Scooby-Doo-inspired spin-off Velma has certainly made a name for itself as one of the worst-rated animated TV shows of all time across multiple review platforms. Having already free-fallen down the audience approval ladder on Rotten Tomatoes to a current 6% score, the same thing has been happening on IMDb, where the Mindy Kaling-led series has hit a new low and spectacularly taken its place as the lowest-rated piece of entertainment ever after scoring lower than Dragonball Evolution, which has held the unappealing title for over a decade.
Having become what is seemingly the most misguided TV show of a generation, Velma has now added a new low on IMDb to go alongside its terrible Rotten Tomatoes score. As was noted by many users on Twitter, Velma has now surpassed the 2.6 out of 10 rating that Dragonball Evolution has held for more than 10 years and has done so in style by logging, at the time of writing, a 1.3 out of 10 score overall, which includes 22k 1-star reviews that equate to 88% of all ratings for the series.
Velma is a re-imagining of the Scooby-Doo franchise that also acts as a prequel to the much-loved fifty-year-old cartoon series. Reimagined in a way that removes Scooby-Doo from the equation and gives race and personality transplants to the remaining characters, the show was always going to have an uphill climb to gain the support of the dedicated Scooby-Doo fan base. However, within hours of the series premiere, that uphill climb became an unaided trek up Mount Everest wearing more chains and bindings than Houdini used in his whole career. Essentially, the show almost set itself up for the perfect all from grace.
While critics, the few who bothered to review the show, were a bit more kind, there was nowhere to hide from the constant stream of negative reviews that blitzed the show’s chances of any comeback. Unfortunately, even having the highest-ever debut for an HBO Max original animated series cannot polish up the bad reviews.
Will Velma Season 2 Go Ahead at HBO Max?
Earlier in the week, it was revealed that groundwork had already started on a second season of Velma, with the clear expectation that the combination of well-known IP and supposedly revolutionary “adult” slant would bring nothing but praises to the show. While Mindy Kaling and HBO Max have been promoting the series’ record-breaking debut viewing figures on social media, those numbers don’t seem likely to remain as high now that the novelty of “hate-watching” has peaked. The question is, will Velma get a second chance to make a first impression?
While not as expensive to make as many of HBO Max’s live-action scripted shows, there is a doubt over whether a second season of Velma would be financially viable for a platform who have recently undergone so many cancelations in the name of cost-cutting and financial realignment. With changes, there could be hope for Velma to make a second first impression, but the one overriding thought is whether it has alienated too many for even that to be possible.