Titans Season 1 Episodes 1-7 Review
This is a review of the first seven episodes of DC Universe‘s Titans television series.
Titans Titans Review
Titans is an episode of introduction for the viewer into a new Batman world that doesn’t actually feature Batman. Superhero TV shows are a dime a dozen now. It takes something special to stand out from the crowd. Arrow has that special something. Daredevil does as well. Titans, in part, does also. I say “in part” because the introduction of Detroit Police Detective Dick Grayson / Robin (Brenton Thwaites) and what he has become is strongly written while the introduction of Rachel Roth / Raven (Teagan Croft) and Garfield “Gar” Logan / Beast Boy (Ryan Potter) have little-to-no substance. The latter two are written in such a haphazard way that it seems as if they are after-thoughts i.e. okay we’re done with Robin’s segments, lets throw some Raven and Beast Boy in and get this script finalized.
Dick Grayson is the most interesting character in Titans. Because of that fact, Grayson being the main focus is understandable but why not sharpen the few scenes for Rachel Roth and the one for Garfield Logan until they are needle points? Instead, Raven gets two scenes, one on the bus and one in the hallway to sum up her entire high school life, while the introduction of Gar, which happens to be the lousiest scene in the show, is a green tiger stealing a video game (that may sound like a joke but, I assure you, it isn’t). Writers Greg Berlanti, Geoff Johns, and Akiva Goldsman couldn’t think of anything else for these two characters?
When it comes to the strong parts of the episode, Dick Grayson and his personality, Grayson’s fight scene as Robin is absurdly brutal, with the crime fighter going far beyond what is necessary to take down the gathered thugs in the alley. Grayson is literally unhinged during the fight, damaging and maiming the criminals for life. When Robin is later referred to as a sociopath, there is no other way to see his fight scene’s actions. They are sociopathic, born of an aggrieved, slightly-off, angry mind.
The fight scene itself is excellently choreography, with Dick Grayson moving with the speed of a Golden-glove boxer. When a gun is pointed at Robin’s head, he moves so fast that the shooter doesn’t have enough time to adjust his aim before he pulls the trigger. It is an impressive moment in a impressive scene. It is a scene that the episode needs because the other storylines outside of Dick Grayson / Robin’s are mediocre.
Titans Hawk and Dove Review
It’s the little things that help Titans as a television show in the mind of the comic book TV show connoisseur that consumes top-tier, small screen, superhero adaptations.
Dawn Granger / Dove (Minka Kelly) and Hank Hall / Hawk (Alan Ritchson)’s introduction into the Titans world within Hawk and Dove is entertaining but the lunacy of some comic book costumes becomes apparent when they are both first on-screen. Some costumes work when they are translated from the page to the small screen and some don’t. Hawk and Dove’s costumes are the latter. There is too much fluff, uselessness, and not enough functionality with their suits.
The costumes notwithstanding, Hawk and Dove’s personalities, brutality, and the past-building for Dick Grayson that they offer are their key values within Hawk and Dove.
The animosity between Hank Hall and Dick Grayson in Hawk and Dove is good, with the former thinking that he is still interested in Dove, a mixture of jealously and apprehension, but its Dove and Hawk’s presence that prompt Dick to use Bat-tech and to reach into the past for an assist (good moments in the episode).
It would be beneficial if Titans actually featured Alfred Pennyweather and Bruce Wayne / Batman, not just their voices on the phone, back of the head shots, or one of them standing obscured in the background of a scene. The aforementioned, however, are effective titillating techniques. Whenever one of them is referenced visually and through audio, like in Hawk and Dove, the viewer always wants more (before they are snatched away again). The viewer knows why Alfred Pennyweather and Bruce Wayne are only peripherally referenced. Titans isn’t about them. It’s about Dick Grayson and the result of Alfred Pennyweather and Bruce Wayne’s influence on him during his formative years.
