‘Velma’ Season 1, Episode 6 Review

Six episodes in and Velma is finally starting to get to the heart of why people tuned in. It has touched upon a bit of mystery while having an actual call back to the roots from which the show sprung. However, it still can’t let go of the irrelevant teenage drama that it had in previous episodes. It doesn’t have to abandon that aspect entirely, but it just hasn’t figured out where its bread and butter is.

Velma (Mindy Kaling) starts to unravel the case of her missing mother’s mystery by questioning Norville’s (Sam Richardson) mother. Norville’s grandmother was a mad scientist who was creating a means to mind control people. Meanwhile, Daphne (Constance Wu) learns more about her birth parents, but in the end she discovers that they never cared about her at all. They were just using her as cover to make their escape and had abandoned her originally. The episode’s closing moments see Velma finally getting over her hallucinations as she reconciles with her father and continues to investigate her mother’s disappearance.

Fans finally got a Scooby-Doo call back — although probably not in the way they expected. There are also a lot of homages to classic Scooby tropes, if just briefly. That is exactly what Scooby-Doo fans checking out this show want. Plus, Velma actually does some investigative work as she looks for her mother, which is also the type of mystery fans are looking for. But still, the bulk of the episode has to deal with cheap character drama that has Velma trying to bond with her father. The jokes are still as witty and the social commentary is still just as prevalent, but it’s going to need to flip the focus from drama to mystery if it’s going to end it all on a high note.

Velma streams Thursdays on HBO Max.