Since the trailer debuted at Comic-Com, I think it's time for a separate thread for the show itself. The show will be available this Fall on the DC Universe platform in the United States, no exact release date yet, nor any news on its availability in other regions. Here's the trailer:
The trailer wasn't bad. But as the show moves forward, I would like to see a) why Dick and Bruce had a falling out, and b) a reconciliation. I believe both happened in the comics. I found myself more interested in Nightwing than anyone else. But I would like to see this show not be so dark. This is going to be like Discovery for me--I'm not going to pay to watch it.
I haven't been following this at all so I was surprised it was such a dark take on the property. Then again, I know the Titans from the cartoons more than the comics so that may be part of it. The F-bomb in the trailer is already going one step beyond even the Marvel Netflix shows.
Well, the glimpses we got of Starfire and Beast Boy using their powers look promising. Interesting effect, having Star's hair glow when she powers up. But the overall "We're not on commercial TV anymore so let's be really dark and violent and grim" attitude doesn't thrill me. Meanwhile, I'm still struck by how much Brenton Thwaites' features remind me of Burt Ward. The comics I've read (the original Wolfman/Perez run up through "The Judas Contract" or so) are fairly serious but not ultra-grim (since it was the '70s/early '80s, after all), and had plenty of character humor.
Annoyingly, I think they may have gotten me. I successfully (albeit regretfully) resisted Discovery, but that was easier because I'm only a former Trekkie. But I'm a current and active DC geek, and this looks better than I expected.
Hmm... I might be happier about the adult, R-rated tone if they take the opportunity to portray Starfire's casual nudism authentically... But seriously, I'm a bit surprised they went that way, given how the DCEU movies had questionable results with their own "dark and gritty" approach and have been trying to lighten up. Maybe they figure it worked for Marvel on Netflix, so it can work for them.
They already have a giant(and still expanding) "lighter" universe on free-to-air TV in the Arrowverse, I think they just decided to offer something tonally different to distinguish themselves from themselves...
So, Robin says fuck, uses a gun and apparently murders people (even if he was just shooting into the air or something, he's still covered in blood at the end). You know, I thought that Marvel's Inhumans was the worst superhero show ever made, but like everything hero related DC decided it just must be the worst thing ever. We also have that shot of Starfire looking like a Hooker, and she only seems to have orange colored skin as a glowy effect, so at this point the show is also less accurate then Inhumans (sure, Inhumans got rid of all the special effects as quickly as possible, but some of them were accurate for the 12 seconds thye show could afford to have them on screen, like Lockjaw). Also, fucking Dove being brutal in a fight is literally the fucking opposite of the entire point of the character. Whether its Dawn granger or Don Hall, they almost never even lay a finger on someone, its all martial arts tosses and quick disabling blows and inhumanly good dodging. They represent both order and stopping bad guys as PEACEFULLY as possible, but of course in this she just bloodily fucks up a fuckers leg, something no version of Dove would ever consider doing. Then she claws a guys face. What the actual fuck is wrong with the shitheads making this show? It may be "R" rated, but why does that mean Dove is suddenly the fucking Punisher? Even Rob Liefeld didn't fuck this up in his Hawk & Dove work, and that's Rob Liefeld. What is the point of Hawk and Dove if they're both equally violent assholes? This is just fucking terrible. I didn't know it was physically possible to fuck up this bunch. Even Scott Buck couldn't fuck his Marvel work up this much. hell, there is a show called Runaways where after 10 episodes they hadn't even ran away from anything, and its still technically more accurate and respectful to its characters then this shit. But, I'm sure Robin being able to say "Fuck" will make the Marvel haters claim this is superior to the MCU Netflix shows and all the angry 13 year olds will love the blood and guts.
Looks good to me. I'm definitely keen. But like @Kirk Prime I'm not gonna pay to watch it. If it shows up on Netflix here in Australia (which I'm already subscribed to) like Black Lightning, fine. Otherwise I'll be forced to find an alternative viewing method.
I'd buy that if the DC shows existed in isolation. As it is, it feels more like they're trying to copy Netflix Marvel. Or just the general trend of going dark and adult on a streaming service -- Star Trek Discovery does it too. It's gotten to the point that it feels like a kneejerk reflex and a cliche. I don't want a story to be dark just because they can or because they're following a trend. It should only be dark if it's really what the story needs. Okay, if they're leaning into Raven and Trigon, that's plenty dark. And a Robin disaffected from Batman and striking out on his own, yeah, I can see that coming from a dark place given how Batman is usually portrayed these days. And Starfire's an escaped slave from a conquered race of warriors, so there are dark elements there. But that's not all the Titans characters have to offer. Robin was always the lighter, funnier member of the Dynamic Duo. Starfire rejoices in love and beauty and worldly pleasures as much as she rejoices in battle. Beast Boy/Chameleon is the team jokester, putting on a devil-may-care attitude to mask his painful past. I hope the show strikes a good balance of darker and lighter elements, that this particular trailer is only focusing on one side of it.
Kirk55555, you've outdone yourself. This makes your Shazam! tirades look timorous by comparison. I'm not really sure why I like the trailer as much as I do, given the grimdarkness of it all, but I'm just going with my gut. I think part of it is that I immediately liked the Robin and Raven actors. And I have to admit, "Fuck Batman" made me laugh.
I see A LOT of hate for the trailer online, from places that are usually a lot kinder to shitty superhero stuff then me. I'm happily not in the minority of thinking this trailer was edgy garbage, at least on the internet in general. Plus, if you can't see why fucking Dove being brutal to people is a huge issue, you don't know who the character is. Its like if Batman grabbed an assault rifle and just started shooting people, its legitimately that shocking. The other stuff is just shit. "Fuck Batman" actually having transformed for me into a hilarious example of this show trying to be edgy after seeing some other people talk about it. The show looks bad, and its trying to be so edgy it will possibly go past being infuriating straiught into being unintentionally hilarious, which is where I'm starting to come around to. Its not even aSnyder thing, its trying to be so edgy it might end up being the funniest thing on DC's new streaming service. Parts of it do legitimately piss me off (like Dove and Starfire), but its so damn edgy its getting funnier the more I think about it.
I will definitely find a way to watch this--but I have to admit the grimdark nature bothers me as I was hoping it was something I could have watched with my kids.
Compared to your typical superhero cartoon, yeah, it actually kinda is. And now it's no longer subject to commercial-network censorship, so I'd expect it to go places it wasn't allowed to go in seasons 1-2. That's probably a fair comparison, but with the understanding that it'll probably be even more graphic with the violence because it can be. And I'm not sure that's the model I want for a Titans show. Season 1 Oliver Queen was a vigilante/assassin who began a journey that eventually led to him becoming a superhero and protector. Dick Grayson should be starting out there. He should've been raised for years to be a protector, a rescuer, rather than a killer. He's supposed to be the one who's better than Batman, who's less screwed-up and dark, precisely because Bruce made sure he turned out better. There's a case to be made that Dick, in the comics, is a purer hero than Bruce, the pupil who surpassed the master. So I question whether turning him into a grim, gun-toting vigilante is doing justice to the character. If you want darkness, there's plenty of it in Raven. If you want violence, Starfire can deliver it in spades. Robin's supposed to be the moral center of the team.
Dick in this clearly didn't have the "pure" example of Bruce saying "do this better than I did", or at least he didn't accept the lessons he was taught.
"Sometimes when I feel the darkness, it feels good." DC films in a nutshell. I know very little about Teen Titans but I get the impression it's nothing like what I just saw in that trailer.
DC should just rebrand themselves as "Dark Content". The image they're projecting seems to be that Embrace the dark!