It hasn't been a stellar debut for Velma on HBO Max. Though the series has premiered as the most-watched original animated show from HBO Max, it seems that most of the people tuning in aren't walking away satisfied with Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy's reimagining of Velma Dinkley and pals. After debuting with a low 11% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the series has seen that number fall even further, dropping to the single digits with its current 7% rotten rating. It's worth noting that the show is faring better with critics, though it's still mixed at 55% rotten on the Tomatometer.
Velma is also taking a beating at IMDb. It's currently sitting with a score of 1.7/10 based on 11,000 ratings. This score is exceptionally low, as there really aren't many shows that manage to fall under the 2.0 mark. Velma is currently in the company of other heavily criticized TV shows like Nickelodeon's Fred the Show, Cartoon Network's The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, and MTV's Paris Hilton's My New BFF.
What could help Velma would be the series potentially finding its way as the first season progresses. These scores are based only on the first two episodes, which premiered together on Jan. 12. Episodes will be dropped in pairs every week until the season finishes on Feb. 9. It has clearly been a rocky start for Velma in terms of its reception, but if future episodes are better received by viewers, it could wind up bringing the overall scores for Velma back up. However, it seems very unlikely that the scores will be changed significantly, but the further away they can get from zero, the better for Team Velma.
Velma Has Been Heavily Criticized
From the start, it was clear that the Velma team had been taking some big risks with the series. The absence of Scooby-Doo alone has been of significant criticism, as many fans have a hard time accepting a Scooby-Doo reboot without the lovable dog being part of the show. The critical consensus at Rotten Tomatoes also suggests that the new series just doesn't bring the "fun" despite its raunchy edge.
"Jinkies! This radical reworking of the beloved Mystery Team has plenty of attitude and style, but it doesn't have the first clue for how to turn its clever subversion into engaging fun," the description of the series states on the Rotten Tomatoes page.
In addition to Kaling, the series features the voices of Glenn Howerton (Fred), Sam Richardson (Norville), and Constance Wu (Daphne). Russell Peters, Melissa Fumero, Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, Frank Welker, Ming-Na Wen, and "Weird Al" Yankovic also star.
The first two episodes of Velma are streaming on HBO Max.