Teen Titans was groundbreaking in some extent as Batman: The Animated Series. You see… to be a great show, you have to take risks, in addition to knowing your audience. Teen Titans alienated a lot of of Batman: The Animated Series fans going the more kid friendly route, while at the same time, still interesting dark storylines that we would get to know and enjoy. Also, pacing is important, as you don’t want to give fans such a dark take on the show that ruins other creators’ works, such as that of Gotham. It also makes the work more original, and a different spin on the show, opposed to keeping everything mundane and uniform.
Not to mention, there are various levels of darkness and lightheartedness: Nolan and Burton, Burton and Timm, Timm and Schumacher, Schumacher and West. (Arthouse Converter note: Even Christopher Nolan detractors dislike his work for being too lighthearted compared to that of the works of Europeans such as Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist.) As a result, Arthouse Converter has learned to tolerate even silly shows like Teen Titans Go, while I have learned to dislike it for its camp.
Their version of Deathstroke the Terminator, Slade, is villainous, but not excessively dark, which the comics at the time, tried a little too hard to be. Also, he really fit in that universe, being a character who wasn’t being an American otaku Ferris Bueller all the time.
Red X/Hood was a cool original character concept and design, contrasting with both Slade and the Titans’ role on the show’ it could’ve been an interesting direction that the show could’ve went with how he or Red X II was Jason Todd, and how it doesn’t make sense in actual comics canon, not that comics canon at the time actually made sense!
The one episode that i thought was really good in Teen Titans was when Starfire got thrown into the future: Dick Grayson is Nightwing, and Cyborg is all decrepit. Arthouse Converter and I discussed regarding the originality of the series, how the show sorta had a charm to its unique style opposed to the nudge-nudge, Nightwing alternate reality he disliked.