So WE, the viewers, get to choose the story like it's one of those old school Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books? You know everyone's going to be rewinding time stamps if they don't get the ending(s) they want like a motherfucker though. I might just actually buy this at launch just for this reason instead of just waiting for the upload/stream online like most of the DC Animated films that tend to leak online earlier than expected.
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Showing posts with label Jason Todd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jason Todd. Show all posts
PREVIEW -- DC Showcase's Batman: Death in the Family - Exclusive Official Trailer
So WE, the viewers, get to choose the story like it's one of those old school Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books? You know everyone's going to be rewinding time stamps if they don't get the ending(s) they want like a motherfucker though. I might just actually buy this at launch just for this reason instead of just waiting for the upload/stream online like most of the DC Animated films that tend to leak online earlier than expected.
REVIEW -- DC's Titans (Season 2 - Episodes 1-13; DC Universe Original)
Titans follows the young superheroes of the eponymous team as they combat evil and other perils. Disbanded when the story begins, the series sees the team return when the original and new members reform the Titans. The Titans fight crime throughout various locations, with their base of operations in San Francisco.
The first members of the team to appear in the series are Batman's former vigilante partner Dick Grayson, extraterrestrial Kory Anders, empath Rachel Roth, and shapeshifter Garfield "Gar" Logan. Dick is later revealed as one of the original Titans, alongside half-Amazon Donna Troy and crime-fighting duo Dawn Granger and Hank Hall. After the Titans reform, the team is joined by Batman's new partner Jason Todd, assassin Rose Wilson, and genetic clone Conner.
In the first season, Rachel comes to Dick for protection from dangerous forces pursuing her, which leads to them meeting and teaming up with Kory and Gar. The heroes eventually learn that Rachel is being targeted by her demon father Trigon, who seeks to enslave the world. The season also depicts Dick's efforts to distance himself from his mentor and his Robin persona, while Kory struggles with a bout of amnesia that leaves her unaware of her true identity.
The second season focuses on the official reformation of the Titans as Dick leads a new team composed of Rachel, Gar, and Jason. The Titans' return, however, leads to the reemergence of feared assassin Deathstroke, whose prior conflict with the original team caused their disbanding. As Deathstroke attempts to eliminate the heroes, the original Titans are forced to face him again, while other threats emerge from the malevolent Cadmus Laboratories and Kory's younger sister Blackfire.
Cast:
Main
Brenton Thwaites as Richard "Dick" Grayson / Robin / Nightwing
Anna Diop as Koriand'r / Kory Anders / Starfire
Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth
Ryan Potter as Garfield "Gar" Logan
Curran Walters as Jason Todd / Robin (season 2; recurring season 1)
Conor Leslie as Donna Troy / Wonder Girl (season 2; guest season 1) Andi Hubick portrays Donna Troy as a teenager and Afrodite Drossos portrays Donna as a child.
Anna Diop as Koriand'r / Kory Anders / Starfire
Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth
Ryan Potter as Garfield "Gar" Logan
Curran Walters as Jason Todd / Robin (season 2; recurring season 1)
Conor Leslie as Donna Troy / Wonder Girl (season 2; guest season 1) Andi Hubick portrays Donna Troy as a teenager and Afrodite Drossos portrays Donna as a child.
Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger / Dove (season 2; recurring season 1)
Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall / Hawk (season 2; recurring season 1) Tait Blum portrays the young Hank.
Esai Morales as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke (season 2)
Chelsea Zhang as Rose Wilson (season 2)
Joshua Orpin as Subject 13 / Conner (season 2) The character was previously portrayed by body double Brooker Muir in the first season.
Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall / Hawk (season 2; recurring season 1) Tait Blum portrays the young Hank.
Esai Morales as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke (season 2)
Chelsea Zhang as Rose Wilson (season 2)
Joshua Orpin as Subject 13 / Conner (season 2) The character was previously portrayed by body double Brooker Muir in the first season.
Recurring
Rachel Nichols as Angela Azarath: Rachel's biological mother, secretly in allegiance with Trigon.
Seamus Dever as Trigon: An interdimensional demon with the power to destroy worlds and Rachel's father.[27] Dever also portrays Frank Finney, a Gotham City police captain, along with an ice cream truck driver and a drug supplier in the illusions created by Trigon.
Iain Glen as Bruce Wayne / Batman (season 2): A billionaire who moonlights as a feared vigilante in Gotham City and Dick's former mentor. The character was previously portrayed by stunt doubles Alain Moussi and Maxim Savarias in the first season.
Michael Mosley as Dr. Arthur Light (season 2): A former physicist who turned criminal after gaining the ability to control light energy.
Chella Man as Jericho (season 2): Deathstroke's mute son and Rose's half-brother, who has the power to possess other people's bodies through eye contact.
Raoul Bhaneja as Walter Hawn (season 2): The vice president of special projects at Cadmus Laboratories.
Natalie Gumede as Mercy Graves (season 2): The personal security specialist to Lex Luthor, assigned to oversee Cadmus Laboratories.
Demore Barnes as William Wintergreen (season 2): Deathstroke's handler and friend.
Mayko Nguyen as Adeline (season 2): Jericho's mother and Deathstroke's ex-wife.
Guest
Introduced in season 2
Drew Van Acker as Garth / Aqualad: A member of the original Titans from Atlantis possessing hydrokinetic and enhanced physical abilities.
Robbie Jones as Faddei: A royal guard from Tamaran and former romantic interest of Kory.
Ann Magnuson as Jillian: An Amazon monitoring Donna.
Genevieve Angelson as Eve Watson: A scientist at Cadmus Laboratories who created Conner.
Damaris Lewis as Blackfire: A Tamaranean royal and Kory's sister.
Evan Jones as Len Armstrong: A prison guard at the Kane County Correctional Facility.
Orel De La Mota as Rafi: A Kane County inmate who illegally entered the United States after he fled Corto Maltese.
Julian Works as Luis: An undocumented immigrant from Corto Maltese detained in Kane County with Rafi and Santos.
Rey Gallegos as Santos: Rafi and Luis's cellmate and fellow Corto Maltese undocumented immigrant.
McKinley Freeman as the psychiatrist: A psychiatrist who encounters Kory in Las Vegas.
Currie Graham as Stuart: The creator of Dick's costume, posing as a shoemaker.
Peter MacNeill as Lionel Luthor: A retired scientist and Lex Luthor's father.
Curtis Lum as Benny: A contact of Dick.
Elizabeth Whitmere as Ellis' sister: The sister of Hank and Dawn's farmhand.
Drew Scheid as Faux Hawk: A teenager who poses as Hawk.
Patrick Garrow as cage announcer: The announcer for Hank's cage fights.
Hanneke Talbot as Selinda Flinders / Shimmer: A metahuman criminal with the ability to alter compounds and elements.
Sarah Deakins as Martha Kent: Superman's adoptive mother.
Olunike Adeliyi as Mati Matisse: A burlesque dancer formerly in a relationship with Wintergreen.
Sydney Kuhne as Dani: A runaway fleeing from an abusive household.
Ishan Morris as Caleb: Dani's abusive father.
Hank, Dawn, and Jason arrive at Angela's house, joining Donna and Kory in attempting to stop Trigon, but they all succumb to Trigon's powers. Trigon breaks Rachel's will by having the heroes seemingly beat Gar to death. With Rachel under his control, Trigon begins to destroy all life around him, starting with Angela. However, Gar survives and uses his friendship with Rachel to free her from Trigon. In turn, Rachel saves Dick before defeating her father and freeing the rest. Afterwards, the heroes go their separate ways, with Dick accompanied by Jason, Rachel, and Gar. Dick meets with Bruce to reconcile and reestablish the Titans at Titans Tower, their original San Francisco base. Bruce agrees to have Dick lead a new team under the condition that Jason joins. Meanwhile, Deathstroke comes out of retirement when he learns that the Titans have resurfaced.
Donna, Hank, and Dawn meet Dick at the Titans Tower, who notifies them that Deathstroke is in the city and pursuing Rose. Rose reveals to Dick that she is attempting to assassinate Deathstroke because he killed her brother Jericho. Working together against the Titans, Deathstroke tells Dr. Light of his plan to lure the heroes to them by separating the weaker members from the group. After Dr. Light escapes from the original team, Jason convinces Gar to search for him on their own. Jason defeats Dr. Light, but is ambushed by Deathstroke. Meanwhile, Faddei informs Kory that her sister Blackfire has ordered her return to Tamaran to become queen. A call from Rachel about losing control of her powers, however, prompts Kory to trap Faddei in her ship and travel back to her friends.
