Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for the Velma pilot.Is HBO Max's new Scooby Doo show Velma show suitable for kids? The series courted controversy immediately after being announced, both because of the producers' intention to present a more diverse ensemble of characters based on the original Mysteries Inc. team and because of its core concept of being an R-rated Scooby Doo. This raises questions regarding the precise content of Velma and just what makes it a show for mature audiences.
The Scooby Doo franchise is no stranger to adult humor. The first live-action Scooby Doo movie was trimmed down from a script for an R-rated Scooby Doo movie written by James Gunn. Despite most of the overt horror and sexual content being removed, the finished film still contained a number of nods to long-running theories regarding Velma being a lesbian or Shaggy being a stoner. Given that, it is natural to speculate that Velma might not be entirely unsuitable for kids, if most of the mature content is delivered through innuendo.
HBO Max's Velma Isn't Suitable For Kids
Velma establishes itself as not suitable for kids from the outset. The first scene of the Velma pilot takes place in the girls' locker room at Crystal Cove High, as Daphne Blake and her gang of mean girls discuss how television pilots always seem to feature "more gratuitous sex and nudity than the rest of the series." This sets up a sudsy cat fight and the discovery of one of their classmates, whose brain was scooped out of her head. Between the bare buttocks, gruesome corpse and frank talk about sex, Velma lives up to its R-rating and is clearly not intended for the same audience as Scooby Doo.
Why Velma Is An Adult Scooby-Doo Show
Thankfully, the rest of the Velma pilot proves the series has bigger plans than merely being Scooby Doo with sex jokes, blood and curse words. One major subplot centers upon Velma's compulsion to solve mysteries and the hallucinatory panic attacks she suffers whenever she's confronted with a mystery to solve, following the disappearance of her mother. These sequences are shockingly intense and full of horrific imagery. They are also notably not played for laughs, despite Velma's largely comedic tone. This marks Velma as a truly mature series.
Another way in which Velma asserts itself as not being suitable for kids is by referencing shows kids are unlikely to have seen. While based on Scooby Doo, the Velma show uses the tropes of the classic cartoon to parody dark reboots of classic children's franchises, like Riverdale or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This smart humor is likely to go over kids' heads, but parents are more likely to worry about Velma showing Daphne taking a shower than they are about their children being exposed to satire.
New episodes of Velma release Thursdays on HBO Max.