DVD Review: TITANS: THE COMPLETE FOURTH AND FINAL SEASON

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Oct 28, 2023 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Disclaimer: “Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”

DC’s Titans is a dark, gritty live-action superhero TV series based on the DC Comics superhero team Teen Titans. In the third season of the series, the Titans lost several of their team members. Jason Todd/Robin was murdered, only to return as the villainous Red Hood. Hank Hill/Hawk had a bomb placed in his chest, which Dawn Granger/Dove was tricked into detonating, and so she decided to leave the team after this. Dick Grayson/Nightwing was on death’s door after being shot by Jason, but the Lazarus pit was used to revive him. At the end of the season, the team faced off against Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, using the water from the Lazarus pit to save Gotham from his fear bombs.

The fourth/final season of the series picks up shortly afterwards, with the team preparing to head out of Gotham, in an RV, on a road trip to Metropolis. The Titans are led by Dick Grayson/Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites), the adopted son of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The rest of the core team includes Kory Anders/Starfire (Mame-Anna Diop), a princess from the planet Tamaran who has the ability to manipulate and shoot energy; Rachel Roth/Raven (Teagan Croft), a powerful empath who can sense emotions and astrally project her soul-self; Gar Logan/Beast Boy (Ryan Potter), a changeling who can transform into any animal; and Conner Kent/Superboy (Joshua Orpin), a genetically-engineered human/Kryptonian clone combining the DNA of Superman with Lex Luthor. They are joined by newest member Tim Drake (Jay Lycurgo), who is eager to train to become the next Robin.

As the team arrives in Metropolis, they meet with the folks at S.T.A.R. Labs, and receive some fancy new gadgets and costumes. The main purpose for this trip was so that Conner could finally meet his “father” Kal-El, but with Superman away on a mission, this isn’t going to happen. However, an ailing Lex Luthor (Titus Welliver) wants to meet with Conner instead—though the team suspects he has some sinister motives. Meanwhile, someone or something in Metropolis has been murdering people for their blood. The Titans investigate the murders and track down the eerie, bone-faced villain, but it appears to be impervious to their powers. The team soon discover that they are up against a dangerous apocalyptic cult, the Church of Blood, led by the evil Mother Mayhem (Franka Potente), who has powers unlike anything they’ve seen before. The key to stopping her may lie in her next target, a young game developer named Sebastian Sanger (Joseph Morgan), who appears to be at the center of the cult’s prophecy—he could be the induvial who will bring about the end of the world. In order to stop this prophesy from coming true, the Titans just need to keep Mother Mayhem from getting to Sebastian before the end of the blood moon, but that may be easier said than done. So the team recruits a reluctant Jinx (Lisa Ambalavanar) to help them out, since she has some experience with the supernatural.

I hadn’t seen the first three seasons of Titans, but received this fourth season DVD for review. This fourth season does bring in characters from and makes references to events from previous season, but I had checked out a short recap of the show beforehand, and didn’t really have any issues jumping right into this final season. In the fourth season, the Titans find themselves in a new location, and facing a new kind of foe, unlike anything they’ve come up against, so there’s a bit of a fresh start. While the tone of the series is generally dark, and it doesn’t shy away from killing off well-known characters, there’s also a lot of humor weaved in to offset this. It’s somewhat similar in tone to Doom Patrol, and there’s even some crossover with some characters from that series this season. While Titans is definitely a superhero show, it feels a bit more grounded, finding a nice blend of action, humor and character drama. There is this fun and interesting interplay between the Titan team members. Over the course of the season, we get to explore the personal hurdles and emotional journeys of each of the characters. At the same time, these individual stories also serve to further the main storyline.

This season has more of a supernatural/horror vibe to it. This can be seen right from the start as this mysterious creature is hunting down people and killing them for their blood, as their loved ones watch on, frozen and unable to stop it. Franka Potente makes an excellent and menacing villain, and the season explores her character’s backstory and motivations—what led the naïve May Bennett to become Mother Mayhem. Joseph Morgan is also fantastic, playing both the more innocent young man who is trying to avoid becoming the person in the apocalyptic prophesy, but also the more sinister person who sees that he’s been ignored all his life, and maybe this power could actually be good for him.

The season builds nicely to a big mid-season reveal, and then again to an exciting final showdown. The conclusion of the series should be satisfying for longtime viewers, offering both definite closure to these characters, while also leaving things off in a more positive and hopeful tone. I quite enjoyed the show, and hope to find the time to go back and watch the first few seasons.

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has been released this fourth/final season of Titans on both Blu-ray and DVD. We were sent the DVD release for review. The picture looks quite good for a DVD, but lacks that extra clarity and pop of an HD release. Brighter scenes look clean and clear with a nice level of detail, but darker scenes and scenes with a lot of fast action/CG effects don’t fare quite as well. That said, any inperfections never really took away from my enjoyment of the show. The audio track provides clear dialogue and makes nice use of the stereo and surround channels to put the viewer right in the middle of all the action, and provide an immersive viewing experience.

The season’s 12 episodes are evenly split across 3 discs, which are placed on trays in a standard DVD keepcase, which resides in a carboard slipcover. The third disc also contains over 12 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes with the cast and crew. Unfortunately, there is no digital copy included with either version of this release—WBDHE appears to have stopped including digital with its newer TV releases.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (9:46:30)

All 12 episodes of the fourth/final season on 3 discs.
Disc 1 (3:05:01): “Lex Luthor”, “Mother Mayhem”, “Jinx”, “Super Super Mart”
Disc 2 (3:11:49): “Inside Man”, “Brother Blood”, “Caul’s Folly”, “Dick & Carol & Ted & Kory”
Disc 3 (3:29:40): “Dude, Where’s My Gar?”, “Game Over”, “Project Starfire”, “Titans Forever”
480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.00:1
Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:
All bonus material appears on disc 3

Mystical Women (4:14)
The cast and crew talk about the new mystical slant to the season, the new villain and how she’s a formidable foe for the Titans, bringing in Jinx with her dark magic experience to help the team, the costumes, and more. Includes concept and comic artwork, behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with specialty costume designer Laura Jean Shannon, executive producer Greg Walker, and stars Franka Potente (“May Bennett/Mother Mayhem”), Anna Diop (“Kory Anders/Starfire”), Lisa Ambalavanar (“Jinx”) & Brenton Thwaites (“Dick Grayson/Nightwing”).
Welcome to Metropolis (5:20)
The cast and crew talk about the new sets and locations. Includes concept and comic artwork, behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producer Greg Walker, production designer Khanh Quach, and stars Anna Diop, Joshua Orpin (“Conner Kent/Superboy”), Brenton Thwaites, Ryan Potter (“Gar Logan/Beast Boy”), Jay, Lycurgo (“Tim Drake”) & Teagan Croft (“Rachel Roth/Raven”).
Baptism of Blood (3:10)
The cast and crew talk about the character of Sebastian and filming his baptism scene. Includes concept and comic artwork, behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producer Greg Walker, specialty costume designer Laura Jean Shannon, and stars Joseph Morgan (“Sebastian Sanger/Brother Blood”) & Brenton Thwaites.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Episodes:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Recommended

The fourth season of DC’s Titans provides an entertaining and exciting final chapter for the series. It takes things into a more mystical/horror realm while still giving viewers the superhero action, humor and character drama they’ve enjoyed from the first three seasons. This final season also gives closure and feels like a proper end to the series. The DVD release looks very good and sounds great, and includes a small selection of behind-the-scenes featurettes. The release is definitely worth checking out for superhero fans, even if you haven’t seen the first three seasons, but I’d go with the Blu-ray release. A Complete Series collection is also available.