The fight between the Atomic Family, Dove, Hawk, and Robin in Hawk and Dove is not what the viewer expects. One would think that the fighters with more experience, who fight on a regular basis, would have the edge in an engagement. That isn’t what happens in Hawk and Dove. Whatever is in the serum that the Atomic Family takes after their “activation,” it either does wonders (instilling skills) or enhances skills already present. Regardless of which, it is a good fight scene (not as good as the fight scene that preceded it) with a captivating incident involving Dove. The staging of that moment is perfect as is its follow-through.
Yoshioka surviving being thrown off of a building in Daredevil: Season 2 is explained before that event even happens. Dove has gone through no resurrection process like Yoshioka. How is she still alive following a fall from that height?
Titans Origins Review
The fact that Dawn Granger / Dove lives after a fall from the top of a six or seven story building onto concrete and survives with her neck and limbs not in casts and braces is so unbelievable (even for a comic book TV show) that if Dove doesn’t have some type of Wolverine-like healing factor, the scene and its result, even though spectacularly staged and executed, shouldn’t have been in the previous episode or this episode of Titans. If you are going to do something like that to a regular human being, show the result of it, in all its gruesomeness, not a 99% watered-down version of it.
It is ironic in Origins – Hank Hall / Hawk is the one with the medical issues that are forcing him to quit crime-fighting. Now his girlfriend, who was previously in perfect shape, might end up being more impaired than he currently is.
The convent scenes in Origins are a trick from the beginning. Not for a second does the viewer believe its the sanctuary that Matt Murdock finds himself in during Season 3 of Daredevil. If it were, Rachel Roth / Raven and her foster mother would never have left or they would have moved to a home near by, not states away.
Though the logic behind the nuns’ locking up Raven for her own good is dubious, the convent scenes in Origins did provide a habitat for Raven to use her abilities to a pretty spectacular effect.
The best part of the episode, like in most up to this point, are the flashbacks of Dick Grayson as a child dealing with the death of his parents and living in Bruce Wayne’s household. Though entirely from Grayson’s perspective, it is fascinating watching Bruce Wayne evaluating Dick Grayson, finding a kindred and apt spirit in him.
Titans Doom Patrol Review
Doom Patrol is an introduction episode except few introductory episodes are executed this well. The way in which each Doom Patrol member displays their ability, ailment, or affliction, in an organic way within the storyline, shows a high degree of skill and care by writer Geoff Johns for peripheral characters (though Doom Patrol will be getting their own TV series).
What sets the Doom Patrol members apart from the Titans members (except for Dick Grayson) is that the characters speak from established personalities, personalities that the viewer only gets a glimpse of in this episode.
The Doom Patrol character intros can easily be a disaster but everything is handled just right, especially Larry Trainor / Negative Man (Matt Bomer, Matthew Zuk)’s dancing, food preparation scene in Dr. Niles Caulder / The Chief (Bruno Bichir)’s kitchen.
The flashback scenes with Dr. Niles Caulder in Doom Patrol are one of the highlights of the episode. The flashbacks take Titans outside of its established parameters and broadened the TV series. The scene with Garfield “Gar” Logan / Beast Boy in the Congo contracting the Sakutia illness can be an episode onto itself (and probably should be because of the elements present.)
Dr. Caulder’s eventual malevolent actions toward Rachel Roth / Raven in Doom Patrol result in the mega-manifestation of Raven’s power, letting all those gathered witness it, making Raven and Dick Grayson’s potential friendship real (when he talks her down) but there is the lingering question proceeding it.
Why did The Chief have Garfield Logan, someone that has already given him a problem that day, in the operating room? Why didn’t Dr. Niles Caulder err on the side of caution and knock out Raven before opening his box and taking out his hypodermic needle? These two back-to-back mistakes from a genius, with all of the dangers he’s faced in the past, are extremely dubious. Would a genius really be this consecutively slow-minded, skipping over the obvious and safe for the risky and unpredictable? I don’t think so. It’s more likely this is an instance of lackluster writing i.e. a means to an end regardless of logic by Greg Berlanti, Geoff Johns, and Akiva Goldsman.
