All ten episodes of the first season have now been released of HBO’s Velma, and sadly, it has achieved a less-than-stellar rating on IMDb, with the premier causing it to rank as the third lowest-rated show in the history of the site.
Fans of the original animated TV series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969) Have been eagerly awaiting the release of a spin-off, but it hasn’t been met with a great reception.
Velma was released on the streaming platform on January 12, offering viewers an exciting new chapter in the beloved show’s universe. Fans were hoping for a compelling plot and a chance to reconnect with our old beloved characters. Disappointingly, it just wasn’t as thrilling as its predecessor.
Mindy Kaling is the voice of the main character Velma in the ten-part series which follows the “under-appreciated brains” of the gang, bringing together Daphne, voiced by Constance Wu, Fred (Glen Howerton), and Shaggy (Sam Richardson).
The series has been created as a prequel to the original animated series, but it revolves around Velma as the main character.
According to Collider, the plot synopsis is as follows: “VELMA is an adult animated comedy series telling the origin story of Velma Dinkley, the unsung and underappreciated brains of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang. This original and humorous spin unmasks the complex and colourful past of one of America’s most beloved mystery solvers.”
This is obviously a darker version of the family-friendly series that came out way back in 1989, and it doesn’t seem to have gone down well with viewers, who have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the new show…
One wrote: “Can we stop letting people that don’t respect the original media get a hold of it and ruin it?” Adding “We have The Witcher, Percy Jackson, a ton more, and now Velma. Scooby Doo does not need to be turned into one of these god awful ‘adult comedy’ shows.”
A second added: “It really feels like Velma‘s writing room had 1 funny person, surrounded by a bunch of ai script generators that were fed exclusively bad video essays and Riverdale scripts. There’s the occasional slightly funny line, drowned out by a sea of awful sludge.”
“Every character is insufferable. Whether it is the god-awful quips which never land or the ridiculous backstory they gave to Velma, the show constantly falls flat on its a**,” a third summed up.
It’s clear the general consensus is that the show just didn’t click with audiences, and this is confirmed by the shocking 7 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics giving it an average of fifty percent.
The poor reception continued on IMDb.
After the first season wrapped up, this program received a rating of 1.4, which places it as one of the lowest-rated series on the website.
Critic Nadira Goffe from Slate stated: “Velma’s attempts at modernising the franchise are so inept, they’ve given rise to conspiracy theories that Kaling intentionally made Velma bad as fodder for an ongoing culture war in which people would beef about it incessantly online.”
While Darren Franich from Entertainment Weekly said: “Velma is the new bland, a deconstructed canonical bonanza pulled right off the corporate assembly line. It’s so extra it’s minus.”
However, the poor reception doesn’t seem to be getting to HBO, as it’s been revealed that a season 2 is in the works!
It appears like Velma will return for a second season despite the criticism. Following the airing of Velma’s season finale last week, Warner Bros. Television Group chairman and CEO Channing Dunget revealed that a second season is now being developed.
The news has not yet been officially published, but it looks like another season is on the cards.
What do you make of the news?