Following Jason's abduction, Deathstroke kills Dr. Light and informs the heroes that he will release Jason in exchange for Rose. The original Titans explain their situation to Kory after she arrives, as Gar, Rachel, and Rose eavesdrop on the conversation. Rose attempts to escape when she learns that the team is considering surrendering her and is nearly killed by Rachel's unstable powers. After Dick tells his teammates that they will ambush Deathstroke under the guise of making the exchange, he secretly meets with Deathstroke in a skyscraper to offer his life for Jason's. Unmoved, Deathstroke reveals that he has bound Jason to a scaffold rigged with explosives. Kory intervenes, but she and Dick are unable to stop Deathstroke from activating the explosives, sending Jason falling from the skyscraper.
In Metropolis, Subject 13 escapes from Cadmus Laboratories with Krypto, calling himself "Conner" after the nametag on a uniform he takes. Memories bring Conner to Lionel Luthor's Kansas home before Mercy Graves' team, accompanied by Dr. Eve Watson, attacks him. Defeating the team, Conner confronts Eve, who reveals that she created him from the DNA of Superman and Lex Luthor. Eve takes Conner to the original Cadmus facility in San Francisco to help him better understand himself and the traits that he shares with his DNA hosts. Urging him to flee, Eve also warns Conner not to draw attention to himself by using his powers, but Conner disregards her warning when he sees Jason falling. Upon saving Jason, Conner is shot with kryptonite bullets as Graves' team recaptures Krypto.
Dick leaves Titans Tower to search for Deathstroke while a hallucination of Bruce torments him over guilt that he feels. In Dick's absence, the team find items planted around the Tower that remind them of painful memories. Jason is accused by the other Titans of being responsible, until Dick's search uncovers that Deathstroke has infiltrated the Tower. With Jason contemplating suicide over the recent events, Dick admits to him that he is at fault for what has transpired because he killed Jericho. Eve arrives at the Tower after freeing Krypto, where she finds Conner dying from kryptonite poisoning. When Eve informs Kory that Conner can only be healed by solar radiation, Kory uses her powers to save him.
In 2014, the Titans use their friendship with Jericho to obtain information on Deathstroke. Against Dawn's advice to leave him out of their battle, Dick recruits Jericho into the team upon discovering the powers that he possesses. Jericho agrees to join when Dick tells him the truth about his father and the heroes' search for him. Deathstroke learns of the Titans' contact with Jericho and after completing his hit on Jillian, severely injures Donna as a warning to stay away from his son. Dick responds by confronting Deathstroke amid a private meeting between him and Jericho, prompting a fight that ends in Deathstroke's favor. Before Deathstroke can kill Dick, however, Jericho jumps in front of his father's blade and is stabbed instead. Afterwards, the Titans disband.
After Dick reveals the truth about Jericho's death to his team, all of the Titans except Gar leave Titans Tower. Jason and Rose depart together and Kory reunites with Faddei, while Rachel accompanies Donna before escaping to be on her own. Gar takes Conner out in public, which ends disastrously when Conner attacks a group of police officers. Dick encounters Deathstroke, who declares that their fight is over so long as Dick remains isolated from his friends and he will eliminate the Titans if they reform. Heeding Deathstroke's warning, Dick allows himself to be arrested. Believing that their presence together harms others, Hank breaks up with Dawn. Faddei informs Kory that they are being hunted by Blackfire, who became queen after murdering their parents. Kory is forced to kill Faddei when Blackfire takes over his body and vows to pursue her sister.
Incarcerated at the Kane County Correctional Facility, Dick helps undocumented immigrants Rafi and Luis escape prison before they can be deported to Corto Maltese. Rachel joins a group of runaways led by Dani after she uses her powers to save Dani from her abusive father Caleb, unaware that she also caused his death. Conner is found at Titans Tower by Mercy, who convinces him to return to Cadmus by assuring him they can fix his personality shifts. Mercy takes an interest in Gar when he is brought to Cadmus with Conner and Krypto. Searching for Rachel, Donna uncovers the aftermath of Cadmus' assault on the Tower.
While in isolation, Dick realizes that Jericho is still alive inside of Deathstroke's body. Kory, Rachel, Donna, and Dawn are lured to the Elko Diner by Bruce in an effort to reunite the team. Learning of Dick's incarceration, Rachel and Kory head off to rescue him, while Donna and Dawn leave to search for Gar. When they raid the prison, Rachel and Kory find Dick missing from his cell and a message about Jericho being alive. Rose, growing close to Jason, informs Deathstroke that she is done helping him manipulate the Titans. Mercy has Gar subjected to an experiment that causes him to involuntarily turn violent upon command.
Gar is unwillingly used by Cadmus to violently unleash his powers in public, which Mercy plans to culminate with an attack on a carnival. Donna and Dawn plan to stop Cadmus when they learn about Gar's and Conner's brainwashing. Unable to find Dick, Kory and Rachel return to San Francisco to also rescue Gar, while Kory's powers begin to diminish. Rose admits to Jason that she had been helping Deathstroke, causing Jason to leave her. With the Titans reuniting, Deathstroke prepares to eliminate them and contacts Rose to join him. After Adeline informs Dick of Deathstroke's plans and asks him to save Jericho, Dick obtains a new costume. In Wyoming, Hank struggles with drug addiction while working as a cage fighter.
Rose helps Dick fight Deathstroke and kills him, while Jericho jumps into her body. Advertising him as a supersoldier to potential bidders, Mercy has the brainwashed Conner defeat Gar at the carnival before sending him after the Titans when they intervene. The team frees Gar and Conner from their brainwashing and defeats Cadmus, but Donna is killed when she prevents a damaged transmission tower from landing on civilians. In the aftermath, Rachel leaves for Themyscira with Donna's body in an attempt to resurrect her, while Jason departs by himself, and Dick, Kory, Gar, Hank, Dawn, Rose, and Conner form a new Titans team. Elsewhere, Blackfire arrives on Earth by taking over the body of an unsuspecting woman.
While gathering my thoughts on the second season of this show, I went back and re-read what I felt about Season One to see if I felt the same thing here as I did with Season Two. Unlike most people who were covering the show online week to week, I did what I did with the first season and binge-watched it within a few days over the days I had off from work around the holidays.
The cosplay looking costumes was one of the highlights that I critiqued the initial season of this show for in my review of the first season, but I'm delighted to see that DC Universe went to back to the drawing board on a lot of the costumes. Dove's costume was a favorite of mine back in Season One, but it really stands out in this season when it's in one of the more well-lit scenes.
One of the main reasons that I loved the "Aqualad" episode so much was that all of the OG Titans looked pretty bad ass in their costumes during that episode. That was only the icing on the cake when the accompanying action was solid too.
Whoever is doing their fight choreography for this show needs to go over to the CW and give the bulk of the Arrowverse shows some pointers.
Trigon on the other hand? I'm pretty split on his look in this series. The CGI could have been a LOT worse coming from DC, with The Flash on CW's iteration of Bloodwork immediately coming to mind.
That being said, we still got some pretty darn good action sequences in this season, which was something that never was a negative in the first season. I'm just glad that things didn't take a nose dive in quality among all of the creative changes in the narrative direction for this season.
The cliffhanger that they ended the first season with Dick Grayson being corrupted by Trigon and his looming threat didn't last much more than the first episode into Season Two. The rumors ended up being true with DC Universe getting cold feet and ending the first season initially where it was supposed to end at that point as Raven (with her "new" powers gifted to her by her father) defeats him with ease after breaking free from his influence and brought the team back to a sense of normalcy.
At this point, I really thought that this show was going to go in the direction that Young Justice has gone in their third season (also on the DC Universe streaming platform) with Nightwing acting as a mentor of sorts to a group of younger heroes in training while getting his old band back together to join them with Hawk, Dove, Donna Troy, and the newcomer Kory (Starfire).
Instead, we're saddled with a subplot that sees Dick reliving his angst and inner turmoil from his past relationship with Bruce Wayne (who actually appears in this season) that feels like a complete rehash of what Dick was dealing with in Season One. The only difference here is that Dick's inner turmoil derives from his own decision to manipulate a young metahuman named Jericho to get closer to his father, Deathstroke, that killed the original Titans' ally, Aqualad. Deathstroke was on assignment to assassinate Donna Troy's friend, but Aqualad got in the way and was gunned down instead. The original Titans vowed to avenge their friend's demise by taking down Deathstroke. Instead, Deathstroke proved to be a much more capable opponent than anything that they could handle and they were forced to disband after Jericho died saving Dick's life while he was the costumed hero Robin. Dick lied to his team that Jericho was already dead when he confronted Deathstroke on his own and kept it a secret all of these years.
