Titans is an American web television series that is released on DC Universe, based on the DC Comics team Teen Titans. Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and Greg Berlanti created the series, which features Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson / Robin, the leader of the Titans, alongside Anna Diop as Starfire, Teagan Croft as Raven and Ryan Potter as Beast Boy. Titans premiered on October 12, 2018, and its first season comprised eleven episodes. Ahead of the series' premiere, Titans was renewed for a second season.
A live-action series based on the Teen Titans entered development in September 2014 for the cable channel TNT, with Goldsman and Marc Haimes writing the pilot. The pilot had been ordered by December 2014, but never came to fruition, with TNT announcing in January 2016 it would no longer be moving forward with the project. In April 2017, it was announced that the series was being redeveloped for DC Comics' new direct-to-consumer digital service, with Goldsman, Johns, and Berlanti attached. Brenton Thwaites was cast as Dick Grayson in September 2017, and other series regulars were cast between August and October 2017. In May 2018, the spin-off series Doom Patrol was announced, which will pick up after the events of Titans.
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| I'll admit the costumes here look great in these promotional shots/posters, but look like utter shit in the actual series. |
Cast:
Main
Brenton Thwaites as Richard "Dick" Grayson / Robin
Tomaso Sanelli plays a young Dick Grayson in flashbacks.
Anna Diop as Koriand'r / Kory Anders / Starfire
Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth / Raven
Ryan Potter as Garfield "Gar" Logan / Beast Boy
Mark Antony Krupa as Konstantin Kovar
Lindsey Gort as Amy Rohrbach
Jarreth J. Merz as The Acolyte
Bruno Bichir as Niles Caulder
April Bowlby as Rita Farr / Elasti-Woman
Brendan Fraser and Jake Michaels as Clifford Steele / Robotman
Matt Bomer and Dwain Murphy as Larry Trainor / Negative Man
Zach Smadu as Nuclear Stepdad
Lester Speight as Clayton Williams
Richard Zeppieri as Anthony "Tony" Zucco
Tony Mac as Nick Zucco
Elliot Knight as Don Hall / Dove
Marina Sirtis as Marie Granger
Seamus Dever as Trigon
Alain Moussi and Maxim Savaria as Batman: Though not portraying Bruce Wayne, Moussi and Savaria portray Batman as stunt doubles.
Following her mother Melissa's murder at the hands of a mysterious assailant, troubled teen Rachel Roth exhibits telekinetic powers and flees town. Detroit detective Dick Grayson fights crime at night using his vigilante persona, Robin. Rachel is picked up by Detroit police, recognizes Dick from her nightmares, and asks him for help. By the time he realizes that she was telling the truth about her mother, Rachel has been drugged and abducted. Meanwhile, in Vienna, Austria, Kory Anders awakens in a bullet-ridden car wreck with no memory of her identity. She finds her way to gangster Konstantin Kovar, whom she has apparently betrayed in her search for a certain girl—Rachel. When Kovar attempts to shoot her, she releases a fiery power that incinerates him and everyone else in the room. About to be ritually slain by the man who killed her mother, Rachel blacks out as a dark version of herself emerges and kills her would-be murderer. Dick arrives, and takes her off to safety.
Dick takes Rachel to Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, masked vigilantes known as Hawk and Dove with whom Dick fought crime years earlier. Though Hank and Dawn are in a committed relationship, Rachel senses that Dick and Dawn were previously involved, and still have unresolved issues. When a jealous Hank fights with Dick, Rachel's dark self manifests to stop it. The Nuclear Family is "activated" to retrieve Rachel, and they torture Dick's new partner, Detective Amy Rohrbach, to find him. Hawk and Dove take down an arms dealer with Robin's brutal assistance. Rachel is upset to discover that Dick intended to leave her with Hank and Dawn and not return. The Nuclear Family defeats Dick, Hank, and Dawn, capturing Rachel and leaving Dawn gravely injured.
Kory tracks down Rachel, and watches the Nuclear Family abduct her. Rachel's dark self refuses to help her, but Kory arrives, incinerates Nuclear Dad with her powers, and convinces Rachel to leave with her. Rachel and Kory find their way to a convent where Melissa had supposedly hidden from Rachel's father when she was a baby, and which Kory had visited in search of Rachel a year before. Dick recalls learning that his parents' death was not an accident, and being taken in by billionaire Bruce Wayne, who offers to teach Dick "another way to deal with the pain." Rachel meets Garfield Logan briefly, and Dick arrives. After Rachel's dark self manifests again, Dick and Kory take her back to the convent, where the sisters secretly lock her in the basement. Kory discovers that before her memory loss she was researching various doomsday prophecies concerning the advent of an apocalyptic "raven". Rachel's dark self taunts her and then manifests, leading to an explosion that allows Rachel to flee.
Rachel comes across Gar, in his tiger form, as she flees through the woods. Gar takes Rachel to his house, where she meets Cliff Steel / Robotman, Larry Trainor / Negative Man, and Rita Farr / Elasti-Woman. Dr. Niles Caulder / The Chief arrives, furious with Gar for bringing a stranger to their home—where they are living in secret—but interested in running tests on Rachel. She agrees, but then demands to be unstrapped from the table. Niles refuses, and shoots Gar with a tranquilizer dart when he tries to intervene. Rachel's dark self emerges and attacks Niles. Meanwhile, Dick and Kory find the convent in ruins, and track Rachel to the Caulder house. Dick calms Rachel down and promises he will protect her. He departs with Rachel and Kory, and Gar goes with them, encouraged by Cliff to live his own life.
Dick makes the alliance with Kory, Gar, and Rachel official, and they all demonstrate their powers. Rachel and Gar connect, and Dick and Kory have sex. Dr. Adamson sends a new Nuclear Stepdad to the family. The Nuclear Family attacks, but together the group is able to subdue them. Dick also reveals himself as Robin to the group. Dick visits Adamson, who kills the family via a remote detonator. When a strike team comes to kill Dick, the new Robin appears and saves him.
