Tune In Tuesday - Scooby Doo Mysteries Inc.

When I eventually get fired, it'll be because I punched an old lady in the face. Seriously, what is their deal? Old ladies LOVE what they love and what they love is usually boring crap. Susan Boyle, Jackie Evancho... back before Xmas, I got a call from a frazzled team member at the Nordyke store where some old lady had apparently gone HAM on his ass because they didn't receive their shipment of fuckin' Jackie Evancho CDs. Who fuckin' cares?! I hope that little brat goes Miley real quick and those old fogies lose interest. Which brings me to... fuckin' Secretariat. These old bitches have been up my ass since before that movie was even out in theaters, wanting to know if we had the DVD. Well, it's finally out, so watch up bitchez! Fuckin' Secretariat. Are you kidding me? Ugh.

Also, I mentioned this to Cathy yesterday, but while I have no problem with the word "fuck" I do have a problem with Enrique Iglesias' song "Tonight I'm Fucking You." It's just... too much. Line crossed. It's just... CRASS. Ugh.
So besides Secretariat, not a whole lot came out on DVD today. I did get Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. Volume One. Animated TV shows on DVD don't sell well, apparently, so most companies have moved away from doing full season boxed sets to just doing smaller, cheaper discs with just a couple of episodes on them. Lame. This one only has the first four episodes, but the episodes I've seen are all jumbled up, so I wanted to watch it from the beginning in order.
If you haven't seen it, it a re-interpretation of the classic Scooby Doo, not a continuation like other recent series like What's New Scooby Doo?. The gang are back in high school. Velma and Shaggy are dating in this version and Fred and Daphne are not (at least not in the beginning), which took some getting used to. It's set in the present, but they still dress the same and ride around in the Mystery Machine. The art style is somewhat stylized from the original. And they don't live in Coolsville anymore, it's now Crystal Cove. Which isn't a bad thing. Crystal Cove is one of the most realized settings in any cartoon I've seen. It's a presumably New England, waterfront community known for its famous hauntings and supernatural occurrences. The fact that Scooby and the gang make it their mission to debunk these situations actually angers the adults in the town including Fred's dad, the mayor and Velma's parents who conduct "haunted tours" of the area! To them, every exposed villain means money out of their pockets and the town's livelihood shrinking!
Like most Warner Brothers cartoons, it's smartly, sharply written, with loads of winks and nods to Scooby series past, including sneaking characters and monsters from the originals into the backgrounds in scenes, up to a guest appearance by fan-faves The Hex Girls from the 1999 direct-to-video movie Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost. Not only that, but they also sneak in cameos by characters from other cartoons. (Apparently, Mystery Inc attend the same high school as the kids from The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan!) Easter eggs for those of us sad enough to have grown up watching such garbage as The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan.

And taking a note from more sophisticated series of the present, the episodes can stand alone but there is also a larger overreaching story arc playing out over the course of the season (?) involving the enigmatic benefactor Mr. E and a bygone group of teens that previously called themselves Mystery Inc.

It's all excellently done, smartly written, well acted... grab this one and try it out! It's the good times!