Titans - Season 1
The first season of the American superhero streaming television series Titans premiered on DC Universe on October 12, 2018, and concluded on December 21, 2018, consisting of 11 episodes. It was executive produced by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Greg Walker, with Walker serving as showrunner. Created by Goldsman, Johns, and Berlanti, the series is based on the DC Comics team Teen Titans. Featured in the main cast are Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, and Ryan Potter. The season also introduces Alan Ritchson, Minka Kelly, Curran Walters, and Conor Leslie, who would join the main cast in the following season. The first season marks the live-action debut of the Teen Titans, as well as the launch of DC Universe's original scripted programming.
Titans - Season 1
In the first season, vigilante Dick Grayson (Thwaites) leaves Gotham City for Detroit in an effort to distance himself from his mentor Bruce Wayne. When the mysterious Rachel Roth (Croft) comes to Dick for protection from dangerous forces pursuing her, Dick finds himself thrust into action as he struggles to distance himself from his Robin persona and control his violent urges. Joined by Kory Anders (Diop), an amnesiac woman with solar-based powers, and Gar Logan (Potter), an animal shapeshifter, the four battle a threat that puts the entire world at risk.
Development of a live-action series based on Teen Titans began in 2014 when the project was picked up by TNT. A pilot written by Goldsman and Marc Haimes was ordered, but never filmed, and TNT passed on the project in 2016. The following year, Warner Bros. announced that the project would move forward in 2018 as the first scripted series for DC Universe. Initially planned to comprise 12 episodes, the original finale would be removed and the intended penultimate episode became the season finale. The season's story was primarily inspired by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's The New Teen Titans comics from the 1980s.
The season received generally positive reviews, with praise for the story, characters, and performances. Criticism was directed towards the violent tone and the finale's cliffhanger ending. The second season, which was announced ahead of the first season's premiere, would use the original finale as the basis for its premiere episode.
In addition to being the first live-action adaptation of the Teen Titans, the season serves as the live-action introduction for the DC Comics team Doom Patrol, who appear in the self-titled fourth episode. The characters introduced would later be featured in an eponymous series on DC Universe, with April Bowlby, Matt Bomer, and Brendan Fraser reprising their roles as Rita Farr, Larry Trainor, and Cliff Steele, although it occupies a separate continuity from Titans.
Though 12 episodes were initially announced,[12] the 12th episode was removed and the 11th episode became the season 1 finale.[13] The intended 12th episode served as the basis for the season 2 premiere.[14]
Johns said the series was inspired mostly by the Teen Titans comics of the 1980s, since that comic's run "had so much drama" and "was so revolutionary for its time". He added, "We really wanted to lean into the idea that every Titan of these Titans is a doorway into another genre. With Rachel [a.k.a. Raven], it's the supernatural and the horror, and the first season really focuses on who Raven is and how the Titans galvanize around her." Johns also felt the series would be "a little more adult" than the television series Riverdale, calling it "not necessarily a teen drama, [but] more of an adventure piece".[15] He said that tonally, "We wanted to do something different from everything else out there. We wanted to arrive at a tone that wasn't as welcoming as some of the DC shows have been, nor as nihilistic as some of the films have been."[16] Goldsman said that as the series continues, it will ask "How are these broken people going to cohere? Or will they?"[16] Johns noted that Robin's controversial "Fuck Batman" line in the pilot was a late addition to the script.[16] Dick's actor Brenton Thwaites said of the line, "I thought it was perfect ... This is not a show about Batman. It's a show about Dick."[16]
In early August 2017, Teagan Croft was cast as Rachel Roth,[17] followed by the casting of Anna Diop as Kory Anders[18] and Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson the same month.[19][20] Ahead of the series premiere, Diop reduced her presence on social media because of racist attacks towards her casting.[21][22][23] The main cast for the first season would be rounded out by Ryan Potter as Gar Logan, who was announced in October 2017.[24]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a "Certified Fresh" approval rating of 78%, with an average rating of 6.66 out of 10 based on 46 reviews. The site's critical consensus states, "Despite a few tonal growing pains, Titans does justice to its source material and truly shines when its titular ensemble finally assembles."[39] Metacritic gave the series' first season a score of 55 out of 100 based on eight critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[40]
The season finale "Dick Grayson", which was originally intended as the penultimate episode, drew criticism for its cliffhanger ending and not resolving the main storyline of the season. IGN's Jesse Schedeen gave the finale a 4/10, writing that after "Titans got off to a surprisingly good start this year, especially considering all the baggage the series was carrying when it first debuted", the episode "manages to derail that momentum and goodwill with a head-scratching and extremely unsatisfying final chapter".[49] Den of Geek's Mike Cecchini called the episode's cliffhanger "anticlimactic and feels like a cheat".[50] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Christian Holub said, "The journey to Nightwing is gonna take a lot longer than I thought. But I was really impressed by this season overall, and I'm excited for season 2".[51]
It was all perfectly executed and broke our hero down to the point of no return. Not being familiar with the comic book lore, I could never imagine how it would all play out, but ending the season with Dick on the same side as Trigon?
