Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated

**SPOILERS AHEAD** **Character Overview:** I think the shows main problem is right here, the characters. They all feel so shallow, except for Velma, but everybody else is just kind of there. I think Daphne is great example of this, in the beginning episodes we met her parents and her very successful sisters while she is not. This could have been at least explore, in an episode or two. It could have added something to her character, as her only purpose throughout the show was to be with Fred, and even when they broke up she just dated another guy. I think they made the worst choice here, even her doing nothing except trying to get over Fred would have been better. We would at least see her struggling, I am just sad her character went nowhere. During the end they get together, and it is mentioned that she is now the only successful sister. This was clearly planned and for some reason dropped, but it was really needed for her character development. Velma has the most depth in the show compared to everyone else, it's nothing amazing but at least she has something going for her. She was really annoying during the beginning of the show with the whole Shaggy relationship, once she figured out this wasn't for her, she got a lot better. Her interactions with Mr E and Cassidy were interesting, and we did get to see her in some tough spots because of that. Especially once we she got closer to Marcie, and I do wish this got explored more. For some reason they dumped Marcie completely and it just felt so out of character for everyone. Nevertheless there was always something going on with Velma if not her relationship and business with Mr E, we did get to explore her relationship with her mother a bit. Actually Velma's mother was the parent we learned the most about. Their relationship was a bit strained at first, but they warmed up to each other by the end. While all of these moments were short lived for Velma, the rest of the main cast didn't even get a fraction of this. The rest of the parents are just there, like you would think Fred would have the most interesting relationship with his parents because of everything, but somehow that is not the case. It feels like almost everything got swept under the rug. Fred got so annoying towards the end with his traps, there has to be more depth to him than just traps. There are some moments where you can tell he is bothered by all this, but it is such small bits that it feels like it doesn't matter. We do get to see warm to his adoptive dad, which I do wish we saw some reasoning from Fred. Especially considering what his dad has done. Overall Fred's character is also the definition of wasted potential. Shaggy and Scooby are honestly just there, nothing much happens to either of them, except minor relationship stuff and the Vincent van Ghoul stuff. I'm really trying to think of one thing I liked or disliked about them, but I've got nothing. When it comes to the antagonists I'll keep it short. Fred's parents could have at least shown some dilemma with betraying him, Mr E was fine he did show interesting qualities. Pericles was just the definition of an evil character with nothing interesting behind him. I will also mention the Sheriff and Mayor, they were pretty cute actually, felt like I should point them out, they were in the episodes often. **Story Overview:** The episodic monsters got boring starting from season 2 and onwards. I gave it a bit more slack for the first season, but I felt that starting season 2 they really should have pushed the over-arching plot into the spotlight. I am not saying they should have stopped with the episodic format, but just better incorporated with the main plot. For the actual quality of the main plot, it was fine I did like it. I do wish we had more time with the antagonist, they just felt evil for the sake of being evil. It did have some good moments still, and the ending was interesting. I wish I could comment more on it but the story really only picked up in the end. The keys also felt randomly scattered about sometimes, in general the show had a lot of random moments for the sake of progressing the story/episode. There many good ideas here, and even some mentions of iconic Scooby-Doo characters like the Hex Girls. The creators really did put a lot of thought into it, but in the end all I see is wasted potential. **Animation/OST:** The animation was lacking at times, or just weird, mainly for the characters. The backgrounds I did like most of the time, but characters really looked janky at times. It didn't happen that often luckily, but apart from that I can't really praise it that much. I really wish the faces were a bit more detailed. For example, when Velma hears gunshots right after leaving Marcie alone, there should have been some emotion shown. Generally it was fine for most of the show, but when the animation needed to do the heavy work it failed pretty badly. The soundtrack follows along the same lines as the animation, we mostly heard the same tunes as well. Unlike the animation, I don’t think the soundtrack really did the show dirty as the animation did on occasion. I can’t praise it still but it was fine. **Overall:** I think the team had good ideas, but the way to put it together just feels so shallow. I really wanted to like this, this was one of my favorite shows growing up. Watching now it just did not hit the same. I already said, but I really can't recommend this show to everyone, I would still suggest giving it a try, but in my eyes, this show is nowhere near an 8/10.