Loki is the third instalment of the Disney+ spin-off Marvel TV shows and it SLAPS.
These spin off shows haven’t been bad so far. I was a bit take it or leave it with Wandavision and I was not into Winter Soldier and the Falcon at all. There’s good performances, an empty side-plot and a big Dragonball Z fight at the end. The usual Marvel flaws. NEXT.
Loki however, really did it for me. I was intrigued since seeing the first trailer for Loki, so I was pulled in from the beginning.
The premise of the show is as follows: This series follows Loki. Not the one that dies bites the fat one in Infinity War. It follows the Loki that escapes during the time travel events during Endgame, the one that gets the space stone and hops through a portal. He gets arrested by Time Police for breaking the timeline and is hired by Owen Wilson to help him fix the timeline.
One of the biggest things that made me love this TV show is its originality. It follows the previous path of Wandavision and does some crazy alternate reality stuff and allows a whole load room for Loki, a character who hasn’t had huge on-screen character development since I’d say… his first appearance in the first Thor movie.
I do appreciate the approach that these shows are doing. Loki is just a general bad guy in the Marvel movies and is often the butt of the joke. The Marvel writers do something tricky as well by going back to a previous version of Loki before he dies and… re-develops him? Tricky, but it kinda works.
This Loki gets more character development than all of the MCU movies he features in. In Thor: Ragnarok he throws his dad into a nursing home, takes over Asgard, lives as a slave on a planet full of Billionaires, Thor shows up, Loki tries to betray him and decides to help him at the last second. This is not a lot of growth but we’re supposed to see him as a good guy. In this story he learns to be a better person by doing things like loving himself. YES. STICK IT TO MY VEINS.
Some might say the show is boring and I guarantee these people are referring to the scenes where it’s just Loki and Owen Wilson chatting. I’m all for it. I have a big love for people who can create suspense, world-building and character development with two people sitting across from each other just chatting. It’s the cheapest most efficient form of storytelling for the screen and it’s a dying art on the big screen. Nice to Marvel have been allowed to do it for the small screen.
The Loki spin-off show is the best instalment so far in the MCU Disney+ series of TV shows. It slows down the tone that has been set so far with Wandavision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and re-develops a stagnant character with an original story.