Warning! Spoilers ahead for Titans season 3
With only 13 episodes a season, Titans would potentially benefit from being two separate shows set in the same universe. Ever since the series' first season, Dick Grayson and his evolution from Robin to Nightwing has been a dominant narrative in the series, arguably at the expense of other equally dynamic and interesting members of the team of young heroes. Especially now that Titans season 3 takes place in Gotham City and features multiple connections to the Batman-mythos, episodes certainly feel as though they're telling two stories simultaneously, when both would benefit and might be stronger if they were split and given more room to be fleshed out.
In Titans season 3, Dick Grayson has returned to Gotham in the wake of Jason Todd's alleged murder, the Robin who succeeded him after Dick left Batman to walk his own path. After Bruce Wayne supposedly kills the Joker for killing Jason, he leaves Gotham after telling Dick to "be a better Batman." This prompts Dick to bring in the Titans to help him keep Gotham safe while working with Barbara Gordon and the GCPD. However, they soon face the Red Hood, who quickly reveals himself to be Jason back from the dead though he's become much darker, targeting the Titans themselves.
While this certainly seems like a dynamic season, a large criticism of Titans in its entirety has been its pacing. Many arcs and narratives have felt very much rushed and crammed together in seasons of only 13 episodes. As an example: Jason Todd's murder, resurrection, and reveal to the Titans that he's the Red Hood has happened over the span of just 2 episodes totaling around 90 minutes that also have other arcs happening such as Dick grappling with the idea of stepping into his surrogate father's role in Gotham, tensions with Barbara Gordon, and working with the villain Scarecrow as a criminal profiler. Furthermore, there are also the arcs with the other Titans such as the ongoing complex relationship of Hawk and Dove, Beast Boy trying to grow as a hero, or Starfire having unexplained visions. Clearly, it feels as though the world of Titans would have benefitted from a connected "Nightwing" spinoff series that could handle the Gotham-heavy arcs with Dick, Jason, Barbara, and more of the "Bat-Family" while still connecting to the ongoing story of Titans which could then give the other heroes ample time to shine.
The series hasn't even featured the teased arcs with Raven and Donna Troy, or with the next Robin, Tim Drake. And this season already fills packed, unable to stay on any one point long enough to make it meaningful, which is the core problem. Nothing is wrong with any of the arcs being told in the greater narrative of Titans, and nothing feels all that unnecessary. That being said, in the absence of a longer season with more episodes, Titans should be split into two connected series to correct the rapid pacing that compromises many of the dynamic and interesting arcs it's trying to tell.
Despite Titans trying to do the work of what feels like two shows, there's a lot of dynamic moments and characters that are certainly noteworthy. It feels like the series has always tried to bite off more than it can chew, but perhaps future spin-offs could be developed to give every character (who's not Dick Grayson) some much-needed breathing room. In any case, here's hoping the rest of Titans season 3 will be able to focus and hone in on a select number of arcs in order to fix its pacing problems.
Titans releases new episodes every Thursday on HBO Max.