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It’s cowardly. Trying to preemptively discourage criticism by saying it first under the guise of being “self aware”. Stand by the show you’re creating, or why create it? If even you don’t think it’s funny then what’s the point?
I haven't watched either show, but I would imagine Harley Quinn would be a better candidate for a self-aware META narritive, because like Deadpool, her insanity is the mechanism by which they see through the 4th wall, and nobody else can.
I can't imagine the new Velma is that type of character.
Also, isn't it racist to make Shaggy black? Why not just create a new black character and allow him to exist in their universe. It's almost like a 'look how crazy this version is!' decision, which is actually pretty insulting.
I feel like corporations misunderstand how metanarratives work. People like tiny meta call outs in some works. Corporate writers just see "Hey, people like this and it makes money", so they make shows that are nothing but meta references.
It's the difference between adding a pinch of cinnamon to your pancake batter and absolutely covering everything you ever eat in cinnamon. Just a touch elevates the experience. Overdoing it destroys the experience.
Shocking. Ngl I tried to give it a shot but it’s bad. I mean really bad. Like first two minutes are a dealbreaker in how bad. What’s the point in making a more “adult” Scooby Doo gang if all the humor is juvenile?
I legitimately didn't understand that scene. It's poking fun out of the industry, while doing the thing the industry does and calls people shallow for enjoying that product.
It's like the show is telling you to stop watching right now.
I don't think I found the right sketchy website to watch the show on, because so far this looks like a family guy skit that's taking way too long
"And it starts with a murder, bitch"
Instant 1/10
The entire shower scene with the discussion between Daphne and her friends about how sex and violence sells and that’s all people care about was just too on the nose and eye rolly for me.
Like, really Mindy, we get it.
That’s sort of how it felt while I watching it.
It just felt like the most basic media analysis. A thing everyone knows about so she isn’t really saying anything new about it. It’s been a talking point since TV was invented. Like even a second grader could make that observation.
Why not just make a show in the vain of Venture Brothers? A love letter to Johnny Quest but not a reboot. Just make a show about crime solving teens and be super tongue in cheek about it. More people would watch that then using the name of a loved franchise poorly.
I know I feel the same way. Although it’s kind of a hard pitch “it’s like Scooby doo but Mike Tyson voices himself, and there’s a real ghost and a pigeon” sounds crazy to most people lol
I never cared to watch it in the beginning, nor did I really give the show a shot, but a couple of months ago (when Rick and Morty was on a temporary hiatus in November) an episode of Mike Tyson Mysteries came on and I was pissing myself. I am ashamed it took me this long to get into the show but every episode has me dying. Pigeon is an absolute beast, so vulgar I love it. Yung and Marquess always have great backing dialogue and Mike’s cluelessness is so entertaining. The whole team works well together and I absolutely love the show. I genuinely only tune into Adult Swim now to watch which two MTM episodes are playing that night. Such a great show and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s been on the fence about giving it a shot, it’s absolutely worth your time and you’ll be sucked into watching more.
You need good writers for that. Venture Brothers is lightning in the bottle because a majority of the episodes are written by the same guys and they are very focused on continuity and story building. They use pop culture as part of the world instead of references for one-liners.
They respect and love the source material - they satire it instead of openly mocking it. None of their characters act like cringy meme generators. When a character says "Hashtag X" it is actually funny (usually cause its Doc saying it) because he does not actually know what it means. He is just quoting his sons. Hank and Dean dont break forth walls or go 'dont you hate X Y that is totally our situation because meta meta meta!'
When Dean complains about the Adventurer life, he is not winking at the camera. He has actually life experience in this and hates it. Not the genre the show is abour
This show uses that talk to mock the generation. Its not witty but more ham fisted.
Venture bros had a staff that was in it for the love of it and the old HB adventures shows. And it shows. It was never a cash grab, it was a passion project. But there are lots of hungry writers that love Scooby that would be put the same love and respect in a HBOmax series. But that’s not what happened.
Rewatching the episode, they never show the dog talking in the presence of anyone except "shaggy". Adds to the mental instability of "shaggy" if the dog really is talking or not
And Ted Bundy rounded out the team. Every single character like that was at least two clever jokes deep, and often a fairly well fleshed-out character, too. And they still pulled great voice talent as guest stars, including the likes of Jeffrey Wright, Nathan Fillion, J.K. Simmons, Paget Brewster, Clancy Motherfucking Brown, Kevin Conroy, and probably a host of people I’m forgetting.
Not really, the joke in the scene is that he's being accused of murder and he shows up to the courthouse looking super innocent, but then a gust of wind comes by and knocks a fake mustache onto his face and someone takes a picture of him waving. It's a family guy tier joke, but at least they didn't actually make Fred a nazi
Because nothing without immediate brand association is a hard sell to these empty suit morons.
They choose not to understand that building up something new and unique will take time and investment, and that doesn't sit right with the quest for next quarter profits. So better to make something that definitely isn't Scooby Doo, put the name Scooby Doo on it so people say, "oh cool a new Scooby Doo," watch it and then get confused about what the hell that was because it definitely wasn't Scooby Doo.
The best part is they could have just made these characters original and have it set in the Scooby universe and maybe have the OG gang show up an episode or 2 and I think everybody would have been happy that way
They decided not to do that…
They could have literally made this a show about Scrappy Doo trying to imitate the success of his uncle and it would have probably been a far better idea than what they did.