I didn't understand why that was such a big deal to keep a secret. The OG Titans already knew that Dick (with their encouragement actually, especially with his then-girlfriend Dove saying "Be like Batman") was just using Jericho to get closer to Deathstroke and even came clean to the kid about their intentions. It was Jericho's choice to sacrifice himself to save Dick, even though they had all agreed to let Jericho confront his father on his own terms, but Dick followed him to the church anyway. Whether he told them the truth or not, the team still disbanded after what happened to Jericho. I could understand all of the secrecy if the OG Titans were still working together as a team collectively but they all went their separate directions and pretty much gave up on the costumed life for the most part up to this point. They only came back into the fold to help deal with whatever was going on with Rachel (Raven) back in Season One.
When the Titans start working together to first takedown Trigon and then Dr. Light shortly thereafter, it gets the ire of Deathstroke, who threatens to tear their "family" apart once again. This time, he has has a sleeper agent within their ranks as his daughter, Rose. I thought this was FAR too easy to see coming as anyone who knew who she was from the comics or got wind of the casting news when it leaked online that they were going with spin of this infamous story from the comic book lore.
I thought the on-screen chemistry between Rose Wilson (Chelsea Zhang) and Jason Todd (Curran Walters) was really well done from the scenes that they shared together, even though I don't like Curran Walters nor Jason Todd in the least. That kid just comes across as he should be in one of those Kick-Ass movies rather this show, especially when you look at him in costume. Chelsea Zhang, on the other hand, excels in most of the scenes she's in with the majority of the cast. There was one point where Jason was getting so much shit from his older mentors on the Titans to the point where that he was ready to jump off of the roof of the Titans Tower building that they were all living in. I understood that they were shooting for the audience to feel sorry for the kid, but I was sitting there going, "Go ahead and put the kid out of his misery. Maybe he'll come back with a better personality when he's revived as Red Hood." I honestly didn't give a damn about Jason Todd here since Season One. I know that I'm weird in that regard as he's a much more "likeable" Robin than Dick has been since the start of this show, but can't say that I ever was a fan of the character - pre-Red Hood anyway.
In a nice throwback to the comics, the Titans TV seres launched a poll after Episode 3 to allow fans to vote on Jason Todd's fate to see whether he lives or dies, despite already filming these episodes in succession. It's not like they were going to allow fan votes to sway the outcome of how the events of this season were going to unfold, but it was a nice little throwback regardless, even though that this is the second season in a row where they "teased" Jason Todd's demise for fun.
The way they handled the narrative with between the original Titans and Deathstroke throughout the course of this season was pretty muddled up, but we finally got the payoff to Dick's journey that should have been the climax to Season One with him putting his past behind him and becoming Nightwing.
Speaking of Deathstroke/Slade Wilson, I didn't mind how he was used in this season. He quickly assumes the role of the main antagonist for this season, even though he's overshadowed by Cadmus' own machinations in the season finale, but exists as a constant threat to this team of young heroes in every scene that he appears in. I don't buy for a second that he's dead either. He will probably be back down the road in some capacity, especially since Jericho found the means to survive his own demise. Don't forget that Rose (who has the same powers as her father) survived being mangled by Rachel's powers in their brief skirmish too and healed back to normal without any repercussions.
My best friend gave me the season of Arrow where Deathstroke appears in that series on DVD, but I haven't had the chance to watch that in any capacity to compare that iteration with this one. I will just say that I was completely fine with how his character was handled here. Simply put, you don't fuck with a man's family and expect to get away with it. Slade Wilson had the Titans draw his children into the crossfire on two separate occasions and still came up short in their encounters with him. It wasn't until Rose (under her Ravager persona) teamed up with Dick (under his new Nightwing moniker and costume), that they were able to defeat him.
The season finale/payoff to finally see Dick Grayson put his past behind him and embrace this new costumed identity as Nightwing was well worth the wait, but goddamn was it frustrating that we had to endure an extended rehash of Dick's journey from Season One (along with Rachel's too with her struggles with her powers) to get there. Mind you, there were leaked set photos from the Season One finale that Dick was going to be Nightwing at that point before the various reshoots and rewrites that resulted in a lot of the Titans' backstories getting a soft reboot in this season.
I hate to saddle this show with claims that it was utter shit to start to finish like a lot of other reviews blasting it over the internet, but much like with Season One, I didn't think it was that bad. There's actually three episodes of note that I thought were really well-done.
The more that I think about it, the more I have to agree that this was the best episode of the entire season. Gone is the rough around the edges approach to the modern day format of Dick's Titans team of super-powered people and instead, we're treated to a look back in the past to a clever reboot of sorts to the original iteration of this team, consisting of Robin (Dick Grayson), Hawk (Hank Hill), Dove (Dawn Granger), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), and Aqualad (Garth of Atlantis). This episode takes the complete "villain of the week" formula from the CW's Arrowverse, pitting this team against Dr. Light. I can't say that I was too crazy about Dr. Light's costume looking like he's going for some techno-steampunk hybrid version of Gladiator, but it worked for the most part. It wasn't that the team-based action sequences (something the CW Arrowverse really struggles with in their various team-up episodes and crossovers) in this episode clicked that made this episode shine. That was only a small contribution to the overall "reboot" of sorts to the Titans' origins here. The writers showed their ability to write multiple characters well in this episode too with the various revisions to the established cast. For example, Dawn and Dick were openly dating at this point instead of being insisted that it happened behind Hank's back as suggested in the first season. Donna Troy's insistence to not get attached with her return to Themyscira around the corner was tested as she struggled to keep her feelings about Garth under the surface. She thought that she could have a one night fling with him and leave all of that behind, but when push came to shove, she couldn't leave him (her heart in more ways than one) behind. Her world came crashing down when Garth is gunned down in front of her by Deathstroke, who was aiming for her Amazonian confidant, Jillian, instead.
Even out of context, this episode is just so damn good. If you don't watch anything else from Titans in Season 2, go out of your way to watch this episode. It's a perfect example of what this show could be going forward following the fact that this season got all of the messy tape of dealing with Dick dealing with his past out of the way.
This entire episode is a departure from the rest of the Titans team that we have come to know to date as it follows Subject 13 as he wakes up out of one of Cadmus Laboratories' facilities and breaks out with his dog that he appropriately names, Krypto. The episode serves as his origin story since this was pretty much a continuation of the brief teaser that we were given at the end of Season One that added in the revelation that Conner Kent is the genetic clone hybrid made from both Superman and Lex Luthor's DNA. When this season started, I figured he wouldn't have anything to do with the conflict with Trigon as Kryptonians are traditionally weak versus magical threats, so he wouldn't have been an asset to bring in at that point. I wasn't too particularly fond of the Cadmus scientist, Eve Watson (played by Genevieve Angelson), who was acting like his "mother" at first, but by the end of that episode I was sold on their relationship.
Ultimately, this episode stood out because it was such a departure from what we were used to with following the other heroes in this show up to this point and served as an excellent "hiatus" of sorts from what was going on in the current narrative with their ongoing conflict with Deathstroke.
This episode serves as a continuation of the flashback started back in "Aqualad" with the OG Titans befriending a young mute metahuman named Jericho. Dick and the other Titans are really going out of their way to hang out with the kid and welcome him into their circle, but it's quickly revealed that they have an ulterior motive - Jericho is Deathstroke's son. Following the death of Garth, Dawn haunted Dick with the words, "Be like Batman" - something that he hasn't let go of doing. I know a lot of people tend to harp on Dick's retreading the familiar territory of his stress of having to live up to Batman's high expectations from Season One in this season too, but I saw that mental wound being ripped open again from what happened to him in the dreamscape following what happened to the Titans after their run-in with Trigon at the start of this season, thus forcing Dick to relive that mistake again in this season until he could properly put those feelings to rest instead of just burying them in the back of his mind. In this episode, we see the start of Dick going down that dark path to "be like Batman" as how Dawn put it, as he sought the means to get close to Deathstroke by any means possible, even if it meant manipulating and using his own son to do - as long as it resulted in a victory for the Titans and revenge for their fallen ally.
This episode shines in multiple regards as we don't simply see how vulnerable and desperate the OG Titans are following the death of Garth in this flashback, but we see that Slade Wilson doesn't deny that he's monster for what he has done as an assassin; he just wants to be a good father to his son. The only thing he ever wanted was that his son saw that side of him, only to destroy the child-like fondness that his son had over his father prior to the Titans exposing the truth of Deathstroke's "work" to Jericho. This is a complete 180 from the ruthless antagonist that we have come to know Slade as up to this point.