The first season of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula: Titans was officially announced on September 12, 2022. This spin-off series will premiere Tuesday, October 25, 2022 with two episodes.[1] This brand new series will see past contestants from The Boulet Brothers' Dragula compete in a brand-new competition format.
When we last left off, Rachel (Teagan Croft) brought her demon father, Trigon (Seamus Dever), to Earth, and Trigon put Dick (Brenton Thwaites - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) into a kind of trance that sent him down a dark path, and ultimately enslaved his mind. This is where we pick up, with Dick being mind controlled by Trigon, Rachel realizing the horrible mistake she made, and their friends trying to get into the house to help them. Trigon was the thing that season 1 was building up to - his plan for destroying the world, and using Rachel to do it. So, like any other finale, everything leads to this final showdown between Rachel and her father.
The finale. I was irritated with how they chose to end the season, but the last episode was a wild ride. I was excited to see Batman (even the crazy version) and the Joker make an appearance, along with Two-Face, the Riddler, etc. That was so cool.
Part of the reason it didn't feel like a finale is that it wasn't originally meant to be. Titans showrunner Greg Walker confirmed in an interview with TVLine that what was originally meant to be the season 1 finale will instead act as the season 2 premiere. They wanted to end the first season on a huge cliffhanger and "go for an even bigger, better season 2 opener."
We'll have to wait and see if they succeed with the season 2 premiere, but as far as the goal of ending the first season with a cliffhanger, they've clearly succeeded. The episode, titled "Dick Grayson," ends with Dick (Brenton Thwaites) possessed by the demon Trigon (Seamus Dever) and most of the regular cast M.I.A. We don't know if anyone else is possessed or even where any of the other Titans are.
Most of the Titans season 1 finale is a Trigon-induced hallucination. Dick Grayson believes he's married to Dawn, a.k.a Dove (Minka Kelly). They have a young son and Dawn has a baby on the way. Gar (Ryan Potter) and Raven (Rachel Roth) are off at college and Kory (Anna Diop) is an FBI agent. Jason Todd (Curran Walters) arrives in a wheelchair, warning Dick that Batman has finally cracked. Dick goes to Gotham to stop his mentor before the hero can kill the Joker, but he fails. Once Batman starts killing, he can't stop, and everyone in Arkham is on his hit list. Dick gives Batman's secret identity to the GCPD and helps them raid his home, but Batman is ready for them and he kills almost all of the cops, including Kory. Dick's virtual future ends when Batman reaches out to his old ward for help, and instead Dick murders him.
You'd think Trigon could have killed Dick Grayson rather than possessing him. Actually, he could've blocked him from entering his presence. At the end of the season's penultimate episode, "Koriand'r," Kory and Donna Troy (Conor Leslie) both try to follow Dick into the house where Trigon was summoned, but they're blocked by an invisible barrier while Dick is allowed to pass through. So why did Trigon want Grayson and none of the others, and why possess him rather than kill him?
Which naturally leads us to the question of why Angela was being held in the institution the Titans freed her from in the season's 7th episode, "Asylum." It could be that keeping Angela there and making her appear to be a prisoner was all a part of Trigon's followers' plan. They may have known only Rachel's biological mother could convince her to willingly bring her father into her dimension, and perhaps they thought the only way to get the Titans to trust Angela was to make them think they'd rescued her. 041b061a72