Just the scene with blackfire and starfire talking pushed me to write this review alone. The actress who plays blackfire gave just a horrible performance. Watching her act with starfire was like night and day. Anna Diop gave a great performance, but she had to basically act with a wall...
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reverseflasher19 August 2021
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eapuhala19 August 2021This episode can be split basically into two parts, the Dick Grayson story and the Starfire/BB story.
The Dick Grayson story is, for the most part, fantastic. Dick figures out that Scarecrow faked having a hit put on him to secure release from Arkham and that he had been working with Jason the whole time, even prior to his days as Red Hood. Honestly, I was not expecting that twist and was happily surprised. Dick uses Crane as bait, lures out Jason, they fight, the usual superhero action drama kinda stuff, and Jason gets away. My biggest gripe with this storyline is it really makes the reboot that much more noticeable (Dick is still a wanted man, or at least should be) and now they're seemingly redoing that plotline with him being a criminal again. Honestly, it's INCREDIBLY annoying how many members of the titans should be wanted at this point (Dick, Kori, Rachel, Hank) that they've just forgotten, and I don't feel like going through another Dick in jail storyline. Hopefully I'm wrong.
The Starfire/BB Story is really where I found most of my gripes with this episode. So we find out that Blackfire is reaching out to Star because she's in prison and that's why she's been having her visions. Ok, cool. It doesn't entirely explain her getting violent and trying to killer her friends but it's dumb comic stuff. I can accept it. The REAL problem comes when Star decides to release Blackfire. This whole plotline, it felt like the writers wanted us to feel mad at the scientists holding Blackfire in prison but...why???? She's a murderer, a criminal, and a threat to the planet. She by all means should be in prison. Star even talks about her killing their parents and her boyfriend. But then all of a sudden she decides to release her??? I don't have a problem with heroes having a soft spot for familial villains. Batwoman season 1 did it, and while it was by all means not perfect it at least gave me a reason to believe and care about Kate not wanting to put her sister in jail after all the trauma she went through. It made sense and actually felt like there was a reason. Here? Blackfire excused the fact that she killed (likely) countless people because Star "didn't support her" and "got punished more than her as a child." I wish I was joking. I have no reason to empathize with either of these characters, Blackfire is written like a petulant child with no remorse and Star is written like an absolute moron. We know Blackfire will be a villain for a while, hopefully she doesn't murder a bunch of people during that time cause then it'll be Stars fault. Honestly, I could go on all day with this but it's not worth it.
Dicks plot? Like a solid 8.5-9/10 dislike him being a criminal again but I'll see where it goes
Kori/BB plot? 4-5/10, just straight up written poorly.
After episode 3 I am incredibly disappointed. -
Gislef29 August 2021Dick, Dick, all the time Dick.
The episode is titled "Blackfire", for Pete's sake. Blackfire is taken out off-screen by someone other than the heroes (after Blackfire was setup as the Big Bad at the season 2 finale). We get some-baked sibling rivalry between Kory and Blackfire, And that's it for Blackfire.
Yes, Blackfire could still be the back half of the season's Big Bad. Kory does (rather stupidly) free her. And maybe Blackfire will wonder why they're dicking (pardon the pun) around with Jason and just blast him to ash. But it's not shaping up the way.
For the rest of the episode we get... Dick and Red Hood. And Red Hood isn't that big or bad for a Big Bad. I get the impression we're supposed to think he's some big tactician by not going up against Conner, who could throw Jason into orbit. Or Kory, or even Gr. It just makes Jason look lucky, though, that everyone who could easily defeat him or all dealing with their personal angst (Kory) or can't be bothered (Gar and Conner). Or Rachel, whenever she shows up.
It doesn't help that it feels like Bruce could beat the snot out of Jason. Fortunately, Bruce left town. So we've got the Titans, with one who has the power of Superman, and they can't handle Jason.