(Laughs) That being said, it's even more crazy to me that this is the same actor that played Manny Lopez (George's estranged father) in George Lopez Show. I doubt I can go back and watch those episodes and not see Slade Wilson as George's dad now.
Like previously mentioned, Dick retreads a lot of the familiar territory that we saw back in Season One, coping from his inner angst and guilt to lash out with violent tendencies. The same actions that saw Jericho lose his life due to his actions. There was one moment where I thought Dick was going to mature past that "angry teen" phase that he was ridden in for both seasons where he was the responsible adult leading this new generation of Titans, only to regress back into the same character that we saw back in the first season of this show. It was admittedly very frustrating to see him not return back to this by the end of the season, but at least we got some closure to his inner turmoil that saw him stop blaming Bruce Wayne for his personal darkness. Things seemed to look up in the closing moments of the season though as he's back in a position of leadership for the Titans going forward with a clear head and renewed purpose.
Having Bruce Wayne show up for the vast majority of this season as a hallucination was a massive disservice to that character, even though he did lend a hand to the Titans during the season finale. Hell, even that great pep talk from Bruce that saw him rally Dawn, Donna, Kory, and Rachel together to save Dick, Conner, and Gar wasn't even real. That ended up being a fabrication of Rachel's powers, subconsciously manipulating them to reunite after their falling out.
It didn't hit me until near the end of the season that Bruce is played by the same actor who played the doctor in the Paul W.S. Anderson-helmed Resident Evil movies. Couldn't we cast someone as Bruce who wasn't already balding his hair out? (Laughs) I'm just sayin'.
I have already expressed my distaste for Jason Todd / Robin in this series, but I'll give Curran Walters credit where it's due. The kid made the character work for him, even though it came off as a whiny bitch at times. His highlights for this season shine best when he is sharing screen time with Rose (Chelsea Zhang). I thought it was rather odd that he didn't have any major scenes with Bruce in this season either to say that he was recommended for Dick's new Titans' team by Bruce in the first place. The more I think about it, the more I think that the costumed life as a whole, especially those who surround themselves around Jason have a negative impact on his development as a character and as a hero. Dick thought he had it bad as Batman's sidekick, but imagine what Jason is going through? He has to deliver to somehow perform to Batman's high expectations as well as be deemed worthy of living up to the mantle that Dick wore before him as Robin, along with proving himself amongside so many established heroes among the likes of Hawk, Dove, and Wonder Girl. All of that pressure coming in from all sides is enough to make anyone crack. I can't blame him for getting to the point of having to be literally talked out of jumping off the roof of the Titans Tower.
Her character arc in this season seemed all over the place with the stops and starts. I'm going to assume that she's going to get a little more depth in the third season with the arrival of her sister Blackfire arriving on Earth.
I did appreciate that she maintained the role of a "big sister" to Rachel to compliment the "big brother" role that Dick played in both seasons to her. Those were the moments that really shone bright for her in this season when she stood as the metaphorical "guiding light" to the other Titans' darkness.
It felt like the writers didn't realize that they wrote an almost identical path for Donna Troy and Kory in this season at one point. Both of them were women who were estranged from their homeland, only to be taking to costumed crime-fighting to "distract" themselves from their true callings. On second thought, that might have been on purpose, given their buddy cop pairing together for a few episodes.
It felt like they wrote her diminishing powers as a cop out to write off anyone other Donna Troy could save those innocent bystanders during the season finale while Superboy was in no condition to help following his battle with the Titans and waking up from Cadmus' control.
I said it back during my review on Season One and I'll repeat it here, I think Dawn and Dick make a better couple than Hank and Dawn. I get it that Hawk and Dawn have the common ground from their shared experiences and trauma, but that doesn't tie them to the hip. Hank wanted to give up and just quit at least three different times now and almost seems to be dragged back into the fight kicking and screaming. Plus if I'm honest, his frat boy/macho bullshit is getting stale at this point. Dick is a dick at times from his past experiences from being Batman's sidekick, but he's not a flat out douchebag like Hank is. I can't think of any redeeming qualities of that guy at all.
That episode "Faux Hawk" seemed completely out of place in this season - at least the part where Hank was working as a cage fighter. It seemed as if the writers wanted to have Dove move on and be her own heroine but went "OH SHIT WE FORGOT TO SHOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HANK!" after the fact when they started moving the other chess pieces to have the Titans reuniting for the season finale to confront both Deathstroke and Cadmus. To say that the guy sold his costume while on some drug addicted binge is just sad. Hank needs help and that's something that I felt was swept underneath the rug far too fast to wrap this season up in the final two episodes.
Dawn isn't without her own set of flaws too. Where as Hank is content with neglecting their costumed vigilante exploits in favor of his drug-addiction, Dawn is addicted to being a heroine - almost to the point of being a martyr. I felt that she could be punishing herself for pushing Dick down the path that he went with pursuing and manipulating Jericho and getting the ire of Deathstroke to come down on the Titans. I just know that her relationship with Hank is anything but good for the both of them.
If I didn't love this character enough during her introduction at the tail end of Season One, I found a way to love her even more in this season, especially after being treated to more of her backstory following the "Aqualad" episode. Garth / Aqualad appears in a single episode and proves to be the heart and soul of this team, explaining why we found all of the founding Titans in such a dark place in the first season (or still are following those events). Garth's death explains why she was distant to coming back to the costumed life when Dick first contacted her for help back in Season One and why she reluctant to take it up again, despite being an advocate for justice. The heroic irony of her path in this season is that she's been running from her destiny all of this time, only to meet her demise embracing it in the season finale. The closing moments of the season saw Rachel accompanying the Amazons to take her body to Themysirca, but I selfishly hope they don't revive her in the third season (something her actress already teased for Season Three) as it would cheapen Donna's sacrifice here.
Instead, they have left the door wide open to have Cassandra Sandsmark be the new Wonder Girl in the future. Fans of Young Justice should be familiar with that iteration of the character that debuted in Season Two of that animated series.
Following the defeat of Trigon, it felt like the situation with the changes to Rachel's powers was being vastly ignored by the other Titans in favor to what was going on with Deathstroke over the course of this season. We never got to find out what happened to that piece of dark magic that splintered off of her and brought that gargoyle to life that killed her friend's abusive father. That was one hell of a plot hole that was left out to the wild. That being said, I found myself always intrigued with what was going on with the evolution of her powers. I would like to assume that will continue being a focal point going forward, especially in the upcoming third season.
It's a rather silly at times that Rachel has like full mastery over these powers at the most convenient times of the plot. I swear, her powers are more of a plot device than the Sword of Omens in Thundercats ever was in this show at times.
Just like in the first season, Gar was easily forgettable in this season. He got a lot of screen time following the team disbanding following Dick's "truth bomb", but ultimately didn't do anything of note in this season outside of becoming another one of Cadmus' pawns. I have to wonder if anyone removed whatever Cadmus inserted into his brain following the events of the season finale. He was just sitting around at the dinner table like nothing happened by that point. I know it was Rachel who "woke" him up, but
I feel like I'm having deja vu here as I wrap up this review. Much like my thoughts on Season One, there's a lot of potential for greatness going forward. Hell, we even saw evidence of that in three of the episodes that I mentioned, along with some of the episodes scattered throughout the season. I'm going to do a rare "Give it a fair chance" about this season. Who knows, you might see something you like and makes you want to come back for more. I'm definitely sticking with this for Season Three.
Introduced in season 2
Drew Van Acker as Garth / Aqualad: A member of the original Titans from Atlantis possessing hydrokinetic and enhanced physical abilities.
Robbie Jones as Faddei: A royal guard from Tamaran and former romantic interest of Kory.
Ann Magnuson as Jillian: An Amazon monitoring Donna.
Genevieve Angelson as Eve Watson: A scientist at Cadmus Laboratories who created Conner.
Damaris Lewis as Blackfire: A Tamaranean royal and Kory's sister.
Evan Jones as Len Armstrong: A prison guard at the Kane County Correctional Facility.
Orel De La Mota as Rafi: A Kane County inmate who illegally entered the United States after he fled Corto Maltese.
Julian Works as Luis: An undocumented immigrant from Corto Maltese detained in Kane County with Rafi and Santos.
Rey Gallegos as Santos: Rafi and Luis's cellmate and fellow Corto Maltese undocumented immigrant.
McKinley Freeman as the psychiatrist: A psychiatrist who encounters Kory in Las Vegas.
Currie Graham as Stuart: The creator of Dick's costume, posing as a shoemaker.
