The Marvel Cinematic Universe has never been famous for its villains, despite the fact that at least 12 of the actors whose characters would be classified as antagonists have one or more Oscar nominations to their name. But whileBlack Panther’s Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and our old pal Thanos (Josh Brolin) do stand out from the pack of generic stand-alone baddies,Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of Loki perhaps remains the most iconic and relatable of them all.
Perhaps it’s because his turn towards darkness was rooted in a very understandable sense of personal betrayal, grief, and frustrated ambition. Perhaps it’s because over the course of multiple films, the character was given far more depth and development than a dark elf or army guy. Perhaps, yes, Hiddleston’s cheekbones and the character’s emo-goth vibe immediately made him the platonic ideal of a Tumblr dreamboat. Point is, Loki is a character whose background, powers, and personality indicate a wealth of storytelling potential, and so it’s little shock that the new Disney+ series which bears his name is good entertainment. However, after having seen the first two episodes, the best of surprises is how weird, wild, funny, and emotional the show manages to be.
Lokiwas first revealed as a potential Disney+ original seriesall the way back in September 2018. If you need a refresher on your MCU history, this means that it was announced after the character was killed on-screen by Thanos at the beginning ofAvengers: Infinity War, but beforeEndgame, in which the Avengers' meddling with time gave the 2012 version of Loki, freshly apprehended by Captain America and the gang, an opportunity to escape with some help from the Tesseract.
During the months between that initial tentative announcement and the premiere ofEndgame, there was plenty of speculation as to what direction a show aboutLokicould go in (since, after all, the protagonist was canonically dead). Honestly, even after hisEndgameescape, the question of “what happens next?” lingered. And pondering it was more complicated than you’d think, when you consider that Loki, as a character, has always been a complex one for the MCU to square away morally — after all, it’s hard to hail a literal mass murderer who sure did mess up Midtown, no matter how much he later comes to Thor’s aid in subsequent films. (Though if you do the math on Loki duringThe Avengers,he maybe “only” killed 155 people?And his body count inThoralso isn’t that large, despite the damage done by that robot Loki sent to Puente Antiguo, New Mexico…)
The point is that in the case of this show, the tricky issue of Loki’s morality is a feature, not a bug. Right now the MCU brand, as put forward by Disney+, does include the trend of featuring some complicated characters who have not always been protagonists, and while Bucky Barnes’s (Sebastian Stan) journey inThe Falcon and the Winter Soldierwas focused on redemption, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) arguably endedWandaVisionin a darker place than she began. Honestly, using the medium of serialized television for these narratives is an approach that makes sense, because trying to figure out how to tell a compelling and believable story about a character who has dwelled on both sides of the hero/villain line in two or so hours is damn tough. At least with six hours of screen time, there’s more opportunity to find some nuance, and even embrace the degrees of grey these stories demand.
To reveal too much about what actually happens inLokiwould honestly mean ruining a lot of the fun to be enjoyed in the early episodes. But in broad strokes, here’s where we’re at: After a quick reminder of the events ofEndgamethat led to 2012 Loki’s escape, Loki quickly finds himself on the bad side of the Time Variance Authority, a heretofore unknown group dedicated to preventing the sort of time travel malarky that can inspire Pepe Silvia levels of madness in the most normal of people.
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While it did, of course, originate in the comics, the TVA is the big fresh elementLokiis introducing to the MCU, and right from the start, the palpable glee the creative team finds in crafting this mysterious agency out of a perfect hodgepodge of retro technology and off-kilter aesthetics is one of the show’s most enjoyable and amusing elements. There’s a lot to point to as reminiscent of previous works (for me, the first things that came to mind wereTerry Gilliam’sBraziland theRussell T. Daviesera ofDoctor Who, though there are literally dozens of other comparisons to potentially be made). But the show manages to take aspects that might feel familiar and tweak them in fresh and new ways, giving this new corner of Marvel a lived-in feel. There will be critics who write off the individual components as mere imitation, but when appreciated as a whole, the results prove transcendent (and often hilarious).
