TV News: Mindy Kaling animated HBO Velma series Will Reimagine Character As Being Of East Asian Descent (Won't Include Scooby-Doo Or Mystery Machine)
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Velma
Teaser Trailer
Debuts 2023
The HBO Max animated series centered on the Scooby-Doo character — has landed a star-packed voice cast.
Glenn Howerton, Sam Richardson and Constance Wu will star with Kaling in the adult animated series, which traces the origin story of Velma Dinkley (voiced by Kaling), the underappreciated brains of Mystery Inc.
Teaser Trailer
Debuts 2023
The HBO Max animated series centered on the Scooby-Doo character — has landed a star-packed voice cast.
Glenn Howerton, Sam Richardson and Constance Wu will star with Kaling in the adult animated series, which traces the origin story of Velma Dinkley (voiced by Kaling), the underappreciated brains of Mystery Inc.
Mindy Kaling and Constance Wu Are Solving the Mystery of Velma
The animated series premieres January 12 on HBO Max.
www.vulture.com
Self hate, extreme cac-worship, too much Hollyweird living...etc
'Velma' struggles with lame jokes, prequelitis, and bad meta
Mindy Kaling's HBO Max reboot makes 'Harley Quinn' look... well, much better than 'Velma.'
Velma review: A promising reinvention is wasted on lame jokes, prequelitis, and bad meta
Mindy Kaling's HBO Max reboot makes Harley Quinn look... well, much better than Velma.
By Darren FranichJanuary 05, 2023 at 12:04 PM EST
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Scooby-Doo (TV Show)
TYPE
- TV Show
GENRE
The Scooby-Doo magic is how something so bland is also so weird. A doofus, a smarty, two boring beauties, and a talking dog drive to dark places in a bright van. Every week they find out a monster is just some guy scaring people away from his farm/family-run circus/defunct zoo/haunted hat factory. You could say the original series backwashed '60s counterculture into the American gothic tradition, with meddling kids easy-riding around ghastly swamp-water olds. C'mon, though, Hanna-Barbera was just having a laugh on a deadline.
Still, Velma dares to ask a big dumb question: What if the Scooby Gang were meta jerks who wanna bone? "This is my origin story," says Velma (voiced by producer Mindy Kaling) at the start of the HBO Max reboot premiering Jan. 12. The series flashes back to the high school prehistory of "the greatest team of spooky mystery solvers ever," when they variously hated or barely acknowledged each other. It's a prequel that re-casts diversely, re-orients sexually, and over-backstories generally. Should be fun, but it's a self-aware slog. Everyone talks like a TV writer who only knows TV writers. The nonstop references are nonstop ancient: Jill Stein, She's All That, the suspicious assertion that Band Geeks Being Weird equals comedy gold. "This is exactly what happened in my vlog about Lil Wayne!" someone says on TV in 2023. Velma is the new bland, a deconstructed canonical bonanza pulled right off the corporate assembly line. It's so extra it's minus.
'Velma'
| CREDIT: HBO MAX
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?
In my possibly foggy recollection, Velma was the only one mentally equipped to actually solve crimes, unless Scooby pratfalled into the Rillain's Recret Readquarters. (For now, this reboot is dogless.) Now Velma is a misfit searching for her disappeared mother and investigating a maniac cutting girls' heads open. She exemplifies Kaling's brainy-thirsty persona, complaining about the patriarchal male gaze in the same episode where she has to subvert her best instincts to beg attractive classmates to "muster all your sexiness and lure everyone away with a sexy dance!"
A savvy kid investigates strange doings in a shadowtown full of family secrets: Sounds like Riverdale for anyone who doesn't remember Veronica Mars. Hot Archie certainly looms over any mature riff on toddler-safe pop culture. In the eight episodes made available from the 10-part debut season, Velma gradually uncovers serialized clues while teen dramedy swirls around. Her onetime bestie Daphne is her high school nemesis, though their dynamic evolves quickly before fading into the background. Some suspects are too suspicious too early. Velma keeps seeing a demonic hallucination, an enigma so nonsensical the show can only make jokes about its nonsensicality.