Dick and Jason Todd, the new Robin, take Adamson to one of Bruce's safe houses in Chicago, where they are later joined by Kory, Rachel, and Gar. Learning that Bruce implanted a tracker in his arm at some point in the past, Dick removes it with a scalpel. Jason tells Dick that someone is murdering everyone who worked with his parents at the circus. Dick seeks out Clayton Williams, the only performer still alive and the likely next target. Clayton is abducted by Nick Zucco, son of Tony Zucco, the mobster who killed the Graysons. Nick wants revenge against Dick, who he blames for the Maronis' murder of his entire family. Jason helps Dick neutralize Nick, but Dick is disturbed by his needless brutality. Meanwhile, Adamson tells Kory that he will only talk to Rachel.
Adamson slashes his own throat to force Rachel to use her empathic powers to revive him. He then informs Dick and Kory that Rachel will "purify" the world. Adamson tells them about Angela Azarath, Rachel's birth mother, who is being held at an abandoned asylum. They are captured when they arrive at the asylum, and Dick, Kory, and Gar are subjected to torturous examinations. Adamson promises to end their suffering if Rachel calls to her father, but Rachel kills Adamson instead. Rachel finds Angela, showing her birthmark to prove she is actually Angela's daughter. Taking Angela with her, Rachel frees the others, although Gar is traumatized by having killed an asylum doctor. They escape; Kory burns the asylum down, and Dick burns his Robin suit.
While Rachel, Kory, and Gar accompany Angela by train to the house she owns in Ohio, Dick goes off on his own to reconnect with an old friend, Donna Troy. The FBI stops the train in search of Kory, but she and the others escape after she causes a train car to explode. While Rachel uses her powers to unlock Kory's memories, Donna translates text that Dick photographed in Kory's storage unit. Donna's interpretation of the lost ancient language is that Kory's mission is to kill Rachel. Kory has a flash of memory, and grabs Rachel by the throat.
With Dawn still in a coma, Hank remembers his childhood, when he allowed himself to be sexually abused by his football coach to save his little brother Don from molestation. In college, Hank and Don become vigilantes, Hawk and Dove, to punish sex offenders. An unconscious Dawn remembers her life as a ballerina, and the last time she saw her mother. Dawn's mother and Don are killed in the same accident, and Dawn and Hank get to know each other in grief counseling. Dawn discovers Hank's past as Hawk. He tells Dawn about his abuse, but admits that he never sought retribution against the coach because he could not face what happened to him. Dawn finds the abuser and demands that he confess; when they have beaten each other brutally, Hank arrives and finishes off the coach. Hank and Dawn sleep together. In the present, Dawn awakens, and tells Hank they need to find Jason Todd and help Rachel.
Donna stops Kory from killing Rachel. Dick and Donna follow a remorseful but confused Kory to an abandoned warehouse, where a spaceship uncloaks itself for Kory. She is Koriand'r, from the planet Tamaran, on a mission to destroy Rachel before she brings about the destruction of Earth and Tamaran. Rachel's father is Trigon, a being from another dimension who devours worlds. Rachel is both Trigon's doorway back to our dimension, and a means to destroy him. Dick, Donna, and Kory realize that Angela is assisting Trigon. Gar begins seeing apparitions in Angela's house, and collapses. With Gar dying, Angela convinces Rachel to call Trigon to help her. She does, and Trigon and Angela are reunited. Trigon heals Gar, and tells Angela that they can begin destroying the world once Rachel's heart breaks. Dick, Donna, and Kory arrive, but only Dick can pass through the mystical barrier that now surrounds Angela's house.
Five years in the future, Dick is living happily with Dawn and their son John, with another baby on the way. Rachel and Gar are at college. A paraplegic Jason asks Dick to stop Bruce, who is intent on killing the Joker. Dick travels to Gotham and is reunited with Kory, who has joined the FBI. Batman kills the Joker in cold blood, as well as every patient and staff member at Arkham Asylum. Dick feels compelled to reveal Batman's secret identity to the police so they can apprehend him. A SWAT team raids Wayne Manor, but Batman slaughters them and kills Kory. Dick demolishes the mansion with explosives, and when he finds Batman alive but trapped in the rubble, Dick kills him. In the present, Rachel is horrified to see Dick enslaved by Trigon's power, and the dark future and Dick's murder of Batman is revealed to have been a fantasy created by Trigon to lead Dick to embrace darkness. Later, somewhere in Metropolis, a man designated as "Subject 13"—and bearing a Superman logo tattoo—escapes containment in a laboratory. He also frees a Labrador Retriever, whose eyes glow red.
Right off the bat, I have to bring up the backlash that Anna Diop got from the casting as Starfire in this continuity. I honestly didn't have a problem with her being black playing the character. My issues came from her being dressed like a Russian hooker related to Foxxy Cleopatra for the bulk of this season. It didn't do the character any favors, especially in the post-New 52 landscape where most comic book fans regard her as a bimbo for sleeping around with most of the Titans anyway. This series seemed to be trying to draw from that with her characteristics at times. The clear clue was her and Robin's random as hell booty call encounter that was immediately brushed underneath the rug a few episodes later once Donna Troy came back into the picture.
Speaking of Donna, boy did this show did a 180 in terms of the tone once she was introduced. Conor Leslie is arguably the best actress/actor in this show (behind Minka Kelly's Dove though) if you ask me and the most believable in terms of performances. Everyone else just seems to be going through the emotions on the fly, but Leslie and Kelly were at least able to get some decent performances out of Brenton Thwaites in the scenes that they shared together.
Brenton Thwaites is a believable Robin/Dick Grayson. I didn't mind him for the most part, even though his acting came off a little dry at times (a common theme across the board with a lot of these actors and actresses here...). To be fair, it wasn't as bad/cheesy as that dude playing Black Manta in Aquaman though...
When the Titans get on the same page and actually work together to save/protect Raven throughout the course of this season's narrative (like the scene against the Nuclear family shown above), it's quite the sight to behold and I wish there were more moments like it, instead of the narrative introducing so many characters but most of them barely sticking around long enough to hold your attention.
