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chuckro“And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and your dog!”
This is remarkably clever despite fitting firmly into the Scooby-Doo formulaic monster-of-the-week mold. They added romantic subplots, gave Fred some genuine personality (and a ridiculous obsession to go with everyone else’s), created families for the characters to interact with and a recurring supporting cast. Everything takes place in or around Crystal Cove (“Most Hauntedest Place on Earth”), allowing for more connections.
Despite the show’s episodic nature, they have ongoing subplots that strongly recommend watching the series in the correct order. Characters from earlier episodes reappear in the ongoing narrative. They take care to throw in early cameos of Hot Dog Water to show off that she’s going to be someone noteworthy. We also see several appearances of horror writer H.P. Hatecraft and horror actor Vincent Van Ghoul. And those guest stars are only the tip of the “jokes aimed at the parents” iceberg, as there’s an entire Twilight-parody background gag, references to lots of classic horror tropes, and even the (totally G-rated) trapping magazine Fred reads, which is clearly a Playboy reference.
Despite them carefully keeping everything PG (no one seems to really get killed, there aren’t really any guns or real-world dangers), it’s an impressively scary show for kids. They give each monster a full “the gang is scared, this one might really be supernatural” sequence, despite the fact that every single one turns out to be somebody in a costume using absurd tricks or technology to pretend to be supernatural. (And they play up the insanity of that: In an episode where two flying wizards have a magic lightning battle, it’s revealed they’re using jetpacks and portable Van de Graaff generators.)
Season-end SPOILERS
The first season addresses the smaller overarching mystery of what happened to the original Mystery Inc. group. (Mayor Jones, as The Freak, blackmailed them into giving up the planespheric disk piece and leaving town. Then he locked up Professor Pericles. Mister E and Angel Dynamite returned and were prodding on our heroes with clues; the remaining two members were Fred’s real parents.) Larger questions about the secret treasure driving all of this remain, and we’re also left with the cliffhanger that Fred is leaving town, Shaggy is being shipped off to military school, and Daphne is heartbroken. Scooby vows to get the gang back together, which sounds like a likely plot for the beginning of season two.
Overall: This is fun and very clever…and now I need to watch Season 2 to learn the answers to all the ongoing mysteries. Never thought I’d say that about Scooby-Doo, let me tell you!
This is remarkably clever despite fitting firmly into the Scooby-Doo formulaic monster-of-the-week mold. They added romantic subplots, gave Fred some genuine personality (and a ridiculous obsession to go with everyone else’s), created families for the characters to interact with and a recurring supporting cast. Everything takes place in or around Crystal Cove (“Most Hauntedest Place on Earth”), allowing for more connections.
Despite the show’s episodic nature, they have ongoing subplots that strongly recommend watching the series in the correct order. Characters from earlier episodes reappear in the ongoing narrative. They take care to throw in early cameos of Hot Dog Water to show off that she’s going to be someone noteworthy. We also see several appearances of horror writer H.P. Hatecraft and horror actor Vincent Van Ghoul. And those guest stars are only the tip of the “jokes aimed at the parents” iceberg, as there’s an entire Twilight-parody background gag, references to lots of classic horror tropes, and even the (totally G-rated) trapping magazine Fred reads, which is clearly a Playboy reference.
Despite them carefully keeping everything PG (no one seems to really get killed, there aren’t really any guns or real-world dangers), it’s an impressively scary show for kids. They give each monster a full “the gang is scared, this one might really be supernatural” sequence, despite the fact that every single one turns out to be somebody in a costume using absurd tricks or technology to pretend to be supernatural. (And they play up the insanity of that: In an episode where two flying wizards have a magic lightning battle, it’s revealed they’re using jetpacks and portable Van de Graaff generators.)
Season-end SPOILERS
The first season addresses the smaller overarching mystery of what happened to the original Mystery Inc. group. (Mayor Jones, as The Freak, blackmailed them into giving up the planespheric disk piece and leaving town. Then he locked up Professor Pericles. Mister E and Angel Dynamite returned and were prodding on our heroes with clues; the remaining two members were Fred’s real parents.) Larger questions about the secret treasure driving all of this remain, and we’re also left with the cliffhanger that Fred is leaving town, Shaggy is being shipped off to military school, and Daphne is heartbroken. Scooby vows to get the gang back together, which sounds like a likely plot for the beginning of season two.
Overall: This is fun and very clever…and now I need to watch Season 2 to learn the answers to all the ongoing mysteries. Never thought I’d say that about Scooby-Doo, let me tell you!
