Velma

:

Season 1
  • Network: HBO Max
  • Series Premiere Date: Jan 12, 2023
Season #: 2, 1
Metascore
54

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 17
  3. Negative: 4 out of 17
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Where To Watch

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Critic Reviews

  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joshua Alston
    Jan 11, 2023
    30
    “Velma” consists of too much “Why not?” and too little “Why?” ... More than that, these characters are just really unpleasant to spend time with, and it starts at the top with Velma, whose selfish and misanthropic tendencies aren’t diluted by her moments of vulnerability. Daphne isn’t much better. ... Absent even a wisp of genuine reverence for the source material. ... The biggest mystery of “Velma” is why it needs to exist.
  2. The Atlantic
    Reviewed by: Shirley Li
    Mar 22, 2023
    27
    The real problem with Velma isn’t that its updates make Euphoria look like child’s play; it’s that its edginess comes at the expense of its own characters and punishes the audience for being invested.
  3. Decider
    Reviewed by: Brittany Vincent
    Jan 12, 2023
    20
    This so-called origin story is off to a horrible start, and the few cheap laughs that you’ll find in the first episode don’t necessarily make it worth hanging around for 10 long, awful installments.
  5. Slate
    Reviewed by: Nadira Goffe
    Jan 26, 2023
    10
    The show actually is misogynist, and totally devoid of nuance. ... Velma’s mistakes might be forgivable if it was at least funny. But it’s not. And so, we’re left with a show that makes no one laugh and makes everyone mad, and doesn’t even have a great theme song.

Awards & Rankings

6
#6 Most Discussed TV Season of 2023

User Reviews

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User Score
0.7

Overwhelming dislike- based on 176 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 176
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 176
  3. Negative: 164 out of 176
  1. enut_butter
    Jan 12, 2023
    0
    There are just so many things to dislike about this show. Its greatest sin would probably be that it’s fundamentally unfunny, and while IThere are just so many things to dislike about this show. Its greatest sin would probably be that it’s fundamentally unfunny, and while I understand comedy is subjective, I can’t imagine the kind of person who would find it funny. Maybe a child, but the subject matter in the show is too mature for an actual child, leaving this show a tedious, unfunny, needlessly-subversive mess made by people with a serious dearth of talent.… Full Review »
  2. candymancometh
    Jan 13, 2023
    0
    This TV show embodies all of the worst aspects of contemporary American entertainment.
    • Reliance on stereotypes and quirkiness for humor    This TV show embodies all of the worst aspects of contemporary American entertainment.
    • Reliance on stereotypes and quirkiness for humor instead of properly setup jokes
    • Way too much emphasis placed on the sexuality if its characters
    • Snarky, insincere characters who lack any earnestness and are thus unlikable
    • Embraces nihilism to an extent that the outcome of the story becomes irrelevant
    • Overreliance on metahumor and breaking the fourth wall
    • Race-swapped characters for no reason and without any explanation    … Full Review »
  3. Tubey
    Jan 13, 2023
    2
    If this was a short skit on a website in circa. 2001, it would have been ridiculed even then.

    For it to get a full on series release in    If this was a short skit on a website in circa. 2001, it would have been ridiculed even then.

    For it to get a full on series release in 2023 is... mind-boggling. The first two episodes are beyond dreadful; absolutely NO way it recovers as the tone is set. It is unrelentingly 'woke', in every negative meaning of that word - it's the culmination of every travesty that's been released in the last ten years, distilled into the purest form of awful. It's aggressively unfunny throughout and has a bizarre hatred of the source material that seeps through the screen as you watch it; I shuddered at one point watching it.

    It exists solely to animate Mindy Kaling as Velma and nobody had the balls to say no to her at the studio.    … Full Review »
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