Titans S03E01 – S03E03 are the first three episodes of the third season of the superhero drama series streaming on HBO Max featuring the DC Comics superteam. The first two seasons were streamed on the now defunct DC Universe online platform, which is now focused only on comic books, with the movies and TV series being transferred over to HBO Max. It is highly unlikely that we will want to analyse the rest of Season 3, after the rather abysmal third episode in particular. Our analysis of this dismal failure follows.
S P O I L E R S
Unlike the first two seasons, Titans S03E01 – S03E03 sets up (rather abruptly) a storyline borrowed from Batman comics – A Death in the Family, to be specific. That event of course was infamous for an interactive survey where fans could determine the fate of Jason Todd, the second Robin, of whether he should be murdered by the Joker or not – rather despicable publicity stunt if you ask us. Naturally, the fans voted to have Jason Todd murdered and Todd would subsequently resurrected as The Red Hood.
READ OUR REVIEW OF TITANS SEASON 1.
Now, Titans S03E01 – S03E03 adapts this storyline for Titans, which makes sense, considering both the first and second Robins (Dick Grayson and Todd) are an integral part of this Titans series. Based on the first two episodes, it was not too difficult to buy into where the series was heading based on A Death in the Family story. However, the third episode completely jumped the shark and once more, it has become impossible to take Titans seriously.
After all, Season 1 provided a laughable Trigon plot while Season 2 totally screwed up the potential of one of the best DC villains (viz. Deathstroke) and these were stories taken from the original Teen Titans comics. What hope then did Titans have to successfully adapt A Death in the Family? Not much at all, thanks to a horrendous third episode.
Simply put, the characters make the dumbest decisions – thought that was only reserved for CW DC characters – and in keeping with the unnecessary grim and gritty tone of the series, kills off a series regular. Not that Hawk is going to be missed because he was such a badly written character BUT it all seems so gratuitous! Presumably, this shocking death is meant to send Nightwing and the Titans down more dark paths in the 10 episodes remaining.
So, in the final analysis, Titans S03E01 – S03E03 is like a beautiful train wreck, it’s horrific to look at but one cannot quite avert one’s gaze. Take it or leave it.
Now streaming on HBO Max.
… still there’s more …