself relies on meta commentary so frequent it would make the Marvel Cinematic Universe blush, and the attacks are simply relentless. This series definitely feels nothing like Scooby-Doo: In fact, it was likely created as something else: Scooby-Doo isn't even in the show at all. Once it was determined that no one would watch such rubbish, they packaged it under Scooby-Doo in the hopes that it would garner interest with a known IP. But Velma hates Scooby-Doo fans as much as it hates everything else. In fact, it's hard to say who this is even for. Possibly industry professionals. Or Kaling herself.
But almost assuredly, it is not for those who wish to watch a good show. Do yourself a favor, dear reader, and skip.
WesternAnimation Disappointing waste of a beloved franchise.
If there's one thing the trailer set me up for, it's that this would be a disappointment of a series. Trying to write a Scooby-Doo series without Scooby is like, oh I don't know, writing a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part that doesn't feature a member of the Joestar family.
Even then there's a lot to the series that didn't feel right. Everyones' characterization is butchered and feels like a Shallow Parody done by post-Season 8 Family Guy. Half of their quips are overtly meta or making some sort of unneeded jab.
While the art style is at least more unique than all the Rick and Morty or Family Guy clones, that's not saying much.
It's hard to tell who this series is for. It's too childish for adult animation fans and too meta-based for Scooby-Doo fans. I would say the only person it's really for is Mindy Kaling.
I think Jellystone! is a much better Affectionate Parody of the Hanna-Barbera franchise. While its clearly a project by C.H. Greenblatt, there's much more love and care put into this series than Velma will ever have.
WesternAnimation Even Scrappy's shaking his head
Velma was an interesting idea for a show. Focus on a less popular Scooby Doo character and show how Mystery Inc formed, all the while taking a raunchy approach like fellow HBO Max cartoon Harley Quinn. It did not go great.
Pros
The main character designs are great. Even Norville, the most removed character from his counterpart, looks perfectly fine. Not so much for side characters, but who cares about them?
Velma's traumatic hallucinations are a wonderful idea and give a reason for the standoffish protagonist to work with others.
Cons
Everyone is an asshole. Velma is judgmental and arrogant. Daphne is an Alpha Bitch. Fred's gimmick this series is being a spoiled manchild who keeps acting like a serial killer because of his temper. Norville is the only one who isn't a complete jerk, but change his outfit and no one would ever guess he's Velma's version of Shaggy.
The writers are as subtle as a brick to the teeth. The characters constantly compare what's happening to various teen movies or describe their character development out loud. There's not an ounce of nuance or subtlety. It feels like they're reading the script aloud, including the stage direction.
Velma is portrayed as a weirdo and pariah, but that gets overplayed. She's treated almost as badly as Meg.
The voice acting is forgettable. Only Fred during his freakouts feels like he isn't reading from the script.
The biggest sin is that Velma doesn't know who it's for. Scooby Doo fans? Can't be, the characters have nothing in common but names and appearance. Adult animation fans? No, the writing is childish and the animation lacking. Cynics? Even they would like some levity after two episodes.
Verdict
If you want a hallucinating young woman solving murders while attending school, watch Wednesday. If you want raunchy, but classier adult animation, watch Harley Quinn. Don't waste your time on Velma.
WesternAnimation Who is this even for?
Alright look, I wont claim to be some long time Scooby-doo fan. But like most people, there was a LOT of Scoob on when I was a kid. The classics, the 13 Ghosts of Scooby-doo (Liked that), A Pup named Scooby-doo (saw a TON of this as a kid) and so on. So I'm fairly familiar with the source material.
Furthermore, I have a rule that, anyone who uses the term "woke" as a pejorative or a descriptor...is someone not to take seriously in the slightest.
But this? What the hell even IS this?
Full disclosure, I have no earthly idea who Mindy Kaling even is. Good, bad, I'm completely indifferent on this person.
Beyond that, I hear that showrunner Charlie Grandy has come out and said that Velma is "Not meant to mock Scooby-doo"
And you know what? I'm calling it. That's a god damn lie. No way something like this isn't some kind of attack in general.
This, this is for "Adults who grew up with Scooby-doo"? I'm not even a big Scoob fan, and I'm offended.
Because it's just trash. It's not just a bad Scooby-Doo adaptation, it's just a terrible show in general.
You know what I reminds me of? It reminds me of a live action version of some Japanese Anime picked up by a group that knows nothing about it save that it's a property that can be exploited. So they proceed to just tear everything apart until only a superficial coat of paint remains.
I don't care that Velma had a race change, I don't even care that she's a lesbian because...well geez everyone made that joke when I was growing up. My Dad made that joke. I don't care that Daphne is East Asian. I do sort of care that Shaggy looks nothing like Shaggy. I don't care that he's black, but he could at least look like Shaggy. I do take offense at what they've done to Fred however.
I hate to go back to this point, but again I ask, who is this show even for? Velma is a horrible person, Daphne's a drug dealer, Fred's a misogynistic manchild. The only decent person is Shaggy and he's not even Shaggy!
Scoob himself doesn't make an appearance. Apparently it was a veto from high up. Making it perhaps one of the ONLY examples of positive executive meddling I've ever heard of. If Scoob did show up, it'd probably be as a joke about putting him down...before they put him down.
The "Jokes", my god. It's like the show is constantly winking at you, at the same time its insulting the hell out of you.
If you actually came into this a Scooby-doo fan, I can't help but state that this show comes across as a mean spirited hate letter to you directly. This show loathes you, and it wants you to know it.
I don't even understand WHY it's a Scooby-doo adaptation. There hasn't been ONE single moment when I went "Oh yeah, you could only do that with Scooby-Doo."
This doesn't play as a show that loved it's source material. It doesn't even play as a show that WANTED it's source material. It plays as a show that had its source material forced upon it, and it wants DAMN sure to make you know that it resents it.
But here is the kicker. Even if you HATED Scooby-doo as a kid....this show isn't for you either. It's just that bad.
I swear to god, it almost feels like show was made to piss off people who scream and shriek about "woke!", solely so it can point out people like that exist.
I don't know how this ever got greenlit, and I can barely see it being allowed to finish its season, nevermind getting a second.
In the end, I don't know who this show is for. I don't know what it was hoping to achieve. I honest to god don't understand WHY it exists.
I will repeat. The only thing this show feels like it wants to do is piss people off just so it can point at them and go "See! Look how pissed they got at this!"
And I don't even know what kind of point that is supposed to be.
Don't watch this. Don't hate watch this. Don't hate post on twitter about this. Don't hate rage at the creators (I think they want you to).
Just....just ignore it entirely and hope it dies quietly.