Thoughts On The TITAN series

General Discussion Movies & TV
41

I accidentally just hit the “post” button, so my review is going to have to be in two parts:

I’m totally unfamiliar with the Doom Patrol characters, so this episode was my very first introduction to them, and I really liked how they were essentially the “Addams Family” of the DC universe and would really like to see them return in Seaaon 2 so that we can see more of them and get some follow-up to how the events of this episode impacted their lives going forward.

I’ve been listening to several Titans-related podcasts and it made me chuckle ironically that pretty much every single one of said podcasts somehow missed the nuances of the episode’s “conflict” and how it mirrored what happened at the conclusion of “Origins” with Raven lashing out with her powers against people whose behavior was not actually threatening to her.

The Chief may have let his scientific curiosity and determination to study her abilities override her attempt to change her mind and withdraw her consent, but that doesn’t make him villainous or make his intentions or motivations “sinister” or “suspect”, and I honestly feel somewhat sorry for him over the fact that she re-injured him.

Pivoting back to the rest of the Doom Patrol, I have to give some individual “love” to Cliff, Larry, and Rita bullet-point style:

  • I love the big brother type relationship that Cliff had with Gar and the way he not only saw through Gar’s attempt to hide Rachel but started to bond with her

  • I loved the way we were introduced to Rita by way of archive footage audio and a movie poster since it told us everything we needed to know about her without expository dialogue, although we later got some of that when she joined Larry, Gar, Cliff, and Rachel at the dinner table. I also liked the way that they showed her struggle with literally holding herself together and used that to once again showcase Rachel’s empathic and healing abilities

  • I wish we’d gotten more backstory for Larry since he felt a little bit underused, althoufh making him a chef and a hard rock fan - as well as the most positive of the group besides Gar - was fun

Moving on from the Doom Patrol to Dick and Kory, I get why the writers had them in this episode as a direct follow-up to where they were left at the end of “Origins”, but I also can’t help but feel like it would have been better to restrict their appearance to the very end and kept the episode strictly focused on Rachel, Gar, and the Doom Patrol.

Having said that, though, I did like Kory calling out Dick for his aggression, particularly after he nearly beat a defenseless and blameless citizen to death in front of a child.

As noted, I really enjoyed this episode as both a ‘stepping stone’ along the journey of our Titans to forming a family unit and as an introction to the Doom Patrol characters, and would give it 4 out of 5 “onion ring robotmen” if I were going to rate it.

1 Like
42

I agree that DP was much better. While I still enjoyed Titans very much, it was a slow burn and you didn’t get the payoff at the end of the season due to the last eps. being cut. My hope is that S2 kicks of with Raven having to complete the 300-400 days of combat training that donna and starfire were discussing in the car on the way to Ravens mothers house which I think is what they were going for based on that picture that had been release showing Raven in her more comic book accurate clothing along with Starfire is some kind of jump suit with a different hair style. It clearly seems to have been some kind of time jump. As long as we see them fight Triggon and get a good introduction to Deathstroke along with the HIVE and a cliff hanger of Brother Blood at the end I think it will be a great second season.

Definitely loved the Fight scenes in the show good violence. Wish we had more of them actually together fighting bad guys though. Little bummed that BB isn’t just straight up green though I get why they did it.

43

I liked that it was a slow burn. Also, Starfire, BB & Raven all were down to be a team except Dick. I am hoping for a flashback of young Dick and Donna along with whatever Aqualad they are doing. I am assuming no Kid Flash (and therefore no Flash) which is not a dealbreaker for me. I am more interested in seeing any leader potential in young Dick.

I think the moment i am really interested in is when Dick realizes his leader potential which will most likely be in how people like Starfire and Donna Troy are willing to follow him. BB is more of a fan boy once he realized Dick was Robin. And Raven seemed willing to accept his role on faith.

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44

So here we are at Episode 5 - “Together” - the episode that I think a lot of Titans fans thought was going to be the ‘gelling point’ for the team, and I’ve got to say that while I like the general concept of the characters all being together in one space instead of off on their own separate paths, the episode suffers from the same problem that Episode 4 of Swamp Thing - “Darkness on the Edge of Town” - does: it’s " filler" in a story that didn’t need “filler” in it.

Having our characters spend an entire episode just hanging out in a motel talking about slash demonstrating their abilities didn’t really accomplish a whole lot other than to give Kory and Dick an avenue to have sex, and in the end even that ends up being pointless.

It also doesn’t help that the episode just writes off the Nuclear Family in blase fashion in the same episode that they introduce a new member of said family, making the fact that they introduced the character at all utterly pointless.

When the most important aspect of the episode is that Jason Todd inexplicably shows up in Chicago - which is presumably hundreds of miles away from Gotham City - there’s a problem with the writing, and when the first four episodes have been as good as “Titans”, “Hawk and Dove”, “Origins”, and “Doom Patrol” were, something like " Together" stands out even more as an egregious flaw.

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I liked Titans better. It was kind of slow in spots but I liked it. The biggest thing I probably liked about Doom Patrol is the town scenes were filmed very close to where I live and I recognized a lot of it. The show itself is pretty damn weird and maybe better experienced on psychedelics or something.

Maybe I missed it, but did they explain why none of the the principal characters in DP seemed to age at all when some of their arcs were half a century or more long? Even Crazy Jane’s spanned decades. What was going on there?

1 Like
46

^ Don’t pay attention to what Doom Patrol did in relation to Titans because the two series aren’t connected.

I listen to three different Titans-related podcasts and every single one had the hosts express almost nothing but praise for the episode “Together” and I just don’t understand why.

47

In short, thought DP was a better show, but still enjoyed Titans and I have hopes it will take a leap in season 2. One thing that would help is not shooting seemingly every fight scene in the pitch dark. I get CGI is less expensive to produce if it’s darker and you don’t need as fine grained details but even fights with Dick were hard to see with such low light.

48

Titans was the one show picked up for two seasons. I think we are halfway through the character development arcs & season 2 will be the second half of those arcs.

49

I’m going to hold off on posting a full review of “Jason Todd” until I’ve had a chance to watch “Asylum” as well ( I’m too tired to stay awake right now), but did want to say that it was a marked improvement over “Together” (although apparently I’m the only person on the planet who thought that “Together” was a bad episode).