So we have another "Red Hood and Nightwing fight, and Red Hood escape." Lather, rinse, repeat. This doesn't make Red Hood look good. It just makes him look lucky, and Nightwing kind of stupid. If Nightwing isn't going to rely on the Titans to help him capture Red Hood... why did he call them Gotham? So Gar can make pizza, Kory homicidally sleepwalks, and Conner mopes? That's about all they're doing so far. Thank goodness Nightwing brought their weakest member Hawk there, so Hawk could get killed and make Jason look like a bad ass!
The acting is still good: credit to the actors who are giving they're all. But they're not being given anything to do except Brenton Thwaites. And Vincent Kartheiser, who gets to play the Hannibal Lector role. Although Crane could be most Batman villains (Hugo Strange?). Other than the focus on fear, there's nothing going on that requires Crane's involvement. And that's a pretty weak sauce connection. Crane isn't offering (direct) advice on fear. He's just playing mind games with Dick, while hamming it up occasionally as a stoner type. Which is about as far as you can get from the comic book Crane as you can go and still cling to the pages.
There's also the bit where Dick (not wearing a mask?) breaks Crane out by _killing_ three guards. Or at least one, Dick pretty clearly breaks his neck. Since when is Dick a killer. Much less killing lawmen of a sort, who are just doing their jobs. Way to go, psycho killer!
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think? -
Riddler9119 August 2021I still couldn't care less about Starfire's story and adding Blackfire sure didn't help that. The actress for Blackfire is ten levels of cringe. Also, showing Diop's ass and filming her from weird angles also won't help me like the character. I'm really not the type of prude who thinks women should be dressed manly but one or two shots were really... let's say problematic. Yes, Diop looks great but I'm supposed to care about the character, not watch a Vogue photoshoot. And the fights...wow. Red Hood is supposed to be competent but he just shoots in the air, never actually aiming AT Nightwing. The guy that shot at him from the helicopter is ten times the shot Red Hood is and we're supposed to believe Red Hood is this awesome vigilante. The dialogue was better, I'll give them that but the action and all the Starfire bits were really bad.
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sumtim3s00n21 August 2021I have to agree with other reviewers. It was uncomfortable watching the scenes of them together.
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Holt34419 August 2021Millicent Shelton directs the follow-up to what I think was the best episode of the season, it showed how big a threat Red Hood really are and how he killed Hank Hall / Hawk in such a personal way. It's hard to beat that episode and "Blackfire" never reaches that brilliance but the writers and director does a great job with building up to events and slowing things down for character development and world building, the sister to Titans member Starfire makes her anticipated appearance as the villain Blackfire who haven't been seen since the cameo in the season 2 finale.
Cinematography was amazing in this episode and how they shot the fight sequence at night time with the lightning and effects, just brilliant. The fight sequence was interesting in the way their abilities and skills was shown, I think the stunt coordinators and people who are working on the show always does a good job with that.
The episode is dialogue heavy and slow paced from start to finish, but the episode answers a lot of questions. I found the dialogue between Dick Grayson and Jonathan Crane to be the strongest, the dialogue felt a bit lackluster for the other characters in this episode except for Gar Logan and the short appearance of Superboy. But the story of this episode was split up to two sections, Dick Grayson and Jonathan Crane, the other being Starfire and Gar Logan finding out the meaning of her visions. The Grayson storyline was the best, though some odd decisions in terms of storytelling I found it interesting and good either way. Regarding the Starfire storyline of this episode, I anticipated something grander but it was alright yet I'm still interested to see what the writers have in store for her and Blackfire, but honestly it was badly paced and scenes could have been trimmed down in favor of more Conner and see what he's going through. Brenton Thwaites and Vincent Kartheiser were great in this episode, delivering amazing performances.
