Velma
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| Photograph by Courtesy of HBO Max |
Charlie
Grandy (creator)
Mindy Kaling, Glenn Howerton, Sam Richardson, Constance Wu (cast)
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| Courtesy of HBO Max |
So, Velma made its debut. And as expected, it’s getting a lot of hate. Like wow. Everyone from Buzzfeed to Comic Book Resources is revelling in how much people hate this show. There are articles being written about its low audience scores on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes because no such thing as review-bombing and biased reviewing exist (coughs in Captain Marvel).
Considering
the snarcasm (snark+sarcasm) that surfaced when the show had been announced
with Mindy Kaling as the executive producer and in the lead, I suppose I shouldn’t
be surprised by the current state of the discourse.
Velma is an updated, adult take on the classic Scooby-Doo cartoon.
Instead of focusing on a talking dog and his cowardly human friend Shaggy, the
show is from Velma’s point of view. She’s the awkward teen in high school, making
her way to her destiny as the smart detective in the Scooby-Doo gang. The show
turns a lot of the lore on its head.
How Fred,
Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby got together wasn’t discussed much in the
original cartoon (as far as I recall). Subsequent live-action and animated films
have tried to fill in the gaps. Velma doesn’t do that. I see this show
as taking place in an alternative universe, with the future still to be
written. Velma isn’t looking to be pigeonholed by its IP, and I’m ok
with that.
In the HBO
Max series, Velma (Kaling) is a chubby Indian-American girl trying to make it
through high school while working on a personal mystery. She’s trying to recoup
her failed friendship with Daphne (Constance Wu) who has her own mystery to
solve. Meanwhile, their school is under siege, and one of the suspects is Fred
(Glenn Howerton), a misogynistic man-child with wealth and white privilege. In
the mix is Norville (Sam Richardson), who, from what I can tell, is supposed to
be this show’s version of Shaggy.
There’s a
lot at play here, and I have to say, I rolled my eyes throughout most of the
first episode. Velma is satire—it’s lowest common denominator satire, and
it’s also really ridiculous and loud. The show is a lot of things I dislike,
but I can’t stop watching. You know why? Because the show has a fat Indian girl
in the lead dealing with feeling like an outsider while also coming to terms
with her judgy internalized misogyny. I love that Daphne is an Asian girl with Lesbian
moms. I think Norville is cool, and doesn’t fall into the usual tropes facing Black
characters. Velma is so refreshingly diverse and the show makes a lot of
important points about being a girl or woman in the world.
Once I figured
out that’s the core of the show, I think I got more hooked on it. I still think
it could tone down the slapstick, but we don’t have enough shows the celebrate
the goods and bads of being female, and the messiness that comes with it. I
loved She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, so it’s no wonder I dig this show as well.
I’d love Velma to explore the gender spectrum as well, so here’s hoping.
Is Velma
my favourite show? Definitely not. Is it perfect? Far from it. And one of my
biggest grouses is how the show portrays Fred. I wish his characterization had
been applied to someone else, and he was the exception, not the norm. I hope Fred
is headed for some much-needed character growth, because if he isn’t, I don’t
see how we’re expected to be invested in the character.
I also don’t
think some of the voice acting is up to par. Kaling and Wu see-saw in their
deliveries, especially in Episodes 3 and 4. Howerton and Richardson are consistent,
though, as are the rest of the supporting cast.
I used to
love the Scooby cartoons as a kid. Mostly because I love mysteries, and they
were fun and silly. I don’t think watching the new series is ruining my
childhood. It’s different; it’s a lot like Harley Quinn, another HBO Max
show that takes popular IP and turns it on its head. The Harley vibes
are so strong in Velma that I’m genuinely shocked more people weren’t
expecting the same. And that they’re so angry about the execution. Could it be
because of who is being represented in Velma versus in Harley Quinn?
Harley
Quinn has two white leads, and a majority
white cast. The show is uber-violent, vulgar, and treats every fan-favourite
Batman character as a joke. And I love it. But it took me a minute to get acclimatized
to what the show was doing. If Jim Gordon can be an incompetent drunk and the
entire Batman family can act like adult toddlers, but we’re still lapping it
up, then Velma getting called out for doing the same thing with Fred, Daphne
and the rest seems to be a prejudice issue, not a story one.
I’m only
four episodes in, so I may end up eating my detective notebook later, but seriously,
this amount of vitriol towards Velma is uncalled for. And it’s a pattern
that emerges every time women, people of colour, or queer folks create
something. Make something new—no one will watch it. Make something based on
known material—get accused of ruining it. There’s no winning. And it happens so
often that I’m genuinely surprised bigger media outlets haven’t picked up on this
pattern yet. Or maybe they refuse to?
Watch Velma at your own risk. It’s bawdy, raunchy, gory, kinda dumb, but also irreverent, inclusive and takes an annoyingly poignant look at sexism, misogyny and privilege.
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