Some animated reboots honor their foundation by improving it. Think Netflix's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which Tolkienized an '80s toyline tie-in into a glittery cosmo-queer every-genre-ever saga. Velma settles for winky nods. "There's no world where I'm ever solving a mystery in an abandoned amusement park," Daphne promises, while Velma wonders, "Who would ever stop to put on a costume in the middle of a chase?" Cheap shots, but hey, some reboots should dumb-shame their predecessors. (Recall how Sealab 2021 used a forgotten Hanna-Barbera borefest as a toilet bowl for brain-bursting absurdity.) But Velma mostly replaces the old silly sensibility with crass name-droppy pointlessness. Adopted by two moms, Daphne declares she was "baptized on the set of Ellen." A eulogy for the latest attractive victim notes how "she was the rare slut that did not deserve to be murdered." Jesus Christ.
Velma is not white, obvs. Nor is she straight, which caused much excitement online. (A key subplot is a bit deflating on that front, though, less "She-Ra and Catra are dancing!" than "Alex kisses Marissa and Seth.") Obviously, anyone upset about these identity shifts is the worst. But beyond the conceptual wow of half-century-old characters suddenly having definable traits, Velma plays out like any other prequel. Learn the secret origin of Velma's glasses. Learn the secret origin of Why Velma Says "Jinkies!" The few fun ideas get buried under referential shenanigans. Sam Richardson nails sweetheart desperation in Norville, though I'm still unconvinced the Shaggy archetype is anything more than "Scoob!!!" screeched loud. Nasty humor can work even when it's a quarter funny — so god help me, I laughed at Fred inviting a potential romantic conquest to Hand Stuff Point. And Daphne's moms are married cops voiced by Jane Lynch and Wanda Sykes. Why can't that be a show, and not some franchise extension's J-plot?
"Normally origin stories are about tall handsome guys struggling with a burden of being handed even more power," Velma narrates. "And if they are about girls, it's usually like: Hey, what made this hot chick go crazy?" Look, male origins are terrible, end them all. But also, rude to Black Widow, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Rey, and most Catwomen. We're nowhere near origin equity, but it's a mark much missed to say female backstories are only Crazy Hotness. I think the joke's main target is a certain clown princess voiced elsewhere on HBO Max by Kaley Cuoco. Harley Quinn is surely Velma's ultraviolent-femslash touchstone, but that great cartoon is crazy with purpose. Batman drowned a while ago in a molten core of self-serious ponderousness wrapped in a candy shell of male grievance. It means something to re-orbit Gotham around funny bisexual supervillain girlfriends. Whereas you get the feeling Kaling and Velma showrunner Charlie Grandy could've wedged any inoffensive IP into their way-too-late parody of teen dramas. In the words of the philosopher: Ruh-roh. Grade: C
God-Of-War-420
Mr. Pool
Scooby-Doo's Velma is stripped of police-calling powers in video game after some brand her a 'Karen'
MultiVersus players took to the internet to criticize Velma’s portrayal in the game. Her ability to call police on Black characters such as basketball star LeBron James didn't sit right with everyone.
Mindy Kaling's mystery-solver twerks in first 'Velma' trailer
The gang's all here — except for Scooby. 'Velma' assembles the mystery gang in the first trailer for the Mindy Kaling-led animated series.
It's funny that her cartoon character is darker than she is now. 
Damn. I just told people that I didn't like it. I know it's an article, but this is almost as big of a self-indulgent stroke-fest as the show it's shitting on.'Velma' struggles with lame jokes, prequelitis, and bad meta
Mindy Kaling's HBO Max reboot makes 'Harley Quinn' look... well, much better than 'Velma.'ew.com
Velma review: A promising reinvention is wasted on lame jokes, prequelitis, and bad meta
Mindy Kaling's HBO Max reboot makes Harley Quinn look... well, much better than Velma.
