Loki (Disney +)

Music: "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" - Roy Orbison

The bad news is I didn't understand much of that. I watch the MCU, but I don't obsess over the MCU. I'm a general viewer regarding the franchise, not an actual nerd. Not the same way I am a Star Trek or Twin Peaks nerd. Or even a Justice League Unlimited nerd. I feel very much that people really into it would totally dig it. But me? I'm confused.

But they sure did hit the ground running, didn't they? Regarding of whether I "got" it or not, I still enjoyed it. And that fact is why I remembered last season really wound up the only Marvel Studios' show I DID like, that didn't fall apart by the end after promising Pilots.

And OB is beyond cool and I love who they cast for it.

It feels very very strange Miss Minutes, perhaps the character after Loki the show is best known for, it entirely absent from the long awaited season premiere. I'm not sure I approve of that.

I wonder how many nerds are gonna walk into a McDonald's and repeat Sylvie's insane order verbatim. I'm betting quite a few.

I have no idea what I just saw. And yet, I'm on-board. It was a blast whether I was able to follow it or not. 4 stars.

MUSIC - Loki-S2E2: "Kozmic Blues" - Janis Joplin

They really have something here, don't they? It's not just my imagination. I half-believed after dreadful MCU series after dreadful MCU series I perhaps looked back on the first season of Loki more fondly than it deserved. Understandable, considering the dreck that followed. But the dreck that followed wasn't exactly a good barometer to judge great television by, was it? Maybe I built up Loki Season 1 in my head because it was competently made, rather than great, and that's my current Marvel Studios bar. I'm thinking after seeing this, it was probably great. Why am I thinking this? Because THIS was.

Basically, we are in for a treat based on the freaking recap! Let me let you in on a little secret of mine. I HATE recaps. With a passion. They are entirely absent from Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse because of my disdain for them. The thing I hate most about them is that sloppily written shows will bring up a minor plot-point from a previous episode in them, thereby telling us that plotpoint IS major after all, and spoiling the "surprise" twist they think we're still gonna be shocked by despite the recap telegraphing it to us like we're a buncha dopes. The great thing about this recap isn't that it spoils anything. But the dire nature of it sort of gives context to how serious things have gotten, which we might have forgotten from last week's goofy premiere and being delighted by O.B.. The recap was great because it was like, "Oh, yeah, before the last couple of ridiculous Thor sequels, the MCU actually used to have stakes! Been awhile since we actually felt those."

I'm going to give the show a compliment I have not heard it being given elsewhere. And the reason I don't think anyone brings it up is because people take it for granted. I think the series really knows how to find real character humor in the absurd. And people will shrug, "MCU stuff is always funny, and Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson both have comedic timing and charm to spare. Big whoop." It kind of IS though. Did you actually think Thor: Love And Thunder was funny? Or Quantumania? Or God help me, She-Hulk, Attorney At Law? The fact that Brad's interrogation was by turns brutal, hilarious, surprising, cruel, and twisty is not something you can say, "No biggie. Marvel knows what it's doing," about. If that were so, more of the recent stuff would be better. The turnarounds of fortunes in that interrogation where you believe Brad has gotten into Loki and Mobius' heads, and you realize that fact that it's pissing them off in that specific prison setting is... unwise to say the least, is amazingly written, not just for the broadly played strokes of Loki musing if he is truly a loser and villain. But for the nuances that pass between the characters as Brad quickly sees that things have gotten outside of his control. It's all great, commendable stuff, that nobody bothers commending the show over. Its sense of humor is played JUST right, even with a character like O.B. now in the mix.

Second episode this season without Miss Minutes. It feels WRONG she's been absent for the entire beginning of the season. It makes me truly think she must be sinister.

I mentioned I hate recaps, and that this show did right by the trope for one of the few times I have ever seen. Do you know what else I hate? Product placement. Sadly, this episode was just as cringe there as every single other TV show forced to do it. I'm figuring if Disney is gonna make me cough up an extra five bucks a month for the bundle I shouldn't have to listen to people acting like a meal as McDonald's is a feast, rather than a gross habit people should avoid and partake in rarely. Let's be real. Even if pink slime was probably not a thing in 1982, still, it's freaking McDonald's. Spare me about how great it is.

I read a terrible article today about how Marvel television shows are created, and it's why they've turned out to be disasters. For some reason "We'll just fix it in post" works for this show. I strongly suspect probably because there is ultimately little that needs fixing. It's just freaking solid all the way down. 5 stars.

Oh, so it turns out that Miss Minutes is totally crazy. Okay. Good to know.

I liked the old timey piano Marvel opening.

People thinking Tara Strong was gonna get fired as Miss Minutes were kidding themselves. If Jonathan Majors hasn't been recast than Strong certainly won't be.

Here is my problem. This is supposed to be Loki's show. He's essentially a minor character not just in the cast, but in the entire arc and mythology of the show. That's a bad thing and a failing. That's also something I needed to point out, as complimentary as I was for the first two weeks of the season.

I had some misgivings about this one, but I wouldn't call it bad by any stretch of the imagination. 3 stars.

It was exciting and mindwarping and all but I'm still a little unhappy. Loki is TOO altruistic at this point. I don't mind him working with the good guys but his motives are currently too noble here. They are making the God of Mischief predictable. I'm not cool with that.

