Teen Titans Go!

I thought the baby Titans were super cute.

I laughed at Robin ordering Painbot to babysit. Great idea there.

Beast Boy's old man story about the trolley and lemons was surely a tribute to Grandpa Simpson. I liked it.

I wish Control Freak himself had appeared considering the episode title.

Pretty good, but not great. Story of this show's life. ***.

Holiday Mafia? Okay.

It was sort of a nonsense episode but I laughed at Santa torturing the Groundhog with shadow puppets. That was actually clever.

The rest of the episode? Not so much. **1/2.

I realize that using the term cringe has become cringe itself. But that was cringe. *.

In this episode the Teen Titans take on the nonexistent and completely fabricated topic of so-called "Cancel Culture". It's about as subtle and accurate a take on this topic as can be expected from a show with this raging level of insincerity.

That being said, it should be worse than it is. Any episode where Raven says "I know you did NOT just call my butt pronounced!" cannot be entirely worthless. By definition. Also interesting to point out that while kids shows can't say "fart", every euphemism they are allowed to use for that word somehow always sounds worse, more vulgar, and grosser. I don't understand censors either.

But let's not kid ourselves that that still didn't suck. 1 1/2 stars.

I don't care about common core math, therefore the episode was boring.

I liked the Calculator though. I like when the show introduces DC villains the old show never got around to.

Speaking of the old show, "Your number is up, Calculator!" is the precise type of groaner that show's Robin would have done.

But the rest of the episode was the gooking of the gobbledy. 2 1/2 stars.

This is NOT the show to binge four episodes in a week. The stupid filler lesson episodes seem even more pointless by doing that than if you suffered them on a weekly basis.

For the record, the show is not wrong for taking a shot at the idea of health insurance. As far as perks go, it's expensive, and rarely pays off. Ned Flanders didn't believe in insurance because he considered it gambling. I think Flanders was actually right about something for once. Doesn't stop this episode sucking though. 2 stars.

Are trademark trolls actually a thing? I suspect so. This show is one of the few shows on television that always informs me about untold depths of human scumbaggery. The other major show that does that is The Blacklist. The difference here, is this show is almost always highlighting scammers that already exist, while the warped writers of The Blacklist are creating and positing dangerous ideas that should never be put into the minds of the general public. So this show tells me a LOT of facets about terrible people I simply did not know, but at least it's not dangerous, and even if it WERE imitable, it's describing behavior that already exists, not putting bad ideas into sick people's heads, so no real harm done.

The titanium number element thing was such a shoddy stretch, the Riddler could have devised it on Batman '66. Neat coinkydink tho'.

Man, I'm glad this week is over. The show may only be eleven minutes long, but those minutes crawl by when watching a bunch of eps at once. 3 stars.

JB Smoove was brilliant as Black Manta. I also LOVED the live-action underwater shoebox diorama.

Whoa! Aquaman finally spoke! Patrick Warburton was an interesting choice to play him.

I can't believe the show allowed Seahorse Beast Boy to become pregnant.

Pretty funny. ****.

Clayface! I like that he did it because the Titans are disgusting.

Beast Boy as a kitty playing with the toilet paper was cute.

I like that the Bruce Wayne bust was from Batman: The Animated Series.

This is the only continuity where Batman stinks up bathrooms.

I liked Starfire's Captain Toothpaste voice.

Funny episode. 4 stars.

The second half was too dark and lost the plot thread.

I liked the visual of Batman licking ice cream.

I forgot Zach Galifianakis played Joker in The Lego Batman Movie.

Too dark by the end. 2 1/2 stars.

I HATE porch pirates. They piss me off.

Ace the Bathound! Neat!

I love Cyborg checking the thing with a hose from his bumbum.

I love that Batman has a statue of Gordon in the fountain that pukes bats.

The land sharks are cute.

This episode was kinda funny but nothing special. 3 stars.

I'm not gonna say the show is running out of ideas but I was never demanding a Sticky Joe episode.

I like his Night Begins To Shine Design. I watched Heavy Metal 2000 recently and found it utterly lacking compared to Teen Titans Go!.

The stuff in what was supposed to be the Phantom Zone was weird. That demon was weirdly obsessed with Sweet Home Alabama. We sure that wasn't Cyborg in disguise? He WAS voiced by Khary Payton.

Silkie's back. Or more likely he never left.

Got appearances from Krypto the Superdog, Streaky, and Jonah Hex.

