DC Universe’s ‘Titans’ Starts Rocky, but Is Worth Sticking With

The DC Universe streaming service’s first live action, original show Titans is best enjoyed with an ice cold Monster Energy Drink. From its thrumming rock guitars, to bone-crunching fights, to cursing superheroes, it’s one step away from someone shouting, “these ain’t your father’s superheroes!” while swigging back a Coors Light and then smashing it on their head. But while this adult(esque) take on DC Comics’ teen heroes is loudly trying to take the ratings-free environment of streaming and do what The CW’s Arrow-verse can’t (meaning: blood and cursing), at its heart, Titans is a superhero show… And when it finally gets around to recognizing that, it starts to show real promise.

But first, the set-up. A year after he left Gotham City, Robin, a.k.a. Dick Grayson (OH, YOU BEST BELIEVE THERE ARE A LOT OF DICK JOKES), played by handsome man Brenton Thwaites, has become a moody, disenchanted cop investigating bloody murders while fighting crooks at night in his superhero tights. This is where the notorious line, “Fuck Batman” comes into play, a way of the show — and Grayson — loudly announcing that this won’t be the hero’s journey you know and love.

Despite his best intentions, Grayson gets sucked back into the life of the hero courtesy of a mysterious teenager with powers named Rachel (Teagan Croft). She’s having visions of Grayson’s past, you see, and dealing with a serious dark side of her own. Fans of the comics and previous animated shows will immediately figure out she’s Raven, the daughter of a demonic entity known as Trigon who wants your regular “take over Earth and turn it into Hell” thing, which powers a good portion of the plot in the first few episodes (three were screened for critics).

Also along for the ride are an amnesiac badass played by Anna Diop, and eventually the shape-changing Gar Logan (Ryan Potter). You’ll also get to meet the Washington, D.C. based duo of Hawk (Alan Ritchson) and Dove (Minka Kelly), two aging heroes with a bone to pick with Robin.

The biggest issue with the series is that it’s so busy being eXXXtreme that it takes a good, long while to bring the team together. This is a broadcast show put together at a streaming pace — though DC Universe is a streaming service, they’ll be dropping episodes of Titans on a weekly basis — so it isn’t until the end of week three that you’ll see the team interacting in any significant way. It’s at that point that Titans starts to hit its stride, too, so it’s unfortunate that fans may check out in the episodes before that airs.

The other big issue is that Robin turning into Batman, but with killing and guns, just isn’t interesting. It’s a kid’s version of what dark and gritty is like. Thwaites does admirably with the material, and his chest is extremely chiseled (a prerequisite for anyone aiming to play Grayson). But this take on the character is what’s generally led to the lack of interest in the DC movies over the TV shows, which favor earnest heroics mixed with serious storylines versus the big screen’s constant rain and growling. Having a TV version of the so-called DC Extended Universe doesn’t make it more interesting to watch… Just because this is a Robin who fucks, doesn’t mean I want to fuck with that Robin, if you get my gist. It’s bland, and boring, and feels like someone’s generic idea of what superhero shows should be, when they don’t have any real understanding of the characters themselves.

That’s weird given the behind the scenes talent, which includes DC impresario Geoff Johns and Greg Berlanti, the mastermind behind nearly every other superhero show on TV. Titans feels like the duo sat down and decided to create a show that “we would have wanted to see as teenagers,” instead of thinking about what teenagers today might actually want to watch.

The good news is that Johns’ and Berlanti’s (as well as Akiva Goldsman, who also developed the series) better angels start to win out as the series continues. Gar Logan, a.k.a. Beast Boy, only appears briefly in the first three episodes, but he injects his scenes with weirdness and a real sense of fun. Croft is relatively new to the screen, but plays the duality of Rachel/Raven’s monstrous nature with a terrifying curl on her lips. Thwaites, despite my japes about his muscles, is moody in all the right ways. And (spoiler, I guess), once Diop’s flame-infused Starfire meets up with Robin, her power and stature knocks the self-important Grayson down a notch. The idea of the show seemingly develops to become that even as heroes have their own demons to deal with, they’ll figure out how to battle them together; not alone.

Stronger together, right? It’s an important message right now, but one that doesn’t crystallize until the end of hour three. A large part of why it does start to work is Diop, the adult in the room who takes charge even when her character isn’t sure exactly what’s going on. And happily, the awful wigs (sorry, but having a team full of people with green, purple, and orange hair doesn’t translate to TV as well as it does in comics) and chintzy effects matter less as time goes on, as the performers figure out how best to embody their iconic heroes.

Which is another issue the show is going to need to deal with… Titans is sitting alongside Young Justice on DC Universe, an animated series for younger teens that deals with complicated issues and similar characters, without any villains getting stabbed in the crotch. There’s also the animated Teen Titans on the service, as well as the spectre of the much more kid focused Teen Titans GO! Episodes of that show are still airing on Cartoon Network, but any parents looking to show their kids a live-action version of the team’s antics will be shocked to discover a show that might as well be titled Teen Titans GO! Fuck Yourself.

Add in that a new streaming service’s first original show is a message, a mission statement if you will. Netflix’s first show was House of Cards, a shot across the bow stating they were more than DVDs in red envelopes, ready to play with the big boys on cable. Hulu and Prime Video both started with small comedies, figuring out how to work as an independent studio before launching Handmaid’s Tale and Man in the High Castle, respectively.

With Titans, DC Universe isn’t aiming to go slow. They’re looking to immediately put themselves on the same footing as the network superhero shows, but with a decidedly raunchier bent, free of censors. They’re hepped up on energy drinks, stayed up all night playing video games, and are ready to hit the ground running. That they ultimately stumble in the first few episodes isn’t a surprise; but fans who stick around after the first few weeks might be surprised to discover the heroes they know and love. Perhaps, then, the regular streaming method is the one fans should take: wait until the first few episodes are up, and then dive in. At the very least, it’ll give your Monster Energy Drink time to get nice and cold.

Where to stream Titans