By Darren FranichJanuary 05, 2023 at 12:04 PM EST
ADVERTISEMENT
FBTweetMore
×
00:05
00:30
Scooby-Doo (TV Show)
TYPE
NETWORK
- TV Show
GENRE
The Scooby-Doo magic is how something so bland is also so weird. A doofus, a smarty, two boring beauties, and a talking dog drive to dark places in a bright van. Every week they find out a monster is just some guy scaring people away from his farm/family-run circus/defunct zoo/haunted hat factory. You could say the original series backwashed '60s counterculture into the American gothic tradition, with meddling kids easy-riding around ghastly swamp-water olds. C'mon, though, Hanna-Barbera was just having a laugh on a deadline.
Still, Velma dares to ask a big dumb question: What if the Scooby Gang were meta jerks who wanna bone? "This is my origin story," says Velma (voiced by producer Mindy Kaling) at the start of the HBO Max reboot premiering Jan. 12. The series flashes back to the high school prehistory of "the greatest team of spooky mystery solvers ever," when they variously hated or barely acknowledged each other. It's a prequel that re-casts diversely, re-orients sexually, and over-backstories generally. Should be fun, but it's a self-aware slog. Everyone talks like a TV writer who only knows TV writers. The nonstop references are nonstop ancient: Jill Stein, She's All That, the suspicious assertion that Band Geeks Being Weird equals comedy gold. "This is exactly what happened in my vlog about Lil Wayne!" someone says on TV in 2023. Velma is the new bland, a deconstructed canonical bonanza pulled right off the corporate assembly line. It's so extra it's minus.
'Velma'
| CREDIT: HBO MAX
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?
In my possibly foggy recollection, Velma was the only one mentally equipped to actually solve crimes, unless Scooby pratfalled into the Rillain's Recret Readquarters. (For now, this reboot is dogless.) Now Velma is a misfit searching for her disappeared mother and investigating a maniac cutting girls' heads open. She exemplifies Kaling's brainy-thirsty persona, complaining about the patriarchal male gaze in the same episode where she has to subvert her best instincts to beg attractive classmates to "muster all your sexiness and lure everyone away with a sexy dance!"
A savvy kid investigates strange doings in a shadowtown full of family secrets: Sounds like Riverdale for anyone who doesn't remember Veronica Mars. Hot Archie certainly looms over any mature riff on toddler-safe pop culture. In the eight episodes made available from the 10-part debut season, Velma gradually uncovers serialized clues while teen dramedy swirls around. Her onetime bestie Daphne is her high school nemesis, though their dynamic evolves quickly before fading into the background. Some suspects are too suspicious too early. Velma keeps seeing a demonic hallucination, an enigma so nonsensical the show can only make jokes about its nonsensicality.
Some animated reboots honor their foundation by improving it. Think Netflix's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which Tolkienized an '80s toyline tie-in into a glittery cosmo-queer every-genre-ever saga. Velma settles for winky nods. "There's no world where I'm ever solving a mystery in an abandoned amusement park," Daphne promises, while Velma wonders, "Who would ever stop to put on a costume in the middle of a chase?" Cheap shots, but hey, some reboots should dumb-shame their predecessors. (Recall how Sealab 2021 used a forgotten Hanna-Barbera borefest as a toilet bowl for brain-bursting absurdity.) But Velma mostly replaces the old silly sensibility with crass name-droppy pointlessness. Adopted by two moms, Daphne declares she was "baptized on the set of Ellen." A eulogy for the latest attractive victim notes how "she was the rare slut that did not deserve to be murdered." Jesus Christ.
Velma is not white, obvs. Nor is she straight, which caused much excitement online. (A key subplot is a bit deflating on that front, though, less "She-Ra and Catra are dancing!" than "Alex kisses Marissa and Seth.") Obviously, anyone upset about these identity shifts is the worst. But beyond the conceptual wow of half-century-old characters suddenly having definable traits, Velma plays out like any other prequel. Learn the secret origin of Velma's glasses. Learn the secret origin of Why Velma Says "Jinkies!" The few fun ideas get buried under referential shenanigans. Sam Richardson nails sweetheart desperation in Norville, though I'm still unconvinced the Shaggy archetype is anything more than "Scoob!!!" screeched loud. Nasty humor can work even when it's a quarter funny — so god help me, I laughed at Fred inviting a potential romantic conquest to Hand Stuff Point. And Daphne's moms are married cops voiced by Jane Lynch and Wanda Sykes. Why can't that be a show, and not some franchise extension's J-plot?
