When HBO Max announced that the beloved Scooby-Doo character Velma would be getting her own animated TV series, fans were thrilled. Sadly, that excitement faded to disappointment and eventually escalated to outright hatred after watching an actual episode. “Velma” is so bad, in fact, that it’s the worst-rated animated show in IMDb history and the third worst TV series ever on the site. That’s pretty bad.
It’s not just one type of viewer that hate “Velma,” either. Pretty much everyone universally agrees that the show is very, very bad. Why? Well, it’s hard to say. First of all, considering it’s a “Scooby-Doo” reboot, there’s literally zero sign of the eponymous dog at all. But that’s only the beginning.
Why “Velma” is the worst animated TV series in history
The fact that Velma goes from weird transphobic jokes in the same episode mocking how comedy shifted after “MeToo” to “woah guys! Diversity win!!” Has officially made this the first ever show without a demographic to appeal to. pic.twitter.com/XjAhYGPuoR
— Somari! 💙 (@somari8591) January 13, 2023
The Mystery Gang is now a very diverse group of people from different ethnic backgrounds and sexualities. Representation matters so this should be a good thing, but for some reason, in “Velma,” it seems preachy and like the embodiment of tokenism. Add in the fact that the writing is so terrible — super meta with hyper-woke and very niche progressive jokes that elicit cringes rather than laughs. At one point, Fred is mocked for being a white man with a small package and makes “edgelord” jokes about how the #MeToo movement has killed comedy.
It’s no wonder, then, that “Velma” is considered the worst animated series ever. It currently has a 1.3 out of 10 rating on IMDb. Audiences on Rotten Tomatoes aren’t any kinder, giving it a 6% average rating. Regardless of what political party your beliefs align with or where you come from, it seems there’s literally no one that thinks this show is any good.
While it’s unlikely “Velma” will be renewed for another season given the widespread hatred for the show, it does bring up an interesting question. With reboots becoming more and more popular, is there a limit for how far we should stray from the source material? It seems like the answer is yes.
It’s going to be a very long time until America can compete with Anime when this is the current standard. pic.twitter.com/EebWijEu2B
— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) January 13, 2023
Yes, they are better.#Velma #velmadinkley #ScoobyDoo pic.twitter.com/pMJ6edvHas
— Arkham_90 (@megamonkey24) January 17, 2023
Featured image credit: HBO Max
