Titans
It's been a minute since we have talked about "Titans." Life happened and I fell away from the show. Now that the show is about midway through season 3, I thought why not go back. We will take a break from the movie DC Murderverse and dive back into the television DC Murderverse.
Previously, Dick, Rachel, Gar, Donna and Kory dealt with Trigon. Dick re-opens Titans Tower, which upsets the OG Titans and causes their greatest foe, Deathstroke, to come out of retirement. While Kory is dealing with some familial drama, Hank, Dawn and Donna are questioning Dick's decision, especially when he brings Rose, Deathstroke's daughter into the fold. The teams old foe Dr. Light, working with Deathstroke pops back up. Gar and Robin go after him alone and Robin ends up being kidnapped. A flashback reveals that Deathstroke killed former member and Donna's paramour, Garth aka Aqualad, and Dick befriended and killed (?) Deathstroke's son, Jericho, as revenge? For my thoughts on the first four episodes you can go here and here.
"Deathstroke"
Robin: "Ah, Dr. Light. Did you come up with that shit by yourself, or did your parents saddle you with that bullshit? I mean, come on. What a lame fucking name."
Dr. Light: "Shut it."
Robin: "What? Is my talking annoying you, dickweed? 'Cause that's the thing. I can do it all day. All night. And if you're nice, twice on a Sunday."
Deathstroke has Jason and Dr. Light isn't a big fan of the plan. Challenging Deathstroke isn't a great idea and it ends up getting him killed. Dick, Donna, Dawn and Hank are trying to locate Jason using his tracker and they find it... with Light's body. Deathstroke is willing to trade Jason for Rose and when she overhears them considering it she flees. Rachel tries to stop her and fully Raven's out killing her. But not really. Rose brings herself back to life. Kory returns and stops Dick from offering himself to Deathstroke in Jason's place. The duo give Deathstroke a run for his money, but it doesn't stop Jason from plummeting to his death.
 |
| BDSM play sans consent. |
Watching this episode, I was immediately reminded of all "Titans" strengths and weaknesses. The show struggles with pacing and that is really apparent here. The episode is all over the place. It's sort of framed as this race against the clock to save Jason from Deathstroke, but that's not what this is. There is so much like running in place. They are in the tunnels. They find Dr. Light. They are back in Titans Tower for a long time. Arguing. Pouting. Chasing after Rose. Killing Rose. Watching Rose resurrect. Welcoming Kory back. Having heart to hearts. Like, there is very little sense of urgency when your greatest foe has one for your members in his clutches. It's very odd. They seem really worried and concerned and then they don't seem really worried and concerned.
For an episode called Deathstroke, there isn't a lot of Deathstroke. It's hard to say how I feel about Esai Morales' portrayal of the classic character because the show isn't showing us very much. He's clearly a badass. He's scary. But you're still not one hundred percent sure what is motivating him and it's difficult to emote when you're in a mask that covers your entire face. I know I've mentioned it a lot, but I am still struggling with how "Titans" handles the character of Dick Grayson. He's so different from the comics version, which isn't a horrible thing, but if there was some sort of familiarity it would be nice.
That being said, some of the character work on the show really works, specifically with Kory. The show knows who Kory is and they use her really well. She even brings out the best in the characters she interacts with. Dick and Rachel are never more tolerable than when they have solo scenes with Kory.
The action in the show is really dope. That final fight between Starfire, Dick and Deathstroke was amazing. It was exhilarating. It was over the top. Even though Kory can seem a bit overpowered the show finds great ways around that, like the flash bangs that Deathstroke uses. The show loves a cliffhanger and this episodes with Jason potentially plummeting to his death is a great one.
Grade: B-
"Conner"
Jason Todd: "Who the fuck are you?"
Conner Kent: "I'm not super sure yet."
Remember the naked, super strong man who we glimpsed in the season one finale? Well, he's back this week, escaping from Cadmus Labs with his dog. If you've read the "Teen Titans" comics then you know this is Conner Kent aka Superboy. This Superboy is a genetic clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. Conner is doing his best to figure out who he is and make sense of the memories that are flashing in his brain with his super dog, Krypto, by his side. With the help of Cadmus scientist and his creator, Eve Watson, Conner has to decide what kind of person he's going to be.
 |
| You're screwed soldier. |
First off, can we get a slow clap for Joshua Orpin who plays Conner's booty. It is really nice and if it appears in an episode, then you an believe that there will be a shot of it in this blog. You've been warned. And like, why would you not want to see it.
Getting into the episode itself, it is overall pretty great and a step up from the last episode. But its placement is very odd. We ended the last episode with Jason getting ready to fall to his death? And rather than pick up on that thread, the show completely shifts its focus to the story of Conner the clone.
