It’s been booed into oblivion. But how does Velma stand up to a real sit down where I actually spend some time and effort to check out Mindy Kaling’s latest?
Well… here’s Velma. The show certainly is… something?
In our endless endeavors at That Park Place to cover “all the news that should be fun,” sometimes we venture into territory that really strains the “should” part of that sentence.
Yesterday we covered the astounding dislike ratios that the HBOMax YouTube channel was receiving on any Velma promotional materials, ultimately resulting in the comments for the official trailer being turned off.
In the efforts of fairness, we’ve chosen to review the first two episodes of Velma, which dropped on HBOMax yesterday.
Spoilers ahead, of course.
Velma is a modern update to the classic children’s cartoon starring a cartoon dog and his four human friends that go around solving supernatural mysteries that almost always end up being some disgruntled man in a monster costume that “would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” The show is a perennial, with Scooby-Doo merchandise still being sold today. If you have a kid right now, they might even have something with Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma on it.
However…
In this version, the lovable Scooby-Doo is nowhere to be found, apparently due to a mandate by the studio in light of the shows decidedly “mature” content. His absence has been replaced by a new supporting cast to surround the gang. New characters include Daphne’s adoptive lesbian mothers who are detectives at the local precinct, Velma’s lawyer father who is consoling himself by being a social media husband to a local thot after the death of Velma’s mother, and Fred’s wealthy father who appears to be a generalized take-down of whiteness, wealth, and masculinity.
The gang themselves are updated too. Daphne is now Asian, played by Constance Wu. There is no mention of the name “Shaggy,” but there’s an African American guy named Norville that dresses like him. Fred is still a white guy, but now he is an insufferable, entitled and wealthy sociopathic racist obsessed with his looks and getting away with anything because society privileges him do as he pleases. Finally, Velma is Indian American and voiced by Mindy Kaling of the US version of the office. Velma has gone from being the nerdy, frumpy, reliable member of Mystery Inc. to being an awkward, sexually curious weirdo that neurotically obsesses about solving mysteries.
The show is very meta, with much of the first episode dedicated to the trope of “lampshade hanging” or literally calling out what they are doing onscreen for humor and implying to the audience that the writers are fully aware of the cliché while also implying that they are smarter than the cliché. We’ll see.
For instance, the opening monologue talks about how most origin stories are about “tall handsome guys who struggle with the burden of being handed even more power.” Early on there is a shower scene in a high school girls locker room with half a dozen female characters openly chatting about shows with gratuitous nudity and sex in the first episode. During the scene there is only one person clothed and everyone else is saved from complete nudity by a few patches of strategically placed suds as a fight breaks out. In the dialogue and in the ensuing struggle, the characters heavily imply that there will be passionate lesbian affection in the show.
Of course, said lesbian affection appears by the end of episode two.
As far as the plot goes, Velma is accused of multiple grisly murders and spends the show trying to solve it to clear her name. Somehow, the show allows Daphne’s lesbian mothers to be portrayed as inept police detectives. There’s also a personal mental health trauma subplot involving the disappearance of Velma’s mother.
In my opinion, the meta humor of the first episode was at least the most interesting part of the show, however, it’s gone by episode two. The consistent through-line of the show is that anyone white, wealthy, or straight is fair game for mocking. Almost all characters in the show are very sexually active, with Daphne aggressively attempting to force Fred into sex, who we find out later is only disinterested because he wants to hide that he hasn’t hit puberty yet and is ashamed that he is not traditionally masculine enough to live up to his wealthy father’s bearded image.
The animation is at least interesting in parts, but there are also glaringly obvious shortcuts that make the production look cheap. For instance, outside of a courthouse there are a dozen or so protesters and the models are re-used in the same shot. It seems bewildering that they would use the same character holding the same overly wordy protest sign in such a short, slowly-moving pan.
They either thought the joke wouldn’t be noticed or they thought the sign was very funny. I can’t tell which. I only know that “Lock her up!!! But instead of “her” this time we mean him!!!” didn’t make me laugh.
This is also the moment where something goes wrong and circumstances cause Fred to accidentally resemble Adolf Hitler doing the Nazi salute. The same episode contains several moments where Velma and Daphne are put in situations where they realize they are madly, passionately, and uncontrollably attracted to each other. In fact, a passionate and prolonged kiss from Daphne seems to be the only cure for Velma’s traumatic hallucinations
There are blink-and-you’ll miss it cameos in the show by the voices of “Weird Al” Yankovic and Fred’s original voice actor, the legendary Frank Welker.
But what about the show itself?
You know, putting it down on paper makes the show actually sound more interesting than it actually is in practice. Outside of the headlines, the show is fairly forgettable. There have been darker and edgier sendups of Scooby-Doo for years and this one just seems to be following the “me too” method of race-swapping, adding vulgar themes, and pushing hard against cultural norms.
The only time I laughed during the show was when Daphne clearly states that she is Asian, most likely because it had to be said out loud in order for Velma to receive their diversity points for it. It was “laughing at” and most definitely not “laughing with.”
In the parade of shows that were cancelled or canned by HBOMax over the last few months, this one is middling. It’s not that bad from an entertainment standpoint, and it’s definitely not that good either. The only notable things about it are what it’s trying to say about the entertainment world at large right now. The show also appears to be begging to offend you if you have traditional sensibilities about popular children’s franchises NOT doing drugs, talking about sex, taking their clothes off, and engaging in passionate LGBT romance.
They want to offend you so they can call you a prude, a racist, a homophobe, whatever. That’s the point. If they were the first to do it, it might be more interesting. Oh well.
With that being said, you get the basic idea from the trailer. You can pass on this one.
I hear Venture Bros does the same thing but better.
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