Superhero Media: Titans - Season 1

Why, with all the versions of the Teen Titans in media right now, is the best one Teen Titans GO!? Seriously, that makes no sense, and I'm a big fan of Teen Titans GO!, for the record. I was warned that Titans was a pretty dire watch, but once I got past the infamous "Fuck Batman" scene, I found I was really into about half the episodes. As in, I really enjoyed every even numbered episode of Titans and found the odd numbered ones to be barely watchable. Other Netflix series in the same genre, like Daredevil or The Umbrella Academy, have a similar issue where they're often really only "half-good", but never to such an extreme as Titans. Having dropped the titular "Teen" from the team, the only teenagers are Raven and Gar (he never gets called Beast Boy), with Robin working as a Detective, Hawk and Dove being out of College and Starfire being a hot mess of ideas masquerading as an FBI agent. 

So back when this series dropped, I made a post on my Facebook where I had Chris O'Donnell, Shawn Ashmore from Animorphs, Raven Simone and Ru Paul along with a snarky comment about how the characters looked. Now, comparing a woman to a female impersonator is a pretty nasty thing to do and I still feel bad about it, but Kori really does look like she's stepped out of a different series and it's very distracting. The entirety of Titans is filled with baffling decisions like Kori's costume, with Gar only able to turn into a tiger, Jason Todd drinking and doing drugs to impress Dick and having episodes take place entirely inside character's heads. I, naturally, think grimdarking up the Teen Titans is a silly idea, but Titans does a reasonable job of it, most notably by focusing on Raven and Robin, who are both framed as fleeing their trauma. The antagonists of the series, such as they are, come from a mysterious magical order trying to help bring Raven's father into the world; annoyingly, they never mention the name Trigon. 

As of the time of writing, a second series of Titans is in production, and I'm interested to see where it goes. None of the issues with the first season are insurmountable and the solid cast does make for engaging viewing at the best of times. With a slight shift in tone and a shake-up of the writing staff, Titans could be one of the better DCU programmes out there, especially with the habit of keeping the Justice League just out of shot. I do think the idea that being a former child sidekick causing PTSD and trauma should remain an element of the programme, as the better parts of such storytelling with Dick, Jason and Donna Troy really resonate. I'd also like to see more of the fanciful elements of the characters embraced, like Raven's magic, Starfire's alien heritage and culture and maybe even the introduction of someone like Kid Flash, Terra or Aqualad. If all you've heard about Titans is how bad it is, give it a go for yourself, there are great moments in there and the bad stuff is more boring than awful.