Loki continues the trend of the MCU shows being brilliant character studies of already established characters in the universe, by giving them time to breath and really flesh out what motivates them and who they truly are deep down. If you can get past the initial jarring switch from 2012 Avengers Loki to a more Ragnarokian Loki in episode 1, what follows is a series that tries to answer the age old question “What makes a Loki a Loki?”. From episode 2 onwards we then see a different side to Loki, one that has more nuance and deeper emotions than he ever did in the movies, and Hiddleston plays this Loki with a heart to perfection.
Not only are we treated to Hiddleston’s Loki but we also get another in the form of Slyvie, played by Sophia Di Martino. Who absolutely steals the show in my opinion. She’s characterised perfectly, she’s snarky, sarcastic and sneaky but it’s all based in a believable and heartbreaking backstory. She is clearly someone who finds it hard to trust people and this trait is with her all the way until the final episode. Alongside Slyvie we are blessed with some other great side characters, while a lot of them take a while to warm up to, I think where the series leaves all the characters is super interesting and had me invested. And then there’s Owen Wilson. He acted circles around everyone in the earlier episodes and truly is just a pleasure to watch on screen. I’m sad he didn’t get his Jet-ski though. Also Jonathan Majors. Killed it. So excited to see him in other MCU projects.
This show also continues the trend of these Marvel shows being absolutely gorgeous, I mean this show in particular had some of the most insane VFX for Marvel period and they looked great. Along with some fantastic cinematography, particularly the opening of episode 5 comes to mind as we travelled through the TVA. And I won’t stop praising this, the score. Natalie Holt has created a mystical, intriguing and unique score for Loki and it’s just incredible, it enhanced every single episode by adding rich atmospheres purely through the music. Definitely in my top 5 MCU scores.
I think the real problem with Loki would be the pacing, even week to week there was some odd pacing choices, episodes where the plot felt stagnant or some parts that felt extremely rushed. And unfortunately I think without the reveals and twists and the weird pacing, this won’t be smooth watching it all together. Also placing this in the context of the wider MCU, it is still really unbelievable and rushed the switch to this type of Loki. Years of character development for him to become who he was in Infinity War happened in one scene in this show. Despite me liking where he ends up and the Loki we get, I feel like that development could’ve taken place over the entire season. It felt very Daenerys in Season 8 of GoT to me, you’re aware of the character arc they will make so the writers omit the character development and skip to the person who the character will become and that’s who we follow this season. Obviously Loki was no where near as egregious as GoT and we still got character development from episode 2 to 6, it just felt a little rushed and a disappointment to not see the character development play out.
Still this show does a lot more right than it does wrong. It doesn’t reach the heights of WandaVision for me, which I thought was practically perfect, but what it does have over the other shows is that is has a really satisfying and thrilling ending and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Loki.
