Summary: After escaping with the tesseract, Loki is immediately apprehended by the TVA for breaking the sacred timeline devised by the timekeepers. After learning about his eventual fate, Loki helps Mobius, a TVA agent, track down another variant: Sylvie, a female Loki. Loki tracks down Sylvie and they end up escaping together to Lamentis where they get trapped but form a bond. Their relationship attracts the TVA who bring them back and arrest them. They are taken to the timekeepers, but they break free and Sylvie kills the timekeepers, discovering they are fake. Ravonna, Mobius' boss, attacks them and eventually Mobius, Loki, and Sylvie are "pruned". This teleports them to a distant location where they have to survive being consumed by Alioth, a being that eats matter. To survive, Sylvie enchants Alioth and discovers that the person in charge is living on the other end, at the end of time. Loki and Sylvie go forwards and discover Kang, who controls everything. Kang explains that he made the sacred timeline to prevent variants of himself from existing, causing a multiverse war. He gives the Lokis a choice: take over the TVA for themselves or kill him. Sylvie chooses to kill him and teleports Loki away after he disagrees. Sylvie kills Kang, and multiple branches form on the timeline.
The Good: "Loki" ended up being a perfect title for this show because this was all about him. Whether it's Tom Hiddleston's Loki, Sylvie, or some other variant, the show does a fantastic job of thoroughly dissecting and exploring this character across its six episodes. From the first moments, it's clear that the writers understand this character deeply, and Loki is given a unique personal conflict in every single episode, forcing him to face his own personal shortcomings and weaknesses. The excellent character writing elevates this show so much, and it ensures that Loki always feels like a proper protagonist instead of a villain. It's so much easier to relate to a character with flaws and shortcomings instead of a supervillain bent on ruling the world. Fleshing Loki out to this degree was a masterful decision, and it gave this show a lot of its emotional weight. Mobius is an excellent addition to the MCU. Usually the side characters in MCU films are my least favourite parts. The characters are often one-dimensional, or annoying, or poorly acted, or all of the above. However, Mobius is a surprisingly well-rounded character and I came to love his relationship with Loki. Owen Wilson puts in a good performance, and it's nice to see how complex Mobius' feelings for Loki are. It allows them to create a really strong bond. Mobius isn't defined solely by his relationship to Loki either. He's a fully fleshed out character with ideals, goals, motives, and personality. There are many things that make him who he is, and that's part of the reason that it's so much fun to watch this character on-screen. The TVA was an integral part of the show, and also a big reason for its success. Early in the show's run, the TVA was so mysterious, and it was fascinating to learn more about how it all worked and what its purpose was. The setting made this show feel almost dystopian, which was a really refreshing take on the MCU. Setting the show in such a unique setting with such an empty atmosphere was a stroke of genius, and it gave "Loki" something to stand out from other shows. The TVA story brings us to the introduction of Kang, who was such a brilliant element of the final episode that he deserves an entire section of this review. The slow build of the TVA mystery leads us to the big reveal of who is running the whole thing. And this character, played terrifically by Jonathan Majors, lives up to the hype. Kang is not at all what we would expect. He seems almost jovial, in a very sociopathic way, but is also surprisingly normal. It's a great set-up for later when we inevitably encounter a much more ruthless and villainous version of the same character. Kang has all of the charisma, motivation, and threat that you want to see from a villain, and I think he has potential to be even more effective than Thanos. I love that all six episodes of this show feel wildly different and function as their own standalone stories within the greater plot. This led to some fantastic experiences throughout the seasons, the best of which being the outstanding pilot "Glorious Purpose". I'll have more details in my review of that episode of course, but it was a really terrific piece of television. As mentioned above, this episode single-handedly made Loki a suitable protagonist for the show by putting him through an intense emotional experience that fundamentally changed who he was. And on top of doing that, it had some masterful mystery storytelling with the introduction of the TVA, including some terrific exposition that was given to us at a perfect pacing so it was never overwhelming, and we were never left feeling confused. No other episode felt similar to this, but that is a good thing. The show didn't get hung up on elements of the story and constantly tried new things, which made for a fresher overall experience. One thing that complimented every aspect of the show was its presentation. This looks even better than most