DC’s latest entry is the return of HBO Max Series Titans for its fourth season.
Titans Season 4 suffers from the same problems as the past seasons. Good ideas, ultimately being held back by Lackluster execution.
Lacking Focus
The real mystery of this season seems to be a mystery for the writers themselves. The writers throw a bunch of scattered ideas at the wall, all with potential alone, however, having all these ideas simultaneously running ultimately leads to a muddy plot with no true focus. They try murder mystery; They try body horror; they try the group dynamic between the team members. Some of them stick, but most don’t. It’s because the writers shift from one plot point to another so quickly that they don’t focus on one of the above mentioned aspects to give the season a beating heart.
The dialogues feel so generic that they seemed to be written on the spot rather than carefully planned. The dialogue neither elevates the drama between the characters nor helps the narrative. What it does do well however, is expose the predictability of the plot. The performances, however, continue to carry this show. Brenton Thwaites is stellar as Dick Grayson. The guy seems to be enjoying the role and is all for it. Be it tender emotional moments or the gritty action sequences; he makes the going easy. Teagan Croft as Raven is terrific. Her performance is subtle and powerful, now incorporating aspects of the more popular Raven from Teen Titans Go, but it still retains her impression on the character. Anna Diop as Starfire is so good that I wished the show gave her enough material to work on rather than relegating her to the sidelines and using only her for action sequences which is such a shame because her character and the actor herself have a lot of untapped potentials that the show is yet to use.
Villains
In terms of villains they do Lex Luthor extremely dirty in this show. Which annoyingly the showrunners have a habit of doing by, under utillising famous villains from the DC comics roster in an underwhelming manner. They did that with Trigon in Season 1, Scarecrow in Season 3 and Lex Luthor in season 4. It’s so annoying at this point. The story’s flow is too fast in the first two episodes and gets slowed down in the next three episodes, which feels haphazard and uneven throughout the narrative. I was excited at the prospect of a murder mystery thread in the first two episodes, or at least up to the second half of the second episode. But it gets quickly diluted very quickly. The Cult subplot in the first three episodes is highly predictable and mostly underwhelming. There are flashes of brilliance here and there, like the scenes between Jinx and the team, adding fun and a much-needed taste of the team dynamic that the show should focus on.
The show is so obsessed with splitting Titans into subgroups the whole time that when they come together they don’t feel like a team instead they feel like a cluster of individuals joined together. There’s an exciting cliffhanger which is a great word, by the way, but there is a good setup for the sixth episode, but the way the narrative has been going on, I can only hope that the show doesn’t underwhelm me further. At least the CGI is decent, unlike the show’s writing which stumbles big time in the execution of its subplots and fleshing out the character arcs. The CGI makes the action sequences look cool. The creatures and animals look pretty decent in the show. The show’s major Achilles heel is that I never get to root emotionally for any of these characters after all this time. It’s been four and a half seasons. But no, not even one character. Then why am I watching? I am just habituated to watching this show. I also care in the hope that maybe it’ll get better.
Final Thoughts
I just wished this show had solid writing to get emotionally invested in the characters and the narrative. But going by the first five episodes, the writers are hell-bent on repeating their mistakes and expecting different results. Apart from the performances and the CGI, the season so far doesn’t have much to boast about and ends up squandering the potential of its source material.
Pros: • Decent CGI • Performances • Potential
Cons: • Haphazard Narrative • Lack of emotional connection • Generic Dialogues. • Messing up iconic villains • Unfocused at times Beta-Thoughts: The writing is at major fault here
Titans Season 4 Starts Streaming Exclusively on HBO Max this Thursday November 3!
