Velma Finale & Parting Thoughts

Not enough jinkies, no Scooby, plenty of dysfunctional interpersonal dynamics, and a South Asian heroine with a diverse cast form this modern adaptation of a beloved character, long undervalued.

This letter is a 2 part conversation between Beth’s Exceptional Video Playlist and Feature Presentation. First letter is posted here by me with a response letter posted by Patrick on Feature Presentation.

Dear Patrick,

The Super Bowl is over. None of our teams even made it. Tom Brady has retired for a second time and with no hope of ever returning to the Pats. And let’s face, the Ravens are gonna lose their QB.

I’ve been wanting to unpack this show with you ever since I roped you into doing this post with me. Thanks for that, by the way. It’s so much more fun to have a buddy to pretend to talk to as if they are in the room with me watching it and hear from on these topics. It’s like if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, did it actually happen? Well, same goes for the world of watching TV and analyzing it. If there’s not another person to bear witness to our thoughts, are they actually even real? Did they happen?

Ok, I’ll get back to the point of this post and why we’re here.

I was stoked to watch the Velma remake when I found about it. It’s why I committed to reviewing all 10 episodes as weekly recaps - here, here, here, and here and posted about it on Instagram like crazy - basically had a Velma takeover event on my BEVP. I had that much faith in it, for a few reasons too.

1. Mindy Kaling - The genius comedian and the “thinking women’s” pop culture pitch perfect storyteller behind The Office, Never Have I Ever, The Mindy Project, and The Sex Lives of College Girls, to name a few. Her love for Matt [Damon] & Ben [Affleck], to name other reasons. As the creator and voice of Velma, the character, it’s sometimes hard to see where she starts and ends in her portrayal of Velma. But, again, I love Mindy so I’m here for it.

   

   Source: Entertainment Weekly / Mindy Kaling and her Velma

2. Rock Solid Foundation - As a child, I inhaled the 70s OG Scooby - it was kids working as a team who went around solving mysteries and didn’t have to deal with grownups telling them what to do. And I got to relive my fandom with my kids in the 2010s adaptation, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated which also rocked, especially with the character of Mr. Avocados whose name was pronounced with a Greek pronunciation. Genius! I should note that my fondness for animated Scooby does not extend to live action (Buffy the Vampire (Daphne) and Linda Cardellini (Velma) be damned) or the PPV or straight-to-video nonsense.

   

   Source: Scoobydoo.fandom.com / George Avocados in the animated flesh

3. A Feminist Icon - Velma embodied “the other” that so many of us non-Daphne conforming folks felt connected to in a character. Chances are that not too many Daphnes watch Scooby. There is no doubt that even with some of the problematic dialogue and scattered storytelling, that this Velma is also a relatable and flawed human who viewers can dig, while also wanting at the same time to cancel her. The only times I found myself not wanting to entirely cancel her were when she joked about how hairy she was, which she did often. Hallelujah for that.

4. But, wait no Scooby? That’s right. The iconic Scooby whose hijinks round out the human pesky kids wasn’t given enough Scooby snacks / G’s to make it worthwhile but OK, I was willing to look over this and not deem it a fatal flaw.

Was my faith in this show then warranted and balanced by all these points I’ve made here? Potentially. I always try and be objective and know the good and bad before entering into a relationship with a TV show or otherwise, but especially with a show that will require 240 minutes of viewing time and another 15 hours (300 minutes) in writing about it, and that’s being conservative.

Here’s the deal. I’m disappointed. I wish the first 6 episodes had been better - instead of trying to figure out what mystery was being solved (vacillated between disappearing parents and the Hotties Serial Killer- HSK), if I even cared, and the nagging whiplash of the social milieu of the Crystal Cove high school Mystery Machine gang - will they or won’t they with Daphne and Velma, Fred being so much of a caricature stereotype of white male privilege, and Norville, the only redeemable person in the bunch, never standing up for himself with Velma who treats him terribly. And not to mention the woke subjects which I couldn’t tell if they were poking fun at or wholly in favor of and also did I even care?

I like that this show was doing something different than the original with having its characters reflect more diverse backgrounds. Velma is South Asian and there are funny jokes that lay out just how messed up people’s ignorance and malformed conceptions are of South Asian culture, Norville is bi-racial in this version and by the end of the show, likely on a path to present day “Shaggy”-dom based on the fact the he commits murder (accidentally) and his dad introduces him to MJ, and Daphne, who is asian with natural red hair (they explain this too), is adopted by two married female detectives, after being abandoned by her criminal parents. There’s a lot of non-conforming going on. That’s cool. But also just a lot of complicated lives to sort through and that’s not even going deep on Velma’s mom’s disappearance and her dad moving on with a waitress 6 weeks later and having a baby with her.

Did I dig the finale? I sort of did. I suspected that one of Fred’s parents was the HSK and not Diya per the cliffhanger of episode 9 because why would it be Velma’s mom? The fact that it was Fred’s mom, a business maven, who was removing brains from hot girls in a desire to improve Fred’s intelligence (by ultimately implanting the brain inside Fred, replacing his own) - all in a bid to have Fred be a worthy scion to the Jones’ family business is kinda amazing and ridiculous at the same time. Was this villian/heel choice a weird afterthought and way to wrap up a windy story that was in need of a closing? Maybe.

It doesn’t really matter.

The ending gets “Vermin” Dinkley (a joke based on no one ever knowing who Velma is) some hard-earned recognition for her contributions in solving the case as the town has an event for her and the rest of the Scooby squad, who are no longer talking to each other. All are squabbling over the events that resulted in Fred’s mom’s untimely demise but Vermin Velma is feeling vindicated and to hell with all these kids. After all, she got her win and Fred’s van has been rebranded from a “pedo-tinged” mobile to the Mystery Machine-ish caravan it becomes post origin story.

I think I’m all talked out on this show so I’m going to official sign off on Season 1 (and done?).

Yours truly,

Beth (Creator, BEVP, Velma fan (theoretically) and bad ass feminist)