The Scooby-Doo spinoff Velma faces a massive review bombing campaign on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. Set before the Scooby-Doo gang started traveling the world to solve supernatural mysteries, Velma is an animated series that sees the team navigating high school while trying to figure out precisely what mysterious elements are causing murders. The show stars Mindy Kaling as Velma, Sam Richardson as Norville (Shaggy), Constance Wu as Daphne, and Glenn Howerton as Fred, but it doesn't feature the famous talking dog. Instead, the show relies on adult humor that earned it an R-rating.
Unfortunately for the show, it has been the subject of review bombs on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. As of the time of this writing, Velma has an 18% audience score, as opposed to its 60% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On IMDb, the story is the same, with 72% of the audience judging Velma a 1 out of 10. While many already believe that Velma's R-rating is a bad idea, that doesn't account for the absolute slam of incredibly negative reviews that come within only hours of the show's release, as only two episodes have been aired so far.
Who Is Review Bombing Velma & Why
Velma features race-blind casting that sees Daphne, Velma, and Norville played by actors who are respectively South Asian, Asian, and Black. It wouldn't be the first time a diverse production has been review-bombed due to its diversity, and it will unfortunately not be the last. While Velma is relatively smaller in scope, Amazon's Rings of Power was review bombed to the point that Amazon had to suspend reviews to determine which reviewers were being genuine about their opinions or if they were spewing hate for the sake of it.
The fact that Velma is being bashed almost exclusively by men also hints at the potentially sexist cause of the bombing. IMDb reports that 159 men have reviewed the series with an average rating of 2.1. On the other hand, eighteen women have given Velma an average rating of 4.1. While still not exceptionally high, the larger score does show the disparity between the opinions of men and women in the reviews. As a woman-led show, Velma isn't unique in being the source of vilification and outright attack. She-Hulk was review bombed even before its premiere, proving that these campaigns are hardly based on the material.
Of course, that assumes that the reviews are non-genuine. Perhaps there are some reasons to dislike Velma, even if the majority are mired in racism and sexism. As the show is based on the Scooby-Doo franchise, there have been many complaints about the beloved dog not making an appearance, and there have been critiques about the character of Norville being too distinct from Shaggy of the source material. The idea of taking a children's cartoon and adding an adult element is also questionable. At times, it feels like pollution of the original shows and a weak attempt at relatability to older audiences. If Velma is being review bombed for non-prejudiced (but equally wrong) reasons, it wouldn't be the first time, as Godzilla vs Kong was review bombed by Snyder fans after Zack Snyder left DC as a way of getting back at the studio. Velma releases new episodes on Thursdays on HBO Max. Hopefully, as more audiences catch the series, a more honest online rating will develop.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes & IMDB