In season 2, Velma raises a giant middle finger to its haters
Max's animated series gets so meta this time around that it might just break the brains of Scooby-Doo fans
TV Features Velma
Warning: this post contains spoilers for Velma season two.
The conspiratorial face Velma Dinkley (Mindy Kaling) is making in the image above is how I imagine Velma’s team looked while mapping out season two of the show. Yes, Max’s animated comedy dropped 10 new episodes on April 25 despite the vicious haters of its 2023 debut run. Seemingly everyone lost their goddamn minds in response to Charlie Grandy’s innocuous, subpar, and occasionally fun—there, I said it—series. Far worse TV shows haven’t elicited such a strong reaction. So the show’s return feels like a big fuck you to the cynics, essentially doubling down on the all meta-ness and humor.
Does Velma’s wry storytelling land this time? No. And this comes from a defender of a ludicrous yet entertaining season one, with its cool voice performances, peculiar world-building, and endless pop-culture quips. Those qualities are retained early in season two before it spirals into a convoluted mess. The show is out of control with subplots that are hard to keep track of or care about, like brain-switching, a double wedding, a “dong removing serial killer,” a Breakfast Club-themed musical, and talking dogs that are much different than the Great Dane of the original show. Still, Velma intends to create maximum chaos amid these missteps, taking huge swings in response to that aforementioned backlash.
So—spoiler alert—it goes for the jugular in the finale with the closing moments: Velma Dinkley dies. The writers said, “Oh you detest Kaling’s version of an iconic character? Look at what we’re going to do to her next.” After spending all season trying to unmask new villains, she accomplishes it only to fall off a balcony while fending off a rabid Scrappy-Doo (Jason Mantzoukas). She’s now a ghost floating around her small town of Crystal Cove, much to the horror of her loved ones. Velma’s existence literally boils down to the words haunting and unnecessary. Say what you will about it, but this is a ballsy if not batshit retort.
The only way for Velma to move forward in season two was by being self-aware and addressing its vocal valid and invalid criticisms. The writers don’t ace their responses, but at the very least, they give some fascinating attempts. Part of the show’s unjustified condemnation was changing the ethnicities of the familiar lead characters. Velma and Daphne Blake (Constance Wu) are Asian, while Norville “Shaggy” Rogers (Sam Richardson) is Black. Their cultural identities don’t impact the story whatsoever and the racist vitriol is unnecessary. In fact, adding more of their background would’ve probably made the show richer.
Another big criticism was the lack of Scooby-Doo because Velma is a prequel, following the four high-schoolers, including Fred Jones (Glenn Howerton), before they establish Mystery Inc. Season two references this with lines about why bringing a puppy in a van to solve crimes is such a gimmick. Despite that, various dogs play a seminal role in furthering the narrative here, including a ravenous Scrappy. All the while, the mysterious murderer goes by the name Project Scoobi. It’s a lot, and the execution of the suspense—one of the most fun aspects of any Scooby story—is hella choppy. But that’s because the writers don’t seem invested in it, and that’s the ultimate downfall of the show.
Velma crams so many comebacks, hoping they’ll string together into a cohesive story. It doesn’t work. Beloved figures like the Hex Girls are introduced but not developed, and new romances are blooming but they don’t make a lick of sense. (Velma’s mom and Fred’s dad? Why?) Velma’s own feelings for Daphne take up a huge chunk of time but sadly, these two might be one of TV’s most irritating couples ever. Meanwhile, Fred and Norville seem to merely exist. Season two’s worst crime is that it’s both too much and somehow still boring.
But who knows? Velma as a spirit could fuse new life into the Max show if it’s renewed again. (Imagine the angry tweets!) But it doesn’t feel like the creators care about continuing it. This might explain why every insane storyline and twist feels jammed into the last few installments instead of saved for later. They probably know that getting season two was a bit of good luck—HBO/Warner Bros. hasn’t been great to its animated projects—but getting a third would be a freaking miracle. All criticism aside, though, if this is the end, at least the contentious show managed to raise a proud middle finger to those incredibly angry folks with keyboards.
86 Comments
This feels like one of those things where a show or movie that barely anyone watches “raises a middle finger to its haters” to give the impression that anyone is actually still talking about it. I haven’t heard anything about this show since like the first week it came out.