Peter MacNeill as Lionel Luthor: A retired scientist and Lex Luthor's father.
Curtis Lum as Benny: A contact of Dick.
Elizabeth Whitmere as Ellis' sister: The sister of Hank and Dawn's farmhand.
Drew Scheid as Faux Hawk: A teenager who poses as Hawk.
Patrick Garrow as cage announcer: The announcer for Hank's cage fights.
Hanneke Talbot as Selinda Flinders / Shimmer: A metahuman criminal with the ability to alter compounds and elements.
Sarah Deakins as Martha Kent: Superman's adoptive mother.
Olunike Adeliyi as Mati Matisse: A burlesque dancer formerly in a relationship with Wintergreen.
Sydney Kuhne as Dani: A runaway fleeing from an abusive household.
Ishan Morris as Caleb: Dani's abusive father.
Episode Summaries
(** SPOILERS!! **)
1 "Trigon"
Hank, Dawn, and Jason arrive at Angela's house, joining Donna and Kory in attempting to stop Trigon, but they all succumb to Trigon's powers. Trigon breaks Rachel's will by having the heroes seemingly beat Gar to death. With Rachel under his control, Trigon begins to destroy all life around him, starting with Angela. However, Gar survives and uses his friendship with Rachel to free her from Trigon. In turn, Rachel saves Dick before defeating her father and freeing the rest. Afterwards, the heroes go their separate ways, with Dick accompanied by Jason, Rachel, and Gar. Dick meets with Bruce to reconcile and reestablish the Titans at Titans Tower, their original San Francisco base. Bruce agrees to have Dick lead a new team under the condition that Jason joins. Meanwhile, Deathstroke comes out of retirement when he learns that the Titans have resurfaced.
2 "Rose"
Three months after Trigon's defeat, Dick continues to train his team in San Francisco where Rachel's powers begin to act strangely. Dick rescues a female metahuman on the run and attempts to recruit her into the Titans, despite her resistance to receiving help. Jason and Gar identify the young woman as Rose Wilson, Deathstroke's daughter. Hank and Dawn have retired to Wyoming, but tensions ensue when Hank discovers that Dawn is continuing to operate as Dove. In Chicago, Kory and Donna fight crime together and capture rogue metahuman Shimmer. Dawn, Hank, and Donna are forced to reunite with Dick when Dr. Arthur Light escapes from prison and begins targeting the Titans. Kory encounters fellow Tamaranean Faddei, who takes her captive.
3 "Ghosts"
Donna, Hank, and Dawn meet Dick at the Titans Tower, who notifies them that Deathstroke is in the city and pursuing Rose. Rose reveals to Dick that she is attempting to assassinate Deathstroke because he killed her brother Jericho. Working together against the Titans, Deathstroke tells Dr. Light of his plan to lure the heroes to them by separating the weaker members from the group. After Dr. Light escapes from the original team, Jason convinces Gar to search for him on their own. Jason defeats Dr. Light, but is ambushed by Deathstroke. Meanwhile, Faddei informs Kory that her sister Blackfire has ordered her return to Tamaran to become queen. A call from Rachel about losing control of her powers, however, prompts Kory to trap Faddei in her ship and travel back to her friends.
4 "Aqualad"
Five years before the present day, an assignment sends Deathstroke to San Francisco where Jericho and his mother Adeline are hiding. Assisted by new member Garth, the original Titans capture Dr. Light. Garth and Donna harbor romantic feelings for each other, but Donna has resisted Garth's advances because the Amazons require that she return to Themyscira. After the two ultimately have a sexual encounter, Garth learns from Dick that Donna will be leaving immediately. When Garth appears before Donna at an airport to persuade her to stay, he is shot by Deathstroke. The surviving members of the team identify Deathstroke as Garth's killer and dedicate themselves to hunting him down. A week later, Jericho is befriended by Dick, unaware that Dick seeks revenge against his father.
5 "Deathstroke"
Following Jason's abduction, Deathstroke kills Dr. Light and informs the heroes that he will release Jason in exchange for Rose. The original Titans explain their situation to Kory after she arrives, as Gar, Rachel, and Rose eavesdrop on the conversation. Rose attempts to escape when she learns that the team is considering surrendering her and is nearly killed by Rachel's unstable powers. After Dick tells his teammates that they will ambush Deathstroke under the guise of making the exchange, he secretly meets with Deathstroke in a skyscraper to offer his life for Jason's. Unmoved, Deathstroke reveals that he has bound Jason to a scaffold rigged with explosives. Kory intervenes, but she and Dick are unable to stop Deathstroke from activating the explosives, sending Jason falling from the skyscraper.
6 "Conner"
In Metropolis, Subject 13 escapes from Cadmus Laboratories with Krypto, calling himself "Conner" after the nametag on a uniform he takes. Memories bring Conner to Lionel Luthor's Kansas home before Mercy Graves' team, accompanied by Dr. Eve Watson, attacks him. Defeating the team, Conner confronts Eve, who reveals that she created him from the DNA of Superman and Lex Luthor. Eve takes Conner to the original Cadmus facility in San Francisco to help him better understand himself and the traits that he shares with his DNA hosts. Urging him to flee, Eve also warns Conner not to draw attention to himself by using his powers, but Conner disregards her warning when he sees Jason falling. Upon saving Jason, Conner is shot with kryptonite bullets as Graves' team recaptures Krypto.
7 "Bruce Wayne"
Dick leaves Titans Tower to search for Deathstroke while a hallucination of Bruce torments him over guilt that he feels. In Dick's absence, the team find items planted around the Tower that remind them of painful memories. Jason is accused by the other Titans of being responsible, until Dick's search uncovers that Deathstroke has infiltrated the Tower. With Jason contemplating suicide over the recent events, Dick admits to him that he is at fault for what has transpired because he killed Jericho. Eve arrives at the Tower after freeing Krypto, where she finds Conner dying from kryptonite poisoning. When Eve informs Kory that Conner can only be healed by solar radiation, Kory uses her powers to save him.
8 "Jericho"
In 2014, the Titans use their friendship with Jericho to obtain information on Deathstroke. Against Dawn's advice to leave him out of their battle, Dick recruits Jericho into the team upon discovering the powers that he possesses. Jericho agrees to join when Dick tells him the truth about his father and the heroes' search for him. Deathstroke learns of the Titans' contact with Jericho and after completing his hit on Jillian, severely injures Donna as a warning to stay away from his son. Dick responds by confronting Deathstroke amid a private meeting between him and Jericho, prompting a fight that ends in Deathstroke's favor. Before Deathstroke can kill Dick, however, Jericho jumps in front of his father's blade and is stabbed instead. Afterwards, the Titans disband.
9 "Atonement"
After Dick reveals the truth about Jericho's death to his team, all of the Titans except Gar leave Titans Tower. Jason and Rose depart together and Kory reunites with Faddei, while Rachel accompanies Donna before escaping to be on her own. Gar takes Conner out in public, which ends disastrously when Conner attacks a group of police officers. Dick encounters Deathstroke, who declares that their fight is over so long as Dick remains isolated from his friends and he will eliminate the Titans if they reform. Heeding Deathstroke's warning, Dick allows himself to be arrested. Believing that their presence together harms others, Hank breaks up with Dawn. Faddei informs Kory that they are being hunted by Blackfire, who became queen after murdering their parents. Kory is forced to kill Faddei when Blackfire takes over his body and vows to pursue her sister.
10 "Fallen"
Incarcerated at the Kane County Correctional Facility, Dick helps undocumented immigrants Rafi and Luis escape prison before they can be deported to Corto Maltese. Rachel joins a group of runaways led by Dani after she uses her powers to save Dani from her abusive father Caleb, unaware that she also caused his death. Conner is found at Titans Tower by Mercy, who convinces him to return to Cadmus by assuring him they can fix his personality shifts. Mercy takes an interest in Gar when he is brought to Cadmus with Conner and Krypto. Searching for Rachel, Donna uncovers the aftermath of Cadmus' assault on the Tower.
11 "E.L._.O."
While in isolation, Dick realizes that Jericho is still alive inside of Deathstroke's body. Kory, Rachel, Donna, and Dawn are lured to the Elko Diner by Bruce in an effort to reunite the team. Learning of Dick's incarceration, Rachel and Kory head off to rescue him, while Donna and Dawn leave to search for Gar. When they raid the prison, Rachel and Kory find Dick missing from his cell and a message about Jericho being alive. Rose, growing close to Jason, informs Deathstroke that she is done helping him manipulate the Titans. Mercy has Gar subjected to an experiment that causes him to involuntarily turn violent upon command.
