The premiere episode of the second season of Titans kicks off right where the first season ended. The Teen Titans have gathered to defeat Rachel’s father, Trigon. He’s already brought Dick Grayson/Nightwing under his control and attempts to control the rest of the Titans so that he might break Rachel’s heart. Seamus Dever’s Trigon in human form is smarmy, calm, and insidious (like the serpent in the Garden of Eden) drawing in the Titans through their deepest fears and darkest inclinations.

While the DC Universe show covers the same characters as Teen Titans Go!, this is clearly a show for adults. Titans is Teen Titans Go! if it was shown through the lens of Watchmen or Kick Ass and is certainly not suitable for children.

Raven’s father, Trigon, arrived from another world at the end of the first season of Titans, intent on destroying Earth and moving on to other worlds. What has become clear since the season wrapped, with the Titans engaging Trigon in a nightmare-laden house, was that the 12th episode of the first season was “bumped” into the premiere episode of the second season. This leads to an uneven opening for the second season, where the team battles the demon Trigon for 40-some minutes, and then switch gears to moving into some new digs and introducing the season’s big baddie. Still, there’s enough to like about the two parts of the episode to keep DC fans engaged.

While there are some storytelling tropes that will confuse or annoy more seasoned fans—like the ultraviolent paths the Titans take in their dream state only to wipe it all away when breaking the trance or the way that characters are snapped out of their trances by simple memory touch—Titans does a solid job of showing the importance of family over bloodlines. In fact, there’s a juxtaposition of the father/child dynamic between Rachel and Trigon, and Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen, Game of Thrones) and Dick at the end of the show. Ultimately though, the premiere episode is a testament to the way that love overcomes the power of hate and darkness in the world, even if that evil is out of this world.

The Dove Take:

Neither the first season or the premiere episode of Titans is Dove-Approved. Underneath all of the grit, though, beats a heart focused on coming-of-age friendship reflective of the longstanding DC comic.