HBO Max’s ‘Velma’ Could Have Had it All

Wooooo, there has been a lot of talk as well as misinformation about this show. However, we goin clear all that up right here in this review. Here’s all you need to know about what’s goin on in Velma on HBO Max. Velma Dinkly (Mindy Kaling) is a teenager that loves mysteries. She’s big into feminism, not following the crowd, and she loves her mom. The show centers around the mysterious disappearance of Velma’s mom, Diya Dinkley. Whether Diya disappeared or abandoned her family are the two questions that run rampant throughout the show. I was rocking with this mystery being the thread through the entire season. This isn’t the Scooby-Doo gang that we are use to and that’s alright (when executed right). Velma is South Asian, Daphne (Constance Wu) is East Asian, Norville/ Shaggy (Sam Richardson) is Black, and Fred (Glen Howerton) … is still white (sorry to that man).

image from Warner Media

Now, What’s the Issue with Velma? So here’s the thing with Velma. The Velma Dinkley portrayed on the show isn’t a different take on the character. It’s Mindy Kaling at the forefront not Velma Dinkley. Mindy Kaling is a producer on the show and this was a great chance to have her put out content that took a different approach from her other projects. However, that isn’t the case with Velma. We see this character fall into a lot of similar tropes of South Asian representation that is present in Kaling’s other projects such as The Mindy Project, Never Have I Ever, and The Sex Life of College…