On Friday, January 18, 2019th, I watched DC Titans on the UK Netflix site. The television series is based upon the DC comic “The New Teen Titans” whose characters include Robin, Starfire, Raven, and the Beast Boy. The first episode is self titled “Titans.”
With the beginning of “Titans,” Rachel is having a nightmare about a circus. In this dream scene, a sign reads: “Ladies and gentlemen. The Flying Graysons.”
In the middle of the dream, Rachel is awaked by her mother. Rachel weeps to her mother: “It started again. The boy. Watching his parents fall. Oh God, I was so scared.”
The mom tries to calm Rachel. She calmly says: “Take a breath, honey. Just calm down.”
As Rachel settles down, she tells her mom something before she leaves the room. Rachel says: “Mom. Keep the door locked.”
With that, the scene switches to a police station where Detective Dick Grayson meets Amy Rohrbach, his new partner and a transfer from Oakland. Dick says to Amy: “Keep doing your thing. I’ll keep doing my thing. We’ll be good.”
As Dick leaves another detective talks to Amy. He says: “He’s from Gotham. He likes to work alone.” Dick and Amy’s first meeting didn’t go to well.
Meantime, during breakfast, Rachel has a talk with her mom. Raven says to mom: “You never sleep anymore…It’s because your scared of me. I can tell when your lying. I can feel it. You know I can.”
However, the discussion brings something terrible out of Rachel. Mom says to Rachel: “Pray with me.”
As the series continues, Rachel runs into a neighbor as she leaves her house. The neighbor says: “Hey kid, you tell your friggin mother, if she keeps up all hours of the night, I am calling the police again. I don’t care about your emotional issues. Weirdo.”
On the bus to school, Rachel is harassed by Kyle, a student and local bully at her school. Kyle says: “Boo. Come on what are you hiding from? You don’t have to be shy with me. I like freaks… Don’t you have a touchdown or something to throw, Matt? Maybe you should take a seat. Slut.”
Later, after school, Rachel returns home to find her mom with a stranger in the house. The stranger orders Rachel’s mother to tell Rachel the truth: “I am not your mother. But you have good inside your heart.”
The stranger kills Rachel’s “mother.” With that, Rachel decides to leave town. And she ends up in Detroit at a local homeless shelter.
Meanwhile, Robin takes care of some local bad guys. “Leave the drugs. Leave the guns. And walk away… Fuck Batman,” he says.
Afterward, Robin returns to the police station as detective Dick Grayson; with that, the police chief comments about the latest Robin fight on the news. He says: “Why come here? Detroit? You know the problems what the masks bring with them. Painted freaks, psychopaths in drag, We don’t need this shit. We got enough of our own making the problems here.” It seems there are bad cops on the force to deal with for the police chief.
Back at the police station, Dick and Amy have another discussion. Amy says: “Right. Are you talking to me? Is everybody else dead? Because I clearly must be the last person on earth for that to happen.”
It’s at this point in “Titans” that Rachel reveals her dreams about detective Dick Grayson in the interrogation room. Rachel says: “It’s you. You’re the boy from the circus. Please, can you help me… I remember, people were happy that night. Most of all, you. Your parents. You watched them fall. You kept wishing it was a dream. Wishing you would wake up. Everything led me here to you. It can’t be by accident. You got to help me”
As “Titans” switches to another story line, we meet Koriand’r, Starfire, an alien from the planet Tamaran. However, she has amnesia, in Vienna, Austria, as evident when she talks to an attendant at the Hotel Das Aspen: “So late, I can’t seem to remember my room number, I am afraid. Very long night. Thank you.”
Also, Rachel confides in Detective Dick Grayson while in the police interrogation room. Rachel tells Dick: “Someone killed my mom. She was all I had. The only one in the world who cared for me. I am alone now.”
Moreover, she hasn’t told Dick about her powers. Rachel says to Dick: “You don’t understand. You need to lock me up. There is something in side of me. Something evil.”
Later, at the police department, Dick and Amy have a small conversation. Amy tells him: “How’s that? He on the take? I heard most of Gotham is.”
Meantime, Rachel gets kidnapped at the police station. Rachel is taken to a secret location where some creepy guy has some last words for her: “You have always known you were different, haven’t you? But you have a destiny. I have been looking for you for so long. Nothing resembles itself tonight. This dirty room is a church. I appear the villain, but in truth, I am the savior. You, you pose as the innocent, but deep inside, you know you are a faker and damned. You’re the skin of the lamb… I have to save us all.”
After hearing Rachel’s screams at the hands of the creep, Detective Grayson arrives as Robin, the original side kick of the Batman, to save Rachel. He rescues Rachel, as if she needed any saving, and she says to him: “Where we going?” In reply, Dick says: “Somewhere safe.”
Rachel leaves town with detective Dick Grayson. Rachel tells Dick: “My mom said there was no such thing as monsters. I think she was wrong.”
At the end, we mee Garfield “Gar” Logan. He’s can shapshift into a green tiger. At the end of the episode, apparently, he has broken into an electronic store at night to steal a video game.
Briefly, I enjoyed “Titans.” Originally, I always loved this comic. And this television series seemed to be the DC comic alternative to Marvel Comic’s “Uncanny X-Men.” The show really put a different spin on “The New Teen Titans” comic, but I liked it.