As visually rich as this world is (full credit toAutumn Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography andKasra Farahani’s production design for bringing the TVA to life in a full and complete way), it’d just be cool empty rooms without the cast. Hiddleston’s been playing Loki for a decade now and his ability to embody every mercurial aspect of the character is now as sharp as the knives favored by the God of Mischief. But head writerMichael Waldronand directorKate Herrondon’t let him coast on the past, with the first two episodes pushing both actor and character to new extremes and crises that also represent some of the most philosophically challenging material ever presented within the context of an MCU property.
Gugu Mbatha-RawandWunmi Mosaku, as variously ranked cogs within the TVA machine, are both delightful on-screen presences, even if their characters remain a bit underdeveloped in the first two episodes. Meanwhile, stealing something from Loki is quite a trick, but that’s very nearly whatOwen Wilsondoes. As Mobius M. Mobius, the TVA agent who sees Loki’s arrival as an opportunity to solve a bigger problem he’s dealing with, Wilson’s choice to embrace his silver fox potential is a laudable one, especially when paired with a great little mustache. But, on a far less shallow note, his innate ease on screen doesn’t just make him a perfect match for the intensity Hiddleston brings to Loki, but a perfect match for the series in general, as he delivers exposition and wisecracks alike with a low-key dryness that takes the necessary amount of piss out of what could be a very solemn affair. (That pun wasnotintended, but I also have no plans to change it.)
Well, real talk — there’s no way thatLokiwould have ever been solemn, given Waldron’s experience as a writer on chaos machineRick and Morty. But the wit and wackiness on display here is tempered by life-and-death stakes, as early on a clear mystery of sorts is established, offering up just a touch of a classic procedural format to help ground the action. These elements and more are a tricky thing to balance, and it’s easy to foresee the remaining four episodes drifting more towards the conventional side of the chaos/order spectrum.WandaVision, after all, began its run with the delightfully unexpected choice to truly immerse the audience in era-appropriate sitcoms. But that facade was slowly but surely peeled away over subsequent weeks, culminating in a finale that was ultimately a pretty familiar MCU action extravaganza.
That said, if there’s one character you can count on to zag instead of zig, it’s Loki, and hopefully the show follows his example, while still embracing the most difficult question at the show’s core: Can Loki ever be truly redeemed? The concept of redemption, after all, is a lot more complex today than it was a few years ago. While we’ve learned about the bad behavior of so many people across so many industries in that time, we haven’t really found much clarity in how to evolve the conversations around that bad behavior, and those who were affected by it.
Over the last year or so, I’ve become fascinated bythe subreddit “Am I the Asshole?”, a forum for people to ask internet strangers the titular question, in regards to both ordinary moments of everyday life as well as much larger experiences of drama and trauma. What’s so interesting to me about these posts is that, theoretically, the author is usually the one telling their own version of the story, which means that in the instances where someone is, in fact, the asshole, it’s often painfully obvious. Even as depicted in a skewed telling of events, the truth shines through. No assholes can escape it.
It’s fun to imagine what Loki would write, should the God of Mischief find himself browsing Reddit in search of feedback on his life choices. “AITA For Wanting to Free Humanity From the Burdens of Freedom?” That’s essentially the Loki we’re meeting at the beginning of this series, although his engagement with the TVA, not to mention a new awareness of both his past and future, seems poised to change that forever. Of all the surprises and twists introduced by this show, perhaps the most exciting is its deep investment in understanding its central character at his best and worst, asking some truly tough questions against the backdrop of a time travel lark. Loki was always one of the MCU’s greatest villains. But he’s just as compelling as the hero of his own story.
Lokipremieres Wednesday, June 9th on Disney+.
KEEP READING:Tom Hiddleston on Whether Loki Will Ever Get a Love Interest, and How Kenneth Branagh Changed His Life
