Titans “Lex Luthor”

Alright, back with Titans at least for the next six weeks since HBO Max decided to put a break at the halfway point for some reason.  I don’t know if the show will be back by the time I get there.  If so, hey, I put something else in for Mondays.  No big deal.

As for this episode…hey, Lex Luthor!

Yes, Lex Luthor, played with an oily malevolence by guest star Titus Welliver.  That’s some good casting. Welliver is a veteran actor, and he’s said in interviews he’s something of a comic nerd.  Or at least I think he has.  I’m not sure.  Regardless, I do recall reading he was thrilled to play Luthor, bald head on display even if he has a thick beard for some reason.

Yeah, I don’t get the beard.  It’s almost like since Supergirl ended, someone decided all TV versions of Lex needed a beard.

Regardless, the Titans took their bus–because they travel by bus–to STAR Labs in Metropolis to meet Superman.  Bruce pulled some strings.  And it sure seems like everyone they meet knows their secret identities, including Lex at the end of the episode.  Why?  I don’t know.  Regardless, that means an equipment upgrade and tests for everyone.  And no Superman.  He’s conveniently in another galaxy, and the computer tracker seems like a cheap way to show where Superman is without actually showing Superman.

I mean, it’s not much of a secret that this show cuts corners.  Gar goes to test his powers.  Do I see him do that?  No.  I see him presumably inside his own mind looking at some weird tree, and then the show cuts back to all the damage he did in the lab.  You know what would have been cool?  Seeing Gar shapeshift and bunch of times as he rampages around the room.  What didn’t I see?  That.

OK, so, that does mean the show is doing other things, like letting Connor meet his other father Lex.  That does involve attempts to spy on him, things that go wrong and end up involving ninjas attacking Dick and Tim.  At least one of them knows how to fight.  And this show always did do OK with fight choreography even when it didn’t do well with other things.  I mean, Tim maybe has a thing for a male scientist, and the Titans’ bus has a fancy car stashed underneath it…plus, that bus looks bigger on the inside.  But that’s probably to accommodate cameras for the TV show that is this TV show.

But hey, I got Lex Luthor, in all his don’t-give-a-crap glory.  He’s dying and wants Connor to stay with him.  Connor seems to agree.  OK, this seems to be going well for setting up a long term conflict.

Wait, what’s up with that weirdo in the taxidermy shop?

And that masked man who killed that anonymous woman in that weird scene?

And that woman Lex fired that vowed revenge?

Oh, Lex just threw up a snake.  A live snake.  A big one.  He’s dead.

Connor got arrested for it too.

So much for Lex flippin’ Luthor.