Yeah, I wanted it to be good and was ready for a different take but season 1 was shit and I refuse to be someone who “hate” watches any show. Outside of my comment here, I’m not giving this show any of my time.
There’s this very weird sub-sub-genre of comedy that proudly states “everyone that enjoys this sucks, and that includes you.” that I don’t really get but maybe that’s proof I’m not a masochist.
So you spend the entire article telling us the multitude of ways the show fails in every aspect of it’s presentation, admit that it was universally hated by people on both sides of the culture war, (One of the few pieces of content they DO agree on), and yet still feed us the same old tired, “Unjustified condemnation from bigots” argument that’s been used to excuse shit IP regurgitation for years now. The writers using the second season as an opportunity to insult the fandom is par for the course in 2024. Barbie was the perfect example of how to subvert an established IP while still honoring it’s history and showing the viewer why the IP was so popular in the first place. Velma is it seems conceived from inception to mock this idea. You can feel the disdain for the source material. You know what would subvert my expectations? Staying true to the spirit of the original work you’re wearing the carcass of and telling a good story. How about trying that for a change?
“ admit that it was universally hated by people on both sides of the culture war”I mean for once so many people who usually oppose each other were united , at least briefly , at how much they hated the show, so I guess it has that in its favour.
Velma deserved the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023.
It’s a fine example of human shield writing: where you put in a few (token) themes of marginalisation, and then hide behind them whenever you face any criticism:“So, what did you think of Velma?”“It’s not funny, in fact, it’s painful to watch, and I have no idea why this had to be a Scooby-Doo sho-”“Oh, so you don’t like people of colour and women, is it? You’re a racist misogynist, hmm?”At this point, the mud is thrown and good luck getting that off, buddy. The creators will now expect you get gang-fucked by legions of people who are desperate to avoid those insinuations and desperately prove they’re the complete opposite of, ahem, “incredibly angry folks with keyboards”, while simultaneously showering the (self-) victimised author with praise and attention.It’s the arts equivalent of the flop con.
Shhhh. People round these parts don’t like uncomfortable truths.
THEN THEY’RE JUST HATERS AND ANGRY FOLKS WITH KEYBOARDS.
Oh good lord, you really do think you’re some sort of misunderstood truth teller, don’t you? A lone prophet, shouting into the woke winds or whatever.
Nah, I just like poking fun of people while I’m bored @ work. You wouldn’t understand. You’re probably out there getting rounded up by Gestapo for inciting riots or something, amiright?
This is perfect. Human shield writing definitely a useful term.
Well, this useless degree’s finally payin’ off. Came up with it, fuck, 20 years ago at uni:“So, Pete, any feedback on my story?”“Er, yeah. A bit. I’m having trouble understanding this section here – there’s a long stretch of back-and-forth dialogue, but I get lost about who’s saying what halfway through. There’s three people in this scene, and I don’t know who’s speaking which line. I know I sometimes get carried away the same way; it’s just so easy writing dialogue than it is get down with the more mundane way you deliver it-”“OK. I’m sorry that a short story about a teen’s suicide is too much for you and you’re not taking it seriously. This is a very serious subject. If you can’t provide any decent feedback then you should’ve said so.” “What in the actual horselicking fuck?”Ergo, human shields: hide behind them like a coward so you don’t have to face any actual criticism for your work!
This sounds sooo 2016. Any hyperbolic discussion isn’t really a discussion. The “thrown mud” is made of farts and is about as valuable. Culture wars are bs. Pop culture wars doubly so.
@juan replied to me (before dismissing our few comments) “If you don’t like it, well that’s kind of on you at this point.”I never said I don’t like it. That’s you creating a false narrative and misrepresenting me, which is what a real asshole does. If you had actually read what I had written then you could have just indicated you understood my point that we’re beyond this culture war bs.
It should go without saying that hyperbole isn’t a reasonable argument, so if you’re actually bothered by an obviously hyperbolic “false narrative” regarding effectively meaningless pop culture then that’s on you. Otherwise, while pandering is eye-rolling, bigotry is evil, so equating them is a false equivalence.