Let's talk about the finale though, shall we? The whole episode is tailored around the warped idea that Dick Grayson has finally found some semblance of a normal life as he's married to Dawn and they have a son together with her pregnant with another child on the way. Dick found himself visited by a wheelchair-bound Jason Todd, who informs him that Bruce Wayne has finally gone off the deep end and is going to kill The Joker. Dick is then urged by his friends to go back to an overrun Gotham City to attempt to talk some sense into Bruce. It turns out it's too late as he finds out that Batman has killed all of Arkham Asylum's staff and patients as well as The Joker himself. Dick has no choice but to spill the beans that Bruce Wayne is Batman. A SWAT team storms Wayne Manor, including special agent Kory Anders. The attack goes sour as Batman is killing everyone left and right until Dick issues the order to blow the mansion with C4 after Kory's killed mercilessly by Batman. Dick goes into the mansion to survey his handiwork and finds Batman pinned underneath the rubble and issues the fatal blow, killing him in the process and succumbing to his inner darkness. It's then revealed that this was a ploy by Trigon to manipulate Robin to do his bidding. The episode ends with a teaser of someone (clearly Kryptonian and obviously Superboy) breaking out of confinement and rescuing a dog with glowing red eyes.
Here's my problem with all of this... I get that they were going with a possible mindfuck for this finale, but it just doesn't really stick nor hit home with not that much weight behind it. Throughout the entire thing, I was rolling my eyes waiting for Dick to wake up from this obvious dream sequence. The whole "special agent" gimmick for Kory Anders didn't stick from her alien origins being revealed in the episode prior, so that was another dead giveaway that this was a dream. The main thing that frustrates me with the writing on this episode is that it attempts to rip off one of the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, "Over the Edge", where Batman is being hunted down by the Gotham City Police Department for the possible murder of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. The war between Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne/Batman ends up costing them their lives until the whole ordeal is revealed to be dream from Barbara Gordon/Batgirl's damaged psyche after being exposed to Scarecrow's fear toxin. In the case of this series, the whole Batman at war with the police subplot comes off as a cheap imitation without any of the emotional weight behind it that Over The Edge had for that series. They merely pulled what they wanted from it that benefited for this mock dream sequence and muddled it all up. Dick desperately wanted to distance himself from Bruce Wayne - this dream gave him that. He got to settle down and have a family. He was able to put the cape and cowl days behind him and actually do something that Bruce Wayne hasn't ever been able to do - have a life outside of crime-fighting and his endless devotion to avenging his parents' deaths. This whole episode was done at the detriment of the other ongoing plots. I'm finding it hard for myself or anyone for that matter is going to remotely care what is going on to maintain interest whenever the next season starts.
I read that there were some odd cuts/edits and reshoots for this season finale (along for the season could end in a similar "cliffhanger" of sorts that The Walking Dead tends to do to attempt to keep their viewers invested. If Trigon's plan was to find a hero to corrupt to do his bidding then why waste his time with Dick Grayson of all people? Look, I get it - his whole world domination plan hinges on the fact once Raven's heart is broken, but he could have killed Gar instead of healing him for the same result. Trigon and Angela are making this world domination/destruction plot with Raven far too complicated than it needs to be. On top of that, if you need pawns to do your bidding wouldn't it be more proactive to have Kory Anders (who already proved that she's clearly a threat to Raven's powers) and Gar under his control over someone who doesn't even have any powers to begin with? Let's not forget that they ended this season with the reveal/teaser that Superboy exists in this continuity so that just diminishes any real threat of having the Boy Wonder under your control has in the pending battle. He's going to be as helpful as Robin was in that Family Guy cutaway gag...
I'll admit that having Superboy in this is quite the revelation though as I wouldn't have pegged him to be in this show, especially when the CW had to bend over backwards to get Superman in Supergirl. I guess his origins and partnership with Krypto the Superdog will be highlighted in Season Two, whenever that comes to fruition. With Young Justice back for a third season, fans will want to see more of that character, especially one with the darker origins that he had in that show with ties to being a clone created from the DNA of both Superman and Lex Luthor.
At this stage, I honestly don't see what their endgame is outside of Robin's transformation into becoming Nightwing. Other than that, there's not really much here to sink your teeth into in terms of plot. There were some promising questions and threads started throughout the season, but they are either never mentioned again or picked up so far later in the season that you completely forget that it was a thing to begin with. I doubt the Trigon/Raven dilemma is going to last the bulk of the next season with Superboy wondering around in this continuity along with the two other most powerful characters in this series, Starfire and Donna Troy, ready to pounce on Trigon the second he steps out of his barrier. It merely brings up the question of "Why should I care? And why should I keep watching this?" I'll watch out of morbid curiosity to see where it ends up, but I can't see the vast majority of fans having that much patience from what was presented here in this first season.
This is a rather tough sell for both DC Comics fans - old and new.
Currently, the only way to watch it (legally) in the United States is to subscribe to the DC Universe streaming service. Alternatively, most countries outside of the United States will be able to watch the full first season in its entirety on Netflix as crazy as that sounds to say that DC Universe's selling point is that their original series on the service would be exclusive to that platform.
I wouldn't say this series is necessarily awful. It's better than a wide margin of the crap that the CW puts out on their DC Comics-based shows on a regular basis (I know, that's not saying much...), but I think the mature take on the violence wasn't necessary to tell the story that they were going for. Let me put it this way. When I go to watch something from a grittier comic book-based character, such as The Punisher, I'm going in expecting the violence cranked up to eleven, not for something like the Titans here. Before anyone goes ham in the comments or on social media, I'm aware that some of the George Perez era stuff for the Titans was pretty out there in terms of content and most of those stories would require a mature rating to fly nowadays with most audiences (i.e. like most of the DC direct to video animated films, Justice League vs. Teen Titans and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract immediately come to mind). This show seemed like it was written by teenagers who learned their first curse word and just wanted to say "Fuck fuck fuck fuck" in every line of dialogue. People have come to respect Marvel Comics' "mature" narratives on Netflix because those stories were justified. Here, it just seems like the violence and vulgar language are there as a gimmick instead of enhancing the product.
