We’re now officially three shows deep into the televised incarnation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the success rate has been mixed thus far. WandaVision was a real water cooler show, carrying the pop culture and general audience cachet that The Mandalorian gave way to. Even my parents, who watch very little of the superhero set, got hooked into it and asked me what movies they should watch in order to feel caught up.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, on the other hand, basically imploded after its first somewhat tantalizing episode. A mishmash of poorly fleshed out themes, one-dimensional threats, and an ending that brought us only one step forward from where its heroes left off in the last big Avengers movie. You wouldn’t be blamed for wondering if this whole television expansion of the MCU was on the wrong course. And, to help provide some clarity, here comes Loki, that lovable trickster.
Loki is a bit of a odd fit for a series, as its the first MCU effort to try to fully grapple with one of their villains and place them in the spotlight. Kevin Feige and company have always had a nice knack for well-cast heroes, give or take, but the villains have left a lot to be desired. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki has been one of the rare exceptions, having built up quite a fanbase since his debut in 2011’s Thor. And given his ever-shifting “is he, isn’t he?” antihero status, there’s fertile ground to be explored, though it does beg the question: didn’t we do a lot of this already through his slowburn redemption arc in the Thor films?
It’s one of the earlier queries that’s likely to burrow its way through your head as Loki the series picks up where Avengers: Endgame left off, with the Asgardian having grabbed hold of the Tesseract thanks to the Avengers’ manipulation of time, and vanishing into the ether. As it turns out, Loki has vanished into the Gobi Desert, where he’s instantly tracked down and arrested by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and deemed a “variant”, put on trial and only barely saved from elimination by Mobius (Owen Wilson), a special agent in the TVA, who sees a great advantage in enlisting Loki to help with his current cause: someone is eliminating TVA agents. A cause that, as one can imagine, becomes more complex as the running time ticks on.
One of the more refreshing benefits of Loki is that it doesn’t attempt to carry more weight than it can manage thematically. WandaVision wasn’t so much about grief, as it featured it, but it did play a central role in the motivation of its heroine. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier tried to be about ten different things, and just about failed at all of them, though its most tantalizing question was “could America ever accept a black Captain America?” Loki, on the other hand, isn’t really about anything beyond being a fun romp. It transports the villain into a more 60’s bent Men in Black set-up with a few Terry Gilliam/less cringe Doctor Who sprinklings.
It’s clear a lot of thought went into developing the TVA, from how each room of the facility that Loki is escorted to has its own distinctive visual identity, to the Tara Strong-voiced mascot for the organization that brings to mind Vault Boy from the Fallout series. And while Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Wunmi Mosaku play significant supporting roles in the first two episodes I screened, the entire show so far is held aloft by the buddy relationship that builds between Loki and Mobius, and I’m happy to report that Hiddleston and Wilson have excellent chemistry. It’s nice to be reminded what a breezy, charming presence Wilson has, as he’s been a bit out of the public eye for a number of years now. Mobius makes for a perfect everyman foil for the ever-conniving Loki. They’re just very fun to watch together, even when they’re sitting in a room not up to much…
…which is probably the chief complaint that can be lodged at this third Marvel streaming effort. Despite some sumptuous art direction and nice cinematography (the latter being a bit of a rarity for the studio), the usual pacing issues still persist. There’s just a bit of dead space in each episode that could have been easily excised if they had just opted for 42 or less minute episodes instead of 50+. The direction is flat at times to hide the fact that Loki and Mobius spend a lot of time sitting in rooms talking and trying to explain the intricacies of Loki’s history (there’s a real rough patch where we have to quickly relive his every movie appearance to crash-course this version of Loki up to his deceased predecessor) and time travel. Again, Hiddleston and Wilson do their best to carry it, but it’s difficult to ignore the occasional lulls in the narrative, an ongoing problem for just about every tv show with the Marvel brand.
Still, by the end of second episode, the plotting looks to be locking into place, with a good hook leading its next installment. It may or may not hit the “gotta see it” highs of WandaVision, but it thankfully seems to be dodging everything that went wrong with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and right now, that’s good enough.
Plus, for the comics-heads, Wilson is more or less playing the much missed and beloved writer/editor Mark Gruenwald. Extra points for that alone.
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