Welcome to the world of the modern-day remake and of an old IP that gender and race swaps its main characters, makes women the focal point behind every storyline, introduces a gay relationship where none existed before, and makes straight white men the butt of every conceivable joke. Shaggy, now Norville, is a black journalist for the high school paper, and because every show now requires an object of ridicule, Fred has devolved into a spoiled rich kid incapable of performing even the most basic of functions essentially performing to the #WHITEMANBAD social media crowd. Daphne is a stereotypical mean girl who is also a drug dealer and lives with her two mothers. Velma is now a bitter race-swapped lesbian. Yet it doesn’t take long for what I will politely call ‘subtle differences’ to emerge from the original. The high school drama and theoretical comedy are based around the origin of the mystery team. Velma is a modern-day remake of Scooby-Doo. Let me describe to you what happens when a classic family-friendly franchise meets the wrecking ball of modern entertainment. Because nothing screams ‘modern remake’ like an origin story based on a campy 1970s animation. Well, HBO has their hands on the IP, and they have decided in their collective wisdom that it needs to be updated. The show featured Fred, the suave and sophisticated leader of the crew Daphne, the beautiful yet naive and clumsy girlfriend of Fred Velma, the nerdy one who was good at solving puzzles and Shaggy, the hippie, who got into all kinds of mischief alongside his talking dog Scooby-Doo. More often than not, their van, known as the mystery machine, would break down outside an abandoned property inhabited by all manner of ghosts and ghouls. A group of teenagers drove across the country to solve mysteries. It had a well-meaning message about the power of friendship and the strength of working together with others, regardless of race or class. Originally airing on CBS between 19, the animated show was a lighthearted piece of throwaway fun. Yet for this particular writer, nothing encapsulates a misspent youth more than Scooby-Doo. Before discovering cigarettes, alcohol, and trying to solve the riddle of where pornographic magazines came from – why were there always piles of discarded adult magazines in the woods? – the hours spent fiddling away on my Super Nintendo were among the happiest days of my life. George Bernard Shaw once remarked that youth is wasted on the young.
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