Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated

*SPOILER REVIEW*

After watching so many underwhelming projects from the Scooby-Doo franchise lately, seeing something that not only pays a loving tribute to the original "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" series, but also expanding and improving upon elements in new and interesting ways that doesn't feel wrong and out of place is so mind boggling to me.

Like i knew going in that this was going to a joy to watch, but my first impression of the first few episodes was't too high. I like the idea of Shaggy and Velma dating at the beginning only for them to break up because they have so little in common, that it would ultimately be a very unhealthy relationship, but i feel like them dragging that plot point out for the first 10 episodes felt a bit tedious. Shaggy and Velma want it to work out, but you know it's not gonna last and I feel like they should ended their relationship in the first 5 episodes. This is when Scooby becomes really unlikable for these first few episodes where he hates the idea of sharing Shaggy with Velma even though later in the series, Scooby gets his own girlfriend and Shaggy doesn't mind at all. So the show runners just made him unlikable for the sole reason of splitting up Shaggy and Velma. Daphne's dialogue 95% of the time just boiled down to "Will Fred F^$% me?" and she barely has any personality out of that, but thankfully she get's better later in the series and it is really sweet when Fred and Daphne finally get together. Fred was perfectly fine for a bit, he's admiration for traps is cranked up to 11 and it is very funny if you want to think about in anime logic. I heard somewhere that the best character in Scooby-Doo history was Mystery Incorporated's iteration of Fred and for most of the first season, I didn't see it. But when we get to Fred's parents, it get's really interesting. So it turns out that apparently Fred's mom that he thought died was just a photo from a magazine and the person that he saw as his father his whole life stole him when Fred was a baby from his real parents which is such a betrayal because we got to grow attached to these characters for the entire duration of season 1. But what's most heartbreaking is that even though the mayor practically treated Fred like dirt and Fred always trying to get his dad's approval, he was more of a loving and compassionate father than his supposed "real" parents.

The overall mystery was really well done and cool, but this is where I get to one of my other problems, the mysteries are some of the predictable they have ever been in Scooby-Doo history. I learned overtime that there is a trade-off with Scooby-Doo mysteries. Either A, a mystery has around 5 suspects,but ultimately feels overbloated with undeveloped characters that the episodes has to divide it's time with or B, a mystery has about 2 suspects, but usually one is just too obvious to be the suspect and that's where the predictability comes in. Option B is does give an episode a tighter script, but it doesn't lead to a strong mystery.

The side characters were honestly pretty good. Patrick Warburton as Sheriff Stone was really enjoyable and the sexual tension between him and Mayor Jones was on another on another level, but no, they had to give him a girlfriend in the form as the OTHER mayor which is sad because my fan-fiction will never come to light now :(. uh, I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but I didn't like Hot Dog Water very much as a character. I really can't take her seriously with her name and design and she's just really a discount version of Velma and I didn't see her and Velma as a romantic pairing, like at all, but her ultimate sacrifice was well done and a good send-off for her as a character. Mr E and Professor Pericles was both great villains and very intimating and some of the best Scooby-Doo has to offer. The Vincent Young tribute character was funny, I wish they actually gave Skipper Shelton some focus in a episode, Gary and Ethan for pretty much chads, the parents were (mostly) a delight, and The Hex Girls cameo appearances are at least better than the one in Legend of the Vampire.

Another problem I have with this show is it's commentary. It was alright in the first episode, but I guess the writers completely don't know what the meaning of "subtle" is. It's so on the nose and frequent that it starts to just become annoying and preachy. Like I came to watch a Scooby-Doo cartoon, not a critique on the American Legal System. The only way I see that actually working and being effective if it way more restrained and a lot more subtle.

Overall great show, it still has it's problems no doubt, but the amount of good things in it just makes it, for me, the Scooby-Doo media ever made and I will take that to my grave if I must.

Happy Halloween everyone!

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

**Character Overview:**

I think the shows main problem is right here, the characters. They all feel so shallow, except for Velma, but everybody else is just kind of there.

