{"id":539086,"date":"2023-01-11T23:37:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T20:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/watch-velma-review-mindy-kalings-queer-scooby-doo-reboot-doesnt-work\/"},"modified":"2023-01-11T23:37:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T20:37:23","slug":"watch-velma-review-mindy-kalings-queer-scooby-doo-reboot-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watch-velma-review-mindy-kalings-queer-scooby-doo-reboot-doesnt-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch &#8216;Velma&#8217; Review: Mindy Kaling&#8217;s Queer &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; Reboot Doesn&#8217;t Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a38740921612\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a38740921612\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watch-velma-review-mindy-kalings-queer-scooby-doo-reboot-doesnt-work\/#%E2%80%9CWatch_Online_%E2%80%98Velma_Review_Mindy_Kalings_Queer_%E2%80%98Scooby-Doo_Reboot_Doesnt_Work%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Watch Online &#8216;Velma&#8217; Review: Mindy Kaling&#8217;s Queer &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; Reboot Doesn&#8217;t Work&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watch-velma-review-mindy-kalings-queer-scooby-doo-reboot-doesnt-work\/#%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Velma_Review_Mindy_Kalings_Queer_%E2%80%98Scooby-Doo_Reboot_Doesnt_Work%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;&#8216;Velma&#8217; Review: Mindy Kaling&#8217;s Queer &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; Reboot Doesn&#8217;t Work&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWatch_Online_%E2%80%98Velma_Review_Mindy_Kalings_Queer_%E2%80%98Scooby-Doo_Reboot_Doesnt_Work%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Watch Online &#8216;Velma&#8217; Review: Mindy Kaling&#8217;s Queer &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; Reboot Doesn&#8217;t Work&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Velma_Review_Mindy_Kalings_Queer_%E2%80%98Scooby-Doo_Reboot_Doesnt_Work%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;&#8216;Velma&#8217; Review: Mindy Kaling&#8217;s Queer &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; Reboot Doesn&#8217;t Work&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    If the rule for covers of widely cherished songs \u2014 make it your own, or leave it alone \u2014\u00a0 holds for adaptations of beloved television shows, then in one respect, HBO Max\u2019s \u201cVelma\u201d is a towering success. To be fair, this thoroughly modern reimagining of \u201cScooby-Doo\u201d maintains the load-bearing beams of the over 50-year-old cartoon\u2019s lore. It\u2019s still set in Crystal Cove, a coastal enclave known for its gem deposits, teenage busybodies and, depending on whom you ask, an overpopulation of either ghosts or fallen magnates with a passion for cosplay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    Beyond that, \u201cVelma\u201d is irreverent to a fault. Starring Mindy Kaling, and developed by her longtime collaborator Charlie Grandy, \u201cVelma\u201d treats most of the \u201cScooby\u201d canon as suggestions whispered too low to be heard. The most obvious detour is the absence of the iconic talking dog, as \u201cVelma\u201d is a prequel set well before the events of the seminal \u201cScooby-Doo, Where Are You!\u201d As the title suggests, it\u2019s an origin story for Velma Dinkley (Kaling), who will go on to become the bookish, dowdy and aggressively queer-coded member of Scooby\u2019s ghost-hunting coterie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    In Grandy\u2019s treatment, Velma lives with her attorney father Aman (Russell Peters) and his persnickety girlfriend Sophie (Melissa Fumero). She\u2019s already navigating a complicated love rhombus with future colleagues Fred (Glen Howerton), Daphne (Constance Wu), and a not-yet-shaggy Norville Rogers (Sam Richardson). But Velma\u2019s most complicated relationship is with her mother Diya (Sarayu Blue), who dis<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>eared suspiciously. Velma now only sees her in immobilizing hallucinations in which a vengeful ghost blames Velma \u2013 and her passion for solving mysteries \u2013 for Diya\u2019s disappearance. But a mystery solver is exactly what Crystal Cove needs, what with a serial killer stealing the brains of the high school\u2019s \u201chottest girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    Much will be made of the demographic swaps, as \u201cVelma\u201d is indeed a \u201cScooby-Doo\u201d that looks like America. Velma is Indian American, Norville is Black, and Daphne appears to be of Asian descent, though she\u2019s the adopted daughter of married lesbian detectives Donna and Linda (Jane Lynch and Wanda Sykes). Only Fred retains his identity as the boy next door in the all-white neighborhood, and much is made of his privilege throughout the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a>. Much like Disney+\u2019s \u201cShe-Hulk: Attorney at Law,\u201d \u201cVelma\u201d seems specifically designed to be labeled a childhood-ruining travesty by the Extremely Online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    But the racial overhaul of the characters is not the most striking thing about \u201cVelma.\u201d Kaling has spoken in interviews about how the race of the characters isn\u2019t essential to them in any other \u201cScooby\u201d riff, so why not? And she\u2019s absolutely right, but \u201cVelma\u201d consists of too much \u201cWhy not?\u201d and too little \u201cWhy?