Mindy Kaling is Velma

[Primal Slayer]

EW ripped the show to shreds. What they've done with the characters makes me want to outright skip it.

'Velma' struggles with lame jokes, prequelitis, and bad meta

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

EW ripped the show to shreds. What they've done with the characters makes me want to outright skip it.

'Velma' struggles with lame jokes, prequelitis, and bad meta

I love Scooby-Doo and Velma is my favourite character, but I'll be skipping this. And that article reinforced that.

 

[NotNickFury]

Kaling previously said “Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian,” she told the crowd in New York City. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”

Well, it looks like people cared more about whether the show was good, not what Velma looked like. You know, quality and such. But yeah, as people have said, just watch The Venture Bros.

 

[Teelie]

That sounds more disappointing than I was expecting it to be. I wasn't looking for a genius reinvention of the property but this sounds more like a hackneyed attempt to twist the canon in a way no one actually wants or cares for.

Velma is South Asian? Only racists care. However, Daphne is an orphaned drug dealer, Fred is a boring rich white kid and he has tiny genitals. Shaggy isn't even Shaggy anymore, he's going by his given name Norville and "friendzoned" by Velma, who is a lesbian and Scooby does not exist.

Any of these would be cringy alone but taken all together I'm so disappointed in Kaling thinking this trash is what Scooby or would-be Scooby fans want.

As the article pointed out: Harley Quinn did it better.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Real shame. Thought it looked fun and was hoping for something at least in the ballpark of Harley Quinn quality. Will still give it a shot, though.

 

[Prison Mike]

Why couldn’t she just create an original South Asian character who solves mysteries..instead of hijacking existing characters and changing their personalities?

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I'm really enjoying The Sex Lives of College Girls. I was hoping Kaling would bring some of that flavor over to Velma, but it doesn't sound like it gelled.

I'll still give it a chance. Who knows, it may surprise us.

 

[Teelie]

Why couldn’t she just create an original South Asian character who solves mysteries..instead of hijacking existing characters and changing their personalities?

Because co-opting an existing IP with an already built-in fanbase was easier/lazier/cheaper than trying to build one from the ground up?

 

[Primal Slayer]

Because co-opting an existing IP with an already built-in fanbase was easier/lazier/cheaper than trying to build one from the ground up?

Exactly. This wouldnt have gotten greenlit or nearly the promotion its gotten if it was completely original.

 

[Prison Mike]

I feel like based on her name alone, she would have gotten a green light too if the show was original. At least that way you wouldn’t piss off fans of the existing IP

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Why couldn’t she just create an original South Asian character who solves mysteries..instead of hijacking existing characters and changing their personalities?

Good question...

Because co-opting an existing IP with an already built-in fanbase was easier/lazier/cheaper than trying to build one from the ground up?

Good answer.

 

[Erik20]

That sounds more disappointing than I was expecting it to be. I wasn't looking for a genius reinvention of the property but this sounds more like a hackneyed attempt to twist the canon in a way no one actually wants or cares for.

Velma is South Asian? Only racists care. However, Daphne is an orphaned drug dealer, Fred is a boring rich white kid and he has tiny genitals. Shaggy isn't even Shaggy anymore, he's going by his given name Norville and "friendzoned" by Velma, who is a lesbian and Scooby does not exist.

Any of these would be cringy alone but taken all together I'm so disappointed in Kaling thinking this trash is what Scooby or would-be Scooby fans want.

As the article pointed out: Harley Quinn did it better.

That's a shame. If I didn't know, I would think that description was just someone trolling trying to get certain people triggered... also you can't have it both ways and have Velma be all about body positivity, while at the same time making fun of a guy's junk...

I guess we're going to get a ton of "go woke, go broke" videos on YouTube again. If you make those changes but the product is bad, you're only helping that crowd unfortunately.

 

[Teelie]

It does not help their "tiny genitals" joke is on Fred. That is going to piss off a lot of Fred fans for no other reason than a poorly thought out joke. Kaling should be better than that, and everything else wrong about this show if that review is even half right.