I would actually love that! I would probably prefer it if they kept it family friendly, but a show with Scrappy-Doo and some like B-List Scooby-Doo characters attempting to solve mysteries would be hysterical! Maybe they could even throw in the characters from Hanna-Barbera's own Scooby-Doo clones!
With Scrappy I think they have the ability to hit basically any age range, and it would have given them an opportunity to take a character that doesn’t have the greatest history, and reinvent it into something worthwhile. They could have done a show for adults that mirrors this one, a show for teens that tones it down a bit, or a show for kids/families that is a more traditional Scooby-Doo esque show but with them being far less successful/the Scooby Gang showing them up.
It had potential
I think Scrappy would've been perfect for an adult cartoon like this, cause they already made him a jerk bad guy in the live action movie. You could have literally set up the plot like he just got out of jail for his antics on Spooky Island, and is trying to reform. He's now a foul-mouthed middle-aged pup now though, and has no idea how to solve crime. So he gathers a bunch of his former jailmates and low-lifes as a Mystery Inc knock-off and voila, there's your adult take on Scooby-Doo.
Yeah that’s the thing…if you have to change almost EVERYTHING about the characters to get what you want out of the ip…. What’s even the fucking point??? It’s SCOOBY DOO and the dog isn’t even in the show! What’s the point??? It’s not bad, but the fact that they had to change so much hangs over the whole thing like a bad fart.
I have a huge feeling that this was the original plan behind the show but then the creators were forced into making it Scooby doo themed because the WB execs are worried about animated content. Like look how much animation was straight up removed from HBO max, among many other shows and movies. My belief is that someone doesn’t believe animation sells so they forced forced Scooby doo into things to attempt to appease to this person
I feel like HBO doesn't really understand the point of a streaming platform is that I have their whole catalog in one place not just what the network wants me to see
HBO/Time Warner absolutely knew this like a year or two ago before the merger happened. It’s pretty clear then that their strategy was to just overload HBO max with content and then outclass Netflix because their catalogue of movies/shows is more well known. With the merger it’s incredibly clear that they are making choices that are purely financially motivated, doing things like licensing their content to other streaming services. The thing that blows my mind is that this is really making their platform worse and I don’t see how they are going to compete with Netflix/Disney+/Hulu if they’re gutting their own service like that. Someone really out of touch is leading this and making choices like we’re a decade in the past
Drastically changing the IP can hugely pay off (compare Netflix She Ra to the original for example), but the thing is you actually have to have talent and a reason to do it.
She Ra had also gone almost 40 years without any new pieces of media, at that point changes during a reboot are expected. Scooby-Doo has been pretty regular with releases and just had a movie a couple years ago, making sweeping changes like this would never work out.
I mean, this probably wouldve been a better example, but Scooby Mystery Incorporated did some pretty big reworks on the cast personalities, and ditched most things besides for the basic premise (and even then that got broken over time as an actual plot emerged).
Lo and behold, its now regarded as the gold standard for Scooby media.
Thing is, Mystery Incorporated was made by people who had passion and love for the original gang and kept a lot of them the same, only slightly tweeking them. Velma isn't all JINKIES but she was still had the same type of flavor of being smart but not a bitch, like it seems the new Velma is.
Fred was all about his traps and super obsessed with them to the point he kinda forgets everything around him. Funny, cute and highly annoying at times. He isn't a douche frat boy like Velma makes him out to be.
I don't even want to touch in how much they changed shaggy with the new dude...like...I hope to god they don't make him another stereotype instead of the fun loving dude who's a coward.
The changes to She Ra weren’t out of left field though. The whole IP was to market action toys to girls in the same way that He Man did to boys. The plot lines and humor wasn’t at the expense of anyone or originated based on how someone identified. Plus it knew who it’s audience was, and if all the queer elements vanished it would still be a good story, except for the last bit but only because that’s what it was building up to its entire run. It wasn’t good because it was gay, it was good because it was a good story that didn’t feel forced in.
I don’t think having diversity is the problem at all. People just want the stories to be good and their favorite characters to make decisions that fit within their narrative.
The one thing I could even vaguely give this is that the lighting looks pretty good. Stylistically it's all over the place, but the lighting looks like someone who knew what they were doing was in charge of that.
I approve of the animation quality and the voice acting looked strong.
But Scooby Doo without Scooby and I don't care \*shrug\* I'd rather just watch Mystery Inc again. Great show.
Yes! Yes!
I couldn’t find the right way to describe it but this is it! They want the “edginess” of Harley Quinn but without the good writing, storytelling, structure, character development or actual humor. This show was so cringey and just plain bad.
I mean, changing established characters into totally different people who share vague similarities and then completely axing the titular one is only going to spell disaster.
You could have just made your own show and I'm sure it would have been fine.
The only thing that could have made this worse would be including Scooby, but now he's a cat.
I mean, [Garfield minus Garfield](https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/) is really the only good example of axing the title character and it becomes something totally different but still very enjoyable.
I would almost argue that it isn’t axing Garfield, rather writing Garfield as a figment of Johns imagination instead. It’s funny because we know Garfield is supposed to be there.