If you want your intelligence to be respected, then not getting irritated by the minutiae of the entertainment industry would be a good start.
The show can be both horrible AND a lightning rod for bad faith racists at the same time!
Pretending that any significant percentage of the criticisms about Velma were founded in bad faith racism is a misrepresentation. While a strong argument can certainly be made that the intention of companies in implementing DEI as a major selling point of their marketing doesn’t matter as it still does good for society, the truth everyone knows is that their primary intention is to shield their work from being bad-mouthed in the press and on social media. I can believe in equality and still get irritated by pandering. This seems to be a very divisive opinion in 2024.
“I can believe in equality and still get irritated by pandering.”I’ve never seen it stated quite so effectively.
Pandering has been around for so long now that if you’re still irritated by it, then that’s pretty much your problem.
Getting beyond it is easy now because we know what to expect. You see it coming, don’t watch it. Vote with your wallet. Not worth your time. As for the “same old tired, “Unjustified condemnation from bigots” argument”.. There are always bigots, usually a minority, but they’re there and deserve to be called out. If you’re not one of them then there’s no problem.
And “People round these parts don’t like uncomfortable truths.”? No, it’s mostly a pretty level-headed bunch of commenters here. We’re beyond the culture war bs. We know how the sausage gets made. Calling out justifiably problematic, inappropriate, or even evil shit is reasonable. Just as knowing that the entertainment industry is messed up and setting your expectations accordingly is also reasonable.
“And “People round these parts don’t like uncomfortable truths.”? No, it’s mostly a pretty level-headed bunch of commenters here.”
Breaux probably thinks he’s the first brave soldier to ever say that combination of words, here, or possibly anywhere, even with that pissy little ShHhHhHhHh. Such independent thinkery! Once might say he is awakened and aware of the matrix, echo chamber, etc… is there a word of some kind for that?
The comments on Kinja are anything but level-headed. We will agree to disagree.It’s not just “Calling out” bigots. It is misrepresenting a few individuals by pretending that they represent any significant portion of an audience in order to create a false narrative. Two wrongs don’t make a right and if we can call out bigotry we can call out pandering too. If you don’t like it, well that’s kind of you at this point.
Oh learn to read. I said we’re beyond this culture war bs. It should go without saying that hyperbole isn’t a reasonable argument, so if you’re actually bothered by an obviously hyperbolic “false narrative” regarding effectively meaningless pop culture then that’s on you. Otherwise, while pandering is eye-rolling, bigotry is evil, so equating them is a false equivalence.
@juan, please don’t dismiss my comments. If you can’t take it then don’t dish it, even a little bit. For posterity I’ll repeat my reply:
Oh learn to read. I said we’re beyond this culture war bs. It should go without saying that hyperbole isn’t a reasonable argument, so if you’re actually bothered by an obviously hyperbolic “false narrative” regarding effectively meaningless pop culture then that’s on you. Otherwise, while pandering is eye-rolling, bigotry is evil, so equating them is a false equivalence.
True, but it’s also the case that bad people hating a show does not make the show good or worth defending. MAGA dipshits hate stubbing their toes — that does not means you should smash your toes into walls.
This is the Velma of articles.
@FranklyDismiss my intelligence I dismiss your comments. You can choose not to be an asshole.
You replied to me “If you don’t like it, well that’s kind of you at this point.”I never said I don’t like it. That’s you creating a false narrative. If you had actually read what I had written then you could have said you understood my point that we’re beyond this culture war bs.
It should go without saying that hyperbole isn’t a reasonable argument, so if you’re actually bothered by an obviously hyperbolic “false narrative” regarding effectively meaningless pop culture then that’s on you. Otherwise, while pandering is eye-rolling, bigotry is evil, so equating them is a false equivalence.
If you want your intelligence to be respected, then not getting irritated by the minutiae of the entertainment industry would be a good start. I’ll know you’ve read this when you’ve dismissed it so there’s hardly any point doing so.
I don’t think we’re getting another season. Max dropped all ten episodes like they were burning them off where season one was released weekly. I haven’t watched all of season two yet, but season one was a very weird show. I’m guessing season two was produced right after season one was finished. A lot of current animated shows are produced like that where they make two seasons worth of shows back to back and then release them as two seasons.
The show was given a 20 episode order, as I understand, so they technically made one season, but spit it in twain. Which is kind of how animated shows are done lately since the process takes so long. We’re far from the days of “Animanaics and DuckTales first seasons are literally 65 episodes.”
Nobody wanted this show , even I suspect Mindy Kaling, who would probably rather she could have made an original show rather than have to try and stretch the skin of an existing IP over her ideas.While I’m sure there are people who hate it becuase they’re “incredibly angry folks with keyboards.”, I think there are a lot more people out there who hated it because it was terrible. I’d assume that theres no season 3 , since “season 2″ was really the contactually obligated back half of season 1 in disguise (and it would have got away with it too ..except ..oh wait they did) .Although since Warners way of doing things makes no sense to anyone anymore , maybe it will get one.
Most of what you wrote here isn’t true.
A considerable % of Kaling’s career is re-doing someone else’s work.I don’t think she’s that concerned abut doing an original show.
Hey, can’t necessarily fault her there. Get that cheddar, girl.
“incredibly angry folks with keyboards” The A.V. Club
What a disingenuous bullshit article. You are blatantly misrepresenting the vast multitude of extremely valid reasons that people hated Season 1 to pretend as if it all boiled down to changing ethnicities, which isn’t remotely close to being true and is complete and utter bullshit. It wasn’t just MAGA incels who hated it, and it sure as shit wasn’t just because ethnicities were changed. But sure, let’s just ignore that liberals also hated it, let’s ignore the valid criticisms of the poor writing, crass low effort material, disrespect for both the audience and source material, lazy jokes, etc etc. Nope, just keyboard warriors angry about ethnicity! Who needs journalistic integrity?
You know what would be better than this? An adaptation of Scooby Apocolypse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby_ApocalypseWhich was a pretty out there version of the story , set during , well literally the end of the world , and takes characters and does them in new and interesting ways (Scooby is a genetically modified dog who talks through a speaker embedded in his neck , Shaggy is his trainer , Velma is a scientist working on the project ,etc )Its sounds awful , but it actually works really really well
So, Scooby is Dug from Up?
Warner Bros is one wacky media empire. They produce shows no one watches on a streaming platform that doesn’t work.
It feels like this show can’t even decide what genre it wants to be. Is it a murder mystery? A teen romance? A supernatural comedy? The writing is just all over the place, to the point where it feels like they’re focusing on the actual mystery under protest. They dedicate more time to Velma and Daphne’s romantic drama and it just gets exhausting.
Also I’m saying it now; even Scrappy deserved better than this.
I don’t hate Scrappy the way others do, but I think it would be somewhat interesting if they actually tried to make him good? Take him in a non-”Puppy Power” direction that doesn’t result in him being a villain just cuz.
I thought the same thing!
Scrappy hasn’t been involved in anything Scooby related for almost forty years. He deserves a second chance at this point.
They already tried to make Scrappy a villain with the first live-action movie and it didn’t really work. Why retread something like that? Making him sympathetic would’ve been much more daring.
Yeah, it’s interesting that they’ve never once tried to do Scrappy better. In his 2 most recent appearances (to my knowledge) he’s the villain of the first live-action one, and he’s the butt of a joke in the show Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated where when giving a tour of a museum dedicated to the gang’s classic stuff, they run across an exhibit of Scrappy and Fred tells Daphne that the gang all agreed they never speak of him again, like a tiny canine Voldemort.The brand’s gone through so many iterations and for years now has been all about embracing their sillier pasts like their many team up mysteries or all the other weird spin-offs. You’d think Scrappy could get at least some sort of shot at redemption rather than be written off as its secret shame (that dishonor belongs to basically every other Scooby relative, who seemingly couldn’t generate enough interest for a hatedom).
I mean sheesh, Film-Flam gets a second chance before Scrappy does??
I have this crazy thing with Scrappy where I was very young and repeats of old scooby Doo played all the time on TV. As a very young kid, like 5 or 6, I really loved Scrappy. It was a surprise when I got older to find out that Scrappy isn’t just disliked, but openly despised by the fans and that Scrappy is the poster child for universally hated characters that get introduced into long running shows. I’ve avoided rewatching Scrappy content for many many years. Because…I don’t know…young child me always found him funny. Always loved the “Puppy power” quips or how a tiny dog was somehow absurdly strong. I’m sure adult me would hate him, but I don’t really feel like ruining my child memories.
