I can already see this review getting completely ratioed in the likes/dislikes for rating it anything above a 2 and honestly I can't blame anyone for that, while I think a show like "Fairview" deserves the hate that this show received more tenfold, I also can't blame anyone for the visceral reaction they had to this.
Coming as someone with no attachment to the Scooby Doo franchise, Velmas inital hour was completely... tolerable. Not funny at all, almost every single joke missed, but I liked the visuals and some of the characters (specifically Norville, I unironically like them and I am not embarrassed to admit that) were alright. Velma is a bit of an ass, and Fred/Daphne are huge asses, which honestly I'm alright with. I like asshole characters to some extent, they can be incredibly entertaining and as someone whos never cared for Scooby Doo I can't really complain about character assassination (though, I get why a fan would care) Bojack Horseman was a lot more unlikable in the first episode than Velma was here for instance to me, and that show turned out excellent.
Velma feels like the type of show that would've benefited tenfold from a few things:
More respect to it's audience
No relation to Scooby Doo or any other franchise
Jokes that are actually funny
If Velma did all of the things listed above. I would definitely be on board with this show, and that's where Velma gets me. This show is salvageable, and that hurts more than a show like Fairview, I can genuinely imagine a world where an improved take on a show like this could be an absolute banger. But the end result is just, whatever y'know?
For me, Velma was a middle of the road experience, I'd love to be able to proudly rate this a 1/10, or have this super diverse take about how it's a 10/10 or whatever. But I can't fit into either catagory, Velma provokes barely any emotion out of me and the emotions it does provoke are more of "Wow! I wish this was a much better show!". While Velmas premiere gets a 5/10 from me, don't take that as a sign of it being worth watching. Unless I hear about significant improvement, I'll be tuning out of this for now.