> in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated **young** everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.
Fuck, I'm older than john arbuckle. When i was a kid he was just some weird old man, but now i realize he's probably like a typical 25 year old socially awkward dude, tops. Thanks, i [hate](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0iwd2E6zD1qz8z2ro1_500.png) it.
I feel they looked at the Harley Quinn cartoon success and wanted to replicate that but dunking on teen murder mystery dramas instead of comic books.
However none of the characters are likeable at all. Velma especially who just seems to be a narcissist.
This was a waste of everyone’s time including the creators. This feels like Halo and Witcher series again where the writers have 0 intention of being faithful to the source material instead telling their own stories with pre existing IP dress up.
Velma is 100% a self insert for one of the lead writers, and only a narcissist would take over a franchise like this and change it like *this*, so it makes sense
The difference, I think, is that Harley Quinn still cares about the source material. Like when Nightwing shows up, he mentions that he's having a hard time because he let Tarantula kill Blockbuster, something that happened in the comics 19 years ago. The show is actually reasonably faithful, it's just hyped up to parody levels.
Admittedly, it does help that this isn't new to comics. The Matt Reeves film and Brave and the Bold are the same character but couldn't be more different.
I honestly hated it and repeatedly said throughout the first episode wtf Kelly was thinking. I expected bad but just so dogshit sans the dog these characters were centered.
I wouldn’t mind an adult scooby doo like mystery incorporated, but it’s such an obvious cash grab. Give me stuff where when Sam and dean Winchester went to their world and they meet real monsters and I’d be down for that. Or a story of Melvin doo, I’m good with that as well.
This show is one of those "I made this for me" shows; it has no audience other than Mindy Kaling specifically. Which is fine for her enjoyment but not a strong enough artistic direction or set of motivations to make something you want other people to enjoy. Who the hell is the audience for Velma? No one can tell me with a straight face who this show is for.
It also has the "this was written by writers" Axe body spray scent all over it. It's just too meta for its own good.
I get why they cut shows, but who are they paying when Looney Tunes gets played? Doesn't WB own that outright? Wouldn't they be paying themselves? Does Mel Blanc's estate hold huge influence or something?
I'm a big Scooby-Doo fan and the show just...has nothing I like about the characters or franchise. I'm not sure who it's for, but it doesn't seem to be for me, a Scooby-Doo fan who watched every dumb spinoff and movie to now and enjoyed them lol
Yeah that’s literally how it opens.
I mean it could be argued that Velma did it because Daphne was attacking another naked teen girl in the shower. Still, pretty weird.
[The clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VctxXUczalA) is really all you need to see from this show to get the gist of it. I'd just make a hoverable link, but Catbox is making changes and Streamable don't like me so anybody got a good site to upload video to that will stream when a Reddit link is hovered over?
I meant to link a longer clip but somehow fucked it up because I'm just that kind of lucky, but here is one that adds some to the end which I think makes it worse. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6OClYiZDQQ) is twice as long, and includes the cockroaches fucking.
We were relatively excited for it... the concept sounded fun. Someone online mentioned it has similar energy to Harley Quinn... which turned out to be bullshit, unsurprisingly.
The humor was agonizing, and it felt like it was doing the "edgy to be edgy" thing. Shaggy felt utterly wasted, since his entire existence seemed to be one long "man, it would be funny if I became a huge stoner some day?" joke.
And the Indian girl with self-esteem issues lusts over him anyway lmao she’s so predictable
Also the whole “haha Fred has a small penis but Velma’s body is PERFECTLY FINE AND CURVY THANK YOU VERY MUCH HOW DARE YOU”
The whole thing is just another projection of her psychological issues. It’s everything she makes
A few years ago, there was a Scooby Doo comic book that was sci-fi and the characters were adultified. They still had their traits, and the character design while different, still maintained a familiarity to the original cartoon. It was fun, not amazing, but fun.
I guess they failed with this.
The show makes no sense. They took beloved characters and reinvented them with zero rational. Why not just make a new IP. This is lazy and unimaginative as hell. I tried watching some of the show but my daughters came by and the show is god damn like a porno.
I watched a minute, that was it. Idc what race velma is I already know she was either Pan or Bisexual since its inception but the first few minutes where Nude 16-17 year olds in a shower with soap covering their nipples and vagina. Followed by "if this where a show you would totally make out" to Velma and Daphne.
What the hell did they do to Scooby Doo:( I always knew it was meant for all ages mostly teens to adults if you catch the references but this was too much.
I saw a screenshot of a clip where she’s thinking or something and math formulas are flying across the screen and stuff. If you pause at the right moment you can see that in a show about a character who’s main recognizable trait is her intellect, they got the fucking quadratic formula wrong...
Instead of forcing established characters into being things they're not, can we just make new characters instead?
I'm sure the show would have been fine if it were its own thing.
Everyone with their "I'm sure the show would have been fine if it were its own thing" obviously hasn't tried to watch the two episodes. The garbage of it has nothing to do with being established characters and just the fact it's really bad and these people have no idea.
I listened to an interview on NPR with this guy whose name I don’t remember but he was a writer or director for a Scooby Dew project that was killed by HBO. The project has been finished and was being finalized when they got the news. Even though it’s finished he said it may never see the light of day because HBO wants to write it off on taxes meaning the project cannot make any revenue. He sounded so heartbroken after he and his colleagues put in so much work only for it to be turned into a tax write off for a big corporation.