Miss Minutes continues to be sinister. Renslayer is outright evil.

I continue to love O.B..

Hot cocoa machines are definitely a selling point in the future.

Not a fan of the Sopranos blackout ending either.

It was cool enough, but I had misgivings. 3 stars.

The something is an audio clip from the "Zaniac" machine seen in the bar, nothing important to the story but kind of funny...

 

Music

"Thunder in Your Heart" - John Farnham

"How to Lie with Statistics" - (no performer listed, written by Dr. Steven Trip and Lawrence Sam Goldings)

"Love Don't Live Here Anymore"  - Rose Royce

"Working for the Weekend" - Loverboy

"So Used to Having You Around (Pt 1)" - Alvin "TNT" Braggs

"Oh, Sweet Nuthin'" - The Velvet Underground

It was quite good. Equally mindbending and confusing in the right places.

They claimed this one was gonna be a filler but it didn't feel or play that way.

My favorite moment was Loki asking OB how he built the device so fast, and OB tells him it was 18 months, and his wife left him. Fiction, particularly television, often forgets it can do stuff like that, and make those kinds of shortcuts that actually are kind of epic when you think about them. In fairness to television, ideas like that are more common now than they even were ten years ago. But in an episode where OB is trying to teach Loki the precise differences between science and fiction, that specific idea occurs. It was the right idea for the right episode.

So yeah. I liked it. A lot. And if an episode is great, it's not actually filler. Period. 4 1/2 stars.

Marvel Studios is in serious trouble. More than anyone ever could have predicted.

Honestly, I have taken all of the previous "The MCU is dead!" rants not the least bit seriously. And you know what? Until this, I still think the idea is a stretch. It is my perspective that franchises can be expected to go through various dry spells, rough patches, and eras of spotty quality. I think people raging against the recent MCU stuff never understood that goes for THEIR precious franchise too. Me? I saw the string of underwhelming / bad movies and TV shows as no big deal. If Marvel was ever inclined to, they could simply start making good movies and TV shows again.

This final installment of Loki is a turning point, and an utter disaster for that, because I believe they are now trapped in a bad canon / continuity snarl. A bad TV show is a bad TV show. But we have repeatedly been told that this finale will have huge repercussions for the MCU going forward. If that is so, they might as well just reboot everything NOW and not bother with The Kang Dynasty or Secret Wars. The choices this episode made makes me believe the upcoming Kang stuff is entirely unsalvageable.

Let me also clarify that I don't necessarily believe it was a bad piece of television. As a matter of fact, generally speaking, I enjoy watching weird things on TV that I don't understand, and that allow me to make up my own mind about what I just saw. People who have read my reviews know that about me, and might actually be a bit surprised this actually hit me so wrong.

This is too confusing. It's too inexplicable. It's too insular, and will confuse the average movie-goer if this is actually gonna tie in to future movies. Not only is nothing explained, nothing makes sense. I like smart movies as a rule. But I should be able to watch and enjoy an Avengers movies without having a degree in particle physics. It is clear Loki: Season 2's main inspiration was Everything Everywhere All At Once. But that movie being confusing and weird is okay because it's a one and done deal. Tying multiple movies together and having the entire franchise built upon something that makes no damn sense? Marvel Studios is crazy to do that. I often wish studios would trust the audience more. This episode of Loki is giving us FAR more trust than we either deserve or need. I am completely lost, and mad that this is the foundation of the rest of the Kang Dynasty.

I heard the rumor that because of Jonathon Majors' legal troubles Feige was considering replacing Kang with Doctor Doom as the Phase 6 Big Bad. I thought that idea was stupid. Here is where you CAN trust the audience: We can easily accept recasts. We are not dumb. You do not even have to come up with a Multiverse explanation as to why Kang looks different. As a viewer I understand this crap happens and I won't fault the studio or suggest they rejigger their entire film slate to protect the artistic integrity of the performance of a known wife-beater. Why Feige believes Majors deserves that deference is another idea I question.

But after seeing what a mess this was, maybe Feige is threatening to do that BECAUSE he sees what a disaster he's set up, and Doom would freaking simplify that to hell. What kills me is that ten years ago Feige would not have written himself into this specific horrible corner. This is not a corner ANY competent writer would ever plan to trap their franchise in. I was frankly shocked. It's not that I now think people whose hair was on fire about the MCU were right all along. It's that the franchise finally DID crash and burn, jump the shark, nuke the fridge, all those bad tropes, with this one single episode. The MCU being unsalvageable NOW doesn't mean its YouTube critics were right about it being so BEFORE now.

The episode title being the same as the Pilot's is supposed to hint at going back in time, and with Ouroboros in the mix, maybe hint at things going full circle. Instead the episode title feels lazy and unearned. The entire arc of He Who Remains feels that way at this point too.

MCU detractors, THAT is what an actual shark jump and disaster looks like. Don't confuse a string of crappy movies and shows for a shark jump. Marvel could have rebounded from all that. Now? They are stuck in this miserable, confusing canon that absolutely no-one will like. Idiotic. I hope they are happy.

This is bad. 1 star.