Titans (2018) review

    TITANS is a series that I had to go to great lengths to watch because the Kindle Firestick just does not work very well with my television. However, there was no way I was not going to share this with my wife. I am a huge Teen Titans fan but this has been a controversial adaptation of their story due to the fact the majority of people are familiar with them through the lighter and softer Teen Titans cartoon as well as Teen Titans Go. This seems inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Netflix shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones.

    Honestly, my sympathy is entirely with the showrunners regarding the 'controversy.' The trailer had Robin beating the hell out of a bunch of goons before saying, "**** Batman." It was trying to establish that Robin would be darker and edgier in this story as well as setting up the existence of Nightwing.

More like Pre-Teen Titan.

    The thing is that for 90% of the audience, Robin is a kid-friendly ridiculous character. We may know Nightwing since the 70s as a badass but that's a new thing for most casual comic book goers--assuming they even remember Robin outside of the Joel Schumacher movies. The second controversy is the fact that Starfire is played by Anna Diop, an African American actress versus a white or Asian one. Because, apparently, the orange-skinned alien Starfire needs to be a white orange-skinned alien. Yeah.

Actually, my issue with the show was more the fact they chose to cast 13-year-old Teagan Croft as Raven. While she does a fantastic job, I have to say that it doesn't quite gel with the rest of the Titans' ages. Certainly, it's clear some of the flirty dialogue with Beast Boy and Raven was written with the assumption they were closer in ages. Ryan Potter is a great actor as Beast Boy and I wouldn't change his portrayal of the show for anything.

    So, with that out of the way, is the show any good? Yes, it is very good. Unfortunately, I will have to throw the caveat that it is good but scattered all over the place. I very much enjoyed all eleven episodes of Titans but they're not linked by as much story as they could be. There's side-trips to meet the Doom Patrol, stories about Hawk and Dove, meeting Jason Todd, and a dream sequence where Dick Grayson decides to kill Batman. That is the only episode I feel was outright bad in the season and I'm sorry it is the season finale.

Minka Kelly rocks the Targaryen look.

    Really, the most damning part of Titans is the fact that it really does its side characters better than it does the main cast. Hawk (Alan Richtson) and Dove (Minka Kelly) are re-imagined as traumatic abuse survivors who have gone on to become vigilantes. It's very different from the comic book versions but I think I like it better. Minka Kelly is beautiful as well as dangerous so she provides a decent substitute for Barbara Gordon a.k.a Batgirl as Dick Grayson's human love interest. I also like Jason Todd (Currant Walters) as he's a nice respite from Dick's constant whining.

    Despite that, I'm not going to complain about the actual Titans. Brenton Thwaites is treated as the show's headliner and does an excellent job as Dick Grayson. Nightwing being a hero struggling with his inner violence may not be the story most modern day DC comics fans remember him for (he's more the swashbuckler and much more emotionally healthy than Batman) but it's one he's done in the past. Anna Diop's journey to becoming Starfire is something I very much appreciated. The Starfire of the comics was a warrior who escaped slavery so the fact she doesn't resemble the cartoon one doesn't bother me. Teagan Croft is INCREDIBLY likable as Raven, so much so that her age didn't bother me except for minor hiccups in the writing. I mentioned how much I liked Beast Boy and Ryan Potter's biggest fault is he doesn't get much to do aside from occassionally turn into a green tiger.

They lack a certain cyborg-ness to be complete,

    What did I think of the villains? I thought they were a pretty good mixture with the Nuclear Family being the best of the season. We get hints at the cult of Trigon and it's kind of hilarious how much they dance around saying, "Yes, Raven, your father is the Devil." They have nuns try to fight him, prophecies, and a bunch of other hints but no one really stating that she's the Anti-Christ. I feel like it's unintentionally hilarious that they balk at Satanic imagery when Dick actually shoves a pair of sheers through a guys groin at one point. There's also an issue of what the Titan's stance on killing is since Dick kills an entire asylum's worth of evil cultists but is appalled when an illusionary Batman kills the Joker.

    As an additional random aside, this show has a lot of great guest characters that I recognized. I wasn't aware Sherlyn Fenn was acting still outside of Twin Peaks: The Return, Rachel Nichols shows up, and I also saw Marina Sirtis show up as well.

    In conclusion, the Titans TV show is an excellent program that is, nevertheless, all over the place. It's dark, gritty, and a lot of fun. The biggest complaint I have is that unless you have a Amazon Fire Stick or are willing to watch it on your computer--it's almost impossible to watch. DC Universe, the only platform it is available on, is not yet available on a lot of platforms. I really hope they get that fixed soon.

    8/10