Velma, the Scooby-Doo spinoff focusing on the characters before they became the iconic Mystery Inc. lot, is now the worst-rated animated show in IMDB history with a score of 1.6 stars out of 10 from 43,000 reviews. That's going to sting.
Superficially speaking, there's a lot to potentially like in Velma. With a star studded cast comprising of Mindy Kaling (Velma), Glenn Howerton (Fred), Sam Richardson (Shaggy) and Constance Wu (Daphne), there's a caustic irreverence for the original material in order to turn it into an adult comedy. Also, as one of the quieter members of the group, Velma's short-sightedness is in fact a thread for the show to pick on, as she's inherited psychic abilities that let her see her disappeared mother and solve mysteries. Last but not least, the show has been described as a "love quadrangle" between all four characters as they navigate the politics of high school, their own attractions to each other and their detective skills.
Check out the trailer for Velma below:
Somehow, Velma has cheesed off every single possible viewer. There are some, unfortunately, that have taken umbrage with Velma's race blind casting and the use of LGBT themes and storylines. And then there is the rational audience that is offended by just how badly the show has butchered the wholesomeness of the original Scooby-Doo series. As well as scathing indictments on IMDB, Velma is also performing poorly on Rotten Tomatoes with a certified Rotten rating of 6% from watchers and Metacritic fares no better with a user score of 0.4.
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"Velma removes any joy from mystery solving with its repetitive hallucinations gunking up the investigation. Snooping takes a backseat to relationship drama and high school woes, so the bulk of what we see of Velma is vindictive, selfish, and downright mean," said Mashable's Belen Edwards. Based on this appraisal, there's no way that Velma could see a second se- oh. It's apparently been renewed. Well.
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