Reviews WesternAnimation / Teen Titans Go

The Jersey Shore of animated TV

And I don't mean that title as a compliment. I mean it as a way of saying that this is a ridiculous, overexposed, overplayed piece of televised garbage that, for one reason or another, has come to be the most popular series on its network. The entire cast consists of obnoxious jerks, with few redeeming aspects. That there are a handful of episodes that display self-awareness of the series's poor quality doesn't matter; a show whose creators acknowledge that it is bad is still a bad show. Neither does the fact that the writers have said they just want to make a comedy. There is a fine line between deliberate campiness for the sake of humor and simple trashiness, and "Teen Titans Go" crosses it early and often. Even if the series were viewed in a vacuum—that is, without comparing it to the pre-existing "Teen Titans" animated series—it would still come across as a very poor effort by any standard. The plots are predictable, the animation substandard. The characters' actions make it unclear who, if anyone, is the "protagonist" of this series. The implications of the episodes range from absurd ("girls are objectively better than boys") to downright disturbing ("hoarding is a good thing to do"). The show does not even seem to be fully aware of its own target audience; it is rated TV-PG and routinely mentions some very adult concepts, yet it also indulges in scatological humor that only a child would find funny. Like so many things thoroughly tasteless, "Teen Titans Go" has enjoyed a period of intense popularity, and in spite of its many, many problems its time, unfortunately, is now.