Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Summer Slack Streaming - Velma - Season One

Velma was from my childhood from the Scooby-Doo series. Now comes an American adult animated mystery horror comedy television series based on the character Velma Dinkley.

HBO Max gets executive producer Mindy Kaling as the voice of the titular character, with Sam Richardson, Constance Wu and Glenn Howerton in supporting roles. Season one revolves around Velma Dinkley and the other human members of Mystery Inc. before their official formation, making it the first television series in the franchise to not feature the Scooby-Doo character.

I missed Velma when it premiered on mid January on Binge (in Australia) then concluded after five weeks of double episodes earlier this month.

Apparently a second season is in development, however you know with HBO/HBO Max lately, a renewal can turn into a cancellation at the drop of a hat!

Also the series has had awful reviews online. Like awful! On IMDb it's sitting at 1.4 out of 10!

Velma serves as an alternate universe origin story for Mystery Inc., pitched as a love quadrangle between them.

It primarily focuses on Velma Dinkley as she tries to solve a mystery regarding the disappearance of her mother, as well as the numerous murders of local teenage girls.


In the final (SPOILERS AHEAD) Velma refuses to believe her mother was the killer, but she doesn't have much time to prove her innocence before she is sentenced to death. After talking to her, she notices how mechanically she repeats all her answers, and realizes Diya was hypnotized. 

She remembers that the killer also hypnotized her two years ago to blame herself for Diya's disappearance. Daphne finds the pocket watch that Velma remembers the killer used for hypnosis, and they discover the logo of the Jones' company on it. 

Velma figures out that Victoria Jones is the killer, trying to recreate Dr. Perdue's work to switch Fred's brain with a more competent person's, so he could be a proper heir to the family company. Upon arriving at the Jones', she finds Daphne and Fred tied together in Perdue's lab and stops Victoria before she can hurt them. 

A fight ensues, ending with Norville's unexpected arrival, and he accidentally kills Victoria in the process. Despite solving the case and being hailed as heroes, the four of them drift apart due to the events and their complicated relationships with each other. 

In a mid-credits scene, Sheriff Cogburn is killed by a new murderer. So will this be solved if indeed a second series lands on HBO Max and Binge?

Velma was a fun easy watch. Lot's of laughs along with unexpected lines in the first half of episodes. HBO Max is totally cancelling almost everything of late, so time will tell if we get to actually meet the new Scooby-Doo!

No comments: