Flintstones in the style of the Sopranos would have been sooo nice.

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law wasn't setup as an origin story. Harvey was no longer a superhero and now practiced law. Velma tried to create an origin story for a well known popular character, overwriting existing literature.

Velma might have been better received if they had framed it as her post-mystery incorporated life, ie what's Velma doing now that she's left the crew. That would have given them much more room to work with.

You can see this in other spin-offs like Harley Quinn which is set in her post-joker life.

There's so many seasons of Agents of Shield... I try to get the gist of various seasons and pick a stopping point during a binge. I might return a few years later from that point

Great points across the board. To extend your comment, I think the shift in market would also impact whether certain shows are even created. For example, Seinfeld would more likely to be "A Podcast About Nothing" than a Netflix comedy imo.

It confuses me how The Outlaws slipped under the radar with Stephen Merchant and Christopher Walken. The only people I've really seen talk about it are Ricky Gervais fans ( /r/rickygervais has more outlaws related discussion than the dedicated subreddit r/theoutlawstv).

To be fair, it is reasonably popular in Germany. I can see how it falls between the cracks in the Anglo world.

Oh Wellington Paranormal looks interesting. Boy is the only thing from New Zealand I've seen, but have been meaning to watch more. Pantheon is one of the best slow burns. I love your taste lol

right... all five of these are pretty popular around these parts

Yeah you're probably right. There's certainly a brigade of people that are whining as a part of their weekly "The Wokes are Ruining America" segment, eg the race swapping, fred characterization. There's also been a similar amount of leftist complaints about the show, eg the #metoo joke, etc. The 30 minute long Youtube review industry profited from Velma.

I just don't think any of the groups would have cared (or even noticed) were it not tied to the Scooby Doo franchise.

Little Demon is another recent adult animation with similar crass humor that tries a bit too hard (despite a promising premise and cast). It's not great, but no one really cares. Yes, some portion def found it funny, but other viewers just quietly dip after episode 1 or 2. Thats how I imagine Velma would have turned out were it not for the Scooby Doo association

It's not the worst thing in the world like people might have you believe, but it's certainly not good.

The Mike Tyson Mysteries are a better executed version of the "Scooby Doo with crewd adult humor" genre.

It's not a matter of culture wars.

The reaction would not be this strong if this was some generic adult animated mystery show with no association to Scooby Doo. There are multiple mean spirited mediocre adult cartoons created every year that no one pays attention to.

Expectations are simply higher when you try to extend an existing franchise, especially when you try to subvert/diverge from the original like Velma tried.

Studio execs have been pushing more and more for shows to tie into existing franchises (to reduce risk of a flop), and it starts to add up for a good chunk of people.

Those guys have been replaced by influencers on youtube, tik tok and instagram.

Also compared to say Gotham, Themyscira (Paradise Lost) and Green Lantern corps (Lanterns) have not been done to death. We have had so much world building and adjacent content for Batman, Superman, and even Flash / Green Arrow, but there's been very limited filmed world building for Wonder Woman or Green Lantern.

For those familiar, does DC have a tradition of actually executing on their announced projects? I know when I see a list of upcoming MCU phase 5 and 6 projects, there's a high likelihood the shows will actually air. I don't know whether I should have the same confidence here.

I sincerely hope they recast her or if nothing else, minimize her on screen time.