\u201d Take for example the other big swing in the show, the centering of Velma\u2019s queer identity. From its opening seconds, \u201cVelma\u201d presumes the audience is dying to know about Velma\u2019s sexuality. Granted, Velma\u2019s still-forming adolescent queer identity is an important story, treated here with thoughtfulness and sweetness rarely seen on television, joining \u201cHeartstopper\u201d in what would ideally become a trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    The problem, however, is that this isn\u2019t the first queer Velma in the Scooby Cinematic Universe. Velma was bisexual in \u201cScooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated,\u201d which was also modeled on a dark, sexy teen drama and foregrounded the gang\u2019s romantic entanglements. That show sadly lasted only two seasons, so many viewers will be seeing these characters in such a hormonal and violent environment for the first time. But it\u2019s been done before, and much better, using unique takes on the gang that maintained their essence, so \u201cVelma\u201d is never as groundbreaking as it seems to think it is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    More than that, these characters are just really unpleasant to spend time with, and it starts at the top with Velma, whose selfish and misanthropic tendencies aren\u2019t diluted by her moments of vulnerability. Daphne isn\u2019t much better, and she gets one of the show\u2019s many absurdly convoluted backstories that suffer from being neither brisk nor interesting. Fred, meanwhile, is a mega-wealthy dunce who comes across as too helpless and hapless to grow into the ghostbusting leading man he\u2019s supposed to become. (This Fred could get lost inside a hula hoop, so engineering elaborate tiger traps is pretty much out of the question.) Norville is a joy, but a teetotaller deeply opposed to recreational drugs, confirming that Scooby was probably his pot dealer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    Norville as a drug-free square is what passes for meta-humor in \u201cVelma,\u201d which goes out of its way to deconstruct or lampoon every aspect of the source material. Velma\u2019s famous catchphrase \u2014 \u201cJinkies!\u201d \u2014 is contextualized as part of one of the overworked plot lines, and another character accuses her of trying to coin a catchphrase. As a joke, it kind of works. As a reference to \u201cScooby-Doo,\u201d it adds nothing. That applies to all the dialogue, which doesn\u2019t change at all from character to character, each of them firing off pop culture references like a tommy gun. Far too many of the referential jokes are about romantic comedy tropes and could be plucked as-is out of \u201cVelma\u201d and dropped into \u201cThe Mindy Project,\u201d another Kaling-Grandy collaboration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    Many of those jokes are genuinely funny, which is unsurprising coming from seasoned comedy writers. But the jokes could belong to just about any contemporary sitcom, so what exactly makes \u201cScooby-Doo\u201d the ideal canvas for this vision as opposed to any other property? That never becomes clear in the eight episodes of \u201cVelma\u201d screened for critics, which are absent even a wisp of genuine reverence for the source material. It\u2019s the halfway point between \u201cDaria\u201d and one of the many post-\u201dScream\u201d meta-horror movies that misunderstood what people liked about \u201cScream\u201d and that could be a great show if beloved characters weren\u2019t shoehorned into it. The biggest mystery of \u201cVelma\u201d is why it needs to exist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n    <em>\u201cVelma\u201d premieres on HBO Max with two episodes on Jan. 12, with two new episodes dropping each week after that.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0004\">\n  !function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n    if (f.fbq) return;\n    n = f.fbq = function() {\n      n.callMethod ?\n          n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments);\n    };\n    if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n    n.push = n;\n    n.loaded = !0;\n    n.version = '2.0';\n    n.queue = [];\n    t = b.createElement(e);\n    t.async = !0;\n    t.src = v;\n    s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s);\n  }(window, document, 'script',\n      'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '586935388485447');\n  fbq('init', '315552255725686');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/watch-movies-tv-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Watch Movies &#038; TV Series <\/a><\/span>category<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2023\/tv\/reviews\/velma-review-hbo-max-queer-scooby-doo-mindy-kaling-1235486171\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Watch Online &#8216;Velma&#8217; Review: Mindy Kaling&#8217;s Queer &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; Reboot Doesn&#8217;t Work&#8221; &#8220;&#8216;Velma&#8217; Review: Mindy Kaling&#8217;s Queer &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; Reboot Doesn&#8217;t Work&#8221; If the rule for covers of widely cherished songs \u2014 make it your own, or leave it alone \u2014\u00a0 holds for adaptations of beloved television shows, then in one respect, HBO Max\u2019s \u201cVelma\u201d is a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":539087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/velma_10.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-watch-movies-tv-seriess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}