A TV show on Disney+

In the past, I recall thinking Marvel was taking real risks by putting a talking tree and a talking Raccoon in a superhero film, a genre that at the time played it VERY safe, only making films for the same popular characters over and over. Now, with the advent of the Disney+ line of TV shows that are being produced, Marvel has stepped away from the tried and true formula almost every phase 1 and phase 2 film, instead opting for far more adventurous plots. NOW is the time where they are taking the risks, and it has payed off every time. Who would have thought that Wandavision would have been a post-modern meta look at the evolution of TV tropes and the fantasy world that those sorts of shows created for many growing up? Imagine pitching a TV show that is partially black and white and contains a laugh track for a few episodes? Now Marvel gets even more ballsy, making a show that turns everyone’s favorite supervillain turned sometime anti-hero, Loki, into an agent of a inter-dimensional Time police of sorts.

“In Marvel Studios’ Loki, the mercurial villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston) resumes his role as the God of Mischief in a new series that takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame.”

If you recall. Loki ends up seemingly altering time when an attempt to acquire the Tesseract by a time traveling contingent of Avengers fumbles a big mission and allows him to disappear, avoiding his own soon to happen death. He pops up somewhere in a desert in the distant past, only to be nabbed by the TVA, or Time Variance Authority for causing destabilization of the holy timeline. Rather than destroy him and reset the timeline, an Agent named Mobius (Played by Owen Wilson) recruits him to help stop a murderer tinkering with the past – a perpetrator presumed to be Loki himself. At this point, I assumed the show would turn into a procedural police drama of sorts, but it’s so much more than that. Loki ends up being a crazy time traveling fantasy adventure show this side of Doctor Who and all it’s timey-wimey goodness.

Without going into toon many spoilers, Loki excels at both character building and setting up the next phase of the MCU. You wouldn’t think Marvel would use a TV show to introduce the next BIG villain, but in a way that happens here. Between Scarlet Witch, Loki, The Avengers, and soon Doctor Strange, EVERYONE seems to be messing around with time and parallel dimensions, something that I’m sure will have grave consequences. Owen Wilson somehow manages to out-Charisma even Tom Hiddleston, stealing scene after scene – and that’s no easy task. The two are amongst an entire cadre of talented actors that I’m sure will become fan favorites assuming the show continues on (which it says it will).

All-in-all this was a great show and easily my favorite of the current three Marvel MCU TV series’ that Disney+ has produced. It’s tighter than Falcon and Winter Soldier, has less “fluff” than Wandavision, and has real ramifications that will reverberate through the franchise as a whole. Since this doesn’t technically have an end yet, it’s hard to look at the entire thing as a whole and pinpoint a cohesive beginning middle and end of the entire storyline, but what we have so far is sufficient and doesn’t feel unfinished like other properties that end on a cliffhanger. Here’s hoping more of the show is made sooner or later, because I’d hate to see any cast members move away from it. If you haven’t seen this, do yourselves a favor and check it out.