3 out of 5

Developed by: Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and Greg Berlanti

Trying too hard?  Yes, perhaps; the promos for Titans had Robin notoriously ruing “fuck Batman,” and the opening episode is rather keen to include bone-breaking, glass-shard-scraping violence.  This rather forced grittiness does pop up here and again, especially with some of the show’s weakest inclusions – Hawk and Dove, perhaps spotlit only as spinoff fodder – and general flirtations with a dark and grimy tone and palette.

However, hiding almost directly beneath that Zak Snydered exterior is a rather fun show, and to balance out that Snyder snipe, while first glance puts the show in the same universe as that director’s DCU films, it turns out to be something of a fake out: Titans’ willingness to go all-in with the over-the-top approach puts it more in the league of Gotham – a show which I feel has emerged as one of the most continually satisfying and fun comic book shows – and all the fuck-flinging settles into very comfortable, natural banter for the cast.  By the time you get around to an episode that features Doom Patrol – sure, also spin-off fodder, but infinitely more interesting than Hawk and Dove – you recognize the same appreciation for kookiness that fuels the better genre series and episodes.

The core cast’s likeableness certainly helps: Brenton Thwaites may glower a lot as Robin, but it’s part of his character – trying to grow past his Batman-bred grim – and once he teams up as something of a caretaker for Raven (Teagan Croft) and Beast Boy (Ryan Potter), with Starfire (Anna Diop) also attached out of circumstance, camaraderie kicks up and everyone becomes quite enjoyable to be around.

The first season primarily has Raven discovering her dark heritage, and the path to that definitely has some plot churn: a stopover in an asylum to do some flashbacking slows things down late in the season, and there that’s damned Hawk and Dove focus, which, despite my liking Alan Ritchson (Hawk) from Blood Drive, doesn’t help to enliven a dull set of characters.  And, of course, there’s the “fuck Batman” sensibility kind of hanging out off to the side, which is eye-rolly when it gets the spotlight.  I can appreciate DC wanting to make a splash with its first series offering for its streaming service, and what better way than to potty-mouth the boy wonder, but the show will be better once it realizes its more extreme moments aren’t really a necessity to keep the more appealingly wild and crazy aspects up to snuff.