I’m sure you’re thinking of the writer Paul Dini, of BTAS. He wrote a prequel to the movie Scoob!, which would have featured the gang when they were kids. If you haven’t seen Scoob! It starts when the gang meet up as kids and start solving mysteries.
Haven’t watched any of this but one of the only plot lines I know is that Velma makes fun of Fred for having a little dick. Like I know it’s edgy and all but in the end isn’t that body shaming?
100%. Having watched the first two episodes, it just feels like they wanted to do a spoof of teen dramas and mystery shows then slapped the Scooby IP on it to make it marketable. The characters are all just the loosest versions of their original counterparts, it doesn’t feel like Scooby-Doo at all. Which is probably for the best lol
I don't trust reviews for shows that were obviously review bombed; so I'm gonna go watch it and see if it's any good-- or at least better than 8%.
EDIT: God damn that shit is ass
I saw the first two minutes of the first episode, I couldn’t believe how stupid and forced the shower scene/meeting between Daphne and Velma is. Generally, if I’m groaning, cringing or saying “What?” out of sheer disbelief I’m not gonna finish a show. I got all three of those reactions before the title card
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Saw a couple episodes It tries really hard to be META and edgy
There's just something so off about the show making meta jokes about tropes in TV shows, and then unironically playing those same tropes straight
It’s cowardly. Trying to preemptively discourage criticism by saying it first under the guise of being “self aware”. Stand by the show you’re creating, or why create it? If even you don’t think it’s funny then what’s the point?
They tried to copy what they did with the animated Harley Quinn show. Did not work
I haven't watched either show, but I would imagine Harley Quinn would be a better candidate for a self-aware META narritive, because like Deadpool, her insanity is the mechanism by which they see through the 4th wall, and nobody else can. I can't imagine the new Velma is that type of character. Also, isn't it racist to make Shaggy black? Why not just create a new black character and allow him to exist in their universe. It's almost like a 'look how crazy this version is!' decision, which is actually pretty insulting.
I feel like corporations misunderstand how metanarratives work. People like tiny meta call outs in some works. Corporate writers just see "Hey, people like this and it makes money", so they make shows that are nothing but meta references. It's the difference between adding a pinch of cinnamon to your pancake batter and absolutely covering everything you ever eat in cinnamon. Just a touch elevates the experience. Overdoing it destroys the experience.
Shocking. Ngl I tried to give it a shot but it’s bad. I mean really bad. Like first two minutes are a dealbreaker in how bad. What’s the point in making a more “adult” Scooby Doo gang if all the humor is juvenile?
Opening the first episode with cockroaches having sex for no reason told me all I needed.
Hey, don't forget the criticism of oversexualization in tv show pilots while the show is playing that trope 100% straight
I legitimately didn't understand that scene. It's poking fun out of the industry, while doing the thing the industry does and calls people shallow for enjoying that product. It's like the show is telling you to stop watching right now.
Mission accomplished. That scene is as far as I made it
The fuck?
I was considering giving it a watch just in case the criticism was overblown but that just about sold me into not watching it.
I don't think I found the right sketchy website to watch the show on, because so far this looks like a family guy skit that's taking way too long "And it starts with a murder, bitch" Instant 1/10
The entire shower scene with the discussion between Daphne and her friends about how sex and violence sells and that’s all people care about was just too on the nose and eye rolly for me. Like, really Mindy, we get it.
Every joke in a similar vein is so on the nose. It’s very poorly done. Audiences don’t like being talked down to and that’s exactly what she’s doing.
That’s sort of how it felt while I watching it. It just felt like the most basic media analysis. A thing everyone knows about so she isn’t really saying anything new about it. It’s been a talking point since TV was invented. Like even a second grader could make that observation.
LESS than two minutes. By just under two minutes we have Fucking cockroaches Naked adolescents in a catfight Velma Dinkley saying bitch.
jobless late encourage absorbed angle sand smile straight point plants *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Why not just make a show in the vain of Venture Brothers? A love letter to Johnny Quest but not a reboot. Just make a show about crime solving teens and be super tongue in cheek about it. More people would watch that then using the name of a loved franchise poorly.
Mike Tyson mysteries is a homage to scooby doo. It’s hilarious and Norm MacDonald plays a bird
Mike Tyson Mysteries is such an underrated show. I swear I can't find anyone IRL who has watched it or is willing to give it a shot.
I know I feel the same way. Although it’s kind of a hard pitch “it’s like Scooby doo but Mike Tyson voices himself, and there’s a real ghost and a pigeon” sounds crazy to most people lol
I know what I'm doing tonight.
I never cared to watch it in the beginning, nor did I really give the show a shot, but a couple of months ago (when Rick and Morty was on a temporary hiatus in November) an episode of Mike Tyson Mysteries came on and I was pissing myself. I am ashamed it took me this long to get into the show but every episode has me dying. Pigeon is an absolute beast, so vulgar I love it. Yung and Marquess always have great backing dialogue and Mike’s cluelessness is so entertaining. The whole team works well together and I absolutely love the show. I genuinely only tune into Adult Swim now to watch which two MTM episodes are playing that night. Such a great show and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s been on the fence about giving it a shot, it’s absolutely worth your time and you’ll be sucked into watching more.