12 "Faux Hawk"
Gar is unwillingly used by Cadmus to violently unleash his powers in public, which Mercy plans to culminate with an attack on a carnival. Donna and Dawn plan to stop Cadmus when they learn about Gar's and Conner's brainwashing. Unable to find Dick, Kory and Rachel return to San Francisco to also rescue Gar, while Kory's powers begin to diminish. Rose admits to Jason that she had been helping Deathstroke, causing Jason to leave her. With the Titans reuniting, Deathstroke prepares to eliminate them and contacts Rose to join him. After Adeline informs Dick of Deathstroke's plans and asks him to save Jericho, Dick obtains a new costume. In Wyoming, Hank struggles with drug addiction while working as a cage fighter.
13 "Nightwing"
Rose helps Dick fight Deathstroke and kills him, while Jericho jumps into her body. Advertising him as a supersoldier to potential bidders, Mercy has the brainwashed Conner defeat Gar at the carnival before sending him after the Titans when they intervene. The team frees Gar and Conner from their brainwashing and defeats Cadmus, but Donna is killed when she prevents a damaged transmission tower from landing on civilians. In the aftermath, Rachel leaves for Themyscira with Donna's body in an attempt to resurrect her, while Jason departs by himself, and Dick, Kory, Gar, Hank, Dawn, Rose, and Conner form a new Titans team. Elsewhere, Blackfire arrives on Earth by taking over the body of an unsuspecting woman.
The Verdict:
While gathering my thoughts on the second season of this show, I went back and re-read what I felt about Season One to see if I felt the same thing here as I did with Season Two. Unlike most people who were covering the show online week to week, I did what I did with the first season and binge-watched it within a few days over the days I had off from work around the holidays.
Action & Visuals
The cosplay looking costumes was one of the highlights that I critiqued the initial season of this show for in my review of the first season, but I'm delighted to see that DC Universe went to back to the drawing board on a lot of the costumes. Dove's costume was a favorite of mine back in Season One, but it really stands out in this season when it's in one of the more well-lit scenes.
One of the main reasons that I loved the "Aqualad" episode so much was that all of the OG Titans looked pretty bad ass in their costumes during that episode. That was only the icing on the cake when the accompanying action was solid too.
Whoever is doing their fight choreography for this show needs to go over to the CW and give the bulk of the Arrowverse shows some pointers.
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| Trigon makes his appearance in the premiere episode of Season Two. |
Trigon on the other hand? I'm pretty split on his look in this series. The CGI could have been a LOT worse coming from DC, with The Flash on CW's iteration of Bloodwork immediately coming to mind.
That being said, we still got some pretty darn good action sequences in this season, which was something that never was a negative in the first season. I'm just glad that things didn't take a nose dive in quality among all of the creative changes in the narrative direction for this season.
Narrative
The cliffhanger that they ended the first season with Dick Grayson being corrupted by Trigon and his looming threat didn't last much more than the first episode into Season Two. The rumors ended up being true with DC Universe getting cold feet and ending the first season initially where it was supposed to end at that point as Raven (with her "new" powers gifted to her by her father) defeats him with ease after breaking free from his influence and brought the team back to a sense of normalcy.
At this point, I really thought that this show was going to go in the direction that Young Justice has gone in their third season (also on the DC Universe streaming platform) with Nightwing acting as a mentor of sorts to a group of younger heroes in training while getting his old band back together to join them with Hawk, Dove, Donna Troy, and the newcomer Kory (Starfire).
Instead, we're saddled with a subplot that sees Dick reliving his angst and inner turmoil from his past relationship with Bruce Wayne (who actually appears in this season) that feels like a complete rehash of what Dick was dealing with in Season One. The only difference here is that Dick's inner turmoil derives from his own decision to manipulate a young metahuman named Jericho to get closer to his father, Deathstroke, that killed the original Titans' ally, Aqualad. Deathstroke was on assignment to assassinate Donna Troy's friend, but Aqualad got in the way and was gunned down instead. The original Titans vowed to avenge their friend's demise by taking down Deathstroke. Instead, Deathstroke proved to be a much more capable opponent than anything that they could handle and they were forced to disband after Jericho died saving Dick's life while he was the costumed hero Robin. Dick lied to his team that Jericho was already dead when he confronted Deathstroke on his own and kept it a secret all of these years.
I didn't understand why that was such a big deal to keep a secret. The OG Titans already knew that Dick (with their encouragement actually, especially with his then-girlfriend Dove saying "Be like Batman") was just using Jericho to get closer to Deathstroke and even came clean to the kid about their intentions. It was Jericho's choice to sacrifice himself to save Dick, even though they had all agreed to let Jericho confront his father on his own terms, but Dick followed him to the church anyway. Whether he told them the truth or not, the team still disbanded after what happened to Jericho. I could understand all of the secrecy if the OG Titans were still working together as a team collectively but they all went their separate directions and pretty much gave up on the costumed life for the most part up to this point. They only came back into the fold to help deal with whatever was going on with Rachel (Raven) back in Season One.
When the Titans start working together to first takedown Trigon and then Dr. Light shortly thereafter, it gets the ire of Deathstroke, who threatens to tear their "family" apart once again. This time, he has has a sleeper agent within their ranks as his daughter, Rose. I thought this was FAR too easy to see coming as anyone who knew who she was from the comics or got wind of the casting news when it leaked online that they were going with spin of this infamous story from the comic book lore.
I thought the on-screen chemistry between Rose Wilson (Chelsea Zhang) and Jason Todd (Curran Walters) was really well done from the scenes that they shared together, even though I don't like Curran Walters nor Jason Todd in the least. That kid just comes across as he should be in one of those Kick-Ass movies rather this show, especially when you look at him in costume. Chelsea Zhang, on the other hand, excels in most of the scenes she's in with the majority of the cast. There was one point where Jason was getting so much shit from his older mentors on the Titans to the point where that he was ready to jump off of the roof of the Titans Tower building that they were all living in. I understood that they were shooting for the audience to feel sorry for the kid, but I was sitting there going, "Go ahead and put the kid out of his misery. Maybe he'll come back with a better personality when he's revived as Red Hood." I honestly didn't give a damn about Jason Todd here since Season One. I know that I'm weird in that regard as he's a much more "likeable" Robin than Dick has been since the start of this show, but can't say that I ever was a fan of the character - pre-Red Hood anyway.
In a nice throwback to the comics, the Titans TV seres launched a poll after Episode 3 to allow fans to vote on Jason Todd's fate to see whether he lives or dies, despite already filming these episodes in succession. It's not like they were going to allow fan votes to sway the outcome of how the events of this season were going to unfold, but it was a nice little throwback regardless, even though that this is the second season in a row where they "teased" Jason Todd's demise for fun.
The way they handled the narrative with between the original Titans and Deathstroke throughout the course of this season was pretty muddled up, but we finally got the payoff to Dick's journey that should have been the climax to Season One with him putting his past behind him and becoming Nightwing.
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| I haven't seen enough of the Arrowverse version of Slade to have a concrete opinion on him compared to this one, but in terms of costumes, I'm digging the Titans iteration more here. |
Speaking of Deathstroke/Slade Wilson, I didn't mind how he was used in this season. He quickly assumes the role of the main antagonist for this season, even though he's overshadowed by Cadmus' own machinations in the season finale, but exists as a constant threat to this team of young heroes in every scene that he appears in. I don't buy for a second that he's dead either. He will probably be back down the road in some capacity, especially since Jericho found the means to survive his own demise. Don't forget that Rose (who has the same powers as her father) survived being mangled by Rachel's powers in their brief skirmish too and healed back to normal without any repercussions.
My best friend gave me the season of Arrow where Deathstroke appears in that series on DVD, but I haven't had the chance to watch that in any capacity to compare that iteration with this one. I will just say that I was completely fine with how his character was handled here. Simply put, you don't fuck with a man's family and expect to get away with it. Slade Wilson had the Titans draw his children into the crossfire on two separate occasions and still came up short in their encounters with him. It wasn't until Rose (under her Ravager persona) teamed up with Dick (under his new Nightwing moniker and costume), that they were able to defeat him.
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| Dick's new costume looks like it was pulled straight out of the Batman: Arkham video games and that's a GOOD thing. |
The season finale/payoff to finally see Dick Grayson put his past behind him and embrace this new costumed identity as Nightwing was well worth the wait, but goddamn was it frustrating that we had to endure an extended rehash of Dick's journey from Season One (along with Rachel's too with her struggles with her powers) to get there. Mind you, there were leaked set photos from the Season One finale that Dick was going to be Nightwing at that point before the various reshoots and rewrites that resulted in a lot of the Titans' backstories getting a soft reboot in this season.
