Creator and actress Mindy Kaling has made history for her woke Scooby-Doo spin-off “Velma” — but certainly not in the way she expected.
The HBO Max show, as highlighted by The Daily Wire, has absolutely bombed on the review-aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. And now it’s landed the number three spot on IMDb’s list of worst-rated shows of all time.
While only four episodes of “Velma” have aired so far, the show has already racked up more than 41,000 1-star reviews. On the flip side, it’s earned a mere 1,688 10-star reviews as of Tuesday morning.
Kaling’s “Velma” is only behind “The Pogmentary” and “Iste Bu Benim Masalim” on the worst-rated IMDb list, while “A Little Late with Lilly Singh” and “Santa Inc.” are behind “Velma” to round out the top five.
The show’s negative reviews are all over the place, though they all agree it completely misses the mark. Some slam Kaling for going full-woke and constantly focusing on race, sexuality, and gender, while others are incensed about how far-removed the show is from the classic “Scooby-Doo.”
And it’s even worse for Kaling, who strived for woke applause. Some reviews on the IMDb page actually slam the creator of the show for its apparent racism and sexism.
“The jokes aren’t funny. It’s not cool. It’s not hip. It’s the opposite. It’s majorly offensive. Offensive for two reasons,” one review reads. “One for how terrible it is and it is really bottom of the barrel terrible, and two for its obvious sexism and racism. What an absolute insult, really, to anyone with half a shred of respectability. I’m just staggered that this even exists.”
Another high-ranking review on the IMDb page highlights the bizarre sexual aspects of the show.
“This was atrocious. I watched the entire first episode and did not laugh once. Not even a chuckle. The jokes were so juvenile, so heavy handed and the premise so far removed from the original IP, it was embarrassing,” the review slams, adding, “Why is this series about sex and what does any of the random sexual situations have to do with Scooby Doo? I also don’t know, nor care. Speaking of which, where is Scooby and Shaggy? … Personally, I feel like HBO and Mindy Kaling owe everyone an apology for this abomination of a series.”
Notably, before the show even aired, Kaling made it a point to emphasize that the main animated character, Velma, would be South Asian.
“Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian,” Kaling said last year to a crowd of fans. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”
