Wait, was Scooby-Doo not in the new show?
Scooby-Doo was cut, there's a lot of race swapping, and basically it follows Velma who is an amazing girl-boss (/s) who solves all the mysteries, and everybody else is just kind of "around". There seems to be a lot of resentment of anyone who is wealthier, more successful, or popular. Fred is a punching bag for a lot of jokes, he's just a rich white boy who doesn't really know how to do anything.
Papa Meat (Hunter Hancock of MeatCanyon) has a review. It's pretty balanced, but even that's still negative, mainly rated high as it was because he liked the art. 😅
Apparently, despite a seemingly horrendous reception by the public, it has been renewed for a second season. ¯\(°_o)/¯
follows Velma who is an amazing girl-boss who solves all the mysteries
Velma as a character was a lot of things, but she was mostly an insufferable, pathologically egotistical narcissist with hallucinatory delusions and severe mommy issues. Like, the show was horribly written, don't get me wrong, but let's not act like she was a Mary Sue.
I believe it's because it's so universally seen as terrible that it got renewed. People couldn't believe it could be that bad, but was, in fact, that bad. So many people watched it either to rip on it or to see if it was as bad as it was made out to be and that got the show a lot of ratings on paper I bet.
Execs see numbers and conflate that with a "good show". It's our own fault really. I still haven't seen it yet though so I can't weigh in on it's quality at all
Fred is a punching bag for a lot of jokes, he's just a rich white boy who doesn't really know how to do anything.
Everyone is taught that racism against white people isn't real and can't happen, so they're perfect targets.
Sounds like they dragged a handful of lemmyists out of their basements to write it.
I can't read the purple person's face in the last panel.
Same face from the frame before it, but eyes in a state of shock, blank.
Don't forget the cross popping vein (universal symbol of anger)
Both of their eyes turn white. That little small white circle is her eye focusing on his phone.
That's a face!?
I always thought race swap gender swapping roles was a cash grab and a way to just make people fight. And it seems to work every time. I personally think it's a slap in the face to the genders and races that were swapped in. If new movies can't make new characters and stories with different races and sexes without seemingly purposefully causing controversy by replacing one race or sex with the other I'd take that as a low blow.
It’s hard to do well, but I disagree that it’s a slap in the face or a low blow. The gender swap of Starbuck from Battlestar Galactic was seen as sacrilege by fans, but she became one of the highlights of the show. Miles Morales was a creative way to do a race swap for Spider Man, and the narrative is richer for it. Jason Mamoa turned Aquaman from white to Polynesian, and the depiction was better than ever. Would Nick Fury be better as a white guy, as he was originally for decades, instead of Samuel L Jackson?
And then there are all the “swaps” that happen before the first day of filming, like Ellen Ripley, Sigourney Weaver’s character in Alien, who was originally (edit) going to be cast as a man. This was “controversial” at the time, with people decrying “political correctness”. I would not take “causing controversy” as a reliable indicator for whether something sucks.
Edit: point taken about gender neutral script. See discussion below.
Nick Fury used to be white guy
Fiona and Cake worked, but only because the show is not really about Fiona and Cake. Also, it meta-acknowledges the whole thing right away, that they've been shoehorned into a universe where they don't belong.
I always thought race swap gender swapping roles was a cash grab
There are a lot of instances in which is can put a new spin on an old trope. Spiderman is a great example. The various swapped Spider-folks all have a unique setting and character arcs. The idea of "Spiderman" as a set of powers they all happen to share give a loose cover for a bunch of really compelling super-hero stories that could only come from a particular perspective.
If new movies can’t make new characters and stories with different races and sexes without seemingly purposefully causing controversy by replacing one race or sex with the other I’d take that as a low blow.
Its not uncommon for a writer/director to have an idea for a piece of media that's original and compelling, but get told "We have a zillion dollars for Generic IP and pocket change for Original Cinema". So the original gets adapted to IP. The lead in your spy thrill gets hot-swapped for James Bond. A gothic horror gets turned into a Dracula or Frankenstein film. The sci-fi epic becomes another entry in Star Wars cannon. The coming-of-age film gets Barbie as the lead character.
The IP is what guarantees a minimum viable audience, because its immediately recognizable. Then the screenplay itself is wrapped around the central cast. IP is just an efficient form of marketing.
Just curious: how'd you feel if they literally and publicly role the dice for any character where race or gender isn't required for the plot?
Ridley Scott in the original Alien movie literally did that. The names of the characters sound gender neutral, and the production hired actors who would just seem good fit for the role. Now that I think about it, the race and gender of the crew did not matter in the plot, because the main character and attraction is the Alien!
If there's no actual reason for them being a particular race, skin tone, gender, orientation, etc then go for it. I can't really see a reason to be upset at this hypothetical.
I'm fairly sure cyanide and happiness do that for their comics.
Part of this is that idiots will predictably react and cause a distraction. Rey and Rose Tito are not what made new Star Wars bad, but the discourse was ruled by WOM BAD for months. Or Ghostbusters or whatever. Going out of your way to attract bad faith criticism so that you can conflate the legitimate with the ridiculous.
I really tried to watch Velma, and the only way I felt I could watch it was to totally disassociate it from Scooby Doo.
