Review: Velma “This Halloween Needs To Be More Special”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

With her spirit still trapped between this life and the next, Velma and her friends(?) must face their greatest fears and solve one more mystery if they hope to bring her back.

OUR TAKE

Ah, Velma. The Scooby Doo-less Scooby spin-off that took the internet hatewatch by storm with its horrendous meta humor, Riverdale on steroids level of oversexualization, and strangely well animated episodes that made all the clear talent on display feel like they were being wasted on this trash. So, two pre-ordered seasons later, Velma has been killed by this show’s version of Scrappy Doo who has once again been used as a meta commentary for how much fans of the franchise hate Scrappy and feel he ruined everything, even though those claims are pretty dubious when you actually look into what was going on with the show at the time. Anyway, Season 2 ended with Velma being killed by Scrappy and becoming a ghost (something that had been established to be possible with Fred’s dead mom) and her non-binary friend Amber promising that they can bring her back with a spell (oh yeah, magic also exists) on Halloween. But while waiting, another dark secret emerges with the arrival of the ghost of the Black Knight, who seems to be on this show’s third string of murders. If they do get a third season, I’d be surprised if anyone’s still alive by the end.

But here’s the odd thing…I think I actually liked this special slightly more than either season? A lot of that is how the pacing of those seasons spread their respective seasonal mystery story arcs were spread WAY too thin over ten episodes each. Meanwhile, this Black Knight mystery is begun and ended in the space of an episode and a half and it felt…kinda like something was accomplished, I suppose. I understand they were trying to replicate and/or parody murder mystery shows of the modern day, but it kinda seems like you had a good formula of having a mystery a week and maybe sprinkle in stuff about a greater mystery instead of thinning it all out like this. However, Velma is basically the poster child for some good ideas drowning in a bubbling hot tub of diarrhea, and while this special is probably a kind of best note to go out on, I would really hope it DOES truly go out on it. Let’s just hope someone at WBD doesn’t see this words of praise and decide to green light five more seasons just because someone finally said something nice about this shit. Or maybe they’ll do that but write it off for tax reasons.