Jinkies! Velma Burns It All Down in Over-The-Top Season 2

Whether the internet likes it or not, Velma is back for Season 2. The adult animated series, which first premiered on Max in 2023, returns with another round of mysteries and hijinks on Thursday, April 25. 

Created by Charlie Grandy, the show is an alternate universe origin story that reimagines the Scooby-Doo gang as high schoolers. It centers on sarcastic teenage detective Velma (Mindy Kaling) and her friends Fred (Glenn Howerton), Daphne (Constance Wu), and Norville (Sam Richardson), aka Shaggy. Scooby-Doo himself notably doesn’t appear, in part due to rights issues between the studios.

The first season of Velma was met with overwhelmingly negative audience reactions. Some of the criticism was fair — clunky dialogue, constant meta humor that didn’t always land, and sexualization of beloved cartoon characters turned a lot of viewers off. However, it should also be acknowledged that some of the backlash was rooted in racism and misogyny; the decision to cast Kaling (who’s Indian) as the titular character and reimagine Velma, Daphne, and Norville as people of color was met with hate before the show even premiered. Many viewers also incorrectly believed Kaling created and wrote the series when she’s only a co-producer. 

Despite the discourse, Velma isn’t at all interested in toning itself down. In fact, Season 2 pushes things to even more outrageous limits. The show isn’t just making meta jokes anymore — it’s basically taking a flamethrower to its source material.

There are still a lot of familiar elements this season. Velma is off chasing another serial killer, although this time it’s someone who specifically targets men. The pop culture references are plentiful, from mentions of Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton to nods to movies like Get Out to even a cartoon Governor Jerry Brown. The snarky referential humor is still very much in place as well, like when Velma asks where something ranks “on a scale of one to how we treat actresses we think are too famous.” Even one of the season’s biggest changes — Velma becoming popular — hardly shakes things up at all.

However, Season 2 is also more over-the-top than its predecessor in some ways. Take the incredibly dramatic romance plots — there are still love triangles, but the season largely focuses on Velma and Daphne, who are officially girlfriends now. While it’s great that the pairing, which has long been popular with Scooby-Doo fans, is finally canon, they’re also pretty terrible to each other here. They have some sweet moments sprinkled in, but nearly every episode sees them fighting over something silly, like whether or not soulmates exist. They seem to think they need to be 100% honest with each other over literally every single thing — seriously guys, you really don’t need to tell your partner that you think someone else is hot — and it’s beyond exhausting. We already suffered through musical chairs with all the different pairings in Season 1, wasn’t that enough?

Velma and Daphne’s most ridiculous storyline occurs in Episode 8, when the class goes on a field trip. They get into what might be the most headache-inducing miscommunication of all time, which is then resolved in the most absurd manner (we won’t spoil it, but it involves witchcraft). It feels like the writers were going out of their way to make this relationship as unnecessarily extra as possible. The couple’s drama may have been meant to raise the stakes, but it’s so excessive that it only makes both of them come across as insufferable. It’s enough to want to jump ship even if you’ve been rooting their characters to kiss since the OG cartoon.

In terms of the mystery, Season 2 really goes off the rails in its final two episodes. The writers have always used meta humor to not-so-subtly poke fun at the show’s critics, but the twist in Episode 9 goes far beyond some snarky jokes. The villain reveal is almost guaranteed to spark a whole new wave of discourse among Scooby-Doo fans. The plot point is so ridiculous that it actually kind of works… at least, in a horrifying, nightmare-inducing sort of way. The season also sneaks in one more shocking turn of events in the last few minutes of the finale, truly going out with a bang. Like the villain reveal, the final twist is totally ridiculous and bizarre. However, it’s also a big swing that leaves the door open for interesting new possibilities if the show gets renewed for a third season. 

Velma’s sophomore season feels a bit like a raunchy, animated version of Riverdale at times — there’s serial killers, corrupt elections, horny teens, and even organs being harvested. Like a CW series on its seventh season, the writers are pretty much just burning everything down now. Sometimes going big and leaning into the absurdity works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Ultimately, this definitely isn’t the same Scooby cartoon we watched as kids, and the creators are eager to keep reminding us of that — for better or worse.

Velma Season 2 premieres Thursday, April 25 on Max. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Kelly Martinez is a TV Reporter based in Los Angeles. Her previous work can be found at BuzzFeed and People Magazine, among other outlets. She enjoys reading, spending time with her cat, and explaining the plot of Riverdale to people.