A better way to describe this series is that there's a lot of potential to be good, given the possibility that the writers capitalize on the good that this series does and negate the bad. Dick Grayson's journey is worth the watch alone, despite the fact that it takes a backseat to some of the other weaker subplots far too frequently. For example, Kory Ander's alien origins could have been saved for the next season after how little effort was put into that revelation once it had little to no impact on the season finale. On the other hand, I wish they put more attention to Gar's struggles to distinguish himself from the beast(s) that he transforms into instead of brushing that topic under the rug as quickly as they brought it up. The same goes for the history of Hawk and Dove's personal demons that brought them together being revealed, only for them to have a very minor role in this season, outside of Dawn playing a pivotal role in Dick's dream during the finale. There's a lot of potential for this show to be good in time, but it's a shaky foundation to start off with.
With so many live-action comic book-based shows on television, it's hard to recommend this when there's many other (much better if I may add) options out there. (Coughs) Like Marvel's Runaways Season 2... (Coughs) If you've exhausted yourself with everything else that CW's DC Comics-based properties have put out leading up to their current midseason breaks, then this is worth a look. Otherwise, I can't recommend going out of your way to check this out. It's definitely not worth justifying the purchase of the DC Universe streaming service to check out.
Anna Diop as Koriand'r / Kory Anders / Starfire
Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth / Raven
Ryan Potter as Garfield "Gar" Logan / Beast Boy
Recurring
Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger / Dove
Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall / Hawk
Jeff Clarke as Nuclear Dad: The father of the Nuclear Family.
Melody Johnson as Nuclear Mom
Jeni Ross as Nuclear Sis
Logan Thompson as Nuclear Biff
Reed Birney as Dr. Adamson.
Curran Walters as Jason Todd / Robin
Rachel Nichols as Angela Azarath
Conor Leslie as Donna Troy
Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger / Dove
Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall / Hawk
Jeff Clarke as Nuclear Dad: The father of the Nuclear Family.
Melody Johnson as Nuclear Mom
Jeni Ross as Nuclear Sis
Logan Thompson as Nuclear Biff
Reed Birney as Dr. Adamson.
Curran Walters as Jason Todd / Robin
Rachel Nichols as Angela Azarath
Conor Leslie as Donna Troy
Andi Hubick portrays a young Donna Troy in flashbacks.
Guest
Sherilyn Fenn as Melissa RothMark Antony Krupa as Konstantin Kovar
Lindsey Gort as Amy Rohrbach
Jarreth J. Merz as The Acolyte
Bruno Bichir as Niles Caulder
April Bowlby as Rita Farr / Elasti-Woman
Brendan Fraser and Jake Michaels as Clifford Steele / Robotman
Matt Bomer and Dwain Murphy as Larry Trainor / Negative Man
Zach Smadu as Nuclear Stepdad
Lester Speight as Clayton Williams
Richard Zeppieri as Anthony "Tony" Zucco
Tony Mac as Nick Zucco
Elliot Knight as Don Hall / Dove
Marina Sirtis as Marie Granger
Seamus Dever as Trigon
Alain Moussi and Maxim Savaria as Batman: Though not portraying Bruce Wayne, Moussi and Savaria portray Batman as stunt doubles.
Episode Summaries: (SPOILERS)
1 "Titans"
Following her mother Melissa's murder at the hands of a mysterious assailant, troubled teen Rachel Roth exhibits telekinetic powers and flees town. Detroit detective Dick Grayson fights crime at night using his vigilante persona, Robin. Rachel is picked up by Detroit police, recognizes Dick from her nightmares, and asks him for help. By the time he realizes that she was telling the truth about her mother, Rachel has been drugged and abducted. Meanwhile, in Vienna, Austria, Kory Anders awakens in a bullet-ridden car wreck with no memory of her identity. She finds her way to gangster Konstantin Kovar, whom she has apparently betrayed in her search for a certain girl—Rachel. When Kovar attempts to shoot her, she releases a fiery power that incinerates him and everyone else in the room. About to be ritually slain by the man who killed her mother, Rachel blacks out as a dark version of herself emerges and kills her would-be murderer. Dick arrives, and takes her off to safety.
In Covington, Ohio, a green tiger is on the prowl in an electronics store at night and transforms into a human boy.
2 "Hawk and Dove"
Dick takes Rachel to Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, masked vigilantes known as Hawk and Dove with whom Dick fought crime years earlier. Though Hank and Dawn are in a committed relationship, Rachel senses that Dick and Dawn were previously involved, and still have unresolved issues. When a jealous Hank fights with Dick, Rachel's dark self manifests to stop it. The Nuclear Family is "activated" to retrieve Rachel, and they torture Dick's new partner, Detective Amy Rohrbach, to find him. Hawk and Dove take down an arms dealer with Robin's brutal assistance. Rachel is upset to discover that Dick intended to leave her with Hank and Dawn and not return. The Nuclear Family defeats Dick, Hank, and Dawn, capturing Rachel and leaving Dawn gravely injured.
3 "Origins"
Kory tracks down Rachel, and watches the Nuclear Family abduct her. Rachel's dark self refuses to help her, but Kory arrives, incinerates Nuclear Dad with her powers, and convinces Rachel to leave with her. Rachel and Kory find their way to a convent where Melissa had supposedly hidden from Rachel's father when she was a baby, and which Kory had visited in search of Rachel a year before. Dick recalls learning that his parents' death was not an accident, and being taken in by billionaire Bruce Wayne, who offers to teach Dick "another way to deal with the pain." Rachel meets Garfield Logan briefly, and Dick arrives. After Rachel's dark self manifests again, Dick and Kory take her back to the convent, where the sisters secretly lock her in the basement. Kory discovers that before her memory loss she was researching various doomsday prophecies concerning the advent of an apocalyptic "raven". Rachel's dark self taunts her and then manifests, leading to an explosion that allows Rachel to flee.