I'm fairly certain that Teagan Croft will return to the show as Rachel Roth, it have been four episodes now and I think the show needs her. I also want Conner to have some bigger meaning in the upcoming episodes, he took a back seat in this episode because of a realistic reason but I want more of him. To be honest, the show haven't felt like a true Titans show since the second season, having Conor Leslie return as Donna Troy / Wonder Girl would fix that and I'm certain her resurrection will happen. Non the less, I have found this season to be the best one yet, in terms of quality in writing and acting. It just feels like a Nightwing show than a Titans show. But I'm certain that will change once Rachel Roth returns. -
youssefmostafafaragmohamed19 August 2021I'll give it 8 only because redhood and nightwing fight and black fire really sucks!
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generalparadox19 August 2021What I like about this season is that it's, so far, very consistent and doesnt spend all the hype on one episode. I believe episode 5 will be crazy, and serve as a finale for the Red Hood arc. Although I believe the current story will continue in the background throughout the backhalf of the season with Red Hood as an anti hero.
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Wow I wanna see who allowed blackfire actress to pass the Audition the acting was so baaaaad it's like starfrie talking to a wall the writing overall was poor some cringe moments red hood nightwing fighting was good tho a huge step back after a really good 3 episodes.
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masonjack20 August 2021The red hood storyline is continued well with a great fight scene and good explanations and back story for night wing. Whilst the blackfire side of the episode wasn't as interesting the way it showed gar's character made it worth it.
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cjonesas16 January 2022Episode 4: Lots of talking, ounces of development and some uninteresting actions. The season and the episode suffer from dismal screenplay and because of that, everything is uninteresting and generally weak.
They don't want us to connect with them... -
scarlettyforest20 August 2021The actress playing Blackfire has so much gravitas, love her contributions to the show! She really balances out Starfire as a character, can't wait to see where their story goes next.
Bonuses: + The Gar and Kory scenes were perfect in terms of balancing humour with exciting/creative ways to move the plot along. Loved the "smash cut to" moments.
+ Joshua Orpin!!! His portrayal as Conner is one of the best things in this show + Red Hood/Nightwing fight was good.
+ Ending continues the excellent pace/continuous stakes of this season so far
Some negatives:- DG would never do (that) to (redacted), even if it was trying to kill him-- Bruce would also never have made a situation or trial with that kind of outcome considered as a success--if this was comic book batman, the objectively would've been to survive and see how he could safely contain a (redacted).
- DG is also so callous with his identity, god damn the whole GCPD is going to be able to guess who he is.
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krgoldman-5644821 August 2021Pet peeve of mine is when someone screws up and blames everyone else. "You made me" - give me a break - everyone has choices in life - you make your own choices - just because your life doesn't turn out the way you think it should doesn't mean you can blame everyone else. Take blame!
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rudicantfail10 December 2021There was a lot going on there and it got a bit slow, walking through treacle. But the story is evolving and past events are coming to life. Keep on watching folks!
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marianciobanuz2 September 2021-I like flashbacks,the synthwave theme is so cool,and Starfire is sooo sexy ,again .Probably many of the fans wanted a cliffhanger episode again,with an epic conclusion for Redhood's story,but they should know by now this is not the way things are working in this show and that is not a bad thing at all.
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vedantsuryavanshi19 August 2021After a good start, show is back to crap. The whole Starfire - Blackfire arc is boring and unnecessary.
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tyson-davis-11-9222772 September 2021This show is incredibly uneven. From episode to episode you never know what you're going to get. And even inside episodes it can go from good to bad pretty quick. I'm talking about the writing, directing and acting. It's so frustrating.
Last episode was one of the better episodes of the series. Then we get this one. The only good actor is the guy playing Crane. The writing and the direction is crap. Editing is even off. -
joverbey19 August 2021How can all the other episodes in this series be 7-10's and this one "Blackfire" just laid a bomb. This was the most week and worst episode so far. The fights were awful, the editing was worst and the acting took a dump. What happened ?!?! I hope the next episode can bring us back from the pit that this one put us in.
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rossmyers-5781712 December 2021I'm struggling to understand how this show took such a nosedive.
I enjoyed the first 2 seasons, but the writing for season 3 has just fallen off a cliff. So poorly scripted. Disappointing.
Hard to watch, and continue.