The new TV series sharing the origin story of the brains behind Scooby Doo’s Mystery Incorporated team is being torn apart by many viewers on social media.
With a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of just seven per cent, Velma, is an enigma.
The HBO Max show begins with what many would describe as bizarre, opening with cockroaches having sex, and then subsequently meeting a grizzly end by being squashed by our leading lady.
The viewer barely has time to recover from that scene before they’re greeted with nude teen girls in the locker room.
Then, Velma, voiced by actress Mindy Kaling, proceeds to find a dead girl, whose character isvoiced by Toronto actress Shay Mitchell.
The series focuses on Velma’s return to solving mysteries after a hiatus following her mother’s disappearance.
And if you’re wondering if the brutal reviews are just some form of retaliation for having a more diverse cast or inclusive characters, that doesn’t seem to be the issue here.
The biggest problem appears to be that it’s completely unclear who the show is meant to appeal to.
Honestly, I would believe you if you told me this script was AI generated.
The show seems to emulate what a conservative person complains “woke T.V.” has turned into, or how a 40-year-old thinks Gen Z-ers speaks to one another.
It feels like someone making fun of what diverse casting or social or ethical messages in T.V. shows have been in the past.
They even threw in a distasteful #MeToo joke.
The show’s only redeeming quality is casting Wanda Sykes—who’s voice can be recognized anywhere—but her character takes a quick downturn as one half of a lesbian cop duo that shoots an innocent teen in the first episode.
Another issue? This isn’t the first time Kaling has been accused of pushing the idea of “the loser brown girl.”
This Twitter user said it best:
A laugh is a laugh! You don’t have to go low to get it. And if you do, it’s probably not actually that funny.
New episodes of Velma are released on HBO Max Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET.
(Photo caption: HBO Max has released “Velma,” a new spinoff of the Scooby Doo series. Courtesy- Twitter/@mindykaling)
