It's Meddling Season
From Mindy Kaling (Never Have I Ever), Velma follows the titular character (Mindy Kaling, Ocean's 8) as she begins her detective career with a bang, investigating a series of serial killings were all the hot, popular girls are having their brains removed. After the death of a school rival in the changing rooms, Velma immediately becomes the prime suspect and must work to clear her own name, despite her own complicated history with mysteries. Working to narrow down the suspect pool, Velma begins questioning her fellow students including the infamous Fred (Glenn Howerton), Daphne (Constance Wu, Crazy Rich Asians) and 'Norville' (Sam Richardson, The Afterparty) who will one day become her most trusted allies (we hope).
Meanwhile the gang all have their own issues on top of the serial killer plaguing the town, with Fred becoming the next prime suspect despite his rich-boy, dumb persona, pushing Velma to defend him and Fred in turn to develop his own crush. Daphne begins searching for her birth parents by any means necessary, pushing her to the darker aspects of the town's history. Norville then struggles with his own crush on Velma and fears he is losing her to the mystery. Can everybody put their issues aside and solve this together or will the serial killer continue their spree, leaving the entire town bare of the rich, hot and popular?
Before I get into the main part of my review I will say that when this project was first announced I was actually really excited because I'd been waiting for a TV show like this for years. Scooby Doo is such a big part of my life and I've loved it since I was a kid and so I was intrigued by a more adult version, dealing with actual murders and aimed at an older audience in general. In past Scooby reviews (Scoob!, Meddling Kids) I've always said I wished Scooby Doo would get the Riverdale treatment so to speak, where a beloved cartoon was adapted to be more darker and grungier (think the 2019 version of Nancy Drew) and so I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately looks can be deceiving...
I hate to say it but this show was bad, like really bad. Going into it I'd obviously seen the negative reviews but I honestly didn't expect anything like what we got. Whenever I start a new TV show that has had such a public reaction I do always try and form my own opinion (whether the show is being praised or trashed) but in this case I have to agree with the critics, Velma has to be one of the worst Scooby Doo adaptations I have ever seen and it just makes me sad that somebody could turn such a beloved cartoon into whatever the hell this was.
Despite being marketed as a Scooby Doo show for adults the humour here just does not work for me and it feels more like a child's idea of an adult show rather than an actual adult show? Relying far too much on swearing, nudity and some of the most bizarre writing I have ever seen, Velma feels more like a ten year old's fan fiction than something created for a real life adult audience. The show makes frequent sexual jokes about the size of Fred's penis, has its characters do 'sexy distraction dances' and just overall feels weird, saying some of these actual plot points out loud makes me feel like I'm going insane. I really had high hopes for Velma but I really don't have the words for whatever it is I just watched.
I think my biggest gripe with Velma is that it was so far removed from the original Scooby Doo concept that it felt like I was watching something by someone who had never actually seen Scooby Doo in their lives. I know a lot of people have complained about the race-bending of the characters but personally I don't care about this and it's far from the show's biggest issue, I have no problem with Shaggy being Black or Daphne being Asian, I'm more annoyed that the characters have changed beyond recognition. One of Scooby Doo's biggest strengths has always been the friendship between the main gang and even in adaptations were they split up or fought they always came back together because they were friends who just loved solved mysteries together. Here the main four actively hate each other and even in moments of supposed friendship they spent the whole time hurling insults at each other, it just does not feel right at all. Scooby Doo has always relied on its friendship and chemistry between the main gang and it just is not here at all. The characters just feel so far removed from their original counterparts that if it weren't for the same names and outfits I would never guess I was watching Scooby Doo in a million years.
As bad as this series was in parts it wasn't completely unwatchable and there were some shining lights among all of the crap. Out of the four main character I will admit I enjoyed Daphne's storyline the most and Wu did a great job in voicing her, she got that teenage voice down to a T and whilst I wouldn't go as far as saying I loved the character Daphne was probably the least offensive of the four (to me anyway). The actual mystery of both the serial killer and the disappearance of Velma's mother Diya (Sarayu Blue, To all the Boys) was also interesting enough to keep me watching and I was genuinely curious as to where the story would go. I'm by no means saying I enjoyed Velma but I'll have to give the show some credit, it did keep me going to the end.
Overall Velma was a disappointment, especially for the long term Scooby fan in me. The series completely desecrated the original characters and was so far removed from the original cartoon. On top of this it relied far too much on nudity, mindless violence and swearing rather than actual storyline and the whole thing felt like childish fanfiction rather than a legitimate adult show. I will admit parts of the mystery kept me going but this might just be the show's only positive and I just felt so disappointed, especially considering how excited I was in the run up for this.
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