I like that Alfred routinely kisses Batman on the forehead. While he's in costume.

I especially like that Batman owns a version of the game Duck Hunt where Robin is the duck and Joker is the obnoxious and hateful dog.

Hawkman's Nth Metal mace must suck if it can't open a can of beans.

That was better than it had any right to be. 4 stars.

I like that the videogame characters turned on Toymaster once he declared himself "the Boss". Like, duh.

I wonder how cathartic is must have been for the writers to suggest the creators and makers of cartoons don't see any of the money the cartoons make. Very timely message, if you ask me.

I also like the notion that shows getting greenlit (and all of Hollywood for that matter) are down to nothing more than random dumb luck.

For a stupid show this one was plenty insightful about how much the animation industry currently sucks. ****.

JB Smoove is back as Black Manta so soon because the show realized what every single cartoon realizes once they work with him. The guy is a bonafide cartoon superstar in the making. His whole riff at the end over Aquaman's orange and green outfit is why that actor makes every cartoon he is in better. I suspect in the coming years, he's gonna become unaffordable for the likes of this show (much like Mark Hamill currently is) so they better enjoy him while they can. 4 1/2 stars.

I think this episode is too damn mean. Which might not be a problem if it weren't so utterly predictable. It's why I dislike this group of characters so much. 1 star.

Silly, but enjoyable. My favorite bit was the part with Booster Gold. 3 1/2 stars.

Faulty premise. There ARE no commercials during this eleven minute show. We always have to suffer through the entire thing at once.

That being said, I liked the action figure commercial. I wish they still made playsets like that. I'd totally buy one. Also, it's believable the Titans are the villains there. Because they actually are on the show too.

All right. 3 stars.

I didn't like it. But I think most of the DC fandom will absolutely loathe it and consider it the worst episode of all time. I don't feel that way at all. But I can see it working DC fans' last nerve. I didn't like it, but the difference between me and the rest of this show's adult viewers is that I liked the idea and premise, and just found fault with the execution.

People are just gonna drag on the crossover with Nandi and Thomas, but I thought their voices and character designs were utterly cute. I was rooting for an episode with kids who talk like Bluey to succeed, whereas many other adults were probably scowling. I'm sad it didn't. But my brain is filled with disappointment, not loathing.

The reason the crossover doesn't work is because it forgets the biggest rule of a potential crossover: the guest star should NEVER be a more important story point than the main cast. Nandi and Thomas basically took over the Titans with nobody objecting or questioning it. And it's not their show. I don't mind them along for the ride. But I don't like them taking over.

The other problem I had was something that annoyed me even before Nandi and Thomas showed up. The Joker's villainous plot was the kind of hokey thing he would do on Batman '66. Now it might be okay for the show to have him do that if there was a bit of self-aware irony there. But it's played distressingly straight which means this show believes it is as dumb as Batman '66. That is not a good thing for this show to believe. It's bad for the writers and the viewers equally.

A bunch of Comic Book Guys are going to declare this failure the Worst Episode Ever. Not me though. I was kind of rooting for it, and was disappointed it was a let-down. Now the haters won't shut up about it, which is annoying. 1 1/2 stars.

I like both "Moo-yah!" and the knock-off to The Neverending Story Theme at the end.

Only beef is this version of Dr. Light works best as a victim the Titans bully, not as an actual villain. But the rest was solid. 3 1/2 stars.

It's weird, but I thought the funniest part was how the Titans defeated the Brain and the Hive Five at the beginning. After the supersuit falls over, I love Robin walking up to it and smashing the glass faceplate in utter boredom. Got a big laugh from me.

The rest of the episode was pretty silly too, but it got the biggest guffaw from me in the first 30 seconds. 4 stars.

2 notes:

1. This seems like a perfect topic for this show to explore.

2. Two years from now, nobody is going to remember this episode ever existed. It's utterly forgettable. 3 stars.

First animated appearance of Nite-Owl? Oh, man, Alan Moore is gonna be pissed.

Honestly, Patrick Wilson is a pretty good get.

I like Robin's dream version of the Snyder Cut, but they should have brought back Weird Al for Darkseid. It would have especially tickled me since I have long advocated him for that role in the DC Extended Universe to begin with.

Only this show would bother to compliment a director for being ripped.

That was fun. 4 1/2 stars.

Meh, I say! Meh!

For a supposedly fringe holiday character, Krampus has been getting a lot of play in popular culture lately. I'm not going to say the musical number at the end was outright theft from "Minstrel Krampus" from American Dad!. But it felt like it it was, which is why it bugged me.

