Waking up on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons was always a weekly ritual for me as I am sure it was for most children in America.
Though I am only 20 years old I have seen shows like “Power Puff Girls” slowly fade into the past and other shows like “Scooby Doo” morph from a once beloved children’s mystery show to a high school drama focusing more on relationships then mystery solving.
As an avid Netflix watcher I was ecstatic to see that these shows finally made their debut on the site when I was looking through the top ten picks for me.
To my surprise, “Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated” was a 2010 adaptation of the “Scooby Doo” from my childhood. Open to new things, I watched the 26-episode series and was astonished at what was going on.
Instead of the gang trying to uncover new mysteries and keep Crystal Cove safe, they were more focused on their high school dramas.
Norville “Shaggy” Rogers takes part in an on-again, off-again relationship with Velma Dinkley.
He soon decides that his relationship with best friend/ companion Scooby Doo is too valuable to lose so he decides to keep her as a friend.
This is not a bad lesson to learn if it wasn’t for Fred Jones and Daphne Blake’s relationship.
This unhealthy story begins by Fred obliviously ignoring Daphne’s attempts to start a relationship with him, leaving the first few episodes full of her pining for his attention, making her seem weak and lacking self-esteem.
As the series goes on, so does the love struggle between these characters resulting in them ultimately starting their relationship and soon after getting engaged.
For anyone who has seen the older versions of this show, these changes are mind-blowing. It was always assumed that they were in a relationship but it was never focused on in the show.
Furthermore, this show is set in high school, meaning that they are engaged in high school and openly miss school and defy their parents and law enforcement in order to spend time with each other and “ solve mysteries.”
It is amazing that they could fit in any mystery solving with so much drama filling their every day lives.
This is just one of many shows with similar plot lines focusing on being in or finding relationships more than anything else; others include “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Winx Club.”
The audience this is targeted to is too young to understand how watching dysfunctional and disobedient kids will affect them in the long run and give them unhealthy views and expectations for their future relationships.
Priorities for children’s entertainment have changed and it is now more important to entertain with drama and relationship problems then a good old-fashioned mystery.
Veronica Orozco, a sophomore journalism major, is LV Life editor for the Campus Times. She can be reached by email at veronica.orozco@laverne.edu.
