This incarnation of the popular cartoon series finds Scooby and the gang living in Crystal Cove, a small town with a long history of ghost sightings, monster tales and other mysteries ripe for the sleuths to solve once and for all. But the longstanding Crystal Cove residents, who bank on the town's reputation to attract tourists, are prepared to do what it takes to protect their turf.
*SPOILER REVIEW*
After watching so many underwhelming projects from the Scooby-Doo franchise lately, seeing something that not only pays a loving tribute to the original "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" series, but also expanding and improving upon elements in new and interesting ways that doesn't feel wrong and out of place is so mind boggling to me.
Like i knew going in that this was going to a joy to watch, but my first impression of the first few episodes was't too high. I like the idea of Shaggy and Velma dating at the beginning only for them to break up because they have so little in common, that it would ultimately be a very unhealthy relationship, but i feel like them dragging that plot point out for the first 10 episodes felt a bit tedious. Shaggy and Velma want it to work out, but you know it's not gonna last and I feel like they should ended their relationship in the first 5 episodes. This is when Scooby becomes really unlikable for these first few episodes where he hates the idea of sharing Shaggy with Velma even though later in the series, Scooby gets his own girlfriend and Shaggy doesn't mind at all. So the show runners just made him unlikable for the sole reason of splitting up Shaggy and Velma. Daphne's dialogue 95% of the time just boiled down to "Will Fred F^$% me?" and she barely has any personality out of that, but thankfully she get's better later in the series and it is really sweet when Fred and Daphne finally get together. Fred was perfectly fine for a bit, he's admiration for traps is cranked up to 11 and it is very funny if you want to think about in anime logic. I heard somewhere that the best character in Scooby-Doo history was Mystery Incorporated's iteration of Fred and for most of the first season, I didn't see it. But when we get to Fred's parents, it get's really interesting. So it turns out that apparently Fred's mom that he thought died was just a photo from a magazine and the person that he saw as his father his whole life stole him when Fred was a baby from his real parents which is such a betrayal because we got to grow attached to these characters for the entire duration of season 1. But what's most heartbreaking is that even though the mayor practically treated Fred like dirt and Fred always trying to get his dad's approval, he was more of a loving and compassionate father than his supposed "real" parents.
The overall mystery was really well done and cool, but this is where I get to one of my other problems, the mysteries are some of the predictable they have ever been in Scooby-Doo history. I learned overtime that there is a trade-off with Scooby-Doo mysteries. Either A, a mystery has around 5 suspects,but ultimately feels overbloated with undeveloped characters that the episodes has to divide it's time with or B, a mystery has about 2 suspects, but usually one is just too obvious to be the suspect and that's where the predictability comes in. Option B is does give an episode a tighter script, but it doesn't lead to a strong mystery.
The side characters were honestly pretty good. Patrick Warburton as Sheriff Stone was really enjoyable and the sexual tension between him and Mayor Jones was on another on another level, but no, they had to give him a girlfriend in the form as the OTHER mayor which is sad because my fan-fiction will never come to light now :(. uh, I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but I didn't like Hot Dog Water very much as a character. I really can't take her seriously with her name and design and she's just really a discount version of Velma and I didn't see her and Velma as a romantic pairing, like at all, but her ultimate sacrifice was well done and a good send-off for her as a character. Mr E and Professor Pericles was both great villains and very intimating and some of the best Scooby-Doo has to offer. The Vincent Young tribute character was funny, I wish they actually gave Skipper Shelton some focus in a episode, Gary and Ethan for pretty much chads, the parents were (mostly) a delight, and The Hex Girls cameo appearances are at least better than the one in Legend of the Vampire.
Another problem I have with this show is it's commentary. It was alright in the first episode, but I guess the writers completely don't know what the meaning of "subtle" is. It's so on the nose and frequent that it starts to just become annoying and preachy. Like I came to watch a Scooby-Doo cartoon, not a critique on the American Legal System. The only way I see that actually working and being effective if it way more restrained and a lot more subtle.
Overall great show, it still has it's problems no doubt, but the amount of good things in it just makes it, for me, the Scooby-Doo media ever made and I will take that to my grave if I must.
Happy Halloween everyone!