*May contain spoilers*
Last night, the 13th episode of Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated, “When the Cicada Calls” aired and I am shaking my head. Don’t get me wrong. I like this current millionth reincarnation of the talking dog and his four teenage friends. The problem I have is that the series is quickly falling into predictable and mundane plots. Yes, I know that no one has ever said that an episode of Scooby Doo is supposed to be as puzzling, yet as satisfying as an episode of Perry Mason, but sometimes it seems like the writers are not even trying.
So far, the series has done some really cool shout-outs to old Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters, like Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, Speed Buggy and, not surprisingly, to their own corporate past villains and guests. These acknowledgments of the past, earn the writers points with older viewers, but what subtracts those points is laziness for using the original “Law & Order” model of TV scripting. What is the L&O model of scripting? Simply that the real villain/ criminal is NEVER the first suspect arrested. Knowing that, it isn’t hard to identify the real Scooby Doo villain of each episode within the first 10 minutes of the 23 minute cartoon.
However, I have been willing to forgive the plot predictability because the series has excelled at showing inter-personal relationships. Velma Dinkley loves Norville (Shaggy) Rogers. Shaggy likes Velma, but chooses to love his dog more (I am so reminded of the Hawkgirl/ Green Lantern/ Vixen mashup from Justice League Unlimited). Daphne Blake really likes Fred Jones who acknowledges that he has feelings for Daphne, but loves building traps more. Finally, for the record, Scooby Doo loves Shaggy and is jealous of Velma.
I will give the writers some credit for acknowledging an important facet of human nature. That is, when a very small group of men and women work together and constantly socialize with each other over a long period of time, bonds of attachment will form between individual group members which over time will become disruptive to the original group dynamic. If a new group dynamic can’t be achieved acknowledging the new bonds, then the group breaks down (and apart). We have already seen this take place on this show with the group breaking up for one episode after Shaggy rejected Velma for his dog and Daphne and Fred going out on a real date in last night episode. Also, in last night’s episode we saw an angry and rejected Velma hinting not too subtlety to Scooby Doo that she will outlive her rival for Shaggy’s affection and is not the least bit interested in being friends with the animal.
That brings me to something comedian, Ron White once said, “You can’t fix stupid because stupid is forever.” So after 13 episodes, here’s a personal opinion shouted out loud: Shaggy is stupid, not dumb, not an idiot, just plain stupid for choosing the dog over the human female. Newsflash for Norville Rogers – Great Danes only live for 7-10 years. You can always get another dog. It might be 2 or 3 decades before you find another woman willing to put up with your crap. Just saying!
Despite my protest to the contrary, the bottom line is I’m still enjoying this version of Scooby Doo, but I suspect that I will soon tire of the predictable plots unless they start moving more quickly to solve the overarching mystery the group discovered in the first episode. Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated is no “Secret Saturdays,” but it is still a good view.