Main

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• Mindy Kaling as Velma Dinkley,^[4] a snarky teenage would-be detective, who has a crush on murder suspect Fred Jones.^[5][6] She has a lifelong passion for solving mysteries that she inherited from her mother, but since her disappearance years prior, Velma is a lot more cautious regarding mysteries and has horrific guilt-based hallucinations whenever she attempts to solve one.^{[citation needed]} She is partially modeled after Kaling and is portrayed as a bisexual South Asian American.^{[citation needed]}
• Glenn Howerton as Fred Jones,^[7] a popular but dimwitted 16-year-old murder suspect, and Velma's crush who is the heir to the Jones Gentlemen Accessories fashion line. He is also a noted late bloomer in terms of puberty.^[5] He is the only original Mystery, Inc. member depicted as white, as in other Scooby-Doo media.^{[citation needed]}
• Sam Richardson as Norville Rogers,^[8] Velma's best friend and a school news reporter, who has a crush on her and frequently brings up how much he hates drugs.^[9][5] He is portrayed as African American,^[10] and is exclusively referred to by his real first name instead of his familiar nickname, Shaggy.^{[citation needed]} He also does not share the original Shaggy's cowardice, although his love of snacks remains.^{[citation needed]}
• Constance Wu as Daphne Blake,^[11] a popular girl and Velma's former best friend, who has "complicated feelings" for her.^[9][12] Raised by two adoptive mothers, Daphne hopes to discover her biological parents,^{[citation needed]} This version is portrayed as East Asian American.^{[citation needed]}

Supporting

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• Russell Peters as Aman Dinkley, Velma's lawyer father who struggles to keep her in line^{[citation needed]}
• Melissa Fumero as Sophie, Aman's girlfriend who also owns Spooner's Malt Shop. She is initially pregnant, but eventually gives birth to a girl in "Velma Makes a List".^{[citation needed]}
• Sarayu Blue as Diya Dinkley, Velma's missing alcoholic mother who used to write mysteries, inspiring her daughter's passion^{[citation needed]}
• Jane Lynch as Donna Blake, one of Daphne's two adoptive mothers who is a slightly incompetent detective investigating Brenda's disappearance^{[citation needed]}
• Wanda Sykes as Linda Blake, Daphne's other adoptive mother and fellow detective^{[citation needed]}
• Ming-Na Wen as Carroll, Daphne's biological mother and a member of the Crystal Cove Gang^{[citation needed]}
• Ken Leung as Darren, Daphne's biological father and a member of the Crystal Cove Gang^{[citation needed]}
• Cherry Jones as Victoria Jones, Fred's mother who often spoils and babies her son.^{[citation needed]}
• Frank Welker as William Jones, Fred's father who is ashamed of him. Welker has voiced Fred since the character's inception in 1969^{[citation needed]}
• Nicole Byer as Blythe Rogers, Norville's African American mother and the Principal of Crystal Cove High.^{[citation needed]}
• Gary Cole as Lamont Rogers, Norville's white father who works as Crystal Cove High's school counselor/therapist. He bears a resemblance to Shaggy's original design^{[citation needed]}
• "Weird Al" Yankovic as Dandruff Tuba, a student at Crystal Cove High. A running gag involves him getting frequently injured by the gang's antics.^{[citation needed]}
• Fortune Feimster as Olive, a popular girl at Crystal Cove High^{[citation needed]}
• Yvonne Orji as Gigi, a cool girl at Crystal Cove High^{[citation needed]}
• Karl-Anthony Towns as Jacques Beau (Jock Bo), a handsome jock at Crystal Cove High^{[citation needed]}
• Shay Mitchell as Brenda, an attractive, popular girl at Crystal Cove High who was murdered and lobotomized^{[citation needed]}
• Debby Ryan as Krista, another attractive girl at Crystal Cove High who is lobotomized in the same manner as Brenda^{[citation needed]}
• Kulap Vilaysack as Lola, another attractive girl at Crystal Cove High who is lobotomized in the same manner as Brenda and Krista^{[citation needed]}
• Jim Rash as Dave, the self-proclaimed "cool" Mayor of Crystal Cove^{[citation needed]}
• Stephen Root as Sheriff Cogburn, the incompetent sheriff of Crystal Cove.^[13]
• Jason Mantzoukas as Scrappy-Doo.

