'Titans' Season 2: DC Universe desperately needs to streamline its cast if it is to do justice to all its characters
Despite how it keeps getting mixed reviews from fans, DC Universe's 'Titans' is still a pretty decent show though that doesn't mean it doesn't have its issues. In Season 2, the show has introduced a host of new characters, most of whom are really cool, but the drawback of that has been that the show's cast is now far too large to be manageable.
There are no less than 10 new Titans on the team, and that's not counting Jericho Wilson (Chella Man) and Aqualad / Garth (Drew Van Acker) who were team members in flashbacks. Add the season's villain Deathstroke / Slade Wilson (Esai Morales) and supporting character Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) to the mix and that's a whopping 14 people, which obviously means that not everybody gets adequate screentime or development.
Beast Boy / Gar Logan (Ryan Potter) has been the hardest hit by the expanded cast. The season started out with him going through some serious trauma but we haven't seen his story explored much since then. At this point, if Gar was cut out of the story it would make no difference at all and that's a terrible waste of a great character and a talented actor.
Even Rachel Roth / Raven (Teagan Croft), who was the central character of the first season, has now pretty much been relegated to the sidelines. She's going through some issues of her own, mostly stemming from a demonic version of puberty, but Rachel's story fades into the background far too often for the audience to really give her struggle much thought.
While the new characters are definitely fun and nobody's complaining about Joshua Orpin's adorable portrayal of Conner Kent / Superboy, there's no way the show can continue with such a large cast and still do justice to everyone. For example, Hank Hall / Hawk (Alan Ritchson) and Dawn Granger / Dove (Minka Kelly) are two characters who definitely could have been dropped this season, not because they aren't interesting but because they already had a pretty good arc in the last season and now they mostly just feel like fillers.
All things said and done, the writers seem to have tried to do quite a lot this season and they haven't been that successful in incorporating all the elements they wanted. Perhaps a more streamlined approach could help the show tell better stories that do justice to all its characters without getting distracted by numerous sub-plots.
'Titans' Season 2 Episode 9 'Atonement' will arrive on DC Universe November 1.