It was bad, but not much worse than a bunch of other shows where they "force" a point across for the sake of politics. Saw some of this in Rick and Morty too
The wackiness/cringe levels were honestly comparable to Gravity Falls.
I think people just hate it because 1) race swapped in a way that erases whites instead of POC and 2) they heard other people hate it so they just bandwagon
Gravity Falls was charming.
Velma felt like Rick and Morty but Netflix pacing, and the cutaways of Family Guy.
It also really didn’t use its cast of characters effectively. The core 4 have a great dynamic and they are funny together.. The show basically refused to put them together as a group.
It’s a bad show in a “most cynical show” Way. As it’s also afraid of having a heart or being too ironic.
As it’s also afraid of having a heart or bring too ironic.
Bathos poisoning is a lot like irony poisoning. It's tiresome.
I just flat out don't understand why you'd use the Scooby Doo characters if you weren't going to shove them in a van and drive around solving real-estate crimes.
Mindy Kaling going for that "Gen X slacker" street cred in the year of our landlord 2023
For me it was mid (also tbh I'd say Gravity Falls is better than Velma by a mile). If it was a show without being attatched to Scooby Doo it'd likely have been forgotten or emulsified into the vast sea of Brickleberry clones. Also I loved the cope seething on the initial race swap from chuds, but I gotta say I'm really fuckin' sick of shows that are nothing but bathos and malice (like fuckin' endless Rick and Morty clones forever).
but I gotta say I’m really fuckin’ sick of shows that are nothing but bathos and malice
I could accept everything about that Velma show except that. The show seemed to have outright contempt for its own foundational material. I don't mean skin colors. I mean "people in a van solving mysteries."
I just wanted them to uncover how rich white guys were behind 99% of financial fraud (and that one time George Takei was behind it in a Kabuki theater in a bayou...) and also to help out the ghosts of Native Americans by burning down some plantations or something (you know how every major movie had the "guess what this cryptid/monster is real!").
Also I loved the cope seething on the initial race swap from chuds
I hate it when chuds do this shit because it poisons the discourse so much that you can't say you like or dislike the property in question without being conscripted into a culture war
That's understandable, at this point I just troll those I can and ignore those I can't as debating fash without proper equipment :xi-gun: is folly
I feel if they werent using Scooby Doo characters it would be just remembered as yet another "comedy" adult cartoon.
Remember slippy jimmy?
It's not Scooby-Doo Where are You or A Pup Named Scooby-Doo or 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo which was mid but has Vincent Price so it's probably trash garbage.
I didn't watch it but the advertising for it was absolutely horrendous which is what stopped me from checking it out
Glad someone else shares my opinion on Gravity Falls. I've had it recommended to me a lot, and man, the wackiness/cringe is an impenetrable barrier to me getting into it at all.
Are you in to cryptids and Art Bell and Fortean Times stuff? I think a lot of the charm is that it's so much of a love letter to America's weird shit that probably doesn't exist industry.
That's exactly why its recommended to me; I'm very into that kind of stuff, as well as general conspiracy theory/Illuminati stuff (my username is based on the Illumminatus! book)
But I just can't stomach the 'kids show'-ness of Gravity Falls.
Fair enough.
I think part of why it worked for me is that it was a totally self-aware self-parody of kids shows. Like it was a kids show, but it was a kid's show that reveled in being a kids show instead of just doing kids show stuff. For me, at least, that made it palatable. Plus I am always down for a children's product going full lovecraftian apocalypse at the end of the season. Neo Genesis Evangelion walked so Gravity Falls could run.
FWIW, I'm not really trying to imply the show is bad; I know referring to it as a 'kids show', and saying I can't stomach its 'wackiness' sounds dismissive, but I'm not sure how else to word the elements that didn't work for me. But I'm definitely not trying to say that "all 'kids shows' are bad". Honestly, I'm just extremely picky about shows and movies, and have mostly stopped giving shows as chance; I feel bad when I friend recommends some media to me, and I try to watch it, but hate it, and have to have that interaction with them.
No, no, I get you. It's a lot and I totally get why it wouldn't land with a lot of people. The same things that make it charming to some would make it indigestible to others : )