Series overview

Season 1 (2023)

Season 2 (2024)

Critical response

Velma has received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 39% approval rating with an average rating of 5.9/10 based on 36 critics. The website's critics consensus reads, "Jinkies! This radical reworking of the beloved Mystery Team has plenty of attitude and style, but it doesn't have the first clue for how to turn its clever subversion into engaging fun".^[30] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 54 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[31]

Saloni Gajjar of The A.V. Club gave the show a positive review, praising most of the humor, characterization, storytelling, voice cast, and creative liberties, but stating that sometimes the show falls victim to the tropes it mocks. She concluded the review by saying, "This isn't the Velma we're used to, but it's the Velma we deserve to enjoy today."^[32] Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly was far more negative and gave the show a C, describing it as a "self-aware slog" and "so extra it's minus." He criticized the strong emphasis on pop-culture references and meta humor, and how they tend to bury the few bright spots.^[33] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two out of four stars and stated that "at times the humor is smart and spot-on, but it quickly becomes exhausting. It's as if a team of very clever scribes gathered in a writers' room and recorded everything they said – and then shoehorned all of it into the series."^[34]

Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence criticized the show's unbalanced tone, lack of focus, absence of Scooby-Doo, and overstuffed narrative. She also stated the series "feels a bit PG in comparison to other adult animation currently in the works." Conversely, Miller praised the voice acting as well as some of the gags, ending the review by hoping for a second season to iron out its flaws, having noted the show takes a "the first season is really the pilot episode" approach.^[35] In a mixed critique, Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter praised the "thoughtful, emotionally honest" portrayal of Velma herself, but made note of how the show loves to poke fun at televised tropes, yet "seems somewhat less sure of what it has to offer in their stead." She stated how the series' "insistence that it's not like other shows grows thin" and criticized how the cast feels more like "joke machines" than individual characters.^[36]

Writing for IGN, Brittany Vincent criticized the series' portrayal of its title character, comparing her to "a biting, hateful version of Daria without the character growth," stating this aspect of the show holds it back from being what it strives to be. She did, however, praise the "side-splitting" comedy and the portrayals of Daphne and Fred, concluding that "ironically, the series would be exponentially better without its namesake – or at least [with] a version of her with a bit more character growth."^[37] Paste Magazine's Rendy Jones gave the series a 5.8 out of 10, praising the art direction and voice performances, but describing the writing as "constantly at war with itself". They also compared it unfavorably to Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, which they deemed similar in intentions but superior in execution.^[1] Joshua Alston of Variety wrote the show is "irreverent to a fault", extolling most of the humor but stating it could belong to any other comedy series. He felt the Mystery Inc. gang was "really unpleasant".^[38]

Velma was later ranked by several publications as one of the worst television series of 2023.^[39][40][41]

Audience response

Audience reception to Velma has been overwhelmingly negative.^[42][43][44] It became one of the lowest-rated television shows on IMDb,^[45][46][47] receiving similar low scores from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and Google.^[42][43][48]

Asyia Iftikhar of PinkNews noted in her reflection of audience reception that the show had been "accused of perpetuating stereotypes against South Asian women, criticised for poor attempts at self-aware comedy and slammed for losing the essence of what people love about the Scooby Doo gang."^[49] Brahmjot Kaur of NBC News wrote that the accusations of stereotypes had been rebutted by some who noted characters in other television shows invented by Kaling shared similar personality traits to the titular protagonist, while citing Kaling's past influences.^[45] Wired's Amos Barshad wrote that while there were likely still reactions of a racist and homophobic nature targeting the show, the main complaints were for it addressing diversity issues in a "flat, one-note manner", and that the "flippant" portrayal of Velma's sexuality had divided fans.^[50] However, when discussing the issue of racial stereotyping in Velma, Lakshmi Srinivas, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of Massachusetts, felt that Kaling was being held to unfair standards as one of the few leading Asian figures in the entertainment industry.^[45]