4 "Doom Patrol"
Rachel comes across Gar, in his tiger form, as she flees through the woods. Gar takes Rachel to his house, where she meets Cliff Steel / Robotman, Larry Trainor / Negative Man, and Rita Farr / Elasti-Woman. Dr. Niles Caulder / The Chief arrives, furious with Gar for bringing a stranger to their home—where they are living in secret—but interested in running tests on Rachel. She agrees, but then demands to be unstrapped from the table. Niles refuses, and shoots Gar with a tranquilizer dart when he tries to intervene. Rachel's dark self emerges and attacks Niles. Meanwhile, Dick and Kory find the convent in ruins, and track Rachel to the Caulder house. Dick calms Rachel down and promises he will protect her. He departs with Rachel and Kory, and Gar goes with them, encouraged by Cliff to live his own life.
5 "Together"
Dick makes the alliance with Kory, Gar, and Rachel official, and they all demonstrate their powers. Rachel and Gar connect, and Dick and Kory have sex. Dr. Adamson sends a new Nuclear Stepdad to the family. The Nuclear Family attacks, but together the group is able to subdue them. Dick also reveals himself as Robin to the group. Dick visits Adamson, who kills the family via a remote detonator. When a strike team comes to kill Dick, the new Robin appears and saves him.
6 "Jason Todd"
Dick and Jason Todd, the new Robin, take Adamson to one of Bruce's safe houses in Chicago, where they are later joined by Kory, Rachel, and Gar. Learning that Bruce implanted a tracker in his arm at some point in the past, Dick removes it with a scalpel. Jason tells Dick that someone is murdering everyone who worked with his parents at the circus. Dick seeks out Clayton Williams, the only performer still alive and the likely next target. Clayton is abducted by Nick Zucco, son of Tony Zucco, the mobster who killed the Graysons. Nick wants revenge against Dick, who he blames for the Maronis' murder of his entire family. Jason helps Dick neutralize Nick, but Dick is disturbed by his needless brutality. Meanwhile, Adamson tells Kory that he will only talk to Rachel.
7 "Asylum"
Adamson slashes his own throat to force Rachel to use her empathic powers to revive him. He then informs Dick and Kory that Rachel will "purify" the world. Adamson tells them about Angela Azarath, Rachel's birth mother, who is being held at an abandoned asylum. They are captured when they arrive at the asylum, and Dick, Kory, and Gar are subjected to torturous examinations. Adamson promises to end their suffering if Rachel calls to her father, but Rachel kills Adamson instead. Rachel finds Angela, showing her birthmark to prove she is actually Angela's daughter. Taking Angela with her, Rachel frees the others, although Gar is traumatized by having killed an asylum doctor. They escape; Kory burns the asylum down, and Dick burns his Robin suit.
8 "Donna Troy"
While Rachel, Kory, and Gar accompany Angela by train to the house she owns in Ohio, Dick goes off on his own to reconnect with an old friend, Donna Troy. The FBI stops the train in search of Kory, but she and the others escape after she causes a train car to explode. While Rachel uses her powers to unlock Kory's memories, Donna translates text that Dick photographed in Kory's storage unit. Donna's interpretation of the lost ancient language is that Kory's mission is to kill Rachel. Kory has a flash of memory, and grabs Rachel by the throat.
9 "Hank and Dawn"
With Dawn still in a coma, Hank remembers his childhood, when he allowed himself to be sexually abused by his football coach to save his little brother Don from molestation. In college, Hank and Don become vigilantes, Hawk and Dove, to punish sex offenders. An unconscious Dawn remembers her life as a ballerina, and the last time she saw her mother. Dawn's mother and Don are killed in the same accident, and Dawn and Hank get to know each other in grief counseling. Dawn discovers Hank's past as Hawk. He tells Dawn about his abuse, but admits that he never sought retribution against the coach because he could not face what happened to him. Dawn finds the abuser and demands that he confess; when they have beaten each other brutally, Hank arrives and finishes off the coach. Hank and Dawn sleep together. In the present, Dawn awakens, and tells Hank they need to find Jason Todd and help Rachel.
10 "Koriand'r"
Donna stops Kory from killing Rachel. Dick and Donna follow a remorseful but confused Kory to an abandoned warehouse, where a spaceship uncloaks itself for Kory. She is Koriand'r, from the planet Tamaran, on a mission to destroy Rachel before she brings about the destruction of Earth and Tamaran. Rachel's father is Trigon, a being from another dimension who devours worlds. Rachel is both Trigon's doorway back to our dimension, and a means to destroy him. Dick, Donna, and Kory realize that Angela is assisting Trigon. Gar begins seeing apparitions in Angela's house, and collapses. With Gar dying, Angela convinces Rachel to call Trigon to help her. She does, and Trigon and Angela are reunited. Trigon heals Gar, and tells Angela that they can begin destroying the world once Rachel's heart breaks. Dick, Donna, and Kory arrive, but only Dick can pass through the mystical barrier that now surrounds Angela's house.
11 "Dick Grayson"
Five years in the future, Dick is living happily with Dawn and their son John, with another baby on the way. Rachel and Gar are at college. A paraplegic Jason asks Dick to stop Bruce, who is intent on killing the Joker. Dick travels to Gotham and is reunited with Kory, who has joined the FBI. Batman kills the Joker in cold blood, as well as every patient and staff member at Arkham Asylum. Dick feels compelled to reveal Batman's secret identity to the police so they can apprehend him. A SWAT team raids Wayne Manor, but Batman slaughters them and kills Kory. Dick demolishes the mansion with explosives, and when he finds Batman alive but trapped in the rubble, Dick kills him. In the present, Rachel is horrified to see Dick enslaved by Trigon's power, and the dark future and Dick's murder of Batman is revealed to have been a fantasy created by Trigon to lead Dick to embrace darkness. Later, somewhere in Metropolis, a man designated as "Subject 13"—and bearing a Superman logo tattoo—escapes containment in a laboratory. He also frees a Labrador Retriever, whose eyes glow red.
The Verdict:
I binge-watched this entire series over the course of the two weeks that I was off from work for the holidays leading up to the New Year and I have to admit that I'm honestly dreading writing this review.
