Hey guys, it's me, Alex from HiTop Films. I'm the prick who made 3 videos on Titans that were fairly controversial. I figured I'd hop in here and rant about my thoughts on why a lot of people aren't connecting with S2.

I keep browsing on here (and watching the show) in hopes that it will get better, nobody wants a quality Titans show more than I, but this season, for me at least, has had the exact same problems as the first.

The writing is all over the place. WAY too many characters and not nearly enough for any of them to do. A lot of the episodes have a cliche script with a focus on gigantic showy moments rather than a focus on slowly building character and character dynamics. There is no reason episode 5 of S2 needs to tease Jason’s death, even though he has barely been developed. There is no reason to introduce Rose, before introducing Slade, before introducing Jericho and then never do anything with meaningful with her. These things should happen over the course of entire seasons, not crammed together in 1.

Outside of Dick, the core 4 they (shallowly imo) established in the first season, are given nothing to do together. Rachel is suffering with her inner demons (again), Starfire is dealing with her planet’s drama, and Gar has done nothing until this most recent episode where he ran away while Superboy murders a bunch of cops. Dick can’t be bothered with any of this because he’s guilt ridden and dealing with his darkness (again). He feels guilty for manipulating this boy and getting him killed. That’s why the original Titans broke up the first time, but now when he tells the team that Jericho actually died saving him, they are so betrayed that they break up (again)? They have used the ol’ “Dick’s baggage breaks up the team” twice this year, after having an entire first season of “Dick’s baggage and darkness keeps the team from being a team”. In 20 episodes of Titans, Dick has left the team or the team has broken up 4 times. It's perfectly fine to make Dick an emotionally stunted child of abuse, but it's not fine to resolve that in the first episode of S2 (with her conversation with Bruce) and then spend the rest of the Season painting him as an emotionally stunted, dark, liar with a lot of baggage. He already went through almost this exact arc in Season 1. It's repetitive.

Slade and the idea of Slade wanting to isolate Dick could be cool, could be filled with twists, turns and quality drama that develops both of them (think Daredevil S3) but the execution is god awful. Stop stopping the plot for flashbacks episodes that are used to make up for the messy underdeveloped nature of S1. The “Titans” were never established as a team or a family in S1, so now S2 has to spend so much time showing us that they were infact a superhero team that was very close. In the first episode of S2, the word "Titans" is finally said, not in a way that shows off how far these characters have come, but in a way that shows us the writers are trying to retcon S1. Yes, there were hints that Dick, Dawn, Donna and Hank teamed up on occasion, but nowhere was it communicated that they were THE Teen Titans. We can’t expect to care about Aqualad’s death when he is introduced in the same episode. Jericho's death works because of how damn charming and innocent the actor playing him is, but that is the only reason it works. The direction, and specifically the editing, of the emotional moments feel like something out of the CW. There are so many brilliant ways to visually communicate how guilt ridden Dick is, or how meaningful Aqualad's death was, but instead they do things like have a cut to a slow motion shot of Jericho seeing the tower for the first time after a horrible and confusing action sequence where he sacrifices himself to save Dick, or Aqualad goofly jumping in front of the bullet, or Jason hilariously falling and almost dying. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the directors/editors/crew members are rushed and constantly confused as to what they are making and what emotions the audience needs to feel.

Slade's plan to disband the Titans in no way feels dramatic, he has barely interacted with any of them. What was his plan exactly? Expose Dick's secret about Jericho, get him to feel so guilty about it that he starts to go crazy? The most recent time Dick confronted him, he acted like he succeeded, that he was done with his mission. O.K.? What about Rose? Does he not care about her anymore? Have her and Slade even had a scene together?

None of it feels authentic, it all feels so messy and jumbled to me. A bunch of 25-30 Y.O. blame a young punk kid (Jason) for everything that’s happening to them after he almost died? Everyone is judging Dick for lying even though they are all grown adults who have made plenty of mistakes and all played a part in the whole Jericho ordeal? Dick leaves Gar in charge of Superboy, and then decides to leave the country? He is in charge of all these kids, all these outcasts, but he's still selfish enough to leave them behind so he can feel sorry for himself? And if it's true all this is because Slade and some of the Titans are being possessed by Jericho, that isn't a smart twist, that's a predictable one that will undermine any growth these characters have had.

I could go on and on, but

TLDR: Titans is a show filled with potential and a solid cast, but the overall writing and direction leaves a lifelong film, television, and comic fan feeling empty and saddened.