Titans stars Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson/Robin, Anna Diop as Starfire, Teagan Croft as Raven, Ryan Potter as Beast Boy, Alan Ritchson as Hawk and Minka Kelly as Dove.
Titans is available to watch now on DC Universe in North America. The series will arrive on Netflix in international markets soon.
Synopsis
Rachel is rescued by Kory who then takes her a special sanctuary. While hunting them down, Dick thinks back to the day when Bruce Wayne first adopted him.
Review
Titans appears to be suffering some of the growing pains of a new series finding its way. Following an exposition heavy pilot we had the fast-paced and thrilling “Hawk & Dove” episode last week. This week we’re treating to another wholly different episode of the series.
Where Starfire and Beastboy were entirely absent from the last episode they are back this week. Though Gar is once again sidelined in to a cameo we still get our first look at all four Titans together in one scene.
Narrative pitfalls avoid becoming drawbacks to the series due to the fact there’s still near constant development of the plot. Whilst we shift away from Hawk, Dove and Dick to focus on Rachel and Starfire all the plots are able to be driven forwards as they begin to converge.
There’s actually plenty of intriguing developments in “Origins” for DC fans to really get hyped about. We’re feeling dangerously close to referencing Trigon by name at this stage. The veil of mystery surrounding Rachel is beginning to lift and it’s certainly gripping to watch as an audience member.
Similarly Kory/Starfire is beginning to uncover more about herself. The turning point comes in this episode when she finds her storage locker. Here we get our first glimpse of Tamaranen language and some ominous warnings about Rachel.
Whilst an ominous prophecy about Rachel feels fairly generic it’s ties to Trigon and the demonic DC world offer too much opportunity for it to become problematic.
Allowing Dick to fall in to third place in this episode also allows the other characters much more room to breathe. It’s refreshing to see the present day action progressing without him in place. But that’s not to say he doesn’t have a place in this episode.
His flashbacks are equally interesting. Whilst they do dangle the Bruce Wayne carrot in front of the audience the lack of payoff is gratifying to see. To bring Bruce/Batman in to the show full time would eclipse the four leads and this show doesn’t need that.
Having said that, who heard those extremely Batman-sequel cellos scoring the flashback scenes?!
Gar remains the least developed character of them all. The trailer for the next episode (below) hopefully signifies that this will all change in the next episode.
Verdict
“Origins” brings the pace down a touch for the series. Whilst there is still action this episode seeks to further the characters as a whole. Narratively this is a solid, albeit slower, episode.
6/10
Next week on Titans…
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