This Week in MCUTV 6/9/21

Welcome to This Week in MCUTV, where the Twisted Cape examines, breaks down, and gives a quick review of all the original shows that Marvel has released this week. This will run weekly and start on Sunday and end on Saturday, so we catch everything on Disney+, Hulu, as well as any other projects that may pop up on other networks, like ABC. We’ll also include an average on the week to help determine whether the week was a success. Keep in mind there will be spoilers on a regular basis so read on at your own risk.

Weekly Score (3 Out of 5) -

Disney+

Loki - 3/5 – “Glorious Purpose ”

After picking up the Tesseract in “Avengers: Endgame,” Loki finds himself called before the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a Kafkaesque bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space. SPOILERS – First episodes of series tend to be difficult, but the benefit here is that we are already familiar with the central character, but not the surroundings – yet. The first few minutes sets the stage, then reuses Endgame footage. That seems a little bit lazy, but if you only jumped on here, it’s a decent entry point. Getting introduced to the TVA (a deep cut in Marvel history) is fun. The layers of bureaucracy are thick here when we get introduced to multiple support characters. Loki goes on trial for being a “Variant” or someone who causes timelines to diverge into an unsafe branch. After getting introduced to Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius, we start to understand the stakes here. There is a rouge that the TVA is after, and Mobius wants Loki’s help. As he is breaking Loki down, Mobius is called away and Loki escapes, only to realize that he’s massively outclassed. Finding a drawer full of infinity stones will do that to a Norse god. Loki sees the death of his loved ones and that is impactful to him. Props to Tom Hiddleston in this scene because it shows the beginning of Loki’s growth. And then finding out from Mobius that the Variant that they are hunting is a different Loki provides a nice little twist. And when the episode ends, you are left with the feeling that this version of Loki is playing for keeps. The time travel aspect of this show is incredibly engrossing. I’m hoping that it has a feel much like WandaVision did with the different sitcom eras. I wonder if there is any connection to the time periods being visited. It’s an interesting visual aesthetic, but I’m curious about the style of this show moving forward. I’d guess that next week it starts to get more visually interesting. Overall, this was a lukewarm start but not a bad one.