Titans Together Review
Not all of the character introductions in Titans have been well-handled. Gar Logan / Beast Boy’s throwaway introduction in the first episode is an example of this. Jason Todd / Robin 2 (Curran Walters)’s introduction in Together is on the opposite side of the scale. In addition, it is totally unexpected and handled just right (or “just so,” as Arya Stark would say).
Todd approaches a combat situation with an air of causality that Dick Grayson completely lacks, a purposeful contradiction. There is also the fact that Dick Grayson has been replaced as Robin. I am sure that somewhere in the back of his mind, Grayson always thought that he could go back. Go back to Batman, the mansion, Alfred, Gotham, and that life if he choose to do so. It seems Dick Grayson has over-estimated the length of time that he could be away before his slot on “the team” was taken by someone new.
The highlight moment of Together is the fight between the Atomic Family and the Titans at the motel. It is a big fight scene that showcases the resilience of the Atomic Family through their brain-washing and the serum that they all inject themselves with. Though the current incarnation of the Atomic Family meet their end in Together, the factory that created them does not. The mystery behind the Atomic family and the organization that created them is one of the most tantalizing of Titans, one that is hopefully as entertaining as the disaffected nature of the Atomic Family themselves.
A lingering problem since the second episode of Titans, made more aching in Together, is the question of Dick Grayson and his day job. How does Dick Grayson maintain his job as a Detroit Police Detective while not being in Detroit? It is a plot-hole like this that hurts a narrative, any narrative, including Titans. I hope more work is placed into making Dick Grayson’s day job plausible and present in the TV series. Not something in the background that couldn’t for a second be maintained by such derelict conduct.
Titans Jason Todd Review
Jason Todd is the best episode of Titans so far. I say it’s the best so far because it presents the viewer with almost equal parts past and present capped with the new Robin and that role’s previous inhabitant. This episode gives Titans what it needs for itself and its main character – history, a reason why. The viewer learns the answers to many barking questions about Police Detective Dick Grayson and his life immediately after his parents’ death and their burial.
Jason Todd takes the time to show the viewer how happy Dick Grayson is with the circus, with the circus performers, before his parents are killed. It is a direct contrast to Grayson’s cheerless, morose life in the present.
Jason Todd takes pains to show that though the Robins are different ages they are similar. One of those similarities stands out above all others – their extraordinary level of brutality and their willingness to inflict it. Jason Todd / Robin 2 has a youthful arrogance to him and an eagerness to use his training in a civilian environment (e.g. picking a fight) just because he can. Dick Grayson / Robin 1 is long past that desire – the need for braggadocio with his fists and feet. Dick Grayson has matured and because of that, he is a better, more controlled Robin (which isn’t saying very much since they are both out of control when it comes to certain fisticuffs engagements).
Besides the tragedy that befell Dick Grayson’s family, what Jason Todd does to responding police officers (beating, maiming, paralyzing them) after Nick Zucco / Melting Man (Kyle Mac) is taken down is crazed retribution on a scale that only a psychopath and/or Dick Grayson could appreciate.
What should have happened in that key moment after Jason Todd beats up the police officers is for Dick Grayson to take down Jason Todd, truss him up, haul him all the way back to Batman, and inform him of his new protégé’s conduct and serious personality issues. Or Grayson could have handed Todd over to the police. Instead, after seeing the horror that Todd unleashed, Grayson speaks words and does nothing (and Dick Grayson is a police detective). His fellow police officers are laying beaten and crippled on the floor all around him and Dick Grayson does nothing. A villain is staring back at Dick Grayson wearing a Robin mask and Grayson takes no punitive action. It is unbelievable and shows how morally corrupt both Robins are. Perhaps Grayson is impotent in that moment because he is just as bad, just as guilty, for the “justice” that he deals out.