movies because everything here is high budget with tremendous execution. The soundtrack was incredible, and it elevated every single scene when it played. The show wasn't just a bunch of high quality visuals either, the direction, editing and cinematography was superb and it made the most out of the heightened budget. I think this is the best looking TV show I've ever seen, and that does give it some bonus points. Lastly, I will say that this show knows how to use surprises and twists to its advantage. There were plenty of twists and turns throughout the season, and they elevated the story quite a bit. After each episode I never knew what to expect in the next episode, and the very premise of the episodes were surprising to me. I didn't know what was going to happen, and I didn't know what direction the story was going. The unpredictability coupled with the creativity of the episode premises made for a thrilling and surprising story that you don't often see on television. This entire show felt like a rollercoaster ride with how creative and unpredictable it was. Every twist landed, and every turn changed the direction of the show in an important way. The Bad: "Lamentis" was a weak episode with a lot of flaws. I'll be going more in-depth in my review of the episode, but it was the one weak episode of this show. I was underwhelmed by the character work in this episode and I thought that the dialogue and writing was quite clunky. I typically enjoy character-centric episodes like this, but there wasn't enough substance to make this episode work. In the end it just feels like a waste of time, and it's an episode I'd almost be comfortable with skipping. One of the core problems of "Lamentis" spread to the rest of the show. That was the romance between Loki and Sylvie, a relationship that felt rushed, clunky and unsatisfying for almost the entire run of the series. It was difficult to invest in this relationship because we didn't get a good sense of why they were into each other and what it was that got them to form a strong bond to begin with. This is where "Lamentis" comes in, because that episode failed to build a proper foundation for their relationship. They simply started talking about love and personal things because the story demanded it, and it never felt natural. This unnatural feeling persisted for the rest of the show, and it became especially tedious when just about every side character started to talk about their relationship in an effort to make us buy into it. It didn't work and ended up being pretty annoying. They started to work a little bit better towards the end of the series, but I still didn't quite buy into the idea of them getting together, and that made it difficult for me to emotionally engage in this aspect of the show. It was also especially difficult to get past the icky feeling of Loki falling in love with himself since I didn't buy into Loki and Sylvie's relationship. Outside of Mobius and Kang, the side characters were disappointing. Ravonna and B-15 are really weak characters and nothing they did interested me throughout the series. The lack of resolution for these characters by the end of the season only makes me question their existence even more. While watching the final two episodes, I found myself waiting for the story to get back to the more interesting stuff whenever it cut to what was going on in the TVA. Best Episodes: E01 Glorious Purpose: This was an excellent character study for Loki to transform him from the despicable villain in The Avengers to the morally grey protagonist that this show needs him to be. Add in the mystery elements as we are introduced to the TVA and the tremendous writing, and this was a superb pilot. E06 For All Time. Always.: The finale of this season delivered, which is even more impressive when you consider how poorly "WandaVision" and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" ended. Kang was portrayed tremendously, and the climax of the episode with this massive decision for Loki and Sylvie felt like a monumental moment that was perfect to end the season on. Worst Episodes: E03 Lamentis: The only disappointment of the show was "Lamentis". This episode felt like filler and it didn't do enough to explore the characters of Loki or Sylvie or their relationship to justify its existence. I feel like this episode should have been far more impactful than it was. Character of the Season: Loki. Conclusion: The MCU TV shows have been either decent or weak so far, so I didn't expect much from this show. But this was actually a really good show. It was well-produced, well-written, well-acted, and emotionally engaging. Plus every episode told its own unique story while also fitting together to tell one cohesive story. This didn't feel like a stretched out movie, and it avoided all of the trappings that MCU content typically falls into. There certainly were flaws and problems with the storytelling, but overall it was a blast to watch these six episodes, even if it wasn't top-quality television. This exceeded my expectations for an MCU TV show and I can't wait to see what happens in the second season.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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