Titans: The Complete Third Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Titans: The Complete Third Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



​

Movie
Much like how Arrow was the progenitor of the entire Arrowverse and was eclipsed by The Flash, Titans was the progenitor of the short lived DC Streaming service shows (which were absorbed into HBO Max) and quickly became eclipsed by Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing. Still, Titans holds a warm spot in my heart, because lets face it, Batman and his various other characters from that universe is the bomb. Titans started out by being a less angsty, but more “edgy” (and by edgy, I mean edge lord edgy, with the f-bomb being thrown around like a teenager kid thinking he’s cool for swearing level of edgy) superhero show about Dick Grayson and his formation of the Teen Titans. The show sort of hits stride in season 2, but Covid hit and the series was shifted off to HBO Max, then seemingly shelved by the powers that be. Now, literally over a YEAR since the season finale, Warner has decided to release the home video Blu-ray and DVD just a week before season 4 drops on HBO Max.

Season 3 is interesting. On one hand I like that they sort of tamed down the series from adding too many new characters and new super heroes to the team (we all know how that worked out for the Arrowverse shows with “Team insert show title here” taking over from the main cast), but I also questioned their goal of pigeonholing the show from their roots and bringing it back to Gotham City. The reason is obvious though. It’s because Batman sells and they wanted to bring more eyes onto the series after the awkward finale with Jason Todd last season.

Anywhoo, the series starts with everyone grieving over the loss of Donna Troy (Conor Leslie) and dealing with becoming an actual TEAM for once instead of bickering all the time. However, Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) gets word that Jason Todd (Curran Walters) has just been murdered by the Joker back in Gotham City. Rushing home to console Bruce (Iain Glen), Dick finds the dark knight doing what he does best. Pushing his feelings to the side and refusing to cope with the loss of his second Robin. While Bruce seemingly is callous to the whole situation, Dick starts digging and realizes that Jason was into something that even Bruce didn’t know about. Simultaneously a mysterious new villains is pulling the strings on the underworld of Gotham, known only as the Red Hood.

In a fit of rage and grief, Bruce decides to finally end his life long dance with the crown prince of crime, and murders the Joker in Arkham, and leaves Dick to take over Gotham City while tortured hero fades into the knight (for some reason the TV shows seem to not be able to use Batman very much). Struggling to figure out if he wants to take up the Batman mantle or not, Dick is soon targeted by the Red Hood, drawing the entire cast of the Titans to Gotham City to help Nightwing/Dick in tracking down a killer who seems to know his entire playbook.


The big secret is not exactly a secret, and Dick figures out in the second episodes that the Red Hood is a resurrected Jason Todd, as the season is a massive adaptation of the famous “Under the Red Hood” comic series. However, the twist comes in the form of WHY Jason returned as the Red Hood. Not to spoil it, but it adds a sort of Dark Knight Rises super plan for taking over Gotham City from another rogue’s gallery villain, using Jason Todd as a tragic anti-hero by the end of the series. It’s a move that definitely shakes things up a bit, but also feels like it’s been done to death as well. I mean, modern films and cinema have a hard time making a character totally irredeemable, so having Jason become a sort of anti-hero by the end of the season isn’t surprising.


It’s some of the side stories that are really fun, especially when The Red Hood is COMPLETELY psychotic. The Hank story with the bomb is rather impressive, and I really liked how they furthered that story point later on in the season. The show uses it’s trademark ability for heroes to come and go from the series at well, spending time with the main cast, but allowing Raven and Hank, and Donna to come and go at different points in the series. All in all, I kind of liked this season better than season 2, but it also is objectively worse in the middle act. The entire sub plot with Blackfire and Superboy was rather annoyingly angsty, and once again, this version of Starfire really doesn’t hit home. She’s gotten better than the first season, but Kory’s story lines just aren’t hitting home. Plus I miss the flirty relationship she and Dick had from the comic series, as that was one of the mainstay relationships. But I digress.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

Put across 3 Blu-ray BD-50s, the third season of Titans is a showstopper. Bathed in deep blues and pale grays, the show just thrives in dim darkness and the lack of light. Even brightly lit scenes have a blue tinge to them, giving the show a very Gothic look. The show can be razor sharp one moment, but then have a sort of hazy look the next (which is an aesthetic choice as it has followed the show since it's inception), especially when characters are in the background. Ther are splashes of primary colors though, with Starfire's purple outfit, or the Red Hood's red mask popping out, but overall it's a very dark and grim looking color palette. Black levels are deep and inky, though I do notice some black crush and the obvious color banding that we've seen in past seasons. All in all, a good looking 3 disc set with the typical Warner quality.






Audio:

Season 3 actually seems to have a slighlty more dynamic mix than last season, which was a welcome relief. Season 2 was GOOOOD, but never great, and sort of subdued. This year the 5.1 mix is full of kinetic energy, ranging from the spectacular hand to hand combat scenes, and the bass just simply slams you in the chest (that battle out in the woods was ground shaking). Gunshgots are loud and punchy, but it's the score that really elevates the mix to new heights. Surrounds are fully active from the get go, with only minimal downtime during some of the more quiet moments, such as when Bruce and Dick are talking, or Barbara Gordon and Dick arguing. All in all, this is a fantastic mix and one of the best the series has had.







Extras:

• NEW TITANS EXPANDED – Sit down with the cast and showrunners of Titans as they cover all the new characters and elements of Season 3.
• NEW TITANS: WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS – Step into the world of the Titans as we get a glimpse behind the scenes of how the look, feel, and texture of Season 3 came to life.
• Training a Metahuman – A behind the scenes look at training the Titans, the young metahuman heroes, with Stunt Coordinator Larnell Stovall and cast members Brenton Thwaites, Mame-Anna Diop, Ryan Potter, Curran Walters, Damaris Lewis, Joshua Orpin, and Savannah Welch.
• Looking the Part – LJ Shannon, Specialty Costume Designer, reveals her design process and explains how she worked to match the looks and actions from the comic books. This featurette includes executive producer Greg Walker and cast members Brenton Thwaites, Mame-Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Curran Walters, Damaris Lewis, and Joshua Orpin.
• Inside the Character: Red Hood – A behind-the-scenes look at the new anti-hero character Red Hood as portrayed by Curran Walters.
• Inside the Character: Barbara Gordon – A behind-the-scenes look at the character of Barbara Gordan as portrayed by Savannah Welch.
• Welcome to Gotham – A behind-the-scenes exploration of iconic Gotham City with cast members Brenton Thwaites, Mame-Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Curran Walters, and executive producer Greg Walker, art director Khanh Quach, director Boris Mojsovski, and producer/director Carol Banker.

Final Score: ​

Titans: The Complete Third Season was a lot of fun, but had some problems along the way. A long time coming to the U.S. (there was a release in Canada that was hard to find) it’s nice to see the Blu-ray to complete our collections. As a dark and gothic “Batman Lite” season it was definitely entertaining. As a story that pushed forward the Titans themselves, not so much. But I don’t mind so much as season 4 is going to bring them closer to their roots once more and this series has earned enough goodwill from me outside of some of the edgelord tones that the series loves to bathe itself in. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great, and actually has a healthy array of extras to enjoy. Definitely check it out.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Teagan Croft, Brenton Thwaites, Ryan Potter, Anna Diop, Curran Walters, Alan Ritchson, Vincent Kartheiser, Savannah Welch
Created by: Greg Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 603 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 25th, 2022

Recommendation: Solid Watch