Loki Season 2 Review – A Masterpiece of Drama

The following article is a non-spoiler review of the second season of Marvel Studios’ Loki, updated from an initial review of Season Two’s first two episodes, “Ouroboros” and “Breaking Brad”.

The Marvel fanbase would agree that the “Multiverse Saga” is yet to reach the heights of Marvel’s previous “Infinity Saga”. Despite the few exemptions, many fans have complained of Marvel’s “formulaic” approach to their projects and action-bloated third acts. Most, including Disney CEO Bob Iger, have pointed the finger to the abundance of Marvel projects on Disney+, yet Loki is proof of the age-old saying “quality over quantity”, proving the problem lies in the former, not the latter.

Marvel Studios’ Loki is one of the few titles directly following on from a story setup within the Infinity Saga, and rightfully setting up Marvel’s Multiverse Saga, seemingly one of the few projects that naturally sews the two events together. Despite its placement on a streaming service and not in the cinemas, Both seasons of Loki have done the most heavy-lifting in terms of the Multiverse Saga‘s story, and it’s not even close. Loki featured the first appearance of Jonathan Majors’ Kang variants, and used him far better than 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; Loki also introduced viewers to the concept of the Multiverse, and despite the show’s best efforts, many fans are still confused with the hierarchy of the multiverse, that is to say, understanding the difference between a “timeline” and a “universe” – fans being confused as to the mechanics of this saga’s main focus, two phases in, is not a good place to be in.

Season Two immediately kicks off with the cliffhanger ending from Loki Season One, immediately satisfying many fans’ questions with “what happens next”. Despite a change in head writer from Season One’s Michael Waldron to Season Two’s Eric Martin, the transition is mostly seamless and still feels like the same story is being continued. Though the change is mostly seamless, I did feel there were still some apparent changes in the show, most notably storylines that were nixed or dropped. For example, Loki time-slipping into a Kang-occupied TVA didn’t amount to much rather than a quick chat, resolving the problem in the first episode. Last season’s storyline of Mobius and Hunter B-15 finding Renslayer’s variant didn’t amount to much this season, and the romance between Loki and Sylvie was completely dropped.

Despite Eric Martin’s interviews that the show was always planned to be two seasons, I do feel that there’s a missing season in-between that explores these storylines and satisfies all the unanswered questions of where the TVA is, who created it, and how did He Who Remains take over. There is a very subtle hint that answers one of these questions in Season Two’s Episode Five “Science/Fiction”, in that the workshop of A.D. Doug (the original variant of Ouroboros) is identical to the workshop of Ouroboros in the TVA, suggesting the organisation originated on Earth and was developed by Doug. A season where Loki time-slipped into an earlier version of the TVA would have been the perfect setting to answer such questions, and thus I question whether the season was intended this way, or if the ending had to be reached before next year’s Deadpool 3.

The series’ approach proves this is unlike any other Marvel Studios streaming series. All the other series have a “blockbuster approach” to their third acts, opting for big action scenes with visual effects over competent writing, and often these action scenes do not have the stakes that existed with earlier Marvel projects, they’re simply computer-generated pixels mashing together. Loki however, opts to end without an action scene, without a real villain,

While one might argue “He Who Remains” is the villain of the series, he only appears in two episodes in the show, both season finales. This season, chaos, destruction, loneliness, and nothingness are the villains. These are frightening concepts Loki frantically runs around to prevent, but allows one to triumph for the greater good, reluctantly accepting the destiny his younger self would have leapt at, showing true character development on display.

The cast mostly remains the same from the series’ first season, and their performances are as strong as ever. Coming into this series, I expected to be pulled out by Owen Wilson’s

The series applies a well-developed, mechanical approach to time travel, for the most part. While some television series opt for a freelance approach to the concept, Loki develops, and tries to stick to, a set of rules established by Avengers: Endgame and the series’ first outing. Applying a ruleset allows viewers to understand the mechanics of the show and grasp the stakes certain decisions have, whether they will branch into a new timeline and impact the multiverse, or whether they were always predestined. I do however, still long for another time-travel show with a premise as well thought out as Netflix’s DARK, whose causal loop concepts are so disturbingly planned that the series’ creators needed to release a full diagram showing how their time travel worked, which even the most researched time travel junkies needed to refer to.

Now, the hierarchy of the Multiverse Saga has changed in a massive way, and I am excited to see how this impacts the saga going forward. Loki‘s second season maintains the quality of the first, but comes with tighter and more meaningful writing, sticking the landing and cementing the series as one of the best in the genre, especially in the pantheon of Marvel productions, placing it beside such shows as FX’s LEGION, Marvel’s Daredevil, and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

All episodes of Marvel Studios’ Loki are available now on Disney+.

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