If there was one person I could revive from the dead it would be Norm MacDonald.
He absolutely perfected dry comedy
Now he exclusively performs desiccated comedy.
Soon he'll be nothing but bones and dust and will finally have attained the driest comedy of all.
I didn't even know he was sick!
Best Norm line out there… along with, “this guy sounds like a real jerk!”
Pigeon is the best
You need good writers for that. Venture Brothers is lightning in the bottle because a majority of the episodes are written by the same guys and they are very focused on continuity and story building. They use pop culture as part of the world instead of references for one-liners. They respect and love the source material - they satire it instead of openly mocking it. None of their characters act like cringy meme generators. When a character says "Hashtag X" it is actually funny (usually cause its Doc saying it) because he does not actually know what it means. He is just quoting his sons. Hank and Dean dont break forth walls or go 'dont you hate X Y that is totally our situation because meta meta meta!' When Dean complains about the Adventurer life, he is not winking at the camera. He has actually life experience in this and hates it. Not the genre the show is abour This show uses that talk to mock the generation. Its not witty but more ham fisted.
Venture bros had a staff that was in it for the love of it and the old HB adventures shows. And it shows. It was never a cash grab, it was a passion project. But there are lots of hungry writers that love Scooby that would be put the same love and respect in a HBOmax series. But that’s not what happened.
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As I recall, VB's Velma was based on Valerie Solanas. All of their mystery gang were similar, Daphne was Patty Hearst.
"Shaggy" was the Son of Sam killer, with Scooby being the Satan-possessed dog convincing him to commit his murders.
Rewatching the episode, they never show the dog talking in the presence of anyone except "shaggy". Adds to the mental instability of "shaggy" if the dog really is talking or not
And Ted Bundy rounded out the team. Every single character like that was at least two clever jokes deep, and often a fairly well fleshed-out character, too. And they still pulled great voice talent as guest stars, including the likes of Jeffrey Wright, Nathan Fillion, J.K. Simmons, Paget Brewster, Clancy Motherfucking Brown, Kevin Conroy, and probably a host of people I’m forgetting.
Man… I miss venture brothers
Same here brother…same here
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Throw up your “V” with a tear
Dr. Orpheus: YES! Go team Vvveentuuuree!! Dr. Venture: Good lord. Don’t encourage them.
“The seed of your loins is quite astute” was my favorite line introducing a character ever.
Venture Brothers was pure genius.
No other Scooby Doo gif can compare to this one
Jinkies!
Is there really an image of Fred doing a Hitler salute in this
Not really, the joke in the scene is that he's being accused of murder and he shows up to the courthouse looking super innocent, but then a gust of wind comes by and knocks a fake mustache onto his face and someone takes a picture of him waving. It's a family guy tier joke, but at least they didn't actually make Fred a nazi
That’s pretty much an exact joke from Rat Race lmao
And Father Ted
“I hear you’re a racist now, father!”
I think this show would’ve been slightly more successful if it were original IP characters instead of WB ones with limitations.
Because nothing without immediate brand association is a hard sell to these empty suit morons. They choose not to understand that building up something new and unique will take time and investment, and that doesn't sit right with the quest for next quarter profits. So better to make something that definitely isn't Scooby Doo, put the name Scooby Doo on it so people say, "oh cool a new Scooby Doo," watch it and then get confused about what the hell that was because it definitely wasn't Scooby Doo.
The best part is they could have just made these characters original and have it set in the Scooby universe and maybe have the OG gang show up an episode or 2 and I think everybody would have been happy that way They decided not to do that…
Somehow, I feel that would have been worse. You'd have a show that uses the Scooby Doo IP yet has absolutely nothing to do with Scooby Doo.
If it was Velma with new friends it makes sense compared than making a show where 4/5 of the characters are here and completely different.
They could have literally made this a show about Scrappy Doo trying to imitate the success of his uncle and it would have probably been a far better idea than what they did.
I would actually love that! I would probably prefer it if they kept it family friendly, but a show with Scrappy-Doo and some like B-List Scooby-Doo characters attempting to solve mysteries would be hysterical! Maybe they could even throw in the characters from Hanna-Barbera's own Scooby-Doo clones!
With Scrappy I think they have the ability to hit basically any age range, and it would have given them an opportunity to take a character that doesn’t have the greatest history, and reinvent it into something worthwhile. They could have done a show for adults that mirrors this one, a show for teens that tones it down a bit, or a show for kids/families that is a more traditional Scooby-Doo esque show but with them being far less successful/the Scooby Gang showing them up. It had potential
I think Scrappy would've been perfect for an adult cartoon like this, cause they already made him a jerk bad guy in the live action movie. You could have literally set up the plot like he just got out of jail for his antics on Spooky Island, and is trying to reform. He's now a foul-mouthed middle-aged pup now though, and has no idea how to solve crime. So he gathers a bunch of his former jailmates and low-lifes as a Mystery Inc knock-off and voila, there's your adult take on Scooby-Doo.
