Loki

Loki is an American television series created by Michael Waldron for the streaming service Disney+, based on Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name. It is the third television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. The series takes place after the events of the film Avengers: Endgame (2019), in which an alternate version of Loki created a new timeline. Waldron served as head writer and Kate Herron directed the first season, with Eric Martin and the duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead serving as head writer and leading the directing team for the second season, respectively.

Loki premiered on June 9, 2021. Its first season, consisting of six episodes, concluded on July 14 and is part of Phase Four of the MCU. The second season is in development.

Plot
After stealing the Tesseract during the events of mh:greatestmovies:Avengers: Endgame, an alternate version of Loki is brought to the mysterious Time Variance Authority (TVA), a bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space and monitors the timeline. They give Loki a choice: face being erased from existence due to being a "time variant", or help fix the timeline and stop a greater threat. Loki ends up trapped in his own crime thriller, traveling through time.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The idea of a Marvel supervillain/anti-hero series that involves a male-lead Loki in the series is not so terrible. For some point, it was nice to have a supervillain/anti-hero lead in this Marvel series.
 * 2) The series explores more of Loki's magic abilities, such as his telekinesis and magic blasts.
 * 3) Awesome acting from Tom Hiddleston, Tara Strong, Owen Wilson and Jonathan Majors.
 * 4) It explains the plot hole of Avengers: Endgame what happened to the 2012 version of Loki after he ran away with the Tesseract rather than left unresolved.
 * 5) Just like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the series has more connections to the MCU than the shows released on ABC and Netflix, like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Cloak and Dagger or Runaways.
 * 6) Loki and Morbius have very good chemistry and perhaps one of the greatest things for ever happened of the series from Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 * 7) Classic Loki's outfit is absolutely ridiculous and cheap, yet it is actually a love-letter to the 60s era of comics when Loki had donned this outfit, not to mention the cheapness makes it endearing in a so bad, it's good way. And it does not detract Classic Loki's heroic sacrifice in any way.
 * 8) Nicely done direction by Kate Herron for season one six episodes.
 * 9) He Who Remains is very entertaining villain who was inspired by The Wizard of Oz (1939), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Citizen Kane (1941), and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) for his portrayal.
 * 10) Amazing visual effects, with the best being example the effects for Miss Minutes, who has a nicely done character design and smooth CGI animation which fits the show very well.
 * 11) Michael Waldron does have shown to have impressive skills as creators.
 * 12) It continues the event of Avengers: Endgame as well as setting up for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that handles very well.
 * 13) Loki's score, composed by Natalie Holt, is far and away one of the most acclaimed scores in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Ludwig Göransson's score on Black Panther, and for good reason. Like Goransson, Holt does a fantastic job in giving the series its own identity and scoring the awe and wonder as the show unravels into something much bigger than the MCU at large.
 * 14) * The opening theme, "TVA", by Natalie Holt. A very atmospheric piece that encapsulates the sheer surrealism and cosmic horror elements of the show.
 * 15) * One of the best and most atmospheric pieces of music in the show is by far "Catch Up" which, as the name implies, plays during the Previously on… segments of the show before the Marvel Studios logo. It's not only a more chaotic arrangement that borrows motifs from "Loki Green Theme" (mentioned below), but it also showcases that literally anything can and will happen in this chaotic adventure through The Multiverse.
 * 16) * The music that plays when Loki is D.B Cooper is the sort of mischievous little tune one would expect to play when hijacking a plane, with the theremin highlighting the surreal aspect of Loki's character.
 * 17) *Loki's theme, "Loki Green Theme" is dramatic and energetic, and many similarly compelling variants on the theme play throughout the show. You first hear it in all its glory in the end credits for The Variant.
 * 18) * "Demons" by Hayley Kiyoko scores the opening scene of "Lamentis". After the rather tense flashback to the second episode, we're instead greeted with a very dissonant and upbeat track that suits Sylvie's character quite well both in the context of the scene that it plays in as well as the later reveal that Loki — like the source material — is bisexual (or more than that if we're talking the Loki from the original Norse myths).
 * 19) * "Dark Moon" by Bonnie Guitar plays at the end of the third episode after the Ark that Loki and Sylvie tried to board is destroyed. The lyrics — again — really go hand in hand with the bleak situation of Loki and Sylvie, and most of all the doomed people of Lamentis-1. Especially the Irony of the fact that, well... Lamentis-1 itself is a moon.
 * 20) * "If You Love Me" by Brenda Lee plays at the end of the fourth episode, punctuating the entire sequence of Loki and Sylvie's "sentencing"—much of which is heartbreaking due to a) Mobius being pruned after standing up for himself, and b) Loki just being pruned by Ravonna as he was on the verge of admitting something to Sylvie that is clearly emotionally charged.
 * 21) * "Classic Builds", the track that plays as Classic Loki conjures a breathtaking illusion of Asgard to distract Alioth, features quotations from "Ride of the Valkyries" from Richard Wagner's Norse-inspired Die Walküre, a music choice so fitting that it rivals Thor: Ragnarok's use of "Immigrant Song".
 * 22) * "Living Storm" plays during the scene where Loki and Sylvie attempt to distract Alioth, and is as fearsome as the living tempest itself.
 * 23) * "Pruned", the ending theme for Episode 5. A somber and ominous arrangement befitting the bittersweet ending of the episode, that underlines Loki and Sylvie's feelings as they approach the dwelling of the true leader of the TVA.
 * 24) * "Back in the TVA" scores Loki's somber return to the — what else? — TVA after he and Sylvie exchange a Big Damn Kiss and the latter slays He Who Remains. It's a very atmospheric and haunting piece that underscores just how lonely Loki really is after Mobius asks for his name, seemingly forgetting everything the two went through together.
 * 25) * How do you signal the Beginning of The Multiverse as Kang is about to make his impact on the MCU — nay — MCM? With a Dark Reprise of the show's main leitmotif, "He Who Remains", which plays in the end credits for the first Season Finale. That is just got real.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It can get slow paced at times.
 * 2) "Lamentis", while good, is considered to be the weakest episode of the series.

Reception
Loki received positive reviews, with praise for the performances, musical score, and visuals. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.9/10, based on 324 reviews. The critical consensus reads, "A delightful diversion from the MCU as we know it, Loki successfully sees star Tom Hiddleston leap from beloved villain to endearing antihero—with a little help from Owen Wilson—in a series that's as off-kilter, charming, and vaguely dangerous as the demigod himself.". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 74 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".