TV Review: TITANS: Season 1, Episodes 1-7 [DC Universe]

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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