OK, broken record time, but a blonde cheerleader sticking her finger into her bloodied side, then sticking her hand down the disposal while it is turned on, removing it mangled, then shooing her dog away from the dripping blood so he won't lick it up is not my idea of corralling viewers to a show about super heroes saving the world.
Yes, I know it has to compete with the forensic dramas on the competition, kind of like Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus having to compete with the bear-baitings next door, but really, now, couldn't they have provided a little more derring-do exposition and a little less glaring goo.
Yes, I know Stan Lee introduced the psychologically tormented, all-too-human hero into comic books, but he did it with an arch (villain?) sense of humor and made it only one side of characters who still put on tights and saved the world only slightly less square-jawed and full-figured heroism.
This Teen Angst Titans take on superheros, melding manga with mangling as it delves into the twisted psychologies of everyone, is, at least at the outset, all darkness and gloom and not enough goodness and light.
One hero is a woman stripping for an Internet cam to make ends meet, and the nutty cheerleader with a death wish. Speaking of Death Wish, there are also a couple villains villians in the first episode straight out of that movie series, with a gory end befitting of Charles Bronson at his avenging best.
No this is not targeted to me, but my 15-year-old daughter was hooting at some of the lines, though she liked the various powers and the handsome guy who thinks he can fly.
This was just the scene-setter for yet another 24-like story arc that will take the whole season to work through, by which time our "heroes" will have prevented the nuking of New York foreshadowed in the beginning. But if everybody is going to mope around like Jimmy Dean playing Spiderman, this is going to be tough slogging.
By John Eggerton