I would only accept Robin as the new Krampus if they wrote him out of the show for it. Since he'll be back next week, I don't care that he's living his dream.

Just to be clear, the Original Teen Titans Series actually made fun of Scooby Doo chases too. This show is NOT breaking new comedy ground with that.

On a scale of meh to meh, I'd give it a meh. **1/2.

It's bad enough they didn't do a dedication card for Kevin Conroy. You'd figure they'd at least have done one for Robert Morse.

For the record, I am aware the show didn't actually steal my idea of a jacked, bare-armed, tattooed, badass Santa. But he's been in Gilda And Meek since at least 2016. That's a damn fact. Check my site if you think I've jiving. I'm not.

Bane with the prison gift basket was funny. Because that's what prison's like, right? American Dad's Jeff Fischer also expects poetry slams.

The ending was freaking dark.

Nonsense per usual, and yes, I like whenever popular culture uses an idea I already had, telling me I'm not crazy for seeing its value. But the truth it is was a disposable episode otherwise. ***.

It's stupid to do an episode about love songs on a show with such a tiny budget. They can't actually clear the music rights.

The Love Train reminded me how much I miss Infinity Train.

Dracula is kind of cool, and Love is kind of cute, but the ending was neither. Blah. 2 1/2 stars.

Justice League Unlimited did not just produce the greatest DC cartoon of all time. It also produced the greatest DC toyline of all time too. Loved the homage.

And Flash's reason for helping at the end is sound: The Titans can't even win a sack race. "We're pathetic!" cries Cyborg. Oh, so you just noticed?

For the record, this reiterates something I've mentioned before. The action sequences on this flash animated show are better boarded and animated than the original Murikanime from the original series. It's true. Animation techniques have improved, and action sequences have gotten inexpensive enough for a show this cheap to animate them far more cinematically than much of DC animation from its heyday. And that's just a fact.

I'm not sure this needed to be a double episode, but whatever. 3 1/2 stars.

Robin's outfit IS ridiculous.

Gordon and Batman's gay comedy duo bit never fails to amuse me.

I liked the riff of March of the Penguins. Using... the Penguin. Of course.

Pocket Robin suits are the leisurewear in Hell.

Pretty funny stuff. 3 1/2 stars.

Roger Smith on American Dad had a VERY good measure of when Beverly Hills, 90210 went downhill. When they started giving the guy who ran the Peach Pit his own storylines. "Like I care that Nat can't read."

Take that moral to this show, and I believe once we're dealing in Sticky Joe centered episodes, the show has pretty much run its course.

What was up with that weird He-Man parody? Why? Or better yet WHAAA?!

Haven't seen Kitten in awhile. I'd say I'd missed her, except that would be an easily disprovable lie. Because it's freaking Kitten.

Robin's reaction to Joe cleaning Howdy with his toothbrush is funny enough. But when the rat licks him I love that he acts like Lucy having just been kissed by Snoopy. Blech! Rat germs! Get the disinfectant!

But seriously, Sticky Joe isn't the only thing long in the tooth. The show giving up airtime to him means it is too. 2 1/2 stars.

Wait, the white dude won? Are we sure this wasn't fixed?

If I produced Scooby Doo, I would be VERY unhappy with how Scooby and Velma were used here. Velma's classic groaner "My glasses! I can't see without my glasses!" sounds even more trite when it's repeated several times in the same damn cartoon. I feel like it was such a mean joke about how bad that show is, that if I produced it, I'd worried it would damage the brand.

Then again, looks at HBO Max's Velma, and decides to keep my mouth shut.

Raven claims Batman is so popular his villains get movies. Let's see. Catwoman. Joker. Harley Quinn. That checks out.

I missed last year's special, and it was impossible to track down. This year's was fun. 4 stars.

TTG Writer's room pitch: "Maybe an episode where Cyborg and Robin play golf could be funny."

Me seeing the results: "Nope."

I hate golf. I understand why people enjoy playing it. Like Bowling, it is a sport that requires zero athleticism to play, which is why is it favorite among the lazy, the fat, and the rich. I understand the appeal of that. What I don't get is why there are golf tournaments on TV, or how a person could possibly enjoy watching somebody ELSE play golf. Yeah it takes a high level of hand-eye coordination. So does brain surgery. Tiger Woods does that on camera and I'll watch it. Watching a loafer's sport however, is not my jam. *.