The first episode of Loki promises Marvel’s best Disney+ series yet

Marvel has released two series on Disney+ so far, and at least for me, the results have been a mixed bag. WandaVision started out strong but didn’t amount to much, while The Falcon and The Winter Soldier had a lot on its mind but ultimately felt like a bit of a slog and probably would have worked better as a film. Neither show was terrible or even mediocre, but it still left me a bit worried about Loki, the third entry in the Marvel Television Universe (a term I just copyrighted; call me, Marvel).

Happily, I can report that the show’s premiere episode has put those fears to rest, promising what might end up being the best MCU series yet.

Admittedly, of the three, Loki always featured the character I was always the biggest fan of: Tom Hiddleston’s charming but deranged God of Mischief. Loki had also already been fully fleshed out in the first three Thor films and the first Avengers movie, which provides the jumping off point for this new show: the Loki we saw in briefly in Avengers: Endgame — the one who had just lost the Battle of New York — grabs the Tesseract, slips the time and starts on a new adventure 

If that all seems overly convoluted, blame the intricacies of time travel, as the show itself does a fairly good job of explaining just why this version of Loki is different from the one we saw killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. After being apprehended by the all-powerful bureaucracy known as the Time Variance Authority, which is tasked with maintaining the proper continuity of the universe and pruning outliers like Loki if necessary, Loki hilariously learns that he is no longer in control and unable to manipulate his way out of things.

Owen Wilson matches Tom Hiddleston in Loki

Perhaps most interesting is the show’s desire to dive into Loki’s psyche, which is where Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) comes in. Rather than “resetting” Loki, Mobius wants his help with a problem he’s having, but not until he has a long talk with the the God of Mischief about exactly who he is.

Wilson, best known for his comedic chops, is an interesting choice to play this career bureaucrat. He brings a restrained dry humor that works well here. Mobius asks some hard questions of Loki while reviewing his greatest hits, and somehow isn’t overshadowed by Hiddleston’s elephant-sized screen presence. The walk down memory lane isn’t a simple rehash, as the gives Loki a chance to see how his selfishness hurts people from a distance; he’s particularly affected by how his actions in Thor 2: The Dark World directly lead to his mother Freya’s death, a point I missed while watching that film way back.

At any rate, the show is not simply a long therapy session: someone is attacking and killing TVA agents at different points throughout time. And that someone happens to be another version of Loki. Where — or perhaps more importantly, when — this Loki is from remains unknown, as do his motives. What is clear is that evil Loki is after the TVA’s time reset devices, gathering them up after murdering TVA assault teams.

That’s why Mobius wants our Loki’s help: who better to stop this villain than another version of himself? Interestingly, we don’t actually see Evil Loki’s face, despite him appearing on screen at the end of the episode. Like its namesake, it seems the show might have a few tricks up its sleeves.

For a debut episode, the Loki premiere manages to both engage the audience and effectively introduce this potentially confusing new world without drowning in overlong exposition. Hiddleston has long been Marvel’s most charismatic villain (some might say only), and while there was still plenty of that in evidence, it was a welcome change to see Loki finally lower his walls a bit. Wilson’s Mobius appears to be an equally engaging character, one that connects with Loki in a way we haven’t seen.

Like Disney’s other Marvel shows, Loki will have to deliver on the promise of its premiere, but it looks like it has everything it needs to stick the landing.

Grade: A-

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