 

[Sithborg]

Why couldn’t she just create an original South Asian character who solves mysteries..instead of hijacking existing characters and changing their personalities?

There is something to be said for twisting an existing property into something different with adult humor.

It making "legally distinct" Velma that much better than just slapping the name on?

 

[DarkKnight88]

There is something to be said for twisting an existing property into something different with adult humor.

So played out now. If they really wanna be subversive, they should do the opposite now. Godfather… but with family friendly humor. Last Tango in Paris…. but as an animated weekly kid show.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

*Reads the review synopsis*

At Crystal Cove High School, Daphne (Constance Wu) is a popular mean girl orphan who deals drugs because of a dark family secret. Her boyfriend Fred (Glenn Howerton) personifies mediocre white richness. His mansion holds a dark secret — and he has teeny widdle privates, a subject of much conversation. "Shaggy" has become Norville (Sam Richardson), a school-newspaper striver friendzoned by his beloved Velma. He worries he's a beta male; remember that lame humor concept from 20 years ago?

geezus worse and more cringe than I was expecting.

I don’t mind Kaling as an actress but content creator I just can’t gel with. Sometimes you just gotta leave the Twitter and messageboard fodder there and not turn your show into it.

 

[Sithborg]

The 420 joke in the trailer did make me chuckle. I think they went a tad too far I think in some things.

 

[Primal Slayer]

On episode 2....it has tiny moments here and there but they just crank everything up to 10 that it's exhausting. They spend way to much time hitting you over the head with stereotypes instead of being smart and integrating them subtly.

 

[DarkKnight88]

This show already feels extremely dated, and it just aired lol

 

[Primal Slayer]

This show already feels extremely dated, and it just aired lol

100% it's dating itself.

I think back to the days of Buffy and how they addressed issues but it wasn't on the nose but instead hid between monsters, characters, etc. That's what Mindy should've aimed for.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

100% it's dating itself.

I think back to the days of Buffy and how they addressed issues but it wasn't on the nose but instead hid between monsters, characters, etc. That's what Mindy should've aimed for.

I guess you could say Wednesday is a better Scooby Doo show.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Two episodes in and yeah this is even worse than I thought it would be. I honestly could care less about the race swapping because I actually think it could work, especially Constance Wu's Daphne, but the writing/dialogue is so forced, try hard and over the top that it pretty much ruins the whole thing IMO.

As much as I hate how overused the word cringe is nowadays that's easily the best way to describe it and what really saddens me is seeing stuff like this being put out there by the same streaming service that has quality animated, content like Harley Quinn which is leagues above this in pretty much every area.

Also, they are doing Fred super dirty in this show, and I don't like it at all, and it doesn't feel like classic Scooby Doo at all which makes me wonder just what the hell is the point of this show in the first place.

 

[Spidey_62]

I was hopeful for this more than most at first, the first looks visually looked nice. That trailer was nothing but painfully unfunny. It all just comes off as incredibly mean-spirited to just about everybody, and comes across like it thinks it's telling the funniest jokes when they're not clever at all. Grating is more like it, I feel bad for the folks involved in the animation department because it seems like they were caring to do something given the opportunity and are just saddled with garbage writing driving the project.

 

[Arachnerd]

Still not remotely interested in ever watching this show, but after some spoilers showed up on my Twitter feed, I suppose if there's any silver lining I can kinda give to this show, it's that

Spoiler

they finally paired Daphne and Velma together, I guess? I know a lot of folks had been clamouring to see this ship become canon for years.

Still, probably would have been better and more impactful to do it on something that respects the source material and doesn't bank on overused cynical meta humor. It feels kind of hollow here given that the entire gang's personality here has been so massively retooled to the point of being nearly unrecognizable.

 

[Drizzle]

Checking it out to see how bad it is and...it's pretty bad. Even Kevin Smith's bastardization of the Mystery Inc. gang in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was better than this.