"Normally origin stories are about tall handsome guys struggling with a burden of being handed even more power," Velma narrates. "And if they are about girls, it's usually like: Hey, what made this hot chick go crazy?" Look, male origins are terrible, end them all. But also, rude to Black Widow, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Rey, and most Catwomen. We're nowhere near origin equity, but it's a mark much missed to say female backstories are only Crazy Hotness. I think the joke's main target is a certain clown princess voiced elsewhere on HBO Max by Kaley Cuoco. Harley Quinn is surely Velma's ultraviolent-femslash touchstone, but that great cartoon is crazy with purpose. Batman drowned a while ago in a molten core of self-serious ponderousness wrapped in a candy shell of male grievance. It means something to re-orbit Gotham around funny bisexual supervillain girlfriends. Whereas you get the feeling Kaling and Velma showrunner Charlie Grandy could've wedged any inoffensive IP into their way-too-late parody of teen dramas. In the words of the philosopher: Ruh-roh. Grade: C
Yea dude roll with the Hodge twins and shit now
and where is his mustache....you know his hairline is all jacked up
I used to roll with his channel pretty regularly in the past, but of late he's shown more & more where his true "sensibilities" lie with.
And believe me, I suspect it ain't about uplifting Black people. (In general)
I'm not calling him a sellout or a tom, but unless something changes, I simply no longer trust him or his opinions anymore....
YO! This first episode was a HARD watch! The first act has a high school girls showering semi nude scene. Sure it's animated, but still it's HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS. The only redeeming quality is that everybody is a piece of shyt. I thought this was gonna be everyone sucks but Velma, that is not the case. I will try and watch the rest of the season, but this show gives me the same feelings as that Harlem show. NO desire to watch the show.
Was like watching a extended Family Guy cutaway 
I tried to warn you, bub...
I tried to warn you, bub...
No doubt, but I try to form my own review on entertainment. I know I troll @fonzerrillii in a thread as he loves Raised by Wolves and I think it is GARBAGE. It's like heroin you have to experience it for yourself.
That's the way to go with regards to formulating opinions on many things in life.
However, there are things in life you just KNOW that are (or will) impact you negatively even before you experience them.
- I don't need to get 3rd degree burns to know fire will burn me.
And for me; after doing just a little research, I knew this show was gonna be crappy all the way from its initial description right up to its 1st trailer.
But when I attempted to share my thoughts here months ago, I was met with hostility from some cats here and labeled an intolerant, close minded asshole.
And now that you folks have watched this dreck, you now understand where I was coming from....
I tried
That's the way to go with regards to formulating opinions on many things in life.
However, there are things in life you just KNOW that are (or will) impact you negatively even before you experience them.
- I don't need to get 3rd degree burns to know fire will burn me.
And for me; after doing just a little research, I knew this show was gonna be crappy all the way from its initial description right up to its 1st trailer.
But when I attempted to share my thoughts here months ago, I was met with hostility from some cats here and labeled an intolerant, close minded asshole.
And now that you folks have watched this dreck, you now understand where I was coming from....
Yeah I missed your review, but being "met with hostility from some cats here and labeled an intolerant, close minded asshole." NOT BGOL?!?!?! Are you sure you posted this in the right forum?!?!
She looks like a raccoon. I can't stand her. Good thing it isn't a live action show. Actually thought it was.
Who the hell is even watching this?
I didn't review the show.
I offered my opinion beforehand and my prediction of how well it would go over.
And based on just about EVERY review I've watched on YouTube, people dislike the show even more than I imagined they would...
Real talk, that was my biggest takeaway from the first episode, and something I have been absolutely turned off from for decades now. Ever since the Seinfeld finale shined a huge spotlight on how trash its entire cast was, I have not been able to enjoy any show that is just about awful people (no matter how those awful people are punished). I still haven't managed to finish Veep, and honestly, I never really tried that hard to begin with.
See I am the exact opposite, I hate it when the main character is a shining example for humanity and the rest of the world is horrible. Usually they save that shining example for white people.