I hate to saddle this show with claims that it was utter shit to start to finish like a lot of other reviews blasting it over the internet, but much like with Season One, I didn't think it was that bad. There's actually three episodes of note that I thought were really well-done.
"Aqualad" (Season 2, Episode 4)
The more that I think about it, the more I have to agree that this was the best episode of the entire season. Gone is the rough around the edges approach to the modern day format of Dick's Titans team of super-powered people and instead, we're treated to a look back in the past to a clever reboot of sorts to the original iteration of this team, consisting of Robin (Dick Grayson), Hawk (Hank Hill), Dove (Dawn Granger), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), and Aqualad (Garth of Atlantis). This episode takes the complete "villain of the week" formula from the CW's Arrowverse, pitting this team against Dr. Light. I can't say that I was too crazy about Dr. Light's costume looking like he's going for some techno-steampunk hybrid version of Gladiator, but it worked for the most part. It wasn't that the team-based action sequences (something the CW Arrowverse really struggles with in their various team-up episodes and crossovers) in this episode clicked that made this episode shine. That was only a small contribution to the overall "reboot" of sorts to the Titans' origins here. The writers showed their ability to write multiple characters well in this episode too with the various revisions to the established cast. For example, Dawn and Dick were openly dating at this point instead of being insisted that it happened behind Hank's back as suggested in the first season. Donna Troy's insistence to not get attached with her return to Themyscira around the corner was tested as she struggled to keep her feelings about Garth under the surface. She thought that she could have a one night fling with him and leave all of that behind, but when push came to shove, she couldn't leave him (her heart in more ways than one) behind. Her world came crashing down when Garth is gunned down in front of her by Deathstroke, who was aiming for her Amazonian confidant, Jillian, instead.
Even out of context, this episode is just so damn good. If you don't watch anything else from Titans in Season 2, go out of your way to watch this episode. It's a perfect example of what this show could be going forward following the fact that this season got all of the messy tape of dealing with Dick dealing with his past out of the way.
"Conner" (Season 2, Episode 6)
This entire episode is a departure from the rest of the Titans team that we have come to know to date as it follows Subject 13 as he wakes up out of one of Cadmus Laboratories' facilities and breaks out with his dog that he appropriately names, Krypto. The episode serves as his origin story since this was pretty much a continuation of the brief teaser that we were given at the end of Season One that added in the revelation that Conner Kent is the genetic clone hybrid made from both Superman and Lex Luthor's DNA. When this season started, I figured he wouldn't have anything to do with the conflict with Trigon as Kryptonians are traditionally weak versus magical threats, so he wouldn't have been an asset to bring in at that point. I wasn't too particularly fond of the Cadmus scientist, Eve Watson (played by Genevieve Angelson), who was acting like his "mother" at first, but by the end of that episode I was sold on their relationship.
Ultimately, this episode stood out because it was such a departure from what we were used to with following the other heroes in this show up to this point and served as an excellent "hiatus" of sorts from what was going on in the current narrative with their ongoing conflict with Deathstroke.
"Jericho" (Season 2, Episode 8)
This episode serves as a continuation of the flashback started back in "Aqualad" with the OG Titans befriending a young mute metahuman named Jericho. Dick and the other Titans are really going out of their way to hang out with the kid and welcome him into their circle, but it's quickly revealed that they have an ulterior motive - Jericho is Deathstroke's son. Following the death of Garth, Dawn haunted Dick with the words, "Be like Batman" - something that he hasn't let go of doing. I know a lot of people tend to harp on Dick's retreading the familiar territory of his stress of having to live up to Batman's high expectations from Season One in this season too, but I saw that mental wound being ripped open again from what happened to him in the dreamscape following what happened to the Titans after their run-in with Trigon at the start of this season, thus forcing Dick to relive that mistake again in this season until he could properly put those feelings to rest instead of just burying them in the back of his mind. In this episode, we see the start of Dick going down that dark path to "be like Batman" as how Dawn put it, as he sought the means to get close to Deathstroke by any means possible, even if it meant manipulating and using his own son to do - as long as it resulted in a victory for the Titans and revenge for their fallen ally.
This episode shines in multiple regards as we don't simply see how vulnerable and desperate the OG Titans are following the death of Garth in this flashback, but we see that Slade Wilson doesn't deny that he's monster for what he has done as an assassin; he just wants to be a good father to his son. The only thing he ever wanted was that his son saw that side of him, only to destroy the child-like fondness that his son had over his father prior to the Titans exposing the truth of Deathstroke's "work" to Jericho. This is a complete 180 from the ruthless antagonist that we have come to know Slade as up to this point.
(Laughs) That being said, it's even more crazy to me that this is the same actor that played Manny Lopez (George's estranged father) in George Lopez Show. I doubt I can go back and watch those episodes and not see Slade Wilson as George's dad now.
Characters
I'm not knocking on the cast this time around. I thought the returning and recurring cast members seemed much more comfortable in these roles this time around instead of the "growing pains" of sorts that they had in the first season. Their confidence shined through in a wealth of these scenes, especially with some of the newcomers who joined in Season 2.
The Bat Family (Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd / Robin)
Like previously mentioned, Dick retreads a lot of the familiar territory that we saw back in Season One, coping from his inner angst and guilt to lash out with violent tendencies. The same actions that saw Jericho lose his life due to his actions. There was one moment where I thought Dick was going to mature past that "angry teen" phase that he was ridden in for both seasons where he was the responsible adult leading this new generation of Titans, only to regress back into the same character that we saw back in the first season of this show. It was admittedly very frustrating to see him not return back to this by the end of the season, but at least we got some closure to his inner turmoil that saw him stop blaming Bruce Wayne for his personal darkness. Things seemed to look up in the closing moments of the season though as he's back in a position of leadership for the Titans going forward with a clear head and renewed purpose.
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| What the actual fuck... Seriously though, Bruce Wayne's "ghost" in Dick's head was worth a few laughs at times. |
It didn't hit me until near the end of the season that Bruce is played by the same actor who played the doctor in the Paul W.S. Anderson-helmed Resident Evil movies. Couldn't we cast someone as Bruce who wasn't already balding his hair out? (Laughs) I'm just sayin'.
I have already expressed my distaste for Jason Todd / Robin in this series, but I'll give Curran Walters credit where it's due. The kid made the character work for him, even though it came off as a whiny bitch at times. His highlights for this season shine best when he is sharing screen time with Rose (Chelsea Zhang). I thought it was rather odd that he didn't have any major scenes with Bruce in this season either to say that he was recommended for Dick's new Titans' team by Bruce in the first place. The more I think about it, the more I think that the costumed life as a whole, especially those who surround themselves around Jason have a negative impact on his development as a character and as a hero. Dick thought he had it bad as Batman's sidekick, but imagine what Jason is going through? He has to deliver to somehow perform to Batman's high expectations as well as be deemed worthy of living up to the mantle that Dick wore before him as Robin, along with proving himself amongside so many established heroes among the likes of Hawk, Dove, and Wonder Girl. All of that pressure coming in from all sides is enough to make anyone crack. I can't blame him for getting to the point of having to be literally talked out of jumping off the roof of the Titans Tower.
Kory Anders (Starfire)
Her character arc in this season seemed all over the place with the stops and starts. I'm going to assume that she's going to get a little more depth in the third season with the arrival of her sister Blackfire arriving on Earth.
I did appreciate that she maintained the role of a "big sister" to Rachel to compliment the "big brother" role that Dick played in both seasons to her. Those were the moments that really shone bright for her in this season when she stood as the metaphorical "guiding light" to the other Titans' darkness.
It felt like the writers didn't realize that they wrote an almost identical path for Donna Troy and Kory in this season at one point. Both of them were women who were estranged from their homeland, only to be taking to costumed crime-fighting to "distract" themselves from their true callings. On second thought, that might have been on purpose, given their buddy cop pairing together for a few episodes.
It felt like they wrote her diminishing powers as a cop out to write off anyone other Donna Troy could save those innocent bystanders during the season finale while Superboy was in no condition to help following his battle with the Titans and waking up from Cadmus' control.
Hawk and Dove (Hank Hall and Dawn Granger)
I said it back during my review on Season One and I'll repeat it here, I think Dawn and Dick make a better couple than Hank and Dawn. I get it that Hawk and Dawn have the common ground from their shared experiences and trauma, but that doesn't tie them to the hip. Hank wanted to give up and just quit at least three different times now and almost seems to be dragged back into the fight kicking and screaming. Plus if I'm honest, his frat boy/macho bullshit is getting stale at this point. Dick is a dick at times from his past experiences from being Batman's sidekick, but he's not a flat out douchebag like Hank is. I can't think of any redeeming qualities of that guy at all.
