Titans
As a comic book nerd all my life, there are some things that I thought I'd never see. As comic book movies/television shows etc have become bigger and bigger business, the list of those things has gotten shorter and shorter. That being said, even with two "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies out there, I never in a million years thought that I'd see a live action Donna Troy on my television screen. Yet here she is. Donna Troy is the original Wonder Girl. She also has one of the most confusing histories of any comic book character ever and that is saying quite a bit. She's a founding member of the Teen Titans and is currently leading the Titans team in the comics. She's a bad ass and even if Titans was doing everything wrong, watching the show would be a must for me simply because she was on it.
Episode 7: "Asylum"
Ummm... I couldn't find a quote for this episode and I didn't write one down that struck my fancy when I was watching. *shrug*
When Dr. Adamson slits his own throat, Rachel heals him revealing another facet of her abilities. Adamson believes that Rachel will "purify" the world and that her birth mother, Angela Azarath, is alive and being held captive at an asylum. The team heads to the asylum and are pretty much immediately captured. While Adamson attempts to manipulate Rachel into contacting her father, the other Titans are subjected to gruesome experiments. Can the team escape and save Rachel's mother?
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| Does this blood make me look gritty? |
I'm going to just get say this right out of the gate: This episode is pretty awful. I'm not sure what happened. The series was gearing up and capitalizing on potential and then we get this. Were the writers taking a nap? Did they put their idea for this episode through one of those automated script writers? I've pondered this and I just don't get it. Like, it's real, real bad. Bad enough that I wouldn't be surprised if people got here and were just like, "Well, there's no coming back from this. I'm done." I'd caution them to just keep going, because the next episode rebounds nicely. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take a look at the massive missteps this episode takes.
The first one is the Titans plan. I get that Rachel is going to want to go save her mom and that Gar is willing to help her. That all tracks. What I don't understand is why Dick and Kory are down to hit this place after doing only the minimum of recon. This seems like it would be Bat lesson #1. You do recon. You don't hit something until you know everything about it. You don't run in all willy-nilly. But that's exactly what Dick does and of course, everyone gets captured basically immediately.
The next issue is probably the biggest ones and it's the choices made in regards to the characters. Two characters in particular: Gar Logan and Dick Grayson. Gar's role on the Titans is at it's most basic comic relief. That's how he's been used so far in this series and it's been pretty effective. There needs to be some light in all this darkness and Gar is it. That's not to say that he can't be serious or have serious storylines with consequences. He totally can and still be himself. That's why it makes zero sense that Gar would snap and murder this scientist in cold blood. I get that this guy had been torturing him. But Gar still wouldn't do that. It's not in his nature to kill. Full stop. And why wouldn't Kory or Rachel try to stop him? It makes zero sense. It's a clear case of the writers trying to manufacture drama with a total disregard for character. It's cheap and it's pretty gross.
Next up is our boy, Dick Grayson. The show has zero idea what his arc is supposed to look like. We've gone over this and I thought they were moving him in a certain direction, but apparently not. Dick not only brutally beats a bunch of people to the point of killing them, he actually murders them. Sure, Kory lights it up after Dick breaks a gas line, but he gives the order. How does he come back from this? Is there any real way he can be redeemed from cold blooded murder? I don't get it. At all. Dick deserves better than this. Here's hoping he gets it and we as an audience can buy it.
I should mention that Bryan Edward Hill & Greg Walker wrote this mess. Not good, guys. Not. Good.
Grade: D
Episode 8: "Donna Troy"
Dick: "I wonder what Penguin is doing right now."
After murdering a bunch of people and lighting up his Robin suit, Dick decides that it's time to leave this team that's been around like two episodes. Rachel has her mom, Angela (Rachel Nichols) and she seems to have a safe house for them in Ohio. So, Dick heads to visit his old pal, the former Wonder Girl, Donna Troy. Donna was Dick's confidante back when he first joined up with Batman and now she's a successful photojournalist who does some super heroing on the side sans costume. Back with the other, Kory seems to be getting her memories back which could spell bad news for Rachel.
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| Wonder Girl |
Now this is much more like it. I feel like we should spend a lot of this review talking about the episodes namesake. Donna Troy is a breath of fresh air. Conor Leslie kills it from her very first scene. She lights up the screen while lightening up this very dark show. Donna is what Dick wants to be. She's stopped being a side kick and has a relatively normal life, but she still finds ways to fulfill the part of her that wanted to be Wonder Girl in the first place.
The episode uses flashbacks the best the series has so far. The brief exchange between a young Donna and Dick that opens the episode does a great a great job of laying the foundation of their relationship and how it works. So, when we meet them again as adults there doesn't need to be a lot of that. They can just get right down to it.
Brenton Thwaites really shines in this episode. For the majority of this series, all he's really had to do is brood and beat the shit out of people. It's boring for an audience and it's surely boring for an actor. Thwaites gets to be happy. Engaging. Make jokes! It's awesome. His strongest scenes in the series so far could be when he's attending Donna's exhibition and trying to make small talk to prove her wrong. He can't and the whole exercise is really funny. I mean, it still doesn't feel like Dick. Dick is charming and engaging and can talk to anyone, but that's really not here nor there.
Even when Dick busts in and ruins Donna's long con of some awful poachers, he's not as grating as he possibly could be. He's appropriately chagrined at how he fucked everything up. Donna is understandably pissed but seeing Dick goes off makes it clear to her how much he needs help. Donna seems to be setting Dick on the path to being Nightwing and I'm here for that.
As for the rest of the team, they don't play a huge role. I loved Rachel Nichols on the last season of "Alias," but she doesn't have a ton to do here as Rachel's mom. Right now, she's basically a plot device. Oh you can't stay in this penthouse anymore, well it just so happens that I have a place you can use. Cool. It does seem like Kory is getting her memories back and is going to kill Rachel. So that is a nice cliffhanger to end on.
This episode was a nice palate cleanser after the awful episode that preceded it. I'm already writing letters to get Donna on the team and the show full time. It needs her.
Grade: B+
Next up, we don't follow up on that cliffhanger, instead we learn all about how Hank and Dawn became Hawk and Dove and then we get some answers about Kory Anders.
Did you all hate "Asylum" as much as I did? Do you buy what they are selling with Dick? Should Donna be a full-time Titan? Let me know in the comments.
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