Things are not well for Warner Bros Discovery’s Velma series starring Mindy Kaling. The release trailer on YouTube seems to have no support and a dislike ratio for the ages.
This morning “we’ve got a mystery to solve, so Scooby-Doo get ready for your act. Don’t hold back.” Well… maybe you should, Scoob.
HBOMax’s adults-only reboot of Scooby-Doo dropped their first two episodes today. In a time of constant turmoil at Warner Bros Discovery, David Zaslav has decided that of all the shows that would be cancelled or pulled from the streaming service, Velma is safe.
In a teaser released directly to the HBOMax YouTube channel on October 6, Velma complains to HBOMax about an upcoming genre-bending Jetson’s reboot in which Judy Jetson is no longer boy crazy, “but at least she’s still white.”
It would appear the teaser trailer did not resonate with fans. According to plugins that allow viewers to see YouTube dislikes, the teaser trailer has roughly 2.5 million views, 37,000 likes, and a staggering 306 thousand dislikes.
The sentiment appears to have lingered. Yesterday, when the official trailer was released on the HBOMax YouTube channel. It appears that HBOMax has chosen to turn off the ability to comment on the trailer. That is not a good sign for any production.
So far the trailer has 1.6 million views and over 110 thousand dislikes after less than a day, but that number is likely to grow as more people become aware of the trailer.
6.2k likes to 112k dislikes at time of publication
So what’s wrong with the trailer? Let’s describe what it contains:
The trailer starts with voiceover by Mindy Kaling, who is now playing the iconic frumpy Velma: “This is my story told my way” she says. A quick cut of scenes plays under narration as a computer screen shows what appears to be a marijuana leaf and Velma calmly electrocuting herself by putting her hand in a toaster. A quick shot of a locker room shows a soapy and naked Daphne holding her arms crossed over her chest when an unconscious (and likely deceased) body is found in a locker and then slams to the ground front of everyone. As the body hits the floor, a label with the words “MINDLESS VIOLENCE” is place over what is assumed to be an open skull wound as an oozing sound comes to the forefront. A towel has suddenly appeared on Daphne in the wide shot, who is no longer covering herself with her hands. (Publicity for the show has stated that the show will contain nudity, so it is possible the label and the towel will not be present in the show itself).
The trailer continues as Velma is placed in more awkward situations, twerking in front of a mirror which she accidentally breaks, Velma romantically touching hands with what appears to be a girl, possibly Daphne in disguise as a boy, before Velma states “in this day and age you can’t speculate about someone’s sexuality unless they’re famous or Peppermint Patty.” The trailer ends with references to teenagers getting drunk and getting high.
I guess the days of quietly wondering if Fred and Daphne might be together needed an update.
On that note, the trailer shows that the new version of “the Gang” has been updated for modern audiences. Velma is now Indian American to match Mindy Kaling, Shaggy has been renamed to “Norville” and is now African American to match Sam Richardson, Fred is no longer the encouraging leader of Mystery Inc, but is instead portrayed as an obnoxious white man. Daphne, played by Constance Wu, appears to be a white girl and seems to have that same half-shaved haircut that all female character’s trend towards these days (although it could just be a misconception from the animation style). The show is rated TV-MA and reported to contain nudity, violence, and drug usage.
There are other shows in this milieu that have similar content and are even send-ups of the Scooby-Doo franchise, so why does this particular show generate so much negative attention?
It could be the sudden jump from PG (the highest rating of any Scooby-Doo property so far) all the way up to a TV-MA, which appears to be well-earned by what’s shown in the trailer. Perhaps parents or even adult viewers of similar properties feel it is inappropriate to take a children’s show and turn it into something completely inappropriate for kids.
It could be the race-swapping of multiple characters. While progress and racial equality are commendable, many fans (of many races) have noted that Hollywood likes to brag about racial progress as a selling point for a new series. This has become so common as a selling point that many actors of color are left wondering if they have been hired for the level of pigment in their skin rather than the quality of their performance. Audiences may be growing tired of the casting of roles for controversies sake.
In addition, the original teaser seemed to be openly mocking those who question the motives behind race-swapping characters who were originally white, inviting controversy and seemingly admitting to some kind of intentional transgressivism. This smacks of recent campaigns by Disney, Amazon, and other studios who have engaged in outright hostility towards historic fans of their franchises. Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fans who call out the issue are labelled “toxic,” “racist,” “sexist,” “homophobic,” or even the latest: “transphobic” for even stating ambivalence to a project, regardless of its actual quality.
As of writing, review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes shows Velma with an Average Critic Score of only 60% and an Average Audience Score of an abysmal 19%. Metacritic, which takes into account a gradient of critic scores from 0-100 has Velma at only 53/100.
As stated before, the first two episodes of Velma dropped on HBOMax today. Stay tuned to That Park Place for any developments as the fan outcry continues.