That episode "Faux Hawk" seemed completely out of place in this season - at least the part where Hank was working as a cage fighter. It seemed as if the writers wanted to have Dove move on and be her own heroine but went "OH SHIT WE FORGOT TO SHOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HANK!" after the fact when they started moving the other chess pieces to have the Titans reuniting for the season finale to confront both Deathstroke and Cadmus. To say that the guy sold his costume while on some drug addicted binge is just sad. Hank needs help and that's something that I felt was swept underneath the rug far too fast to wrap this season up in the final two episodes.
Dawn isn't without her own set of flaws too. Where as Hank is content with neglecting their costumed vigilante exploits in favor of his drug-addiction, Dawn is addicted to being a heroine - almost to the point of being a martyr. I felt that she could be punishing herself for pushing Dick down the path that he went with pursuing and manipulating Jericho and getting the ire of Deathstroke to come down on the Titans. I just know that her relationship with Hank is anything but good for the both of them.
Donna Troy / Wonder Girl
If I didn't love this character enough during her introduction at the tail end of Season One, I found a way to love her even more in this season, especially after being treated to more of her backstory following the "Aqualad" episode. Garth / Aqualad appears in a single episode and proves to be the heart and soul of this team, explaining why we found all of the founding Titans in such a dark place in the first season (or still are following those events). Garth's death explains why she was distant to coming back to the costumed life when Dick first contacted her for help back in Season One and why she reluctant to take it up again, despite being an advocate for justice. The heroic irony of her path in this season is that she's been running from her destiny all of this time, only to meet her demise embracing it in the season finale. The closing moments of the season saw Rachel accompanying the Amazons to take her body to Themysirca, but I selfishly hope they don't revive her in the third season (something her actress already teased for Season Three) as it would cheapen Donna's sacrifice here.
Instead, they have left the door wide open to have Cassandra Sandsmark be the new Wonder Girl in the future. Fans of Young Justice should be familiar with that iteration of the character that debuted in Season Two of that animated series.
Rachel (Raven)
Following the defeat of Trigon, it felt like the situation with the changes to Rachel's powers was being vastly ignored by the other Titans in favor to what was going on with Deathstroke over the course of this season. We never got to find out what happened to that piece of dark magic that splintered off of her and brought that gargoyle to life that killed her friend's abusive father. That was one hell of a plot hole that was left out to the wild. That being said, I found myself always intrigued with what was going on with the evolution of her powers. I would like to assume that will continue being a focal point going forward, especially in the upcoming third season.
It's a rather silly at times that Rachel has like full mastery over these powers at the most convenient times of the plot. I swear, her powers are more of a plot device than the Sword of Omens in Thundercats ever was in this show at times.
Gar (Garfield Logan / Beast Boy)
Just like in the first season, Gar was easily forgettable in this season. He got a lot of screen time following the team disbanding following Dick's "truth bomb", but ultimately didn't do anything of note in this season outside of becoming another one of Cadmus' pawns. I have to wonder if anyone removed whatever Cadmus inserted into his brain following the events of the season finale. He was just sitting around at the dinner table like nothing happened by that point. I know it was Rachel who "woke" him up, but
Superboy / Subject 13
I loved that they went with the New 52 iteration of Superboy with his ties to both Lex Luthor and Superman as a clone of the two. To say that he (along with Krypto the Superdog) was teased all the way back in the finale of Season One and had to wait until six solid episodes into the second was a bit poorly planned though. His introduction episode, appropriately named "Conner", was pretty much everything I had hoped for his origins into this continuity, even though I wasn't too crazy at first about his surrogate mother (Eve Watson) who turned her back on Cadmus' goals and ambitions in favor of allowing Conner to escape and establish his own identity. Conner is much like how the scientists at Cadmus described him as "child-like, with a sense of wonder and curiosity about where he belongs in this world." For his role in this season, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Further explorations about his origins and establishing his own identity from his "fathers" can come in due time.
The Wilson Family (Rose, Jericho, Slade / Deathstroke)
From the moment that she was brought into Titans Tower, I pegged Rose to be this iteration of Titans' "Terra" from the popular mythos (both comics and animated media). It seemed like that was where they were going with her casually flirting with Gar before settling for Jason Todd as he was easily the most vulnerable out of the new generation of Titans. In the back of my head, I couldn't ignore the fact that she was Slade's daughter and I already knew that she had a history in the comics continuity of being aligned with her father before going off on her own devices. I was glad that they didn't make her character arc this season that predictable, but it was pretty silly - or rather fucking careless - that the Titans allowed her to be on her own so much in their home, especially when they were supposed to be keeping tabs on her.
Seeing Jericho's story play out here is interesting as I was positive that's what the next string of Teen Titans-related DC animated films (those within the same canon and continuity as Justice League: WAR) were going to be about, especially following the tease at the end of Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. Jericho was the focus of about two different episodes in this season but despite from the little screen time that he shared with the rest of this cast of characters, I definitely left an impact on this show as a whole. Jericho brightened the mood of this show that was so accustomed to being as dark and brooding as the DC Extended Universe with a much lighter tone. Where Garth was the OG Titans' heart and soul of that team, Jericho came in shortly thereafter as their mortal compass. You could easily say that Jericho served as Deathstroke's "conscience" as well. He was something that buried deep within him (literally) that was crying out for him to do the right thing, only to be ignored time and time again as Deathstroke completed his contracts, causing Jericho to be an unwilling witness to his father's vile and heinous acts. I thought it was pretty odd that Rose would be so open to allow Jericho to jump into her mind and body without question following Deathstroke's demise, especially we didn't see any of their history together from the flashbacks this season.
Slade's relationship with his children seems to stem from the overarching theme from this series as a whole, the struggles of dealing with having to live a double life to protect those you care about. Slade thought he was protecting his family from his work by keeping it a secret when that merely made them even bigger targets when Garth was caught in the crossfire during one of his assassination contracts. You would think that Slade would have learned his lesson after the accident that resulted in Jericho becoming mute due to the severe injuries suffered to his throat. I thought it was pretty baffling that Slade wasn't aware of Jericho's presence in his own body all of that time. I couldn't imagine how fucked up it could have been for him in the years that followed as an unwilling passenger to Deathstroke's various assassination contracts.
Mercy Graves & Cadmus Laboratories
I don't know what they were going for with Mercy Graves in this continuity. I'm always intrigued to see her pop up in new mediums following Superman: The Animated Series with Lisa Edelstein's voice behind the character. Wasn't too surprising to see her in a lesbian couple, given her comic book counterpart was regarded as having Amazonian origins in that continuity. I didn't see what was the point of showing her as a wife and mother to two disrespectful children when it didn't contribute anything to the villainous persona that this season was craving out for her. It just came off rather odd given everything else she would do later involving her machinations with Cadmus. I suppose that one could convey that as a tad bit of depth in terms of characterization, showing that she has two sides of the same coin that can be described as her life that she deals with, much like the costumed heroes of the Titans and Deathstroke too.
They tried with Mercy here, but she's definitely not the villain that people are talking about after this season made air. Without a shadow of a doubt, Deathstroke is the talk of the town in this season while Mercy was regulated as a minor inconvenience in the Superboy/Cadmus subplot. It's a darn shame too as I thought Natalie Gumede looked stunning in the role and put her own unique take on the character for her live-action television debut.
They tried with Mercy here, but she's definitely not the villain that people are talking about after this season made air. Without a shadow of a doubt, Deathstroke is the talk of the town in this season while Mercy was regulated as a minor inconvenience in the Superboy/Cadmus subplot. It's a darn shame too as I thought Natalie Gumede looked stunning in the role and put her own unique take on the character for her live-action television debut.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
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| Annoying in the sense that this season recycles Dick's journey and Rachel's complications with her powers from Season One, only to muddle up what is ultimately a better season than the first. Most critics are blinded by that fact and can't see what is good here beneath the surface. |
I feel like I'm having deja vu here as I wrap up this review. Much like my thoughts on Season One, there's a lot of potential for greatness going forward. Hell, we even saw evidence of that in three of the episodes that I mentioned, along with some of the episodes scattered throughout the season. I'm going to do a rare "Give it a fair chance" about this season. Who knows, you might see something you like and makes you want to come back for more. I'm definitely sticking with this for Season Three.
REVIEW -- Titans (DC Universe Exclusive; 2018) Season One: Episodes 1-11
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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