Perhaps one of the most divisive of recent DC TV endeavors, Titans has become quite popular around the world, topping Squid Game in November 2021 for the most in demand streaming series. The series has not been without its issues, with many of the seasons feeling half-baked with lackluster villains, side-plots that go nowhere, and way too many characters than they know what to do with. However, though it seems as things are looking down at Warner Bros. Discovery, everything on the Titans front seems to be going up as Season 4 could be considered its strongest season yet.
The past few seasons of Titans have had one glaring issue each season, amongst the many pre-existing ones; cohesion was the biggest. The storylines of past seasons have often felt misguided and chaotic, with character arcs that feel as if they’re just running in and circles and having to rapidly rush to the finish line towards the end of each season. The show has always felt like so much was happening, yet the plot was going nowhere.
Season 4 kicks off with a plan and sticks to it, as the series picks up shortly after the end of the previous, finding our team living like a family, a dynamic thats felt sorely missed as the team is constantly put through the ringer, narratively and creatively. For once, it feels like someone knocked on the writers’ room door and introduced the concept of a well-paced narrative that sets up its season’s storyline, antagonist, and side-plots relatively well and holds your interest.
This season sees what was to be a brief social visit to an abrupt staycation when a powerful cult begins to build power beneath the city of Metropolis. This is by far the series strongest storyline yet, just based on the first five episodes, the mystery surrounding the Church of Blood is one of the series’ most engrossing concepts, even if it feels like it’s taking a just a bit too long to get things moving and see the Church go on the offense.
What we have of Joseph Morgan in the first episodes of this season is quite good; although he hasn’t fully come into the mantle of Brother Blood, it’s the journey his character is set on from the first episode that will surely make him out to be one of the series’ stronger foes. Franka Potente makes her debut as Mother Mayhem early on, as the leader of the mysterious supernatural cult, but lacks a certain flair to make her character stand out. It’s as we learn more about May herself, and more specifically her connections, that make her feel like more of a threat but, ultimately, it feels bland overall.
Perhaps one of this season’s biggest retributions is the justice served to Ryan Potter’s character, Garfield Logan. For the past three seasons, Potter’s character has felt like more of a bauble for the series to show off, for the show to go, “Yeah, that’s Beast Boy!” but then do nothing with him besides splurge on VFX every once in a while. This season, Gar is given an actual storyline to finally get the development that he has been denied, to explore the limits of his abilities and just how far he can take them, as he faces the Animal Kingdom head-on.
he must feel like he’s actually playing a comic book character now, and not one that feels like a stale interpretation of popular fan art.
After four seasons, the team actually feels like a family now, moving away from Wayne Manor and Titans Tower. The dynamics here are so much fun to watch and see grow as they’ve seemed to have found themselves in a perfect spot, finally being able to give each and every character their time in the spotlight, with each side-plot somehow playing into the main storyline for this season. The writers seem to have built a well oiled machine with this season as everything works together quite well, and each side-plot is rightfully earned to those who’ve lacked depth the past few seasons.
Budget was always a big issue for these shows, with Titans being one of many projects to spawn from the short lived DC Universe streaming service its obvious that following the move to HBO Max, the series received some much needed boost to their production budget, as the quality of this season is above the rest entirely with better fight choreography, cinematography, and special effects. It’s nice to see characters like Nightwing and Beast Boy be given the means to become fully realized with a higher production value, it just goes to show how much was being crammed into previous seasons that could’ve been cut in order to serve the greater story in a much better way.
‘Titans’ Season 4, Part 1 – Final Thoughts
While of course at times it can still have its issues and feels like its meandering off on a tangent, Titans may have finally turned a corner, and it only took three seasons to get to that sweet spot. It’ll be interesting to see how the two-part season model plays out, and just how the first part of the season will leave us hanging.
The first two episodes of Titans Season 4 stream on HBO Max on November 3rd. New episodes air weekly on the service. Check out the trailer for Titans Season 4 below:
