Anastasia Freeman

In spite of a few minor plot holes and some directionless filler content, this spinoff series proved to be an exceptional addition to The Walking Dead franchise. I really enjoyed getting to see the zombie apocalypse through a more baroque lens - replete with gorgeous shots of the French countryside, crumbling castles and chapels, and a cutthroat city underbelly. But if you think all this show will offer is aesthetic scenes of our bedraggled hero trekking across France, you couldn’t be more wrong. This is an incredible dive into Daryl’s search for a greater purpose as he finds himself torn between helping Laurent - a young boy believed by many to be the next messiah - and trying to get back home. Judith’s words to Daryl: “You deserve to find happiness too” are repeated throughout the show as he finds himself more and more drawn to a place he never thought he would truly belong. And in the final episode, as we discover, his ties to France are more than just skin-deep. I highly recommend giving this a watch if you were somewhat disappointed in the Maggie and Negan redemption arc. It may renew some of your faith in The Walking Dead as something worth continuing to follow along.

If Velma was an entirely different show centered around the same storyline in a new universe, it may have worked. As it stands, HBO’s “hit cartoon sensation” draws very little inspiration from the original source material and leaves the viewers wondering…who was this even made for? Mindy Kaling and other producers will double-down and say it’s for the now-grown fans of the classic series. But aside from similar outfit designs, these “re-imagined” characters have nothing in common with their beloved counterparts. Velma is completely obnoxious and unlikeable, and she’s so self-assured in her constant belittling of everyone else that you’re left to question why they made her the main character instead of someone to root for being killed off. And her best friend, Norville? He’s pathetically in love with her even though she openly admits - repeatedly, like every episode - that she only wants him around when it’s convenient. I’m not sure how he’s supposed to remotely resemble Shaggy except that he does…snack reviews? Fred and Daphne are just completely messy and toxic, and despite the show’s criticism of racist stereotypes they lean heavily into making Fred an “ignorant rich white guy.” HBO may also claim the show can be for “the new generation,” but that bogus is completely shattered when in the first two minutes we’re exposed to a group of naked high-schoolers griping about played-out television tropes. It’s one of the show’s many attempts at unsuccessful meta humor, and this gets progressively worse with each episode. They try to relate to a teen audience, but it’s like one of the writers just googled buzzwords for Gen Z and threw a handful of those into the script. And they repeatedly mock their adult audience for being “too old for cartoons,” so once again, who is actually supposed to be watching this? My best guess is that Mindy Kaling somehow managed to get a self-insert fanfiction picked up simply because someone at HBO is desperate to expand their adult cartoon selection and didn’t really read the whole thing through before green-lighting it. Which, props, I guess. But why not just take out the Scooby Doo portion and make a whole new world for these characters? This whole thing just seems stupid and pointless. If they renew it for a second season, I certainly won’t be watching.