I gotta love this article for trying. Velma still sucks, but at least this time it KNOWS it sucks and says “fuck you” to the people who say it sucks.Ok?The first season sucked, not because it changed anyone’s ethnicity, and not because it lacked Scooby Doo, and not because it ruined anyone’s childhood memories of the IP. It sucked because its attitude from day 1 was “fuck you, the audience, I am going to punish you for watching this.” This show is the opposite of “something for everyone”. It’s got nothing for anyone.
I liked the idea and the cast behind Velma. But, I stayed away because the criticism that kept coming up and I couldn’t get past was that it was just mean-spirited. Bigots are gonna bigot and humor is subjective. But IASIP and WWDitS fills my misanthrope quota for entertainment already, I did not really need more especially from an IP I unironically enjoyed as a kid.I suspect that this was intended to be in the vein of Venture Bros (a show I love) and Harley Quinn (a show in my ever-expanding queue) but seems like it just really missed the mark. For S2 to be giving a middle finger to the people that “didn’t get it” rather than catering more-of-the-same for their fans seems like everyone writing for it is just angry. And if their fans are the kind of people who want a giant middle finger to the “haterz”, then this is definitely not the show for me.
“Harley Quinn (a show in my ever-expanding queue)“I HIGHLY recommend Harley Quinn. Unlike the biggest obstacle of Velma (its mean-spiritedness) Harley Quinn manages to be adult and profane while still being a warm show. You care about the leads and are invested in their relationships.
I’ve heard nothing but good things from people I respect, it is definitely on there!
I agree with you. I think the ideas of the show aren’t bad, it’s just the execution wasn’t hot.
I mean, it is kinda like Venture Bros and Harley Quinn, in the sense that both VB and HQ do have some very “what the fuck were you even thinking? WERE you thinking?” moments — for Venture Bros, the standout is Sgt. Hatred and his whole… thing, and for Harley Quinn, it’s Penguin’s son’s bar mitzvah being themed around *money*. y’know, because the big-nosed Jews just love money, apparently! urghlike, to my knowledge, there’s nothing as actively offensive in Velma as either of those. but there’s an absence of good as well as bad, I think. it’s just another bland mediocre adult animated comedy that occasionally tries to be edgy, only really notable because of its connection to Scooby-Doo. even having Velma come out — which should have been a big thing that everyone cares about! — was undercut by the fact that the family-friendly direct-to-video movies had already beat them to it by a few months, in a story that people actually liked.
I went in to Harley Quinn with low expectations and came away surprised at how much I ended up enjoying it.
Scoobie Doo lovers? You mean, like…10-year-olds?
I watched the first season out of mild curiosity, and hoping something about it could justify its existence, but I found it boring, unfunny, and confusingly disdainful of its source material. I hope everyone working on this continues to enjoy employment on other shows, because this one stinks.
Coyote Vs Acme gets canned but they still push out Velma S2. WBD really hates its audience
It doesn’t hurt that Mindy Kaling is one of those stars that seems to get to do whatever passion project she wants whether anyone else likes it or not.
So the entire second season, which is now 50% of the show’s entire run, is an angry screed at people that didn’t like the first? So they aren’t even trying to make a proper TV show at this point. Am I allowed yet to think this is bad without being a racist bigot who hates South Asian women?
I didn’t hate season 1 as much as others did. I felt it was a perfectly cromulent elseworlds take on Velma. I didn’t feel that Scooby Doo was somehow being ruined. However, I didn’t feel that it succeeded in doing whatever they were trying to accomplish. Maybe they were just trying to threaten original Scooby Doo viewers with a brown gay Velma. I watched the original run of Scooby Doo when it first aired. I didn’t feel threatened. I still look at Velma as an alternate universe show. When I was a kid, I remember thinking Scrappy Doo wasn’t “in continuity” either.