The problem in doing so, which is obvious in hindsight, is that on its own merits, there isn't really a show there that can stand on its own two feet and be compelling. That realisation alone should have been enough for the networks to pass, but with star power assigned to the writing and a known IP, I guess this was enough to get the green light.
I'm all for creative retelling of stories, but the fundamentals don't change. The absolute WORST thing you can do, once the reviews come in, is to criticise the critical response. Sure, many probably didn't get the artistic vision, but ultimately you are in the entertainment industry, and the creator and producers arguably gave themselves a heavy job in creating a show that caters across several cultural subjects, while also limiting themselves to the Scooby Doo/Mystery Inc gang. It's why I don't consider it "lazy" - if anything, they shot for the stars and hit the ceiling.
IMO, it's a bad show, but could have been good if they had written original characters. It would have highlighted that some characters were either unlikeable/lazy, or that the premise needed more work.
Don't worry, Scooby Doo is alright... doing just fine... (cw)
I love this video. That disgusted sound Scooby make after the we are meta line was perfect.
Geez what's next, a Breaking Bad show without Walter White or Jesse?
Family Guy without the family... or the guy
Tucker Carlson without racism?
Or an All in the Family show with no Archie Bunker? Or a Happy Days show with no Fonzie or Richie Cunningham?
Hey, that last one could work as a movie if not a TV series. Chuck Cunningham comes back.
They could reshoot a few scenes from the TV show with lookalike actors, have Chuck play out his final bit, and then a few more scenes from the show that make it clear that no-one remembers him. At all.
Now, think about it: Extra-terrestrial aliens are canon in Happy Days (Mork and Mindy was a spin-off), so it's possibly some other alien race abducted Chuck and caused everyone to forget he ever existed.
Depending on what time period he comes back to, this could be played for laughs or for existential horror.
Hear me out. They should've put someone's brain in a dog to make Scooby.
Why the everliving fuck they didn't do that when the big bad guy was cutting brains out of people is just beyond comprehension.
"Scooby-Doo doesn't have Scooby-Doo" is like saying that my PB & J sandy has neither PB, nor J, nor is it a sandy. Like, what are we saying, at this point? It's obviously not even the same thing, it's like, a bean bag chair, or whatever else. At the same time, I don't find myself crying for how the symbol has been dissolved, because that shit is happening all the time and only iron law of reality is that everything changes eventually.
I dunno I get it but at the same time the shit strikes me as dumb and every time I hear somebody complain about this shit I get flashbacks to 4chan and also real life where I'm gonna be like "yeah sure that's kinda stupid, scooby doo should have scooby doo or whatever" and then somebody's gonna take that as an opportunity to start extrapolating a bunch of shit about how postmodernism is ruining the culture and yadda yadda white genocide, and I'm like. Damn, I thought we were gonna talk about scooby doo.
It literally feels another show with the mystery gang paint slapped on that's incredibly mean spirited with the jokes.
I don't even think it just feels like that, is what I'm saying, I think that's literally what it is, exactly, to a T. "Mystery gang paint" is right on the money.
That is probably why the show is not called scooby doo.
Or like a Star Wars show without Darth Vader
And this is why Araki always has a "JoJo", so he can keep using the same JJBA brand for his -mostly unrelated- stories lol /hj
Maybe because scooby doo was my least favorite cartoon as a kid, on Saturday mornings it came on once the good shows were done and it was time to play video games, but I didn't mind Velma. It wasn't great, I'm not going to go out of my way defending it, but it was a solid okay. I don't get the hate, it seems overblown for a mid show. It had some jokes, solid sleep time show rewatch (to ruin any credibility my opinion has, brickleberry is in the same category for me).
It's a shame that the first episode is the worst of the season. I also think it was ok, but my wife (who's not terminally online like us, and didn't knew the discourse around the show) loved it and couldn't get why internet hated it.
the wording on this comment sounds like copium to me...
okay...
Im with you on Velma. It wasn't all that bad, and the art direction at times was impressive for what they were going for.
Best Scooby Doo adaptation is the Venture Bros episode with the gang, and I will die on that hill
There was also the Scooby Doo episode of Supernatural. Maybe not as much of an adaptation as it was a crossover... but it was still great.
Scoobynatural is one of my favorite episodes of Supernatural, right up there with Changing Channels. I wish they had gotten the rights, the time, and the cameo money to do an X-Files crossover.
Haven't seen it, but it must be fucking amazing because Mysteries Inc. sets a pretty high bar.
They're middle aged and give off strong "peaked in high school" vibes, ESPECIALLY fred
What about the Harvey Birdman episode where Shaggy is on trial for driving high?
I'll always have a special place in my heart for the 2002 film, but that's mostly because Sarah Michelle Geller is a smokeshow and I'll watch just about anything she's in.
Bro. Do yourself a favour and check out Scooby&Shag as a comic on Webtoon. It's the best thing to come out these years.
Imagine being an adult and a new show for kids doesn’t appeal to you though.
Problem is that the new show isn't for kids. It is aimed at adults. I mean... it's on HBO.
You would let a child watch Velma?
imagine being an adult and rooting for a shitty sports team that never wins because its the one you grew up near.
Why would you bother to resurrect the corpse of a cartoon long dead that children don’t care about and then fail to put the titular character in?
People only cared about the dog, and maybe Shaggy.
Don’t tell me you liked Velma. The only thing she ever did was lose her glasses.
