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Titans gives us a much darker and adult entry into the superhero world than we normally get, but this is a trend which is increasingly giving us more than we originally expected.
Too much of what appears onscreen, these days, is always very 12-certificate-friendly (usually a PG-13 in the US), and I’m getting rather tired of that, especially with overlong bore-fests like Avengers: Infinity War, so it was great that we were seeing more for an adult audience with the likes of Deadpool, Suicide Squad and Logan, all of which are a 15-cert in the UK, although only Suicide Squad has remained a PG-13 in the US out of those with the others being R-rated, but then one rating between the UK and US doesn’t perfectly correlate with another.
Personaly, I’d rather the 15-cert and 18-certs were replaced with a similar R-rating in the UK, since all too often, a film just slips into the 18-cert category, but is then sliced down to a 15-cert. Red Sparrow was a recent example. Similarly, every one of the Maze Runner films has been cut down from a 15 to a 12 in the UK. These films are only available uncut on 4K Blu-ray, it seems. Quite why we have to fork out that much to see them uncut, I don’t know, but there’s profit to be had, and that’s Hollywood for you.
Anyhoo, back to Titans and the first episode saw Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt) as Dick Grayson, who we know is also Robin, and while without a mask he’s a cop in Gotham, when he’s dressed up and was he was faced with baddies wondering where Batman is, and after he punches one of them so hard in the face is causes blood splatter, “Fuck Batman!”
Meanwhile, young emo Rachel (Teagan Croft) is having nightmares about stumbling across The Flying Graysons, which is how Robin, aka Dick Grayson started off, but in this new, darker TV series entry into the DC canon, she sees something shocking which makes her feel she has a connection with him. In reality, her mother, Angela (Sherilyn Fenn), is giving her a hard time as mothers often do, but before long, they’re going to have bigger fish to fry.
I like the way it introuced Kory Anders (Anna Diop), with her red/purple hair colour, with a car crash scene which filled in the blanks as it went along over the course of 2-3 minutes, the car also containing two hired Russian goons who certainly weren’t stopping off after a visit to see the cathedral in Salisbury. She has no memory of her life before this, nor how come there’s a man in the closet.
Both Rachel and Kory also have their alter-egos and their presence will be felt for sure in this first episode.
Unlike most Netflix series in which all the episodes stream on the same day, Titans is a weekly release, hene why I’m just looking at episode 1.
Avoiding spoilers, there’s a lot of weird stuff going on, plus dark moments like a gunshot to the head with blood dripping all over the floor, as well as knives to the head and a face pushed along a wall, so blood comes out; and at one point, a room is engulfed in flames, but when that clears – and one man is left burnt to a crisp – it’s amzing that the TV on the wall survived completely unscathed! Not a pixel out of place!
This first episode wasn’t available for preview which is never a good sign, but while I mostly have absolutely no idea what’s going on, I quite enjoyed it and will check out more. There are 13 episodes in the series.
Oh, and since Rachel’s alter-ego is Raven… erm… isn’t there a Raven in Marvel’s X-Men? Yes, kinda, as that’s Raven Darkholme, aka Mystique, but I don’t know enough about superheroes to know if that’s an intentional coincidence. Either way, this programme actually felt quite similar to the X-Men in places, and most of those films are worth a watch, so perhaps that’s why I enjoyed it.
Cert: 
Running time: 50 minutes
Studio: Netflix
Year: 2018
Format: 2.00:1
Released: October 12th 2018
Episode 1 score: 7/10
Series Directors: Brad Anderson, Grant Harvey, John Fawcett, Alex Kalymnios
Series Producer: Robert Ortiz
Executive Producers: Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Sarah Schechter
Series Creators: Greg Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns
Series Writers: Steve Ditko, Bill Finger, Barbara Randall Kesel, Karl Kesel, Rob Liefeld, George Pérez, Steve Skeates, Marv Wolfman, Bryan Edward Hill, Jerry Robinson
Series Music: Kevin Kiner
Cast:
Dick Grayson/Robin: Brenton Thwaites
Koriand’r / Kory Anders / Starfire: Anna Diop
Rachel Roth / Raven: Teagan Croft
Garfield “Gar” Logan / Beast Boy: Ryan Potter
Hank Hall / Hawk: Alan Ritchson
Dawn Granger / Dove: Minka Kelly
Amy Rohrbach: Lindsey Gort
Niles Caulder / Chief: Bruno Bichir
Rita Farr / Elasti-Woman: April Bowlby
Clifford Steele / Robotman: Jake Michaels
Larry Trainor / Negative Man: Dwain Murphy
Jason Todd / Robin: Curran Walters
Donna Troy / Wonder Gir: Conor Leslie
Don Hall / Dove: Elliot Knight
Konstantin Kovar: Mark Antony Krupa
Angela, Raven’s mother: Sherilyn Fenn
The Acolyte: Jarreth J Merz
Previously on DVDfever:
October 4th:
Titans has a new trailer and it’s due to begin on October 12th on Netflix, in the UK and Europe, at least.
Check out the trailer below:
Titans is a forthcoming TV series and also the first live-action incarnation of DC Comics’ Teen Titans, even though a number of members of the team – such as Robin, Wonder Girl, Speedy and Kid Flash – have shown up on other live-action television shows.
In short, when Dick Grayson (Robin) and Rachel Roth (Raven) require assistance to deal with a plot that threatens the entire planet, they join with Koriand’r (Starfire) and Gar Logan (Beast Boy) to form the Titans.
With Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt) as Robin, Titans premieres later this year for Warner Bros Television, but the precise date has yet to be revealed, as well as where you can actually watch it.
Series Directors: Brad Anderson, Grant Harvey, John Fawcett, Alex Kalymnios
Series Writers: Steve Ditko, Bill Finger, Barbara Randall Kesel, Karl Kesel, Rob Liefeld, George Pérez, Steve Skeates, Marv Wolfman, Bryan Edward Hill
Creators: Greg Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns
Producer: Robert Ortiz
Music: Kevin Kiner
Cast:
Dick Grayson: Brenton Thwaites
Raven: Teagan Croft
Koriand’r: Anna Diop
Amy Rohrbach: Lindsey Gort
Dawn Granger: Minka Kelly
Beast Boy: Ryan Potter
Hank Hall: Alan Ritchson
Elasti-Girl: April Bowlby
Cliff Steele: Jake Michaels
Negative Man: Dwain Murphy
Check out the trailer below:
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