If I want a diverse and vulgar queer teen romance / comedy with selfish and violent characters who learn to be slightly less selfish I’ll just watch Bottoms again, because that movie was aiming for the exact same thing Velma was and actually nailed it.Velma didn’t suck because it was diverse or because it didn’t respect the IP, it sucked because it was a tonal disaster that never had any confidence in its own jokes. When it comes to tone it could never decide if it wanted to be “asshole makes a good point,” “asshole gets comeuppance” or “emotionally-stunted teen learns a life lesson,” and those are three very dangerous tones to try and mix if you aren’t always sure which one you’re operating in. Velma herself is absolutely toxic, which could be fine if the show had anything resembling a straight man to keep things anchored, but the closest it has to that is Daphne who’s also in love with Velma and puts up with endless amounts of her shit to the point that she comes off as either a doormat or an enabler rather than a voice of reason. And all of that could be forgiven if the jokes worked, but they were almost universally too drawn-out and explained themselves just in case you didn’t get them the first time.Unlike most people here, I think the basic concept had promise. A smart-but-not-that-smart douchebag solving mysteries while also slowly learning how to socialize as a metaphor for gifted-kid adolescence is a fine premise. Daria meets Sherlock Holmes built on the bones of Scooby Doo could very easily work. Which is maybe the worst part of Velma: so thoroughly poisoning the well for a concept like this that we’ll never see it attempted again.
Well, that’s pretty much the setup of Wednesday, and that did well enough to get a second season (and a legit one, unlike this show).
To be fair, Wednesday was the show I did hate for not getting the point of the IP. Mostly because The Addams Family always had something resembling a theme of cultural acceptance and family values that the show ignored, while Scooby Doo was always “a group of kids solve mysteries and get involved in shenanigans” and for all of Velma’s many many problems it did vaguely stick to that.Wednesday’s significantly better in every other possible way, of course.
Well, unlike this Velma. Wednesday main characters are likeable, and memeable. The fact that Jenna Ortega revealed fight hard for Wednesday to stay true of her character quirks, and rid of the initial plan of heavy on romance in S02 by the writers. Put her in good grace among Addams Family fans.This Velma is so hated nobody even wants to meme her.
Unlike most people here, I think the basic concept had promise.
I think plenty of people would accept it had promise. I mean yes, there is the bigot crowd who would have yelled the minute the character designs came out regardless of the content, but there’s a lot of people who would go “well, weird choices, but I’ll try it”. In fact I think we saw those people in the large outrage in season 1. And yes, a lot of people just watched one episode and rushed to make their angry clickbait review articles and/or angry Youtube reaction videos, but lots watched more… and still came away mostly hating it.I think the real problem with Velma and thing that killed it was associating itself with Scooby-Doo to begin with. A lot of critiques have ultimately said “why is this a Scooby show?” (especially after Kaling stated that WB prevented them from using the dog himself) and while one sad possible answer is that modern pop culture is so creatively bankrupt nothing can be greenlit without being based on prior IP, another more cynical one seems to be that it is actively trying to court outrage from the word go by making these teens wildly different instead of making entirely new teens for adventures/jokes/teen drama. I agree that the worst thing is that it has almost definitely poisoned the well for future shows (although, given how ass-backwards a lot of WB decisions are lately, maybe David Zaslav will say “all press is good press” and greenlight more shows like it just to drive engagement, whether good or bad) Ultimately the saga of Velma just makes me wonder how things would go if, in another world, The Venture Bros had stripped away the subtext and made Rusty into Jonny Quest. Would people be furious about it or would it people still love it the same? Granted, JQ is a far less beloved property than Scooby-Doo so the comparison is a little apples-and-oranges, but I feel the Venture Bros has strong enough writing that it could endure a copyright coat of paint (maybe even a race swap controversy!) and still have become the classic it did.
A middle finger to The Venture Bros and the 25 other animated shows MAX canceled in favor of this crap that no one likes.
Look, you *could* give Venture Brothers a proper final season of 13 episodes with America’s Sweetheart Matt Berry as the bad guy, which lots of people seem to want, and they’d already written most of. OR, and hear me out, you could release 10 episodes of Velma, a show so stupid that both pinkos & incels hate it, and then release a further 10 episodes that are just bad as the first ones as a “fuck you” & a “middle finger” to the “haters” (and people with taste). The first choice means you’re actually producing an interesting thing that people want to watch, but the second choice means you’re making people angry on the Internet, and you can gesticulate at the show as a ~$10 million burnt offering to How Bigoted Your Executives Aren’t.
a “dong removing serial killer,”I mean if you just leave them dangling there, sorry but you’re doing it wrong.
“it might just break the brains of Scooby-Doo lovers”
It breaks my brain that there are still anyone who’d willingly self-identify as a ‘Scooby-Doo lover’.
a “dong removing serial killer,”ah, just what i think of when i think Hanna-Barbera
“Their cultural identities don’t impact the story whatsoever”Ok, does the show know that?
It follows logically that people who hate Scooby-Doo and/or gays ought to love a show that puts them both in a bad light.
I’m just excited the world of animation finally has its own Ghostbusters 2016, where we get to all fight over whether it’s bad because it’s so DAMN WOKE!!!, whether it’s bad because it has writing problems, whether it’s just okay and everyone’s overreacting, or whether it’s actually really good you guys and you’re the dummy for not seeing it.
I’m very much in the “McKinnon and Hemsworth are terrific, McCarthy and Jones are solid, but the movie is too bloated, the villain sucks and Wiig’s character doesn’t fit in with the rest of the movie at all” camp.Also, It somehow cost $146 million dollars, which is especially insane when Afterlife only cost $75m and Frozen Empire cost $100m
Haven’t seen any of them but I’d imagine it might have something to do with the latter two having kids in them which they can definitely get away with paying less
I haven’t seen the latter two either, but I’d guess that part of the budget differences between them and GB2016 had to do with cheaper filming locations and more efficient use of VFX. Paul Feig, up to that point, had mostly done much smaller-scale movies with relatively little CGI, and I’d suspect that someone who had more experience making effects-heavy films would have been able to do the movie to a similar level of visual polish for less money.
All criticism aside, though, if this is the end, at least the
contentious show managed to raise a proud middle finger to those
incredibly angry folks with keyboards. So season 2 exists purely to troll the show’s critics? Being the “teenage edgelord with a burner account” of Scooby shows is not something to boast about.essentially doubling down on the all meta-ness and humor. . . . cool voice performances, peculiar world-building, and endless pop-culture quips. If you want all this, but in a show that’s actually good, go watch Mystery Incorporated.
Yeah, I was never a fan of Scooby-Doo and haven’t watched ‘Velma’, so I don’t have any investment in this thing, but I feel like a show needs more reason to exist than just making someone angry. “Fuck you for caring” is a hollow, pointless message. I didn’t care for it when ‘The Simpsons’ did it with Principal Skinner/Armen Tamzarian, and I’m not interested in it elsewhere.
You know how to Unified the USA? By hating this show. Venture Bros did better subversive Mistery Inc.
This article has the same retch-inducing odour of craven defensiveness that was given to The People’s Joker in a similar piece on this once worthwhile website.
It’s author also unironically uses the term ‘hella.’
Wow, how brave.
I mean, I see a lot of adults getting very worked up about a kids cartoon show. Maybe let’s not forget that from the get-go, the source material was cheap, predictable mush made only marginally watchable (in the days when there were about three TV channels) by the voice talent.
“All criticism aside, though, if this is the end, at least the contentious show managed to raise a proud middle finger to those incredibly angry folks with keyboards.”So instead of focusing on writing a great season 2, the writers have decided to focus their energies on a “proud middle finger” to the “haters.” Wonderful.
“at least the contentious show managed to raise a proud middle finger to those incredibly angry folks with keyboards”I’m confused by this thesis. She raised a middle finger to them by giving them what they wanted?
This show is a lot like Ghostbusters to me, in that my reaction to it is “why do people care about this enough to be angry about it?” Scooby Doo is a 60 year old crappy formulaic children’s cartoon. Remaking it in 2024 as a show for (I guess?) adults is weird. Caring about whether that remake is good or bad is weird. None of this matters. We’re all going to die.
Not sure what’s worse, the show or this trash fire of an article.
“We’ve made it even worse!” is not quite the selling point you seem to think it is.
“at least the contentious show managed to raise a proud middle finger to those incredibly angry folks with keyboards.”
You mean Kraftwerk?