The fourth season has been undeniably awesome, a pity the stigma of the first and third season will forever result in overly negative comments and the unfair comparisons to the "high and mighty" DCAU, which had it's share of crap as well
1. Batman: TAS had an inferior third season that had the LEAST memorable episodes of it's run. The best stuff was "Avatar", "A Bullet For Bullock", and "Lock-Up"
2. Batman Beyond was forced to tone down it's violence and the second season was full of fillers, they also dropped many of the plots begun in the first season.
3. JL's first season is inferior to the later ones. They had'nt perfected the two part format at the time and it showed
The problem with The Batman is it's lack of consistency, when it's good, it's one of the best, when it's bad, it handles things on a very low-brow level.