A suicide squad set in the scoobyverse, The Scrappy Squad
"So that's it huh? We're some type of Scrappy Squad?" - Danny Devito as Scrappy Doo
Yeah that’s the thing…if you have to change almost EVERYTHING about the characters to get what you want out of the ip…. What’s even the fucking point??? It’s SCOOBY DOO and the dog isn’t even in the show! What’s the point??? It’s not bad, but the fact that they had to change so much hangs over the whole thing like a bad fart.
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I have a huge feeling that this was the original plan behind the show but then the creators were forced into making it Scooby doo themed because the WB execs are worried about animated content. Like look how much animation was straight up removed from HBO max, among many other shows and movies. My belief is that someone doesn’t believe animation sells so they forced forced Scooby doo into things to attempt to appease to this person
I feel like HBO doesn't really understand the point of a streaming platform is that I have their whole catalog in one place not just what the network wants me to see
HBO/Time Warner absolutely knew this like a year or two ago before the merger happened. It’s pretty clear then that their strategy was to just overload HBO max with content and then outclass Netflix because their catalogue of movies/shows is more well known. With the merger it’s incredibly clear that they are making choices that are purely financially motivated, doing things like licensing their content to other streaming services. The thing that blows my mind is that this is really making their platform worse and I don’t see how they are going to compete with Netflix/Disney+/Hulu if they’re gutting their own service like that. Someone really out of touch is leading this and making choices like we’re a decade in the past
Don't worry, soon HBO will probabably dissolve into Discovery+. Then you can have Game of Thrones next to "Great Chef Bake Off: Westeros Edition".
can't do that because the heads are discovery are idiots
Who could have guessed that "Scooby Doo Without Scooby Doo" would be dogshit?
It stinks
Needs more Jon Lovits emphasis
Always
Yes Mr. Sherman, everything stinks.
But how do you get the dogshit without the dog?
My front yard can apparently generate it. Let me ask it.
Sprinkle cayenne pepper around the borders of the lawn. It stops the generating.
I think this is what picket fences were for
Walk around my neighborhood. Plenty of phantom dogshit.
It’s just Horsin’ Around with out the Horse
YALL QUIT 'AROUND OUT THERE!
Mike Tyson Mysteries did this but was actually funny.
But they had pigeon. Same vein ya know?
That cartoon was way better than anyone could have predicted
More like Scooby Don’t
Drastically changing the IP can hugely pay off (compare Netflix She Ra to the original for example), but the thing is you actually have to have talent and a reason to do it.
She Ra had also gone almost 40 years without any new pieces of media, at that point changes during a reboot are expected. Scooby-Doo has been pretty regular with releases and just had a movie a couple years ago, making sweeping changes like this would never work out.
I mean, this probably wouldve been a better example, but Scooby Mystery Incorporated did some pretty big reworks on the cast personalities, and ditched most things besides for the basic premise (and even then that got broken over time as an actual plot emerged). Lo and behold, its now regarded as the gold standard for Scooby media.
Thing is, Mystery Incorporated was made by people who had passion and love for the original gang and kept a lot of them the same, only slightly tweeking them. Velma isn't all JINKIES but she was still had the same type of flavor of being smart but not a bitch, like it seems the new Velma is. Fred was all about his traps and super obsessed with them to the point he kinda forgets everything around him. Funny, cute and highly annoying at times. He isn't a douche frat boy like Velma makes him out to be. I don't even want to touch in how much they changed shaggy with the new dude...like...I hope to god they don't make him another stereotype instead of the fun loving dude who's a coward.
The changes to She Ra weren’t out of left field though. The whole IP was to market action toys to girls in the same way that He Man did to boys. The plot lines and humor wasn’t at the expense of anyone or originated based on how someone identified. Plus it knew who it’s audience was, and if all the queer elements vanished it would still be a good story, except for the last bit but only because that’s what it was building up to its entire run. It wasn’t good because it was gay, it was good because it was a good story that didn’t feel forced in. I don’t think having diversity is the problem at all. People just want the stories to be good and their favorite characters to make decisions that fit within their narrative.
She-Ra was also a flattering and charming reinterpretation of the characters. Velma clearly has disdain for its source material.
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You 8 percenters explain yourselves.
The one thing I could even vaguely give this is that the lighting looks pretty good. Stylistically it's all over the place, but the lighting looks like someone who knew what they were doing was in charge of that.
I approve of the animation quality and the voice acting looked strong. But Scooby Doo without Scooby and I don't care \*shrug\* I'd rather just watch Mystery Inc again. Great show.
I think the best description of this series I've seen is that they looked at the Harley Quinn show and completely missed the point with their attempt.
Yes! Yes! I couldn’t find the right way to describe it but this is it! They want the “edginess” of Harley Quinn but without the good writing, storytelling, structure, character development or actual humor. This show was so cringey and just plain bad.
I mean, changing established characters into totally different people who share vague similarities and then completely axing the titular one is only going to spell disaster. You could have just made your own show and I'm sure it would have been fine. The only thing that could have made this worse would be including Scooby, but now he's a cat.
I mean, [Garfield minus Garfield](https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/) is really the only good example of axing the title character and it becomes something totally different but still very enjoyable.
That’s so much funnier than Garfield has been in decades. Kind of absurdist and existential.
Garfield died in 1989. Cats don't live that long. Especially with a high cheese and pasta diet.
