Titans’ first season came to an end. Although many negative reviews have come shortly after the first trailer, Titans quickly began to change opinions. In the first three episodes, it was possible to note that this would no longer be an arrow verse series. That is, despite sharing the creator and some producers, Titans very early wanted to demarcate this universe.
In this way, and with all the liberty that the DC Universe allowed Titans created its own tone. After some resistance to some of the choices, those who are the foundation of the series became very clear. But like all series, Titans also have problems, some that repeats over the season.
First of all, it should be noted that Titans is the first series to debut in the DC streaming service, DC Universe. Although not a perfect series, in my opinion, it’s a good start for DC. However many other series have already been confirmed for the service.
Titans is just the first of several DC series in development!
Namely, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol and Star Girl all live action and with the cast already defined and Young Justice (Season 3) and Harley Quinn on the side of the animations are all confirmed in the service. Likewise also a Batgirl series came to be spoken as possible but in the meantime, few more news came to the public on this subject.
In addition, this was not the first attempt to produce the live action version of Titans. Previously, in 2014, the series began to be developed by DC together with the TNT station. However, the president of the American station eventually dropped the project due to creative problems with the script presented. Whereas, four years later Titans even came to live action by the hands of DC Universe.
See the series trailer here
https://youtu.be/dVBg1QsZ0o4
Titans is a live-action adaptation of the comic book series Cartoon Titans. Created by Greg Berlanti, CW’s DC series director, among many others, Akiva Goldsman and DC Comics’ former chief of operations Geoff Johns.
The first season of Titans focuses on Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites), a detective who ends up helping Rachel (Teagan Croft), a girl who finds herself in trouble when an organization starts chasing after her for mysterious reasons.
As soon as Rachel is introduced, soon in the first scene of the series, it is visible that this is not a normal adolescent. After all, Rachel lives with something powerful inside her, something she can not quite understand, but that scares her, of course.
Similarly, Dick also lives with something powerful. Dick’s past, under the persona of Robin (the well-known Batman helper), has pursued the detective since he abandoned Gotham. However, it’s his dark past that makes him understand so well what Rachel is going through.
Soon after Dick rescued Rachel from the man who murdered his foster mother, Dick realizes that it is best for both of them to leave Detroit. In fact, Dick and Rachel leave in the attempt to find some answers, but at every corner, the story of Rachel is proving very frightening.
Titans’ first season explores the relationship between Dick Grayson and Rachel.
The relationship between Dick and Rachel is a positive aspect of the series that for us viewers can create an emotional connection to two characters who do not share a past with each other. In fact, none of the Titans’ elements share a past history. If on the one hand, this makes it difficult to create emotional ties between characters, on the other hand, our characters are thrown into the same “hole” and need to work together to escape from it.
For me, Titans’ biggest strength is their cast. In fact, anyone who knows the comics and even the cartoons may have some difficulty getting into this new “spin” of the characters. In return for this, all the actors do an excellent job in their interpretations.
The casting done was excellent, and it should be noted that Brenton Thwaites looks like it was ripped straight from the pages of the comic book in such a way that it resembles Dick Grayson.
As well as casting and acting, the choreography of the fights is another plus point of Titans. It is true that in this first season there are not many fights, but those that exist, have been well worked.
Also positive was the way Batman was used. There was no authorization to have an actor to face the hero, however, this is present in the story of Dick Grayson and although we only see his silhouette his presence in history is felt. As a bonus, in the final episode, we can even see him in action with his suit … on his back.
Team development is something Titans has to focus on for season two.
Now moving a little to less positive aspects. That way I have to point out the lack of focus on the team, especially for Koriand’r (Anna Diop) and Gar Logan (Ryan Potter). For a story like Titans, in which the theme is the team, this first season spent little time with this one. That is, while Dick Grayson and Rachel (Raven) were the biggest focus, Koriand’r and Gar had a lesser focus.
Thus, Gar arrives to be the one that had less focus during the season being used mainly for comic relief. Also noteworthy for Anna Diop and Ryan Potter who like Brenton Thwaites and Teagan Croft make spectacular interpretations.
Second, the way the season was planned is somewhat questionable. It was several times that the series deviated from its main branch of history. For reference, the first season of Titans has 11 episodes, with 3 of them focusing on characters other than the Titans.
Although on the one hand it is perceived that they want to introduce stories like the one of Hawk and Dove and even of Doom Patrol, on the other, these episodes somehow cut the rhythm of the series. With this, I am not saying that these 3 episodes were bad. In fact, the episode of Doom Patrol was the most enjoyed of the season. Despite this, I think there was a place to have these episodes and in this way, the narrative did not win.
Lastly, it is also strange that a season that supposedly would have 12 episodes will end with 11. Some photos of scenes not used in the first season have come to run on the internet. This leads me to conclude that an extra episode was actually filmed and dismissed for some reason.
The potential that Titans presents makes Season 2 even more exciting.
Titans, as DC Universe’s first series, is a full-fledged start. It is true that the series has its faults, but its great potential is something that I recognize.
In that sense, the story built together with the performances, and even that “present” after credits in the last scene, show so well the potential that Titans has and that leaves me enthusiastic for the second season. Not always this potential was well used in this first season, but it is there.
Finally, Titans is an original DC Universe series that is a service only available (for now) in the United States. In this sense, the series is distributed internationally by Netflix and that’s where you can follow. The second season is expected to begin production shortly. In addition, if the first season was an indication of the potential that this series has, then the second promises enough!