After the events in Jason Todd, Dick Grayson now knows that though he still wears the costume, he is no longer Robin. Batman and the world that he created for Robin to inhabit has moved on, an abortive step beyond Dick Grayson’s control, setting him adrift, even-though Grayson thought that he had already fully stepped away. That thought in the back of Grayson’s head, of always being able to go back, is extinguished during Jason Todd‘s run time, especially at its conclusion. Even contemptible Jason Todd sees it, that Dick is holding onto a past, to a role that has moved on without him.
The scene with Dick Grayson’s Robin in the Batcave with the Batmobile in Jason Dodd is excellent (but also pure fan-service). Titans continues to do the little things right (like the aforementioned Batcave scene). It left the viewer wanting more (more Batcave, more Batmobile, more past) and added to the mythos of Titans. I hope more pre-Batman-Robin-break-up moments are shown in future episodes of Titans.
The pinnacle of the flashback sequences in Jason Todd is Dick Grayson coming face-to-face with the man that murdered his parents. What would you or anyone do in that moment? Grayson’s reaction is both understandable, predictable, and fascinating (when Grayson reveals himself to Tony Zucco (Richard Zeppieri), Zucco making it off that bridge alive is not a narrative possibility). Is this moment in his past why Dick Grayson left Batman and Gotham? Because he violated the one cardinal rule – no killing, even-though someone else pulled the trigger? Is it murder-by-proxy because of Grayson’s skill set? Dick Grayson can easily save Zucco but chooses not to. Because of that faithful choice, almost all of Grayson’s old circus friends are horribly murdered by Zucco’s vengeful son. Now Dick Grayson has to live with that as well on top of all the other emotional issues he has.
Titans Asylum Review
The U.S. Navy S.E.A.L.-like training against fear that Police Detective Dick Grayson / Robin underwent during his tenure with Batman serves Grayson well in Asylum. Seeing the doctors witness Grayson’s calm fear response is electrifying (unexploited by the episode’s writers) because Grayson does not let his fear overwhelm his, his body, or his senses.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
The Bene Gesserit’s Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert‘s Dune book series probably isn’t what Detroit Police Detective Dick Grayson repeated to himself during his mental torture but it gives the uninitiated a glimpse of the type of mental training that Dick utilizes to hold fear at bay.
Garfield “Gar” Logan / Beast Boy’s first kill in Asylum is like most would expect, a sad affair – think James Bond’s first kill in Casino Royale i.e. Gar’s victim made Gar “feel” his death. The look on Gar’s face after the kill is the same look on retired KGB officer Philip Jennings / Mischa’s face after he is forced to kill again in the final season of The Americans – Gar immediately regrets the act and wishes he wasn’t put in the position to have to do it. Rachel Roth / Raven can’t put into words what she has just seen (Gar ripping the doctor to pieces) or feels, defaulting to necessity, the need to exfiltrate from the asylum after finding Dick Grayson and Koriand’r / Starfire (Anna Diop).
Dick Grayson burning his Robin costume at the end of Asylum is symbolic. Dick Grayson is finally moving beyond Robin and leaving the past behind but the very act is a problem within the scene and Asylum. Grayson and Starfire willfully commit property destruction, arson, and murder by blowing up the asylum. Why are they standing around at the scene of those crimes watching a Kevlar suit burn? Did Dick Grayson, after having the asylum blown up, killing everybody inside, including innocent people held its other cells, walk to his mini-van then come back to burn his suit? If that is true, it is the most asinine writing of the series thus far, hands down. It’s unbelievable yet the viewer watches it transpire, incredulously, the thought of first-responders showing up the farthest thought from anyone’s mind. Incredible.
Also incredible in Asylum is Starfire walking out of the burning asylum yet her clothing isn’t burned (or on fire). Maybe Koriand’r’s regular clothing is made out of Nomex but her fur coat isn’t. The suit burning and the fire walk are all instances of sloppy writing. Lucky for Titans, the good far out-weighs the bad.
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