Mystery, Inc. is an American mystery television series that was developed by Greg Berlanti and Rob Thomas. The main point of the series is to do for Scooby-Doo what Riverdale did for Archie, taking something goofy and silly and trying to make it more serious in tone. The first episode aired on the CW on October 31, 2019. The series follows a group of College students who are wrapped into many large mysteries and conspiracies in their hometown of Coolsville.
Series Overview[]
Main article:List of Mystery, Inc. episodes
| Season | Episodes | First Aired | Last Aired | Average viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13 | October 31, 2019. | January 23, 2020. | 2.30 |
| 2 | 13 | July 9, 2021. | October 4, 2021. | 2.50 |
Season One[]
When he was a child, Fred Jones witnessed his father be taken away by supernatural forces, sparking an obsession with them in the boy. Now in College, Fred meets a group of individuals named Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Shaggy Rogers and Shaggy's dog Scooby-Doo. The four form a group known as Mystery, Inc. becoming freelance detectives that specialize in the supernatural.
Season Two[]
After the events of last season Mystery, Inc. has split up due to the supernatural forces in Coolsville seemingly disappearing, though they remain close friends. However, they find out that the supernatural forces aren't disappearing but running away in an attempt to escape something that is coming. This "something" turns out to be a godly entity known as Zverbog, who Shaggy has recurring nightmares about. When an FBI agent named Elena Novak shows up and threatens to take them to jail if they continue their investigation things get even more intense, as they must now find out how to stop Zverbog before Novak finds them out.
Cast[]
- Alex Pettyfer as Frederick "Fred" Jones, the pseudo-leader of the gang who most consider extremely off-putting and odd due to his obsession with the supernatural and the fact he acts like a supernatural being himself, suddenly showing up out of nowhere, never sleeping at a normal time and so on. His own friends are spooked by him very often, sometimes causing him to be punched because of it.
- Kevin McHale as Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, a cowardly, food-obsessed slacker who is only a member of Mystery, Inc. because he's friends with the others. He is the owner of Scooby-Doo, a very intelligent dog. Shaggy lives in a trailer park and supposedly cheated to get into the College. He is usually the first person in the group to encounter the villain of the episode, prompting him to run away screaming.
- Karen Gillan as Daphne Blake, the daughter of the richest family in Coolsville and the heiress to the Blake fortune. Daphne is very bored with her life at the beginning of the series and joins public College in an attempt to meet exciting people. Due to her wealth and her eagerness when it comes to solving mysteries she is the one the villains target most often, earner her the nickname "Danger-Prone Daphne"
- Mae Whitman as Velma Dinkley, the smartest girl at the College who, at first, doesn't believe in the supernatural. In later episodes, she becomes more willing to accept the supernatural, though she is still sceptical about whether or not the monsters they deal with are real or if the people hiring them are paranoid. She wears a pair of square glasses that are frequently lost, dirtied up, damaged, etc.
Production[]
The CW was sceptical when they where first pitched the idea of the show, but after seeing it play it in action in the pilot episode of the series it was picked up for a full season of 13 episodes. The casting for the series was the hardest part, as the creators wanted actors who looked like the original characters. Kevin McHale was the first person cast, as he was during a conversation with someone working on the show he told them he was entertained by the show's concept and joked about playing Shaggy, not realizing that the person he was talking to was actually about to offer him the role of Shaggy. The rest of the cast was picked shortly after him.
The series' creature design was the hardest part, as they wanted to make it clear that the monsters in this show were real. Because of this, the actors who played the show's monsters had to sit for hours as makeup was applied to their faces and bodies. In one episode a monster was meant to appear several times throughout the runtime, but the monster's appearance was so hard to pull off they only had it appear once at the end. Another big part of the show was the non-humanoid antagonists who were mostly made up of CGI creatures, though every now and again they would, quoting the costume designer, "just find a stick a mask on a really big dog and let it run around for a bit".
Reception[]
The series has received generally positive reviews from critics, who claim that despite the odd premise the show manages to be quite entertaining. Critics claim that the show's more goofy and comedic moments make the more horror-inspired scenes even more off-putting.