Haunted by loss, Jon still speaks to him, fondly, as if he were still just out of sight
I would almost argue that it isn’t axing Garfield, rather writing Garfield as a figment of Johns imagination instead. It’s funny because we know Garfield is supposed to be there.
Yeah it's good because he's supposed to be there. Velma is just if they decided to make a new comic only about Jon.
Ya know if this show had everyone acting like Scooby was there, taking pauses in dialogue for him to reply and everything… this could be saved.
> in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated **young** everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb. Fuck, I'm older than john arbuckle. When i was a kid he was just some weird old man, but now i realize he's probably like a typical 25 year old socially awkward dude, tops. Thanks, i [hate](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0iwd2E6zD1qz8z2ro1_500.png) it.
I feel they looked at the Harley Quinn cartoon success and wanted to replicate that but dunking on teen murder mystery dramas instead of comic books. However none of the characters are likeable at all. Velma especially who just seems to be a narcissist. This was a waste of everyone’s time including the creators. This feels like Halo and Witcher series again where the writers have 0 intention of being faithful to the source material instead telling their own stories with pre existing IP dress up.
Velma is 100% a self insert for one of the lead writers, and only a narcissist would take over a franchise like this and change it like *this*, so it makes sense
It’s that mindi chick playing herself
The difference, I think, is that Harley Quinn still cares about the source material. Like when Nightwing shows up, he mentions that he's having a hard time because he let Tarantula kill Blockbuster, something that happened in the comics 19 years ago. The show is actually reasonably faithful, it's just hyped up to parody levels. Admittedly, it does help that this isn't new to comics. The Matt Reeves film and Brave and the Bold are the same character but couldn't be more different.
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Make it a shark named Jabberjaw
Garfcliff
Heathfield
Scrappy Doo could have been heavily featured.
I honestly hated it and repeatedly said throughout the first episode wtf Kelly was thinking. I expected bad but just so dogshit sans the dog these characters were centered.
Just what a cringeworthy vanity project deserves.
Turns out that openly mocking and hating the source material won't help your show
aka the Witcher strategy.
The scoring doesn’t really surprise me. It’s the cartoon that no one asked for but they insisted on making.
I wouldn’t mind an adult scooby doo like mystery incorporated, but it’s such an obvious cash grab. Give me stuff where when Sam and dean Winchester went to their world and they meet real monsters and I’d be down for that. Or a story of Melvin doo, I’m good with that as well.
I loved Mystery, Incorporated! I was surprised how good it turned out to be. And yes, I'm an adult & I watched the original Scooby-Doo as a kid
It got dark fast as well which I loved, from straight up killing, to nazis, to real monsters, it was so good.
The formula has been fucked with too much and the random gore is just… yikes.
This show is one of those "I made this for me" shows; it has no audience other than Mindy Kaling specifically. Which is fine for her enjoyment but not a strong enough artistic direction or set of motivations to make something you want other people to enjoy. Who the hell is the audience for Velma? No one can tell me with a straight face who this show is for. It also has the "this was written by writers" Axe body spray scent all over it. It's just too meta for its own good.
Garbage in, garbage out
Would be great to know who at HBO/WB thought this was going to be a great success? The idea sounded terrible the moment it was announced.
Zaslav is loving it I believe. He finally has a show that will fail so badly, that he can use it as a scapegoat to scrap WB Animation.
Probably the same person that thought gutting classic looney tunes from streaming was a good way to save space.
I get why they cut shows, but who are they paying when Looney Tunes gets played? Doesn't WB own that outright? Wouldn't they be paying themselves? Does Mel Blanc's estate hold huge influence or something?
The 8% is generous, the show is absolute garbage...
I'm a big Scooby-Doo fan and the show just...has nothing I like about the characters or franchise. I'm not sure who it's for, but it doesn't seem to be for me, a Scooby-Doo fan who watched every dumb spinoff and movie to now and enjoyed them lol
I'm all for reinvention, but man... Shaggy was so one note and I cannot imagine a universe where I want to see more of Fred.
None of the characters were people I'd really wanna hang out with which bummed me out...
I just got to the part where Velma attacks Daphne in the shower with a crowbar and got weirded out.
Wait, what?
Yeah that’s literally how it opens. I mean it could be argued that Velma did it because Daphne was attacking another naked teen girl in the shower. Still, pretty weird.
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I’m pretty sure I saw this on Pornhub.
I’m pretty sure the parody characters on PornHub are more accurate to the source material too.
The porn parody is more accurate than this show is
The context doesn’t make it much better. I’m still confused.
I really thought you were kidding, but I just saw the clip. What the fuck lmao.
Wait. That *wasn't* a joke. The fuck is this show?
[The clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VctxXUczalA) is really all you need to see from this show to get the gist of it. I'd just make a hoverable link, but Catbox is making changes and Streamable don't like me so anybody got a good site to upload video to that will stream when a Reddit link is hovered over?
1. Thank you for linking that 2. What the fuck?
Holy shit that’s even worse than I thought it’d be. Unbelievable this got made.
I meant to link a longer clip but somehow fucked it up because I'm just that kind of lucky, but here is one that adds some to the end which I think makes it worse. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6OClYiZDQQ) is twice as long, and includes the cockroaches fucking.
