Review: The mystery behind VELMA is how it even got the green light

On January 12, HBO Max released the new HBO Max Original Series Velma. The series was marketed as the origin story of Velma Dinkley in an R-rated adult animated series. Mindy Kaling And Charlie Grandy they are the main driving forces of the show and serve as executive producers together Howard Klein And Sam Register. The main cast includes Kaling as Velma, Glen Howton as Fred Jones, Sam Richardson such as Norville Rogers, e Constance Wu as Daphne Blake. The first season has 10 episodes with two already out and two more released weekly until February 9th. HBO Max has provided me with early episode screeners, and you can find my thoughts below. Please keep in mind that I could only force myself to watch the first two episodes.

Velma is an animated comedy series for adults that tells the origin story of Velma Dinkley, the unknown and underrated mastermind of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc gang. This original and entertaining ride unmasks the complex and colorful past of one of the most beloved problem solvers mysteries of America.

After seeing the trailer, I wrote an article talking about how I thought the show would be ruined by being tied to an existing intellectual property (IP), Scooby-Doo in this case. I was partly right and I hope you will understand after reading the rest of the review. In case you want the short version of everything, Velma it sucks and hate isn’t even worth watching. Look for hilarious and awesome Scooby-Doo stories, I highly recommend watching Be calm, Scooby-Doo! Instead. Here’s the trailer for a little context.

My guess after seeing the trailer was that it was going to be a decent show that would fare badly because people have preconceived notions about characters and other aspects of pre-existing IP. Velma it just sucks on its own too. There is no sweetening. He is extremely immature and crass while he thinks he is smart, mature and funny. Take the first five minutes or so of the series. They show us cockroaches having sex followed by naked teen girls showering with cleverly placed soap bubbles that obscure their nipples, but complimentary ass banging still abounds. Having roaches around helps indicate the state of the school and the city with the gender of the roaches seeming a bit over the top in my opinion. Meanwhile, as we watch naked teens showering, talking about TV shows, and joking about how the pilot episodes are hypersexualized to appeal to an audience. This is an attempt at metahumor that falls so flat because they’re literally doing the trope they’re trying to make fun of. When you want to make those kinds of jokes, you have to subvert the trope you’re teasing in some way, not lean into it. Besides, these are teenagers gone crazy! I felt extremely disgusting and dirty watching this and I’m afraid I’m now on an FBI watch list. Sadly, this show is all about this kind of humor. He wants to be funny and make a statement, but the jokes don’t come at all or are made in bad taste.

Velma it has more than some of the worst jokes though. It also has unearned resolutions aplenty. For example, in the second episode, Velma and Daphne go from hating each other, to crushing on each other, to kissing without any build-up or logic or chemistry. When the kiss happens, it’s extremely obvious and doesn’t feel earned. It’s extremely forced.

If I haven’t convinced you yet not to even hate him, the characters all suck. In my trailer discussion, I talk about how the different characters have key characteristics and Velma he seemed to ignore them. I can now confirm that the only similarities between the characters in Velma and literally any other iteration of Scooby-Doo they’re names and character designs are pretty familiar. Fred is a spoiled teenager who can’t even feed himself and has a dad who says you have to do and have certain things/traits to be a man. Fred’s small penis ends up being the butt of many jokes. Daphne is the adopted daughter of two lesbian police detectives unaware that she is the local drug dealer and was best friends with Velma. Norville is obsessed with Velma, she runs some kind of snack vlog (I think) and is anti-drug. Velma is just a complete idiot and not even super smart. In the first episode it is established that she has a crush on Fred with a shot from her diary or something Velma Dinkley-Jones says and the opposite page says something like “I hate Daphne” but then she seems to think Fred is hot but she absolutely despises everything of him. Oh, and there’s no Scooby-Doo.

There are redeeming qualities to Velma? Guy. To begin with, I really like the design and art of the characters. The animation itself is mostly good, although there were times I watched it where it felt inconsistent and choppy. Also, while 99% of the jokes fail, there were about two jokes per episode that I found funny. Unfortunately, because I was so disgusted and infuriated with everything else about the show, I couldn’t laugh. One moment is in the second episode when Daphne and Velma are running away from Daphne’s moms and it starts to have a similar vibe to Be calm, Scooby-Doo!. They end up walking across the school field where some students are practicing archery and then it cuts to Velma looking at Daphne with an arrow going through her head, but it turns out to be one of those arrow pranks. It was fun for me. However, there is another kind of redeeming quality.

The driving force of the show Velma is that Velma’s mom left when she was a child, which has led Velma to have eerie hallucinations every time she goes to solve a mystery. This exploration of trauma and pain and guilt could have been really interesting. Unfortunately, the show doesn’t actually seem all that interested in doing this in a thoughtful and meaningful way.

An animated series for adults doesn’t mean you have to fill it to the brim with immature jokes, teenage nudity, and gratuitous gore. Those things (minus the teenage nudity) may have a place. For example, we see murdered teenagers with their heads split open to reveal their brains are missing. It’s pretty disgusting, but a story point is needed. Having a paper knife blade bouncing off a wall and dismembering a teenager serves absolutely no one. A series like Velma could benefit from being adult and R-rated because it would allow for the exploration of more mature themes and subject matter with some of the creepier stuff, but instead the show relies too much on the unnecessary.

My final point on Velma it’s this: stop having people who hate animation be in charge or work on animation. There’s a very silly line in the show where Velma throws shade at adults watching cartoons. This is literally a cartoon whose target audience is adults! The show literally makes fun of its audience.

I have absolutely no idea what happened, but Velma it is absolute rubbish. If you want a darker tone in your Scooby-Doogo look Built-in mystery. If you want a fun Scooby-Doocan not recommend Be cool enough! Even if it was not connected to a pre-existing IP, Velma it would have been awful. Hate is not worth watching.