I think Daphne is great example of this, in the beginning episodes we met her parents and her very successful sisters while she is not. This could have been at least explore, in an episode or two. It could have added something to her character, as her only purpose throughout the show was to be with Fred, and even when they broke up she just dated another guy.

I think they made the worst choice here, even her doing nothing except trying to get over Fred would have been better. We would at least see her struggling, I am just sad her character went nowhere. During the end they get together, and it is mentioned that she is now the only successful sister. This was clearly planned and for some reason dropped, but it was really needed for her character development.

Velma has the most depth in the show compared to everyone else, it's nothing amazing but at least she has something going for her. She was really annoying during the beginning of the show with the whole Shaggy relationship, once she figured out this wasn't for her, she got a lot better. Her interactions with Mr E and Cassidy were interesting, and we did get to see her in some tough spots because of that. Especially once we she got closer to Marcie, and I do wish this got explored more.

For some reason they dumped Marcie completely and it just felt so out of character for everyone. Nevertheless there was always something going on with Velma if not her relationship and business with Mr E, we did get to explore her relationship with her mother a bit.

Actually Velma's mother was the parent we learned the most about. Their relationship was a bit strained at first, but they warmed up to each other by the end. While all of these moments were short lived for Velma, the rest of the main cast didn't even get a fraction of this.

The rest of the parents are just there, like you would think Fred would have the most interesting relationship with his parents because of everything, but somehow that is not the case. It feels like almost everything got swept under the rug. Fred got so annoying towards the end with his traps, there has to be more depth to him than just traps. There are some moments where you can tell he is bothered by all this, but it is such small bits that it feels like it doesn't matter. We do get to see warm to his adoptive dad, which I do wish we saw some reasoning from Fred. Especially considering what his dad has done. Overall Fred's character is also the definition of wasted potential.

Shaggy and Scooby are honestly just there, nothing much happens to either of them, except minor relationship stuff and the Vincent van Ghoul stuff. I'm really trying to think of one thing I liked or disliked about them, but I've got nothing.

When it comes to the antagonists I'll keep it short. Fred's parents could have at least shown some dilemma with betraying him, Mr E was fine he did show interesting qualities. Pericles was just the definition of an evil character with nothing interesting behind him.

I will also mention the Sheriff and Mayor, they were pretty cute actually, felt like I should point them out, they were in the episodes often.

**Story Overview:**

The episodic monsters got boring starting from season 2 and onwards. I gave it a bit more slack for the first season, but I felt that starting season 2 they really should have pushed the over-arching plot into the spotlight. I am not saying they should have stopped with the episodic format, but just better incorporated with the main plot.

For the actual quality of the main plot, it was fine I did like it. I do wish we had more time with the antagonist, they just felt evil for the sake of being evil. It did have some good moments still, and the ending was interesting. I wish I could comment more on it but the story really only picked up in the end. The keys also felt randomly scattered about sometimes, in general the show had a lot of random moments for the sake of progressing the story/episode.

There many good ideas here, and even some mentions of iconic Scooby-Doo characters like the Hex Girls. The creators really did put a lot of thought into it, but in the end all I see is wasted potential.

**Animation/OST:**

The animation was lacking at times, or just weird, mainly for the characters. The backgrounds I did like most of the time, but characters really looked janky at times. It didn't happen that often luckily, but apart from that I can't really praise it that much. I really wish the faces were a bit more detailed.

For example, when Velma hears gunshots right after leaving Marcie alone, there should have been some emotion shown. Generally it was fine for most of the show, but when the animation needed to do the heavy work it failed pretty badly.

The soundtrack follows along the same lines as the animation, we mostly heard the same tunes as well. Unlike the animation, I don’t think the soundtrack really did the show dirty as the animation did on occasion. I can’t praise it still but it was fine.

**Overall:**

I think the team had good ideas, but the way to put it together just feels so shallow. I really wanted to like this, this was one of my favorite shows growing up. Watching now it just did not hit the same. I already said, but I really can't recommend this show to everyone, I would still suggest giving it a try, but in my eyes, this show is nowhere near an 8/10.