Review - Titans Season Three Eps 1 - 4

 First shown a year ago, season three finds the series re-locating to Gotham

One of the more fascinating aspects of US episodic shows is their ability to morph into something different. Ostensibly a series about some super heroes ought to be repetitive and focussed mostly  on action but the season three opener Barbara Gordon, shoehorns most of its fight scenes into the opening section.  Now back in Gotham and Robin once again, Jason remains as hot headed as ever plus he appears to have cooked up some sort of mega inhaler of yellow stuff. Yet for all his bravado in defying Batman to confront the Joker, he falls woefully short. Flinching from the first body he finds and some manic laughter he’s easily taken down and, it seems, killed by the villain whom we only see in silhouette. This contrast vividly with the very cool re-introduction of the Titans as they take out another villainous brigade with supple skills all to the soundtrack of `Ca Plane Pour Moi`. It’s a great sequence, perfectly directed and edited. As a season opener you couldn’t ask for more.

 

Now very much helping keep San Francisco a safer place, the Titans’ confidence is soon dented by news from Gotham of Jason’s death.Apart from a bizarre vision that Kory appears to have after sipping what is clearly a very strong drink, much of the rest of the episode sees Dick Grayson trying to make sense of Bruce Wayne’s refusal to come to terms with his responsibility for the way he trains his sidekicks, `weaponising` them as he puts it. I know Iain Glenn’s Bruce has had a mixed reaction (though not as mixed as his accent!) but it seems in keeping with how you might expect a much older Wayne to deal (or not) with such matters. Swathed in atmospheric, gloomy light the episode doesn’t pack as much punch at those opening sequences and Dick’s investigations into whatever Jason was brewing in his secret loft is not made interesting enough. Some flashbacks of Jason would have been fun if only so we could see his expletive ridden rant against a villain called the Hatter, simply related here by Barbara Gordon. However there’s plenty of f-bombs to be enjoyed- is it my imagination or has the swear count risen from last season?

Both Dick and Barbara’s s accusations against Bruce do feel like old ground. Here and in other versions, the whole concept of Bruce Wayne is that he is as crazy as the villains he takes on. Instead of stating this again, why not take a look as to why? Yet it's worth stopping till the final scene in which it seems as if Bruce had finally unhinged totally, gone out and killed the Joker before running off and effectively handing the mantle of Batman to Dick with the parting message “be a better Batman”. We’re not getting the Joker in this series it seems, probably due to the films or related rights issues. Are we looking at a two-track season? There are some who feel that repeatedly going back to Batman takes away from what is supposed to be a different series, but I think it offers an interesting perspective on what could happen to the Titans themselves if they are not careful. There are several intriguing strands unravelled here and perhaps it's a good thing Bruce has vanished for a while.

Red Hood is the name of the second episode and of Gotham’s new antagonist. Seemingly making his moves inspired by chess plays, this fresh opponent proves particularly tricky for Barbara Gordon and the Titans. The gang has moved en masse to Gotham in something of a retooling of the show and it remains to be seen whether they can spark with quite the same life in this big bad city. Here at least the results are bitty with Red Hood’s escapades -forcing people to do his bidding by kidnapping their kids- to entrap the Titans seeming needlessly complex. Kory’s blackouts add an oddness to the episode but I can’t help thinking the easy chemistry between the cast isn’t quite as sharp as last season.

The big reveal of who Red Hood is comes too soon and too easily because even though he’s made something of an entrance into the criminal fraternity you somehow struggle to believe that Jason Todd- for it is he- has either the ability or the cunning to come up with all this in such a short space of time. It would have been funnier if Dick had worked out who he was because he swore too much- Red Hood doesn’t swear which just seems wrong!

There’s a dramatic scale to the episode and the moody streets of Gotham are as enigmatic as in any incarnation yet this feels like we’ve relocated to someone else’s series. Titans began as an offshoot of Batman yet this season appears to re-position it as a continuation. Still there is a rather good scene featuring the imprisoned Scarecrow- played with a wily mischief by Vincent Karthesier (Pete Campbell from Mad Men). I can’ help thinking he’ll get to escape his confinement to liven matters up.

Considering the way it ends, episode three `Hank and Dove` really needs to be far more tense than it is. The scenario is a classic race against time as Hank is tricked by Jason into meeting and ends up with a bomb attached to his heart. The only way to stop it is to build a defusing device from blueprints. As Connor works at supersonic speed to do this, Jason continues to manipulate the others. On paper this is a scenario that should have the viewers on the edge of their seats as the clock ticks, things don’t work out and our villain is basking in the chaos he is creating. Certainly, there’s some mystery as Dick digs up Jason’s grave to find it empty and then we see Jason, seemingly himself again, making a desperate call to Hank. However the more matter progress the less likely they seem.

There’s a lack of sharpness to the end result, perhaps because of filming or editing restrictions, certainly one scene has very oddly rendered backscreen. The writing is a little leaden too though there are still some fine individual performances. Alan Richson deals so well with keeping Hank’s macho exterior while showing us his concern and its good that while the others are panicking he tries to remain himself as he faces the possible end. Minka Kely is excellent too as Dawn tries anything to save him and the cruelty of the final trick is powerful and straight from the Joker’s playbook.

The ending is a daring shocker, though seemingly killing off a second character after two episodes in which another is nowhere near as dead as he seemed, is perhaps asking too much of the viewer. I can’t be the only person watching this for the first time who thinks- maybe they’ll bring Hank back later on too? So it could be that this is too soon in the season for a milestone episode like this, we’ve hardly had time to get used to the idea of Jason being the villain and it feels like we need more time to explore the how’s and why’s, The character’s former teenage petulance and attitude seems to have mutated into the characteristics of a scheming arch nemesis extraordinarily quickly to be believable even in the context of the series. Unless the Scarecrow is giving him the ideas somehow?

In `Blackfire` with Dawn heading off for a while, Dick tells Commissioner Gordon he’s intending to lie low for a few days. His idea of lying low is to kidnap Crane in the hope it will lure Red Hood into a trap. Meanwhile Kory’s visions turns out to be psychic projections from her sister Blackfire who has been incarcerated by a quirky scientist who appears to be working on his own in a massive underground government facility. This episode recaptures the livelier, imaginative side of the show that has largely been absent so far. The team up of Kory and Gor works especially well with both sparking off each other enjoyably. Also showing promise is the uneasy trust between Dick and Crane. We don’t yet know what the latter’s superpower may be, if he has one, at the moment he’s a somewhat tramp like figure with a sly tone. Brenton Thwaites and Vincent Karheisier are well matched, the latter offering some light and shade to the villainous role.

I’m still unsure of the whole Red Hood thing though a sequence at the end in a dark forest where he and Nightwing battle it out is very well staged. The Kory plotline ends with an odd development when, after failing to really get much co-operation from her sister, she decides to get her out of the facility in any case. Probably to become another Titan given how depleted the ranks are becoming!