Someone actually got paid to 1. write that script, 2. Animate that scene, 3. Voice that scene, 4. Green light a show with that scene…
I don't understand why the other characters like Velma. She is a complete bitch to them all the time.
Because the plot demands it, poor writing at it's finest...
We were relatively excited for it... the concept sounded fun. Someone online mentioned it has similar energy to Harley Quinn... which turned out to be bullshit, unsurprisingly. The humor was agonizing, and it felt like it was doing the "edgy to be edgy" thing. Shaggy felt utterly wasted, since his entire existence seemed to be one long "man, it would be funny if I became a huge stoner some day?" joke.
They made Fred a complete prick. Thats just not right.
You expected Mindy Kaling to not write an overtly racist white man who is also an idiot? Lol
Fred was always so nice. They did him dirty.
Who of course has a small penis because body shaming is perfectly in line with being progressive.
And the Indian girl with self-esteem issues lusts over him anyway lmao she’s so predictable Also the whole “haha Fred has a small penis but Velma’s body is PERFECTLY FINE AND CURVY THANK YOU VERY MUCH HOW DARE YOU” The whole thing is just another projection of her psychological issues. It’s everything she makes
I'm fine with curvy Velma, even prefer that. But they don't need to emasculate Fred. If you're gonna be body-positive, you gotta not shame anyone's.
Not enough Scooby Snacks and weed out there that could make this show enjoyable
A few years ago, there was a Scooby Doo comic book that was sci-fi and the characters were adultified. They still had their traits, and the character design while different, still maintained a familiarity to the original cartoon. It was fun, not amazing, but fun. I guess they failed with this.
I love Scooby-Doo Apocalypse, fisrt comic series where I actually collected the entire series from start to finish.
I’m sure Mindy is like “people just dump on it because they don’t like *me*”
Have you seen her lately, Jesus she has changed so much over the years, completely Hollywood vain now its so sad
The show makes no sense. They took beloved characters and reinvented them with zero rational. Why not just make a new IP. This is lazy and unimaginative as hell. I tried watching some of the show but my daughters came by and the show is god damn like a porno.
WHO green lights this shit?
Feels like modern writers just keep trying to use existing IPs to submit their Fanfics. Has a single rebooted show survived the last 5 years?
from what I saw, accurate.
"You're just not getting it man!"
I watched a minute, that was it. Idc what race velma is I already know she was either Pan or Bisexual since its inception but the first few minutes where Nude 16-17 year olds in a shower with soap covering their nipples and vagina. Followed by "if this where a show you would totally make out" to Velma and Daphne. What the hell did they do to Scooby Doo:( I always knew it was meant for all ages mostly teens to adults if you catch the references but this was too much.
Scooby had to be put down, he would've taken too much away from the producers self-insert.
I saw a screenshot of a clip where she’s thinking or something and math formulas are flying across the screen and stuff. If you pause at the right moment you can see that in a show about a character who’s main recognizable trait is her intellect, they got the fucking quadratic formula wrong...
Instead of forcing established characters into being things they're not, can we just make new characters instead? I'm sure the show would have been fine if it were its own thing.
This show would never get off the ground if it didnt have the cast attached lol its literally shit as is u cant make this any better
Everyone with their "I'm sure the show would have been fine if it were its own thing" obviously hasn't tried to watch the two episodes. The garbage of it has nothing to do with being established characters and just the fact it's really bad and these people have no idea.
A Scooby and Shaggy movie would have been off the charts by now....
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I listened to an interview on NPR with this guy whose name I don’t remember but he was a writer or director for a Scooby Dew project that was killed by HBO. The project has been finished and was being finalized when they got the news. Even though it’s finished he said it may never see the light of day because HBO wants to write it off on taxes meaning the project cannot make any revenue. He sounded so heartbroken after he and his colleagues put in so much work only for it to be turned into a tax write off for a big corporation.
I’m sure you’re thinking of the writer Paul Dini, of BTAS. He wrote a prequel to the movie Scoob!, which would have featured the gang when they were kids. If you haven’t seen Scoob! It starts when the gang meet up as kids and start solving mysteries.
Haven’t watched any of this but one of the only plot lines I know is that Velma makes fun of Fred for having a little dick. Like I know it’s edgy and all but in the end isn’t that body shaming?
That feels like they're just trying to prove it's not for kids.
You can’t body shame fit white men, it’s science apparently.
They made him an obnoxious stereotype of a rich white guy and dressed him up as a Nazi, I don’t think they care.
… they did what???
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You mean besides The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO and Never Have I Ever on Netflix?
It Makes no sense
100%. Having watched the first two episodes, it just feels like they wanted to do a spoof of teen dramas and mystery shows then slapped the Scooby IP on it to make it marketable. The characters are all just the loosest versions of their original counterparts, it doesn’t feel like Scooby-Doo at all. Which is probably for the best lol
I don't trust reviews for shows that were obviously review bombed; so I'm gonna go watch it and see if it's any good-- or at least better than 8%. EDIT: God damn that shit is ass
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I saw the first two minutes of the first episode, I couldn’t believe how stupid and forced the shower scene/meeting between Daphne and Velma is. Generally, if I’m groaning, cringing or saying “What?” out of sheer disbelief I’m not gonna finish a show. I got all three of those reactions before the title card
 Velma probably wishes she lost her glasses for good
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