Most of the negative criticism is directed at the series by Titans die-hards. And by all reckoning, I should be a die-hard Titans fan. I owned all of the original run of the comic books by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. For a time, I enshrined my "Who Is Donna Troy?" and my "Who is Wondergirl?" comics in mylar. My favorite characters are 1) Raven, 2) Donna Troy, and 3) Starfire in that order, although (just to be fair) I love all of the Titans. I should pound my fist as to why Raven doesn't manifest her soul self by episode 5...that thing is integral to her character. I should be bugged as to why Princess Koriander (or Kory Anders as she's called in the show) doesn't fly around with energy streaming from her hair or fire blasts of energy beams (not fire) from her hands (in the show she just shoots out fire like a flame thrower). Personally, the way Carol Danvers powers are in Captain Marvel remind me a lot of how Starfire should look. Those issues aside, I actually love this show.
Dick Grayson is very handsome. He's also got a huge chip on his shoulder from living with the Batman. I'm not sure how I feel about the Batman being painted as a psychopath, but the shoe does kind of fit. But in these first few episodes, Dick does kind of come across as a bit of an ingrate, reminiscing on a childhood that was stolen from him when his parents were murdered and which he landed in foster care and had the misfortune of being adopted by a billionaire who was in a perfect place to understand his particular trauma. Oh how unfortunate that must have been! Poor boy!
I actually love Gar (Garfield) who is Beast Boy. The casting on him seems to be perfect, and he too is quite handsome. Koriander is gorgeous so they nailed at least three of the cast. I'm not happy with Raven's look. In the comics she had an otherworldy maturity to her (and an otherworldy beauty to match). In the show she's a goth teenager who dyes her hair and is into tattoos and wearing black. There's way more to Raven's character than that. I am pleased that they are making a solid attempt at showing her incredible empathic and healing abilities. However, we need that soul self. It's just awesome, and I'm not sure why they aren't showing it yet.
I already know that Cyborg is part of Doom Patrol, and I'm okay with this choice. But in the Wolfman and Perez comics, Cyborg was a huge part of all of the stories. But then again, so was Titan tower, and I'm hoping that at some point we get to see an actual Titan tower. That would be great. I honestly don't expect much from the first season. I already know from a spoiler that Trigon the Terrible, when he appears, is just some actor. They probably didn't have the budget to make Trigon into his real comic book terrifying self, but who knows? Maybe they'll have that budget together a couple seasons down the road if this thing proves to have legs. Maybe we'll get some really amazing Titans's storylines.
It's what I'm hoping for at least.
So yeah, I'm five episodes deep into Titans and I think it's pretty good.
They already cancelled Swamp Thing and there are rumblings the DC Universe thing could go under soon so I guess it's good you're doing this now.
ReplyDeleteBtw the guy who plays Robin also stars in Office Uprising on Crackle.
ReplyDeleteIs Crackle another streaming service? I've only seen it in passing and wondered what it was. There are getting to be too many to keep track of these days.
DeleteAnd you're right on me doing this now. My plan is to finish watching Titans, do the same with Doom Patrol, watch some Swamp Thing even though its canceled, watch the third season of Young Justice, and then cancel. So I think at most they might get $8 out of me.
Crackle has been around for a while. It's free but with commercials. I think Sony owns it so there's a lot of their stuff on there.
DeleteGlad you like it. With the entertainment landscape as it is, it's hard for showrunners to please everyone. I'm glad they managed to please you.
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to do the free week at some point so that I can watch Doom Patrol. Maybe I'll wait till I can do Titans, too, though I was never much of a fan of the comic series.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy you have some more DC stuff to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI'm late (as usual) getting back to you about your GOT comment to my comment. Yes, part of me was also thrown off balance with Daenerys going mentally bottoms-up so rapidly and then needing to be stopped via dagger by Jon Snow. A couple friends really felt that her mental deterioration should have been foreshadowed more vividly and earlier, and now that I think of it this rings true. I don't mind the white guy being on the throne since Bran isn't exactly a king and instead it's a committee that will run things. The humor in the scene of their first meeting really hit the spot for me. Also, Sansa Stark remaining an independent queen of the north was most necessary, both in terms of story and her character.
In the end, I was at least relieved that a few of my favorites survived, including Sam and Tormund. And I LOVED that it was Arya who killed the Night King because a) it was the fitting end to her character's journey as a warrior/avenger; b) she's a young female who took out the big bad guy; and c) precisely because she's a young, small female she could get into places because no one would be paying much attention to her. Her stealth attack therefore really made sense, and even the knight king wasn't paying close enough attention when he squeezed the dagger out of her one hand and she could therefore catch it with her other hand and stab him.