Mindy Kaling’s ‘Velma’ buries its mysteries under a barrage of pop-culture quips

“Velma” takes places during the Scooby Gang’s high school years, when the title character (left, voice of Mindy Kaling) is estranged from former best friend Daphne (Constance Wu). (HBO Max)

It takes all of two minutes of the pilot episode of the HBO Max animated series “Velma” to make it crystal clear this reimagining of “Scooby Doo” is going to be an adult-oriented and extremely meta take on “the greatest team of spooky mystery solvers ever.” Mindy Kaling’s title character introduces herself by saying:

“My name is Velma Dinkly, and this is my origins story. Sure, normally origins stories are about tall handsome guys struggling with the burden of being handed even more power. And if they are about girls, it’s usually like, ‘Hey, what made this hot chick go crazy?’ ”