I finally watched the first two seasons of Titans, and I can't say I am a big fan of the series. Some of the costumes look good - Hawk and Dove, Deathstroke, the Robins and the CGI Trigon come to mind. The characterizations is where the show falls apart for me. Every character is depressed and way overly violent in their crimefighting interactions. Dove should not be as bloodthirsty as Hawk! Gar Logan only changes into a tiger and then eats people? and what's with all the F bombs? It's the series' favorite word, used frequently by every character, even ones who it is wholly inappropriate for like Bruce Wayne, Kory or Raven. There's some cool power usage (I like how Jericho's abilities were realized), and by the end, it feels like the team wants to move away from their violent tendencies, but these episodes were tough to get through for a fan of the 80's comics.
These two teams first met in STF #1250...
not a fan of "f" bombs either it's not needed in comics,tv music or life in general!... i'm 63 years old and a dc comics fan. like i said it's not needed.....ever! thanks for letting me express my views on life and comics and tv....love your blog....keep it up and keep it "f" bomb free. and keep it real...real good that is
ReplyDeleteI liked the two seasons well enough. The language and violence did not bother me after a bit - just took it as one interpretation (as I do with all comics based stuff). I too like H&D and also Donna.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, f bombs are unnecessary! Sad that today's entertainment is degraded to needing profanity and gratuitous violence! Even broadcast tv, I mostly prefer black and white shows since they relied on talented writing and acting rather than the stuff today! And this cover is a reminder of times where stories actually told stories without degradation! Recently watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and other dvds that held a more respectable standard!
ReplyDeleteThe needless over-abundance of F-bombs is due to either script writers who get paid by the profanity; actors who wishfully think they can become the next Robert DeNiro by following in his verbal footsteps; or both.*
ReplyDeleteAs to this confrontation? One wonders what happened during the interim since their alliance against that other-dimensional blob. Could that have been a mutated clone of Doughboy, after all? Used as a vector for some kind of Hate-mongering germ?
*AWAKENINGS, co-starring Robin Williams, was the first time I saw DeNiro play a non-foulmouthed character! Thereby proving (at least, to me) that he was truly versatile.
I agree with you, Paul. After years of seeing "A Charlie Brown Xmas" video-butchered so the licensees can add more of those unwanted commercials, now the same thing is happening to the original 1966 version of Dr. Seuss' Grinch!
ReplyDeleteI can only surmise it's their way of getting long-term revenge for its anti-commercialism moral.
@Cary: I think it's more likely that the under-imaginative writers are just trying to out-Marvelize Marvel Films.
ReplyDeleteWhen you hire DeNiro (or Samuel Jackson)the "f" bombs just come with the scenery.
ReplyDeleteWatching Titans was my initial reason for subscribing to DC Universe. I was, overall, not strongly impressed. I enjoyed it well enough to go to the end, but if the show had concluded right there I would've been fine with it, and it's sure not enough to encourage me to subscribe to HBO Max.
ReplyDeleteNearly all of the F-bombs on the show were unnecessary, in that they could have been expressed differently if not dropped altogether. (Dick's "F*** Batman" in the first episode was the only exception that comes to mind.) I had the same problem (one of many) with The Witcher (I lost count of the number of times the F-bomb could be replaced with a sarcastic "Wonderful!"). At least on Doom Patrol the writers did seem to consider the question of whether each given character would actually talk that way.
I've even heard a rumor that part of Zack Snider's reshoots on Justice League will include Batman uttering a couple of F-bombs, on the premise that it will make him "cool." Come on; Zack, he's freakin' Batman! About the only way to make that character not cool would be to cast Gilbert Gottfried in the role.
As a writer, and part of a local writing community, I've learned one thing: if an element in your text is in any way controversial or potentially offensive, consider whether you really need it to tell your story. That includes profanity, nudity, sex, drugs, religious or political content, and anything else along those lines. If it pushes the plot forward, provides important character development, or anything similar, then fine; do it, but don't overdo it. If it doesn't help the story, then it detracts from it and should be excised.
With that in mind, as for the heavy violence in Titans, one of the themes of the show -- especially in the second season -- was the need to back away from excessive violence, so it did help tell that story. It was also fitting with both Trigon and Deathstroke. I recall it being perhaps a bit too graphic at times, but not by much.
I probably could go on for another dozen paragraphs on the topic, and would do so if this was a writer's forum, but it's not, so I'll stop on that now. Maybe someone who's actually in the industry will see it and give my points some thought; I hope so. I'd even be happy to expand on the topic privately.
I concur on the DOOM PATROL. Those people have something to swear about. Cliff swore in the comics and half of Janes personalities did far worse than that. I was baffled by their Doctor Light choices, if DC isn't going to follow through w/ the Titan's fighting an inept JLA villain as part of his decline then Sue Dibney died for nothing
DeleteI was OK with the Titans. Only in the DCU can a non-powered hero take on 4 or 5 bad guys in a brawl and take them all down without any blood or broken bones; or has a Superman as a role model to allow sane, unbroken people to put on a costume and be a vigilante. The language doesn't bother me -- that's how non-Comics Code or network-censored people talk, whether they admit or not.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm not all the enthused about Season 3. Donna's gone. Jason Todd, who was just an a-hole, will be back as the Red Hood. Kory, who IMHO was the least like her comics self, will be center stage with Blackfire, or somebody with that name. But it will be my main watch on HBO Max when it drops anyway.
@Emsley: then, their fans are long-overdue for a change of scenery!
ReplyDelete@Jay Johnson: I can count on one hand the number of times I've dropped a F-bomb. And that was in a heated arguement over twenty years ago! Never uttered any before that...or since. English translation: real-life people willing to censor themselves don't have to drop F-bombs at all. For any reason!
@Anon@1:20: You do better than I do in the clean-mouth department. Still, I think that Jay's belief that (in essence) "everybody does it" just indicates part of the problem: these writers mainly hang around people who use that level of language, so they think that it's the norm and assume that even if they don't hear you use it you probably do elsewhere. It's the old "everyone's really like me, they just pretend to be something else" paradigm that I run into much too often and have such a hard time breaking.
ReplyDeleteReally liked this cover too. Superman has been getting powered down for DECADES. Thor doesn't seem to have this problem.
ReplyDeleteNever got past the youtube promo for the Titans. Kory? nooo. Manimal/Gar? maybe. Draw new viewers? Seen some bits over the months. No regrets for not getting the series.
About swearing? No big deal. Some cultures say it's just real feelings. Some people use it everyday. You almost filter it out automatically. Boring. Sub in Bollocks instead. Least it"s something less common.
@Hi, Art: I remember reading a Mack Bolan novel where one of the supporting characters told his adolescent son: "Swearing is just a poor man's excuse for a vocabulary."
ReplyDelete"Nuff said."
@Ross: Is Chthon is mass mind-controlling the Avengers through Wundagorian clay wielded by Houngan of the Brain's Brotherhood of Evil?
ReplyDelete@Jay Johnson: I have used a F-Bomb once in almost 60 years after I was mugged and I was trying to get mugger to come back (long story).
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like "the Boys" than the Titans. It is why I do not get too enthusiastic about non-animated comics based films and tv shows - at one time the excuse was technology, make up, etc was not up level to realistically doing film but there is no excuse now and they just want to use names. Geoff Johns should be ashamed of this and I expected better of this from him.
What Glenn said.
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