Costumes and Casting
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| Seriously, what the HELL is Starfire wearing? It looks like she got dressed out of Kelly and Peg Bundy's wardrobe from off the set of Married...with Children. |
Right off the bat, I have to bring up the backlash that Anna Diop got from the casting as Starfire in this continuity. I honestly didn't have a problem with her being black playing the character. My issues came from her being dressed like a Russian hooker related to Foxxy Cleopatra for the bulk of this season. It didn't do the character any favors, especially in the post-New 52 landscape where most comic book fans regard her as a bimbo for sleeping around with most of the Titans anyway. This series seemed to be trying to draw from that with her characteristics at times. The clear clue was her and Robin's random as hell booty call encounter that was immediately brushed underneath the rug a few episodes later once Donna Troy came back into the picture.
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| How can anyone NOT like Conor Leslie as Donna Troy in this series? She's easily the best character in this show once she's introduced. |
Speaking of Donna, boy did this show did a 180 in terms of the tone once she was introduced. Conor Leslie is arguably the best actress/actor in this show (behind Minka Kelly's Dove though) if you ask me and the most believable in terms of performances. Everyone else just seems to be going through the emotions on the fly, but Leslie and Kelly were at least able to get some decent performances out of Brenton Thwaites in the scenes that they shared together.
Brenton Thwaites is a believable Robin/Dick Grayson. I didn't mind him for the most part, even though his acting came off a little dry at times (a common theme across the board with a lot of these actors and actresses here...). To be fair, it wasn't as bad/cheesy as that dude playing Black Manta in Aquaman though...
I remember going to see Aquaman in the movie theater after binge-watching this series for the better part of a week and going, "If DC and Warner Bros. have so much money to burn/waste on this universe, then why would they go from this film looking absolutely gorgeous from start to finish to stuff on their streaming service looking like utter shit?" The costumes in this series, even from as far as the premiere trailers, look like bad cosplay outfits. Everyone in this series (outside of maybe Dove's outfit) look like they are going trick or treating on Halloween or made their costumes on a low budget for a small town comic book convention. If that wasn't bad enough, the special effects look equally bad if not worse in some cases. It wouldn't be so bad or glaringly noticeable when this show takes itself FAR too seriously at times (something that we'll get to in the narrative department shortly), but you can't take it serious when the costumes look like absolute dog shit. It's baffling when almost every other thing in this show looks laughable in terms of costumes and special effects, but when Donna Troy shows up and uses the Lasso of Persuasion, it looks as good if not better than Diana's Lasso of Truth in the Wonder Woman live-action movie from 2017. If everything in this show had that level of detail and attention to it, then we would've had quite the marvel (no pun intended) to behold here.
I think the bulk of the production budget went into adding all of the effects and what not to Raven's powers, even though I wasn't too impressed by them by the 3rd or 4th time she spazzed out and kills someone with would be best described as the power of the anti-Christ. Teagan Croft isn't bad in the role as the character. She doesn't come off as easily forgettable like Ryan Potter's Gar. I honestly forgot that he was there most of the time. They could have CGI'ed him into the background of most episodes and I probably wouldn't have seen a difference. While we're on the subject of that, boy did his "transformations" look bad. They must have taken that same course The Walking Dead did on Poorly Animated Computer Generated Animals 101 in that regard.
I think the bulk of the production budget went into adding all of the effects and what not to Raven's powers, even though I wasn't too impressed by them by the 3rd or 4th time she spazzed out and kills someone with would be best described as the power of the anti-Christ. Teagan Croft isn't bad in the role as the character. She doesn't come off as easily forgettable like Ryan Potter's Gar. I honestly forgot that he was there most of the time. They could have CGI'ed him into the background of most episodes and I probably wouldn't have seen a difference. While we're on the subject of that, boy did his "transformations" look bad. They must have taken that same course The Walking Dead did on Poorly Animated Computer Generated Animals 101 in that regard.
Action
There's a few fight sequences that look straight up amazing but for every great sequence there's some bad CGI to hamper down what this series does right. Can't forgot to mention how the costumes drag things down too. Some of the hand-to-hand combat sequences are straight up brutal, especially those involving Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Hawk & Dove, and later Batman (or who we're led to believe that's him in Dick's dreams). I dare say Robin kills more people here than Batman does in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
When the Titans get on the same page and actually work together to save/protect Raven throughout the course of this season's narrative (like the scene against the Nuclear family shown above), it's quite the sight to behold and I wish there were more moments like it, instead of the narrative introducing so many characters but most of them barely sticking around long enough to hold your attention.
Narrative
The pivotal words to come out of the first few trailers and teasers for this series was "Fuck Batman" and I can see why. This series wanted to hit the nail on the head to emphasize the fact that this wasn't a Batman-oriented story, but one focused on tormented mind of Dick Grayson instead.
The bulk of the story focuses on Raven and her mysterious powers as it seems like one set of weirdos after another are after her and her powers. For anyone who was a fan of the Teen Titans cartoon in the early 2000s, this rings of familiarity from her storyline in that series where her origins are tied to the hellish demon called Trigon. In that series, she was regarded as the living "portal" that grants him entry into our world since he was banished from it otherwise. Here, we don't get much about Trigon's origins other than he's forbidden from our world and Raven has to "willingly" invite/summon him to Earth, ushering in a prophecy of the end of the world.
Titans excels at one major thing and that's expressing how each of the four core Titans of this impromptu team fit into a classic genre/theme that identifies with something that each of them are struggling to cope with. Raven fits the classic horror motif as she fears being alone. Beast Boy, much like the bulk of the Doom Patrol, represents the body horror/carnival motif as he fears truly becoming one of the monsters that he transforms into - inside and out. Starfire represents the fear of the unknown and fear of one's self. Robin/Dick Grayson represents the fear of losing your own identity. This distinction between each of the Titans creates some rather interesting beads to explore in terms of character development over the eleven episode season.