I know I've talked about the tonal shifts of "Titans," and there are definitely a few in this episode, but it really works in this episode. Conner is basically a newborn, but he is learning at a really high rate. I will say when I saw Conner tossing Cadmus guards and scientists around, I was worried that they were going to miss one of the things that makes Conner great. That they were going to focus way more on the Lex side of him, then the Superman side. I was happy that wasn't the case.
I'm not sure if Joshua Orpin has done anything noteworthy acting wise prior to this, but he rarely nails the character of Conner. There is the childlike innocence laced with just a little bit of menace. Take the scene where he takes down the mugger and then asks for money from the terrified victim. It's just a great small snapshot of early Conner. Or when he's walking through the room of failed clones, which is legitimately terrifying as is Conner's reaction. The Lex is there for sure, but so is the Superman and as I said, the show doesn't shy away from that. Conner may go ham on those Cadmus schmucks and the soldiers but he does it because people are hurting and he can't let that happen, even if they maybe deserve it. Hi Lex's dad.
The action scenes are out of this world. It doesn't look like they spared any expense on Conner's parents or when he leaps to Jason's rescue at the end of the episode. I rewound the scene with Conner going after the soldiers because it was just so good.
It was fun to see Conner get kind of the full spectrum of ass backwards human behavior. Lex's dad thinks that beating him will instill the empathy and humanness that he thinks Lex is missing. Eve acknowledges that Conner has the capacity for do good but then immediately tells him to not do that. I love how the show kind of circumvents this right away with Conner rescuing Jason.
If there is an issue with this episode, it's just the placement. It's so weird that this episode happens here. I don't understand what they are thinking. No matter how good this is, any momentum that the "Deathstroke" episode cliffhanger gave the show, this one immediately slows it down. Again, the episode ends with a great cliffhanger ie Conner getting shot with Kryptonian bullets, but will the next episode capitalize on it.
Grade: B+
"Bruce Wayne"
Dick Grayson: "You all right."
Jason Todd: "All good."
Bruce Wayne: "Of course he's all right. Fifteen stories of free-falling probably did him good."
Dick Grayson: "It's past midnight. You should probably take it easy."
Jason Todd: "I don't want to take it easy. I feel good.
Bruce Wayne: "More people should drop their problem children off buildings. It clarifies the mind and body."
Dick Grayson is handling everything the wrong way. And his inner voice, a super harsh, but also strangely funny, Bruce Wayne is not afraid to let him know. Despite what he's saying, Jason Todd is not doing ok after his near death experience, constantly reliving how it felt when he was falling. Even a super forward Rose can't pull him out of it. It doesn't help that the OG members are finding things left in their rooms to shake them up and they are blaming Jason. Dick is so caught up in trying to hide what he did and fix it that Jason may be the next casualty of Dick's fuck ups.
 |
| Seriously. That ass. |
When I saw that this episode was titled "Bruce Wayne," I was not expecting this to be the way he was featured. It is no surprise that Dick's conscience? is a snarky, brutal Bruce Wayne constantly telling him how awful he is doing.
This works way better than it has any right to and that is pretty much all due to Iain Glen's portrayal of Bruce. He fully commits to everything and it is so freaking good. There is so much nuance to his line readings and much like Anna Diop's Kory, he brings out the very best in Thwaites' incarnation of Dick Grayson. Not to mention, in the burlesque club, he does the motherfucking Batusi. I died. I cackled. I loved every minute of it. I would recommend season two of "Titans" for this moment alone.
As good as this hallucination of Bruce is, his appearances are intermixed with a lot of head shockingly bad decisions by Dick. Going after Slade alone is a terrible idea and Dick going HAM on his contact Benny and Slade's middleman, Wintergreen is not a good look. I also feel like Dick is smart enough to realize that Slade is going to know he is going to do this, especially since Dick already tried to offer himself up to Slade. I get that Dick is way in his feelings, but it still feels like he should know this.
I will say the final scene with Dick and Jason is pretty good. Dick and Jason are not my favorite characters because a lot of time they are played as very one dimensional, but both actors really seem to dig deep in this episode with Dick finally coming clean to Jason.
Some stray thoughts about this episode: Anna Diop shows that she can literally have chemistry with anything based on her interactions with Conner in this episode. I'm glad they didn't draw out Conner's medical crisis and Kory taking her powers full supernova to help him recover was a great twist and it gave us another shot of Orpin's glorious ass. I'm surprisingly into this Rose/Conner pairing. It makes so much sense, but it could be over before it's begun when Rose found her brother's records in Jason's stuff.
Grade: B+
Next up, we finally learn about Jericho, Dick comes clean and then goes to jail?
I know season two aired a while ago, so I'd love to hear people's thoughts. Is "Titans" finally finding it's footing? Let me know in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment