Loki New Show (Movie Review)

If Marvel’s been prone to over-ambitious sci-fi and a bit of over-indulgent fan-service, loki new show is one of its more thoughtful entries. Its lofty themes – questions of identity, the nature of parallel timelines and free will in a multiverse – are grounded by Tom Hiddleston’s utterly captivating take on the character. He’s the most complex and human version of Loki we’ve ever seen, a compulsive liar who grows as he learns to understand himself.

It takes a few episodes to really get going, but once it does the series moves with a surprisingly brisk momentum. It’s a shame that so much of the first season – particularly the second – is spent processing exposition but head writer Michael Waldron and director Kate Herron use a wide array of genres to keep things entertaining; from a buddy cop story when Loki enlists Mobius (Owen Wilson) to help track down his killer variant to a harrowing quest in a deadly void.

Featuring playful banter, a mix of tender moments and fierce battles, the central relationship between two Lokis – which starts out adversarial but soon becomes romantic – is the driving force of the story. It’s the most involving and compelling element of a story that often veers into sci-fi tangents that don’t always sit quite right. There are occasional pacing problems, such as a frustrating third episode and an overly lengthy monologue-filled finale but overall, the drama is an utter joy to watch.