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| From left to right: Gar/Beast Boy, Robotman, Elasti-Woman, and Negative Man. |
Speaking of the Doom Patrol, I have to say that their introduction here really fell flat. If they are supposed to be getting their own spin-off series from their minor appearance in this series, then I honestly don't see why anyone would bother with the lackluster effort put into their appearance in this series. Robotman looked like something straight out of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, while Elasti-Woman and Negative Man weren't that bad; they just didn't scream anything compelling to make me want to see more of them in this universe.
At the same time, I can't fault this show for at least getting the essence of these characters down for the most part. That whole second episode focused on them really hit that theme of body horror and carnival oddities down to the tee though. If I were to check out their upcoming spin-off series, it would be out of morbid curiosity to see how the writers transition from their appearance here to their own series.
At the same time, I can't fault this show for at least getting the essence of these characters down for the most part. That whole second episode focused on them really hit that theme of body horror and carnival oddities down to the tee though. If I were to check out their upcoming spin-off series, it would be out of morbid curiosity to see how the writers transition from their appearance here to their own series.
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| I liked Dove's costume a lot more than Hawk's if I'm perfectly honest. Hawk's just looks like something cheap/homemade that you'd see in Kick-Ass or something. |
Right off the bat, I was ready to write off Hawk (Hank) and Dove (Dawn) as merely adrenaline junkies that got off on the sheer amount of danger that they got themselves into. In that regard, I felt it was a huge disservice to those two characters from the first few episodes. As the season rolled on, it's later revealed that Hawk had to deal with sexual abuse from his coach as a child and bottled up his frustrations with that ordeal and feelings of helplessness for the bulk of his life. It wasn't until after he met with the woman, Dawn, who would become the second Dove (the original was Hawk's younger brother, Don) after her mother was killed in the same "accident" that took Hawk's brother from him. They found some common ground in their grief and it really hit home when Dove was inspired after seeing what Hawk and his brother had started from their YouTube antics into vigilantism. She went out and targeted the coach that abused Hawk as a child and they issued their own string of "justice". This led to their pending romance and I'll be lying if I didn't admit that I found this hooking up after this ordeal to be rather odd. The last thing on my mind would be an awkward sexual encounter after beating the holy shit out of the dude that sexually abused me in my childhood, y'know? But to each his/her own... That being said, this revelation added some much needed depth to both Hank and Dawn's characters. Hank wasn't the stupid, dumb jock that I had him pegged out to be and Dawn wasn't just random hot chick just having pity sex with him. Hank and Dawn rely on each other as their own sources of strength to overcome their own personal pain. I can only imagine that Hank and Dawn went to serve justice to the man who was abusing Dawn's mother that was hinted at in their conversation shortly before she was killed with Don in their accident. Dawn is a woman who wants to heal the wounds in the hearts of these damaged men and that's why I feel like she's drawn to men like Hank and Dick.
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| I'm not going to even talk about how bad this moment was setup in this episode with Starfire just buying a bottle of alcohol and suggesting that they "unwind" and get to know each other better before screwing each others' brains out. That whole exchange there didn't do Starfire's portrayal in this series any favors at all. |
It's crazy too that even though it's expressed in the tail end of the season that Donna Troy is seen as Dick's childhood best friend, he sees Dawn in his dream during the season finale as his beloved companion and bearer of his children. Donna's not even mentioned in that dream (at least I don't remember her being mentioned if not at all), but Kory is (sporting a much better look here no less...), despite their only attachment outside of protecting Raven was their one sexual hook-up.
One thing that I felt was a slight surprise here was the appearance of Jason Todd in this series. I seriously doubt that they are going to explicitly display his demise at the hand of The Joker, so it was a bit of a head-scratcher to see him in this series. On the other hand, I guess people would have complained if they skipped over him and went straight to Tim Drake without any explanation as timeline-wise in order of events of the Bat family, Robin was already Nightwing by the time Drake came around. This narrative is clearly setting Robin up to become Nightwing by the early part or tail end of the next season as his own "graduation" of sorts as his final departure from separating himself from Bruce Wayne/Batman. I think that fact is so obvious that even a blind man can see it from how the narrative here has been leading viewers along with the breadcrumbs from the start of the season to the finale. We start with Dick dreading even putting the costume on period to finally crossing a line that he promised himself that he wouldn't cross until he finally burns the Robin costume for good after ordering Kory to burn down the asylum that tortured the four heroes until Raven killed that whack job who was in charge. It looked like he was going to leave that life behind completely until getting caught up with Donna Troy again and found himself drawn back into protecting Raven once more as a surrogate father figure.
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| Conor Leslie's Donna Troy is truly a gem and a saving grace in the tail end of this season. I cannot rave about her enough here. |
Let's talk about the finale though, shall we? The whole episode is tailored around the warped idea that Dick Grayson has finally found some semblance of a normal life as he's married to Dawn and they have a son together with her pregnant with another child on the way. Dick found himself visited by a wheelchair-bound Jason Todd, who informs him that Bruce Wayne has finally gone off the deep end and is going to kill The Joker. Dick is then urged by his friends to go back to an overrun Gotham City to attempt to talk some sense into Bruce. It turns out it's too late as he finds out that Batman has killed all of Arkham Asylum's staff and patients as well as The Joker himself. Dick has no choice but to spill the beans that Bruce Wayne is Batman. A SWAT team storms Wayne Manor, including special agent Kory Anders. The attack goes sour as Batman is killing everyone left and right until Dick issues the order to blow the mansion with C4 after Kory's killed mercilessly by Batman. Dick goes into the mansion to survey his handiwork and finds Batman pinned underneath the rubble and issues the fatal blow, killing him in the process and succumbing to his inner darkness. It's then revealed that this was a ploy by Trigon to manipulate Robin to do his bidding. The episode ends with a teaser of someone (clearly Kryptonian and obviously Superboy) breaking out of confinement and rescuing a dog with glowing red eyes.
