Loki has been a fan favorite since the first Thor movie. And honestly, he was better in it than Natalie Portman or Chris Hemsworth. Still, it took ten years before Loki got his own show. And it’s… well, different.
Plot
A series about Loki would have to be a bit weird. For those who don’t remember it, he died in Avengers Infinity War.
So this is a prequel?
Nope.
Loki starts off with a new timeline branching into existence at the time of the first Avengers movie. Loki is in chains in the lobby of Stark Tower, when he manages to escape, contrary to what happened in the movie. Loki’s parallel timeline is short-lived, though. Armored enforcers appear, imprison Loki, and destroy the new branch of the timeline.
The TVA (Time Variance Authority) is an organization tasked with maintaining ‘the sacred timeline’, the one and only true timeline. Deviations are pruned. The TVA prunes the variants as well, the people causing the timeline branches. This should happen to Loki. However, the TVA has a problem. Another variant has escaped and is killing TVA officers, and a TVA agent called Mobius thinks Loki can help.
Weirdness ensues. And I must say, the show goes even more off the rails than Wandavision did. After watching both, I think I liked Wandavision better, but they are both very interesting. Very different types of shows, but both different from what you might have expected.
Characters
Loki is Loki — and Tom Hiddleston, of course. If I need to explain Loki to you, just go and watch Thor, Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, and Thor: Ragnarok. That should give you a good idea what the character is like (and sorry for making you watch The Dark World). Still not getting him? Good, because this entire show is about Loki and his various facets.
One thing you might notice is that Tom Hiddleston has aged since the first Avengers movie. Normally not a problem, but well, the show supposedly starts at the time of the ending of that movie. I haven’t watched Avengers in a few years, so it wasn’t very jarring, but still.
Sylvie — Sophia Di Martino — is… Hmm, better not spoil that. Go watch the show. She’s the foil character to Loki. Which is a feat, given who she is. But I must say, interesting take on characterization.
Owen Wilson is Mobius, the TVA agent that recruits Loki. For me, Owen Wilson is always the other male model from Zoolander, but of course, Zoolander is two decades old, and Owen Wilson is more than that. I liked his character most in the first few episodes of Loki. After that, he became somewhat superfluous in my opinion, which was a shame.
And finally, there’s Ravonna Renslayer, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She’s Mobius’s boss, and more or less in charge of the TVA. The actual masters of the TVA are the Timekeepers, but they rarely make an appearance. Ravonna is dedicated, but maybe a bit too dedicated.
Verdict
Loki was intriguing, with both a strong plot and quite some humor. I did find the pacing to be somewhat off. Some episodes dragged, while others went too fast. The story also veers from comedy to scifi to whodunnit to fantasy. It doesn’t really stick to anything. That it doesn’t come apart at the seams is a feat, to be sure, but as stated, I liked Wandavision better.
Also, I found the ending underwhelming. Not bad. Just not the dramatic climax the show seemed to be building to. That was a bit of a shame, because I was just getting excited by the second-to-last episode, and then… it ended on a kind of sigh.
Still, given the upcoming Doctor Strange movie is called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s logical that Loki needed to be open-ended and led up to something more.
Conclusion
Like all Marvel productions, it looks good. And if I had to rate it, it’s just behind Wandavision and Daredevil season 1 (although I still haven’t seen the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, or Agent Carter yet). So, yeah, I’d recommend watching it, if you like weird superhero stories with a dab of scifi and fantasy.
