With the streaming subscription business in a nose-dive, I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix is just doing whatever it can to try to stay newsworthy. Any press is good press and all that.
Nobody makes a bad show on purpose to get buzz in response to a sudden drop in subscriptions. There are many obvious reasons for this. Bad shows
cause more people to leave the service. Sudden drops in subscriptions happen, well, suddenly, and it takes
literally years to design, produce, record and promote a show.
Velma is an HBO Max show you know the people that messed up Game of Thrones so I don't think its a press thing. It's just terrible writing with bad ideas.
I'm not saying it's a "press thing." Clearly Velma has gotten universally bad press. I'm saying the opposite. The bad press was the goal. Not Netflix's goal, but of the IP holders'.
They made Season 1 of bad on purpose to hedge out the fans that have been keeping the franchise trapped in the '70s ever since the '90s. Once the 'controlled burn' has run its course (probably this will be Season 2 Ep 1,) Velma's showrunner will have
one chance to tell
an actual goddamned story to the remaining audience of teens who didn't mind Season 1 because their taste in media is still forming.
Whether that audience
likes Season 2 or not is almost irrelevant-- what matters is, everyone who grew up watching the 70s cartoon, the movies, and whatever the hell the Ultra Instinct Shaggy meme is from will either be long gone or else will have accepted the new face of the franchise.
Which means they can finally pick a lane--
any lane-- and be confident that whatever stories they tell, the franchise will still be relevant
40 years from now.