Here's my problem with all of this... I get that they were going with a possible mindfuck for this finale, but it just doesn't really stick nor hit home with not that much weight behind it. Throughout the entire thing, I was rolling my eyes waiting for Dick to wake up from this obvious dream sequence. The whole "special agent" gimmick for Kory Anders didn't stick from her alien origins being revealed in the episode prior, so that was another dead giveaway that this was a dream. The main thing that frustrates me with the writing on this episode is that it attempts to rip off one of the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, "Over the Edge", where Batman is being hunted down by the Gotham City Police Department for the possible murder of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. The war between Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne/Batman ends up costing them their lives until the whole ordeal is revealed to be dream from Barbara Gordon/Batgirl's damaged psyche after being exposed to Scarecrow's fear toxin. In the case of this series, the whole Batman at war with the police subplot comes off as a cheap imitation without any of the emotional weight behind it that Over The Edge had for that series. They merely pulled what they wanted from it that benefited for this mock dream sequence and muddled it all up. Dick desperately wanted to distance himself from Bruce Wayne - this dream gave him that. He got to settle down and have a family. He was able to put the cape and cowl days behind him and actually do something that Bruce Wayne hasn't ever been able to do - have a life outside of crime-fighting and his endless devotion to avenging his parents' deaths. This whole episode was done at the detriment of the other ongoing plots. I'm finding it hard for myself or anyone for that matter is going to remotely care what is going on to maintain interest whenever the next season starts.
I read that there were some odd cuts/edits and reshoots for this season finale (along for the season could end in a similar "cliffhanger" of sorts that The Walking Dead tends to do to attempt to keep their viewers invested. If Trigon's plan was to find a hero to corrupt to do his bidding then why waste his time with Dick Grayson of all people? Look, I get it - his whole world domination plan hinges on the fact once Raven's heart is broken, but he could have killed Gar instead of healing him for the same result. Trigon and Angela are making this world domination/destruction plot with Raven far too complicated than it needs to be. On top of that, if you need pawns to do your bidding wouldn't it be more proactive to have Kory Anders (who already proved that she's clearly a threat to Raven's powers) and Gar under his control over someone who doesn't even have any powers to begin with? Let's not forget that they ended this season with the reveal/teaser that Superboy exists in this continuity so that just diminishes any real threat of having the Boy Wonder under your control has in the pending battle. He's going to be as helpful as Robin was in that Family Guy cutaway gag...
I'll admit that having Superboy in this is quite the revelation though as I wouldn't have pegged him to be in this show, especially when the CW had to bend over backwards to get Superman in Supergirl. I guess his origins and partnership with Krypto the Superdog will be highlighted in Season Two, whenever that comes to fruition. With Young Justice back for a third season, fans will want to see more of that character, especially one with the darker origins that he had in that show with ties to being a clone created from the DNA of both Superman and Lex Luthor.
At this stage, I honestly don't see what their endgame is outside of Robin's transformation into becoming Nightwing. Other than that, there's not really much here to sink your teeth into in terms of plot. There were some promising questions and threads started throughout the season, but they are either never mentioned again or picked up so far later in the season that you completely forget that it was a thing to begin with. I doubt the Trigon/Raven dilemma is going to last the bulk of the next season with Superboy wondering around in this continuity along with the two other most powerful characters in this series, Starfire and Donna Troy, ready to pounce on Trigon the second he steps out of his barrier. It merely brings up the question of "Why should I care? And why should I keep watching this?" I'll watch out of morbid curiosity to see where it ends up, but I can't see the vast majority of fans having that much patience from what was presented here in this first season.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
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| That's probably going to be the exact same question your friends and family will ask when they catch you binge-watching this show... |
This is a rather tough sell for both DC Comics fans - old and new.
Currently, the only way to watch it (legally) in the United States is to subscribe to the DC Universe streaming service. Alternatively, most countries outside of the United States will be able to watch the full first season in its entirety on Netflix as crazy as that sounds to say that DC Universe's selling point is that their original series on the service would be exclusive to that platform.
I wouldn't say this series is necessarily awful. It's better than a wide margin of the crap that the CW puts out on their DC Comics-based shows on a regular basis (I know, that's not saying much...), but I think the mature take on the violence wasn't necessary to tell the story that they were going for. Let me put it this way. When I go to watch something from a grittier comic book-based character, such as The Punisher, I'm going in expecting the violence cranked up to eleven, not for something like the Titans here. Before anyone goes ham in the comments or on social media, I'm aware that some of the George Perez era stuff for the Titans was pretty out there in terms of content and most of those stories would require a mature rating to fly nowadays with most audiences (i.e. like most of the DC direct to video animated films, Justice League vs. Teen Titans and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract immediately come to mind). This show seemed like it was written by teenagers who learned their first curse word and just wanted to say "Fuck fuck fuck fuck" in every line of dialogue. People have come to respect Marvel Comics' "mature" narratives on Netflix because those stories were justified. Here, it just seems like the violence and vulgar language are there as a gimmick instead of enhancing the product.
A better way to describe this series is that there's a lot of potential to be good, given the possibility that the writers capitalize on the good that this series does and negate the bad. Dick Grayson's journey is worth the watch alone, despite the fact that it takes a backseat to some of the other weaker subplots far too frequently. For example, Kory Ander's alien origins could have been saved for the next season after how little effort was put into that revelation once it had little to no impact on the season finale. On the other hand, I wish they put more attention to Gar's struggles to distinguish himself from the beast(s) that he transforms into instead of brushing that topic under the rug as quickly as they brought it up. The same goes for the history of Hawk and Dove's personal demons that brought them together being revealed, only for them to have a very minor role in this season, outside of Dawn playing a pivotal role in Dick's dream during the finale. There's a lot of potential for this show to be good in time, but it's a shaky foundation to start off with.
With so many live-action comic book-based shows on television, it's hard to recommend this when there's many other (much better if I may add) options out there. (Coughs) Like Marvel's Runaways Season 2... (Coughs) If you've exhausted yourself with everything else that CW's DC Comics-based properties have put out leading up to their current midseason breaks, then this is worth a look. Otherwise, I can't recommend going out of your way to check this out. It's definitely not worth justifying the purchase of the DC Universe streaming service to check out.
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