In Review: Loki – Season 2

By Tim Robins on December 5, 2023

Review by Tim Robins

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Tom Hiddleston returns as Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ Loki season one, and the Icelandic prose and poetic Edda in which ‘he’ took the form of a mare, a salmon and a fly. None of these forms appear on screen, although last season did introduce us to a crocodile Loki. There’s no such fun offered in the second.

I describe the new episodes as a “season” but, at a mere six episodes they are more of a somewhat overcast afternoon. The story sees Loki warping uncontrollably between variant timelines with apparently no rhyme nor reason. Meanwhile, the Time Variance Authority are in grumpy mood and are hunting ‘Sylvie Laufeydottir’, a female Loki time variant played by Sophia deMartino, who caused the sacred timeline to uncontrollably branch after she slew ‘He Who Remains’ (a Kang variant).

‘Sylvie’ inadvertently brought an infinite variant number Kangs into existence. That was the one thing nobody wanted to happen. Now, Loki seems faced with a terrible choice – kill Sylvie to stop her killing Kang, or allow her to kill Kang and live with the consequences, even if they mean an endless war between time branches or the destruction of all branches except the “sacred timeline”.

Accompanying this is a crisis with the “Temporal Loom”, a device meant to weave together various timelines, but which may actually end up destroying all of them. What a complex web we weave when first we practice space-time to cleave.

I, much as many fans, was underwhelmed by the first few episodes. Loki Season One has been compared to Doctor Who, an impression left by all the time-hopping and location filming in a quarry and on a blasted heath. “Classic” Doctor Who’s six-episode stories had similar problems maintaining interest and, like them, Loki has an awful lot of running through corridors and sitting in rooms for a chat or two. These days, it is hard to tell if characters are in a set, surrounded by green screens or up against a wall of tiny lights.

Apparently, the budget for the series was $141 million, but the production looks cash strapped. Perhaps a lot of that went on the cast. Since I don’t know the sets have a material existence, let alone get reused, I can’t tell if there were budgetary savings by setting a lot of the season within the TVA.

In August 2023, Forbes enthused, “No expense has been spared on Loki Season Two, which cost more in pre-production and filming than many big screen Marvel movies, including Doctor Strange (£102.7 million), Thor 2: The Dark World (£99.4 million) and Guardians of the Galaxy (£91.1 million).”

That said, Secret Invasion reportedly cost over $210 million. As for sparing no expense, it is worth noting that Disney+ are trying to save $5 billion, so I am sure some expense was spared.

I will say that I still very much appreciate the beige and orange retro design. Very 1970s, but also very now and very yet to be. The design of a suit allowing the wearer to walk out to the Time Loom echoed the kind of retro futurism to be found in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985). The effect of the entire content of timelines turning to sinewy ribbons was eye catching and mind boggling.

During one climactic moment, I began wondering what on Earth anyone from the 19th century or earlier would have made of the scene. I was just surprised that a man carrying an armful of timelines was even remotely comprehensible. This was entirely due to the long set-up in previous episodes and the conceptual clarity of the effects.

The cast also sold the story, although they proved, mostly, foils for Loki. Many, including Owen Jones as Mobius, reprised previous roles but we also got to meet Ke Huy Quan, of Everything Everywhere All At Once fame, as time technician Mr Ouroborus.

Jonathan Majors is great at playing ‘Kang’ personas, He Who Remains and Mr Timely. He won me over to his performance, which I had found a little camp. (Screen Rant have twisted themselves in knots to explain why the name ‘Kang’ isn’t explicitly mentioned in Loki, but the site fails to explain why they don’t mention the actor’s name in the same article).

However, in March 2023, as widely reported, Majors was arrested for assault and aggravated harassment of his girlfriend, raising big questions for the future of the MCU, and causing headaches for Disney and Marvel, in terms of how to proceed.

The verdict on Majors is yet to come in and Marvel couldn’t reshoot Loki even if they wanted to, and, indeed, should have done. What these allegations, and proven incidents of sexual abuse in the media industries have done, has really made me regret that I’m living in this timeline. But since none of us can timeslip, I guess we have to grasp our timeline and try to move it in a better direction.

In general, Marvel Studios’ TV shows have disappointed audiences because of the over-excited expectations of fans who have already made something better in their imaginations before the series begin. Loki Season Two may suffer from this. It isn’t a roller coaster ride, but it is satisfying – even if the series is a little low-key.

Tim Robins

Loki is available on Disney+

Tim Robins

A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.

His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.